Trip to Bonaire, NA April 9-15, 1994

Early April marks the end of peak season for Bonaire, and the rates for the condos drop about 15-20%. Many travelers know that bookings are down and destinations are generally less crowded during this time. Thus my wife and I decided to head out for our 5th wedding anniversary. I spent about 3 months researching the place prior to the trip, so I'd like to share some stuff I picked up. Before I begin, let me refer you to a few publications that can really help prepare you for the trip:

Diving Bonaire by George Lewbel and Larry Martin Diving and Snorkeling Guide to Bonaire by Jerry Schnabel and Susan L. Swygert These are your basic dive guides for the Island. They cover many of the dive spots and provide a lot of basic information that can really get you going in the right direction. If you can only get one, I recommend "Diving Bonaire", it's a bit more in depth.

Guide to the Bonaire Marine Park by Tom van 't Hof Good luck finding this one, it's been out of print for a while and the publisher is out of business. This is the original work on the Bonaire Marine Park. Although much of the information is out of date, I found it to be a useful reference text. Most local dive shops have a copy that you can read on site if you can't find one. Of all places I bought the last one from the airport gift shop!

Reef Fish Identification by Paul Humann Reef Creature Identification by Paul Humann Reef Coral Identification by Paul Humann Every diver should own this definitive work on marine life identification. I include the set in this list because the marine life on Bonaire is so different and diverse than other caribbean destinations

ALM flies direct from Atlanta to Bonaire on Fridays and Saturdays this time of year. I strongly suggest that your last flight from the states arrive directly in Bonaire. As many divers have discovered, a layover in Aruba or Curicao greatly increases the chance of your luggage arriving the next day. Don't forget to bring a pen to fill out all the immigration documents! I had good luck with a travel agent Travel Marketing Services 1-800-766-6016, and paid $410 (US) per person including all taxes and fees from Atlanta. The non-stop from Atlanta is a full 4 hours, so bring something good to read. We flew an MD-82 (and old DC-9-82 converted) with no first class service. A day or so before it's time to go home, just give ALM a call to confirm your reservations. When you show up at the airport to leave, go up to the little windows and pay your $10 (US) airport fee before you check your luggage. It's a worthy note, the only drunk person I saw the whole week was on the flight!

Car Rental. If you plan to do any shore diving (and you should) or sight seeing (there's a lot to see) or dining (no great dining, but variety is good), you need a car. They drive on the right side of the road. First, you need to send a fax to Budget Rent a Car on Bonaire 011-599-7-8865 requesting the car you want and the length of time you need it. Include your fax number and they will fax you back a confirmation number. If you are traveling with one other person get the Sizuki Samuri, if you are with a group, or just want more room, get the Sizuki mini-van (Carry-All, a very mini-van). I had the mini-van for a week and paid $210 (US). I consider a rental car a must for Bonaire. When you arrive at Flamingo Airport, you'll first go through customs and then head to baggage claim. Have whomever you are traveling with go straight to the car rental place with your confirmation fax to get the car. Things don't move fast on Bonaire and you'll meet your companion long before they actually get the car. Don't forget to ask about the spare tire, you'll never find it on your own. The van never ran well until I realized it was a manual choke, but it worked great after that. Don't expect to be driving fast, the speed limit is 30 km/h in most places, which is about 17 mph. Besides, the rentals are geared real low.

Where to stay? I spent quite a bit of time looking into available accommodations, there ain't no Hyatt or Marriott on Bonaire, so you have to be careful in making a selection that will meet your expectations. Don't expect a picture from the water to be an indicator of how nice a resort is. I was to narrow my choices down to two, the Sand Dollar Condo's and Harbor Village. The Village is generally considered the most luxurious accommodations and is the only place on the island with telephones in the room. After talking to several people and reading up as much as possible, I decided on the Sand Dollar. It has several things going for it, The Green Parrot restaurant, Sand Dollar Dive and Photo and a great deal from another Compuserve member, Dave Fortlage (72624,2753). They offer studios, one, two and three bedroom units. They have A/C, but after the first day, we never used ours. They even have full kitchens if you want to save some money on dining. No telephones, but at the office they will connect you to an AT&T operator for $2.50 (US). Remember to ask about all the silly charges, maid service is 10% of the per day rate and the Bonaire tax of $4.50 (US) per day, per person. Security is very good there. If you need an alarm clock, be sure to pack one because there are no wake-up calls.

