We are staying at the Divi in Feb and didn't know which places were within walking distance from Divi? We don't mind a 1 or 1.5 mile walk. Capriccio, Casablanca, Gibi's, Lost Penguin, Mona Lisa, Pasa Bon Pizza,Rib Factory,Rum Runners,Richards, or Wil's Tropical Grill. I know there are alot of great places to eat but we will just be there 1 week and we get a free breakfast so we were just going to eat our evening dinners out. Thanks Kent

Yes Kent, just a short walk north is a bunch. Richards is just 5 min's south. Check infobonare.com for map.

Of the restaraunts you mentioned the only ones I don't walk to are Rum Runners, Gibi's and Pasa Bon Pizza. I walk as far as the end of town which has many restaurnts and doesn't take more than 15 minutes to the furthest point of town. The Northern resort restaurants are too far to walk for me.

Darlene... good advice !

It may be easy to walk TO the restaurant, but who wants to walk home that far when you're that full?? ha!

Kelly, you are right. I remember coming out of Capriccio's last Feb. WE parked about 75' away, the walk almost killed us. Truth be told, we should have walked home, so of airport.

Darlene, you walk all the way to Rum Runners from Dive Inn? Wow...of course, I'm lazy and it's too hot for me to walk. I'm also with Kelly, too full too...lol!

Croccatino's, La Guerna, La Flambouant are also very good and are in town.

DOH Darlene! I didn't read the "don't walk to" guess I need to go back to my speed reading course and ask for a refund...LOL! I thought Pasa Bon Pizza was a stretch too...LOL!

Cynde, BoBoJans is the furthest that I walk. I usually watch a sunset along the way on the prominade. And the walk back is just heavenly along the ocean front with a cool breeze and bright stars as you hear the waves lapping the shore. One of my favorite parts of the day and a great time for reflection of the day! Oh! It is very romantic if my husband is with me!

Hi Darlene, I can not help but interject when you commented: "One of my favorite parts of the day" ... when we were there I remember feeling (and oh what a feeling!) that I absolutely loved every minute that I was on the island .... I hated to turn in for the night and could not wait to wake up in the morning!! I feel very blessed having had this experience. :o))

OK, Darlene and Cheryl, you are banned from the boards...talking about that "Bonaire Feeling" in such descriptive words...phhhhhhhggttttt! Darlene, your last post made my PBD unbelievably bad...I could "envision" the entire walk back along the promenade...now all I need is for Pat to chime in with some comment...probably throw me over the edge...lol!

Lord, please forgive me...lol...I think I need some Christmas COOkies

Thanks to everyone that commented on this. I really appreciate it! Maybe we can meet some of you nice people in Feb. We will be there Feb 3 to 10th. Thanks Kent

Cyn,
have a cookie!! How long am I banned from this board ..... i.e. when is your next trip to Bonaire???

Kent,
Aubrey & I will be at Divi until the 8th ... maybe we see each other! We'll be the snorkelers wearing ratty 10 year old T shirts from the Princess Beach Hotel. They keep our backs from turning lobster red, and ........ we're seldom out of the water! Enjoy your stay!!!

Cheryl, not soon enough but I do have my ticket...and plenty of Christmas COOkies to keep me going till then...lol!

Kent, go to Gibi's on Tuesday night and you will not only meet a native/local legend (aka Gibi), but a lot of other nice BTers

Cyn, Thanks alot for the tip. We are planning on going on Tuesday night Feb. 7th. I have seen all the pictures of you and Kelly & Steve at the party. I just need to know one thing. Are we suppose to bring some dress up cloths?? After some of the pictures that I have seen, I'm not sure how we are suppose to dress. ( I hope that you can take a JOKE ) Kent

Kent...LOL!...the only thing you need to bring is a thong. You can nail it to Gibi's wall if you want when you are done. OR, bring a "flag" and you can nail that up. There are quite a few flags hanging on his back porch now!

And if you can find a red, white and blue thong, all the better. ;)

Oh Kent, also, the t-shirt hanging on the wall that says "Hi I'm Kelly" will be easily recognizable...(really chuckling here)...Kelly is famous you know

Is Cyn trying to talk Kent into showing up with just a thong? Then when he's done, he can nail it on the wall. Done with what?

Please, if you are going to Gibi's, please bring a towel for poor Kent to cover himself. And remember the bug spray, OUCH!

So the shirt made it to the wall, huh?? Steve still wears his around the house. lol

It's kind of the same question. Are the restaurants to walk to from Eden Beach?

Natalya, Den Laman (right next door- outdoor dining on the water), Baraccuda Club (at Sand$)Buddy's (Dock by the Bay on the water - more casual and Lion's Den - more expensive on the water), Rum Runners (on the water at Cap Don's), Pasa Bon Pizza, Bistro de Paris...but then again, you have Bongo's (on the water) right on the property, and they do have great food!

The great thing about the one's on the water, particularly Den Laman, Buddy's, Lion's and Cap Don's is that you can watch the night divers, AND the tarpon swimming around

(Message edited by cyndelee on January 4, 2006)

Kent, don't let these folks alter your perception of Bonaire ... it really is nice and peaceful and quiet ...much quieter than Aruba or Curacao .. isn't it Kelly & Cyn? **VBG**. Let's just put it this way.... it was very quiet when we were there ... but I don't believe Kelly was on the island .... and I'm not sure about Cyn either!! I haven't told Aubrey about the thong yet as I really do not want to go to the Turks & Caicos!! Does Gibi have a Canadian flag on his wall yet??

