Good morning:

We are heading to Bonaire in 15 days for our first trip to Bonaire. I have enjoyed reading the site but I do have a question....is there Mt. Dew on the island? Us 'Bama girls need it in the mornings instead of coffee.

A little background...we are leaving Huntsville, AL on Saturday, 22 May 04, and spending the night in Miami...you know...for a little Jai Lai. Departing the next day, with a brief stop over in Jamaica, we arrive in Bonaire late afternoon. We are staying at CPT Don’s, breakfast included, with a four door truck rental for one week. Departing Bonaire on Sunday, 30 May 04, we have a repeat of the itinerary of the trip back home.

Any other helpful tips or hints would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Hi Lawanda,
I'm like you...Mtn Dew instead of coffee in the morning. Unfortunately, if there is any on Bonaire I couldn't find it in the three trips we have made.

Mike

No Dew, my friends.

Thanks for the heads up. We'll pack some for the trip. We are looking forward so much to this trip.

Hey Lawanda,

Nice to see another Bama person on here. I am from the Fort Payne area. I went on my first trip back in September and had a great time. Looking forward to going back this Sept.I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Kevin

Hey Kevin:

Too bad we live way up here and not on a tropical island somewhere, huh? We have three in our group going to Bonaire....got certified together in 1995. Usually try to book several “nice” trips a year and make several runs to Panama City Beach during the summer. Of course, for a quickie on the weekends, we have Martha’s Quarry in Nashville, Blue Water Quarry in Birmingham, and Madison Quarry here in Huntsville.

So...is Bonaire everything it sounds like? Since you are traveling back, you must have really enjoyed it. Any helpful tips or hints would be wonderful. For instance, are the bugs horrible, food expensive, and fish and seafood dishes so-so, etc?

Guess you can tell I am 15 days from vacation and since the weather is awesome today, I have the vacation bug really, really bad. Might just need to take a few hours of vacation this afternoon. haha

Thanks,

Hi Lawanda,

The weather is very nice here today. Makes me wish I was going down with you. Bonaire is the first real nice place to dive to have been to so I really dont have much to compare it to but I couldnt imagine any place being nicer. I got my certification 2 summers ago and have dove the springs in north florida and blue water in birmingham. I see the big diving flag in Madison all the time when I am driving I-565 but still havent gotten over there to dive. The bugs in bonaire wasnt a problem to me but it was very dry when i was there. Really I do not remember the food being expensive. It may have been a little more than eating out someplace in huntsville but not alot. And it was always very good. I had a seafood meal at "It Rains Fishes". That was probaly my most expensive meal of the trip($25-30 bucks). One thing that left a big impression was how good the drinking water was. I could not get enough of it. Much better than any bottled water around here. Make sure you get to Klein Bonaire to dive. I know you will love it. And i wanna see pics!

It's really hard to gauge expensive, because people pay different prices for things according to region. Also, some folks see cooking as a part of life, and others either hate cooking and are looking for a break from the tyranny of the kitchen, or can't cook, or don't want to. A search on this board will give you a lot of options food wise. infoboanire has an extensive listing of eateries http://www.infobonaire.com/restaurant.html.
The Bonaire Dining Guide is at http://www.bonairedining.com/guide/index.html. Somewhere I remember there was a chart sorting restaurants by expense, but I may be confusing that with the acommodations page. A search on any of the names will yield a variety of opinions. I could be happy eating at Gibi's every night he's open. The other thing is to eat a big breakfast since it's included, have PBJs for lunch, and go out to dinner. Service is sorta slow in Bonaire, but heck, it's probably not much different from American Southern Speed.

Long pants for the evening bugs, which will congregate under your table and eat you for their dinner while you are having yours. Sunscreen all the time - it's that darn equator.
And most important, pretend you are dealing with yourself at the airport, and act accordingly.
Enjoy!

(Message edited by seb on May 7, 2004)

Hi, Lawanda! Welcome to BT. The closest thing you will find to "Dew" is Dewey Egbert's coffee....LOL. Super strong caffeinated coffee from Holland. Reasonable price and tastes great, too! Good luck on your search for the Dew and have a great time on Bonaire....you will LOVE it...Dew or not to Dew....Carole

Hello Everyone!!

Well, we leave tomorrow for our first leg of our trip to Bonaire!!! We are all packed with our Dews and now just waiting on the clock to roll around. I have enjoyed reading this website and gaining the information and advice from first hand experience. We are ready to eat fresh seafood and dive, dive, dive.

See ya' on Sunday!

FYI, Red Bull (about a zillion mg of caffeine) is available here.