Dive Operations. A quick look at "In Depth's Dive Resorts Rated" and the decision was made: Sand Dollar Dive and Photo. I've been to a number of operations, but was quite impressed with this outfit. We showed up with our equipment around 9:00am to check in. We were asked for a credit card to start an account and were told that when we checked out for the week they would see if a package deal was the best price for us. We were each assigned a number for the length of our stay. After heading for the equipment room; a rough 15 step trip, we found a large room with 2 pegs for each number. Hang your gear up and head for the equipment rental room. We needed to rent BC's and when we were handed the older equipment, Andre Nior who runs the place stepped up and saw to it that we got our pick of the equipment, we ended up with relatively new stuff. It was ours for the week. Andre started his orientation at 9:30 and it was quite informative. First he checked to see who dived there in the last year and pulled them out for a private short orientation by someone else. He then started telling us about the island, the shore diving and even a few sights to see. Then he explained the way they do things. They have carts to get tanks and equipment to your car for shore diving, you can even dive right there on Bari reef. To shore dive, all you have to do is write your number on the shore diving board and grab a tank - they're right there all lined up waiting for you. For boat diving, check the board for the dive destination you want (4 boats) and the time you want (8:45, 10:45, 1:30 and 3:30) and write your number in to reserve your spot. He then took us over to the photo shop where Jim Brandon explained how they work things there. Same basic idea, they'll add stuff to your tab as you check it out. During our stay we rented a Nikonos V with a 2:1 macro setup and had only fair luck with it, but it was our first try shooting with a framer. Later we tried a 28mm setup and got really good results. Prices were fair except for the print developing (36 shots for $28.00 US). We also picked up UK-400 lights for a night dive ($8 US) and a Source computer ($10 US). Orientation was over in an hour and 15 minutes and we were asked to do a check-out dive right there on Bari reef.

The Diving: Our first dive was right in front of the hotel at Bari reef. The water is fairly cold, it stayed at 78 our entire trip and I suggest that a skin alone isn't enough, I lived with being a little chilly, but my wife rented a shorty. The reef starts less then 30 feet from the dock with the drop-off about 60 feet from the dock in about 30 feet of water. We dropped down to about 80 feet for the first part of the dive, this is when I discovered the staggering amount of life found on the reefs of Bonaire. Large healthy corals are abundant as well as numerous gorgonians. Big azure vase and purple tube sponges were everywhere as well. During our first quick 30 minute dive, right there off the condo, we saw 5 morays. After lunch we signed up for a boat dive to Leonora's reef. Although the scheduled time was 3:30, everybody showed and we left at 3:27. After a quick boat ride to the north side of Klien Bonaire, we learned that, like many of the dive sites, Don Stewart named it after one of his female friends. Each and every boat dive started with a quick orientation that always focused on being kind to the reef. The boats are custom fiberglass models (pictures of them are in any Skin Diver) with twin outboards. As it was not the first dive of the morning the divemaster asked if we could stay above 60 feet. Really, he actually asked, this was not an order. He said if we planned on going deeper to let him know. If we were interested he was going over to see a couple of frogfish and he'd love to show them to us. Entry is via backroll over the side, which was a quick and simple way to head down. We soon arrived at a yellow tube sponge that looked ordinary enough. Then the divemaster pointed out an odd shape that quickly turned to a frogfish. At the base of the sponge was another. By this time I had lost count of the species I had seen for the first time. At the beginning of a dive we always go to the deepest part of our dive, and slowly work our way up the reef until we spend our last 10 minutes in the shallows at 20 feet. By diving this profile I could have easily done 5 dives a day on my Aladdin Pro, or the Source my wife rented. Our morning dive of day two was to La Diana's Leap (another of Stewarts girlfriends). Although it was once done as a shore dive it's strictly a boat dive these days. Scheduled departure time was 8:45, we were out at 8:39. The site caused us to be perpendicular to the trade winds so we had some waves. I'd say they were a solid 3-4 feet. They caused the little dive boats to sway a bit. We were all in the water in no time, so no one got uncomfortable. Same profile, down to 80 feet and slowly back up. This is a vertical wall so we saw the dramatic change in life at the different depths. I added a Flamingo Tongue to my list of new species. Beautiful spot. That afternoon we decided to rent a Nikonos V with a 2:1 macro setup. The girl in the photo shop took the time to help us select a setup and spent a while showing us how to work with the framer. We dove right off the doc at Bari reef, doing the same profile as always. We shot 36 prints and got several keepers. After dinner we walked about 10 steps and set up our tanks for our night dive. We jumped right in. Right under the dock I was able to add orange cup corals to my list, they were fully opened - very beautiful if you've never seen them. Once on the reef it was amazing, all those corals that had opened up take on a whole new life at night. Very nice dive. It's no wonder there's a continuous streams of divers each night. It's nice to dive Bari during the afternoon and then again the same night. The changes are amazing. Next morning we dove The Forrest on Klien Bonaire. The most notable feature of this dive are the black corals and the large orange elephant ear sponges. The black corals grow around 60-80 feet. For our afternoon dive we decided to try one of the shore dives. We had driven by Pink Beach (yes, the sand does have a pink tint to it) and wanted to try it out. We just grabbed our stuff along with the tanks and put them on one of the carts to load the van. We headed out and were at Pink Beach in a few minutes. I'm quite sure we looked like Laurel and Hardy trying to get our stuff together in 2 feet of water with the incoming surf. We ended up laughing like crazy for about 5 minutes and finally started our dive. A quick swim put us on the first, thin reef and then a short sand field before we found the main reef. This site had a lot of gorgonians, very large ones gently waving in the current. We both decided we liked it very much and resolved to do much more shore diving on our next trip. The next morning we signed up for SouthWest Corner, another boat dive off Klien Bonaire. I got to add a bristle worm to my list as well as a slew of arrow crabs. For the afternoon dive we decided to stop by the photo shop again. The nice girl there set us up with a 28mm lens this time which would be good for 2-6 foot shots. We ended up at Monks Haven and got a number of really good shots. This setup proved real easy to use for us. By this time my ear infection was making the diving rather painful, so we skipped the night dive and decided to follow the no diving 24 hours before you fly rule. Our last day was reserved for Washington-Slagbaai Park.