Cheryl, yes, it was probably MUCH quieter without Kelly and I...LOL! I THINK Caminator put a Canadian flag up last February...

OK, I was WRONG...whaaa???? Cam put up a "flame" flag.

Kent, this is Gibi and the front of his house so you will recognize it:


This is Cam and Gibi with Cam's Flame Flag


This is Cam, Liz, Cam's co-horts and a nice BIG thong...


This is what you do not want to happen when you make your thong appearance on the cams.


OK, back to my Christmas COOkies

Jerry...lol...

Note to self: Find Canadian Flag for Gibi's wall.

And these are the flags as of last April.

The "C" is the Colorado flag.

Hi Linda, any idea what size they are?

Linda, there were more in October but I don't remember which ones!

Don't remember exact size......something like 12 inches by 18" maybe??!! I just went to the local souvenir store and asked for a small Colorado flag. I also wrote our town's name on the flag (oops, defacing a flag ) A nice touch for Gibi's patio......it was Cam's idea.

Thanks Linda, I'll do the same!! And I'll blame the defacing on Cam too :D

not to change the subject but where the heck is Cam hiding out???

Freddie, probably sitting in his new boat in his garage with all his dive gear on, dreaming about his next trip....while his house is surrounded by feet of snow...lol! Last he emailed he was really busy at work...we'll have to send out an SOS

cheryl, actually the turks and caicos are really nice. we went there about 4 years ago and had a great time. we were on grand turk. it's very quiet tho...walking into town on sunday afternoon makes kaya grande look like times square on new years eve. the diving was good tho...but it was all boat diving.

Pat, Grand Turk is a metropolis compared to Salt Cay just to the south. There are about 80 people living there. Makes for a nice getaway from bustling Bonaire.

Freddie, I've spoken with Cam and Sheryl, they are CRAZY busy right now. Hoping things will calm down soon, though!

What great folks they are. I am so glad I met them.

Steve and I want to try to swing a trip to Canada soon too. (apparently they have great beef. lol)

Really enjoyed this thread, loved seeing the pics again! One of these days I will have to be on island when some of you guys are there! I can't believe I haven't met any of you yet and I was on Bon 7 times last year! What's up with that? Now, Pat, I have met you, we're neighbors of course! Till then....

tish, it's hard to believe that "bustling" and "bonaire" could be used in the same sentence. however, bonaire is bustling compared to grand turk and, as you've said, salt cay. we walked into town on grand turk on sunday afternoon and didn't see one person the entire length of the street for over five minutes. finally a kid came chasing a horse thru town. and it seemed that there were less than 10 restaurants on grand turk...maybe just about 5. i think they had about 900 residents.

Boy o Boy you all are talking about one of my best dive places, Grand Turk. I have been to that place 8 differt times in the last 6 years. Oasis divers is a top notch dive operation with a great group of owners and DM to boot. Diving could not be any easier then there. Sorry for getting off subject.

I took a photo of Salt Cay's only two vehicles (a pickup truck and a taxi) passing each other.

Pat, I seemed to have missed your post. Yes, I've heard that Turks & Caicos is very beautiful and perhaps one day when we retire we may be able to have more than one sun vacation a year. Right now, shore snorkeling is top priority when it comes to sun holidays, and we've tried other areas that advertised good shore snorkeling but nothing (yet) compares to Bonaire. I was told that T&C has one property that has 'good shore snorkeling' but that was "Beaches", with Big Bird, Bert & Ernie ............ not my idea of peaceful at this stage in our lives :o).

cheryl, yes beaches is on provo which is busier and more crowded than grand turk or salt cay. we stayed at the saltraker inn on grand turk. it was a good trip despite a few minor physical problems. i apparently have an allergy to some of the plants there and my sinuses were really congested. unfortunately, i just wrote it off as a bad cold and didn't realize that it was allergies till we were home. also, someone had said that the water was safe to drink so i made coffee with it...turns out it was from a cistern and not the greatest stuff in the world. i finally started buying jugs of water and that problem cleared up. i'd go back someday but prefer to spend our vacations on bonaire right now.

Pat, I hear you! It's nice to go to a place and 'know what to expect". "Prior to Bonaire", my husband did not like to go back to the same place twice as he believed that it would never be the same and we'd be disappointed. Well, this will be #3 for us and #2 was even better than the first. We went to Curacao 3 times because it was the closest we could get to Bonaire LOL!! The shore snorkeling there is better than the other places we've been to. This time however; we have 2 weeks so we don't mind losing 2 days of our vacation to air travel.
Do you know the name of the plant that you were allergic to?

cheryl, no, i don't know what it was. the saltraker is an old house converted to a small hotel. they have a big garden out back with lots and lots of flowers. we stayed on the second floor and had to almost climb thru the flowers to get to our room. somehow i was feeling so bad that i didn't connect that i didn't have a problem on the dive boat, only around the hotel. it was a great place and probably the only reason we wouldn't go back soon is that we own a place on bonaire now and want to get our money's worth out of it.

I don't blame you one bit for choosing Bonaire, and having a home there has to be what dreams are made of! Is it difficult to maintain from a distance or do you have someone to look after it? We are considering our retirement options and my husband thinks I'm joking when I tell him I want to retire in Bonaire!

cheryl, our next door neighbor looks after it for us. lighthouse beach is mostly 2-unit buildings and our neighbor lives there year round.