Above Water. Despite what you may have heard, there is quite a bit to be seen on Bonaire above the water. We took 3 separate sight seeing drives, the first two were done in the afternoon/early evening after diving and before dinner, and the last was a 4 hour excursion through Washington-Slagbaai Park. The Island is so diverse above water, I strongly recommend that if you tour the Island. Our first ride came one afternoon before dinner. We headed south past the airport along the coastal road. After passing a number of dive sights, you'll see the salt pans for the first time. Quite interesting how they turn sea water into those huge mounds of salt. Keep driving and you'll go under the salt pier, where they load the salt onto ships. This part of the island is very flat and low. There is very little vegetation as the salt works take up 90% of the land. You'll also come across the slave huts, they make a good picture and give you a lot to think about. At the southern tip of the island is an older lighthouse about 6 stories high. There were tourist types up there taking pictures, so I assume people are allowed to climb up. My wife was nice enough to let us drive by. Did I fail to mention that the road is only wide enough for one car at a time? When you see some one coming, just pull over and wave as they drive by. As you pass the lighthouse you'll notice that the surf picks up dramatically. The view of the waves crashing up the beach makes a very good picture if you can get your timing right. After a while you'll come to a large wind mill, according to the sign it generates quite a bit of power for the salt operation. Continue north and you'll pass Sorobon, the nudist resort, for $5 (US) you can get a full tan. Either way the road there provides a great view of Lac Bay. Get back on the main road, but take the turn that follows Lac Bay, here you will see the mangrove swamps. At the end of the bay, turn east to get to the point. Keep following the road and you will eventually come to a small fishing village and its huge mounds of conch shells. Turn around and head back towards Kralendijk. You've now witnessed three distinct regions on the island, desert around Kralendijk, mangrove swamps around Lac Bay and the solar flats. Trip two was also taken after a day of diving. Head north along the coastal road, after a bit you'll have to cut inland for a couple of miles to go around a subdivision, but you'll soon be back on the road. There are a couple of good places for pictures of the previous see level, you'll know it when you see them. Further on at the spot known as Jeff Davis reef you'll see an abandoned house called the witches hut, makes a good photo. Next is the largest radio antenna I've ever seen. It's a huge blanket array for short wave. At the radio transmitter is the dive spot known as 1,000 steps. Sixty seven steps lead down to the water here for a great dive that much easier by boat. Walk down for a couple of good photo shots. On your way back up, you'll realize that it would indeed seem like 1,000 steps if you were carrying your gear after a dive. Stay on the road until you reach the oil terminal. Somewhere past 1,000 steps the road becomes one-way, make sure you still have light to see with. Turn north (inland) and don't miss that little sign that reads "Flamingo Sanctuary". This is Goto Meer, you should be able to see some pink flamingos here. Don't be afraid to take a picture from within the car, they are quite skittish and won't hesitate to fly away. Stay on the road and head towards Rincon, once you arrive be sure to find the ice cream shop, you'll be glad you did. Prisca must use heavy cream, because the stuff is sinful. As you head out of Rincon turn left at the sign for "Indian Inscriptions". Follow the road for a bit and stop at the site. If you can't find the inscriptions look up, my wife found them. Head towards the water and you'll be at Boca Onima which is representative of the northern coast. Get back to the road and you'll be in Kralendijk in 10 minutes. I won't give you directions to Washington-Slagbaai, but suffice it to say that the dirt road from Boca Onima is not the only way to get there. There is a paved road from Rincon that leads to the park entrance. Pay your $5 (US) and purchase a copy of the Excursion-Guide for the park, it's well worth the couple of dollars. Follow the map and be sure to stop and see all the Playa's and Boca's, several of them are breathtaking. If its not your last day before flying you'll be glad you brought tanks with you when you get to Boca Slagbaai. You can also buy a coke and chips there. Take the long route so you won't miss anything. We spent 3 hours doing the tour.

Dining: I was very careful about dining and had good luck. Lunches at the Green Parrot are a good bet, you can never go wrong with the burger. Most of the meat is US and is marked as such. We had our best meals at Richards, but had some good lobster next door at Dan Lamons. You won't regret the Green Parrot for any meal. Breakfast was a challenge, we would show up around 7:50am and when they opened at 8:00 they would bring us a menu. We would promptly order a bagel and they would bring a small fruit plate and our bagel. We could easily make the 8:45 boat.

Everything Else: The people are very nice on Bonaire, when you are nice to them. I was never asked for money, I would say that the people are too proud to ask. I was never in a situation where I felt uncomfortable. Smile and wave at a person and 99% of the time they'll wave back with a bigger smile. A beeped horn usually means hello. The water is fine to drink. Don't miss the slide shows on the Island, ask at the dive shop for times and locations. My wife says that you have to watch at least one sunset. There's no coke machines or such at the condo, so stop by one of the markets and get some cokes and munchies.

Dive Bonaire and The Divi Flamingo Beach Resort August 1993

This past year, a lucky group of divers have ventured off to the island of Bonaire in the Netherland Antillies. Bonaire is one of three islands known as the ABC'c (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao). We traveled to Bonaire August 7th thru the 14th. The trip started out better than the previous years trip to Roatan, Honduras when the remains of Hurricane Andrew slowed us down. Our group flew Delta airlines to Atlanta and ALM airlines directly to Bonaire. The flights were on time and the flight crews were courteous and helpful. Upon arriving in Bonaire, we met up with a representative from the Flamingo Beach Resort. They provided transportation to the resort via an island taxi service. After arriving at the resort, we got some bad news. Due to tropical storm Brett, they were sending one of the couples in our group to the Sunset Beach resort. The storm was predicted to pass by Bonaire some time in the night. They were turning off the power at 5AM and had to move guests out of the lower waterfront rooms. We ended up putting the unfortunate couple in with another couple for the first night. The resort did compensate them for their inconvenience at the end of the week. I woke up around 5AM and looked out the patio door window of my room at the ocean, only to see the water as smooth glass. The storm had passed 40 miles away and barely caused a ripple. The rooms were not decorated or equipped the same. Ours had a ceiling fan and clock radio. Other rooms had a telephone, all of them had a TV (16 channel cable) and air conditioning. The rooms were nice, but some of them could stand to be painted and have a good cleaning. The rest of the resort was in good, but not great condition. The Chibi Chibi and Calabas Terrace were in good condition. The casino was entertaining (none of us came home rich) one of the bars is non-existent now. The pool near the newer condos was in excellent shape, the other (the one in all the advertisements) could use a fresh coat of paint. In general the resort was livable, but not great shape. The staff of Dive Bonaire briefed us on the operation of the dive shop the morning following our arrival. They assigned each of us a number, this number corresponded to a hook to store our gear, it was also used to sign up for various activities. There was a chalk board outside the two dive shops (one at each end of the resort). On this board they listed the boat/ captain, the time and the destination for the trip. If you were interested you would write your number on the board under that trip. Our group had the same boat and captain all week and they allowed us to request any site weather permitting. For shore night dives you would also write your number on a board, upon returning from the dive you would circle your number this would tell the divemaster on duty that you were back. This way they could verify everyone had returned safely from their dive. One drawback to the night diving was if you were going out or returning after 9PM you needed to get your gear out of the storage area before then and keep it in your room till morning. They locked up the area at that time, tanks for night dives were left outside the storage area. The dive shop staff were very helpful, friendly and worked with our group in every way possible. One example, they had two boats that were making a trip to a national park dive shop. We wondered if we could take the boat we had been on all week with just our group to the park. They accommodated us with only 7 of the 11 of us for the trip to the park (park trip $10 extra). Prior to the trip the shop manager Mike Stafford was a tremendous help in getting questions answered via the fax machine. Everyone in the group chose a package which included breakfast and dinner. The breakfast was at the Calabas Terrace, it was buffet style all you can eat. The buffet featured omelets, cereal, fresh fruit, toast, juice bacon, and more. The food was good and plentiful. Dinner was served at the Chibi Chibi, we were given a $25 allowance per night for dinner. If you went over this $25 the additional amount was charged to your tab or you could pay the difference at the restaurant. If you stuck to the basics staying under the $25 limit was easy, add an appetizer, drink or desert would usually push you over the limit. The food was good when you finally were served. The Bonarian government requires a mandatory 15% gratuity be added to all checks. This provides little incentive for those serving you to work quickly. Several of us ate at restaurants outside the resort, we found the service to be better at some places than others. In general the service wasn't quite up to American standards. About half way through the week we did have an unfortunate accident. Two people in the group had an accident on a scooter they had rented to explore the island. At the time none of the rental companies provided helmets to their customers. One of them twisted their knee and scraped their leg up. We had some scary moments with the other, they hit their head and had a concussion. We had to keep them awake for 12 hours following the accident. Fortunately, no one suffered any permanent or life threatening injuries. The manager of the Flamingo Beach was a tremendous help, they contacted the airlines and rescheduled the flights for those involved in the accident and their friends. We dropped their tickets off at the hotel office and the resort handled all the scheduling. To the diving, the diving was great. We saw sea horses on at least 5 out of 13 dives. One group saw a den of princess eels, a eagle ray and more spotted moray eels than you can count. Night dives were interesting. On several night dives during the week we encountered a hungry three foot tarpon, this tarpon would use our dive lights to catch unsuspecting fish in the beam of our light. On a couple of occasions when we turned out our lights the tarpon actually bumped us in the dark. The weather through the week was great for diving, the temperature was in the mid 80's to low 90's. We had some rain the first morning and a shower one afternoon. The ocean remained calm the entire week. Most of the dive sites were within 20 minutes from the resort, except the national park it was about a 1 hour boat ride. I felt that the diving in Bonaire was as good as Grand Cayman but not as good as Roatan. The reefs did show some overuse, but still featured allot of interesting and seldom seen creatures and interesting coral formations. The week came to a end unfortunately, it was time to go home. We settled up our tabs with the hotel. The resort compensated the four involved in the room problem at the beginning of the week by giving them a $50 credit for the inconveniences. The resort provided taxis back to the airport and we were on our way back to Dayton. In the end I wouldn't hesitate to go back to Bonaire or the Divi Flamingo Beach Hotel. I would do some things different, only get breakfast with the package, arrange for the trip to the national park to be included, and don't rent a scooter. Other those few things everything being the same I wouldn't hesitate to run a trip there in the future.

 

 

Date : 11-18-92 09:03 From : Doug Hook To : Dave Jackson Subj : Bonaire

DJ Why do people NOT like diving Bonaire? I've gotten a couple of responses saying they felt a big let down.

I can't say for sure, but I suspect it might have to do with the fact that one is not as likely to see a Manta ray fly past, or a school of hammerheads, as one is at other hotspots. The pelagics (sharks, rays, and dolphins and the like) just don't visit Bonaire the way they do other areas. Feeding of fish on Bonaire is strongly discouraged, so shark encounters with regularly feed sharks just don't happen. Likewise for rays. The pelagics are seen on Bonaire, just not as frequently as other places. Two weeks prior to our last visit a 30' whale shark, with a baby, was seen on 3 seperate days. Others on our boats have seen nurse sharks, and turtles. But not on every dive. There are places to go on Bonaire if you specifically want to see rays for instance. The entrance to Sorboran bay on the windward side is a surfe thing for seeing schools of rays head out to sea at dawn. Who want's to do all their diving at 5 am ? Other sights are likely shark hangouts, like boca bartol. These are advanced dives tho, and subject to currents that are not found on other parts of the island. This is why the operators seldom, if ever take ggroups to them. Diving Bonaires windward side means taking a Zodiac over, and diving in 4'+ waves. I believe that Bruce Bowkers Carib Inn is the only operation to make the trip, if enough (3) people request it. The windward side also has 2 fantastic wrecks, including a wooden sailing ship from the 1800's in good condition. The Big fish encounters are there on the the windward side, with giant parrotfish and groupers and so forth. But the leeward side is sooo easy to dive that one is realy on ones own to visit the windward side. Locals and the dive operators can probably provide ideas on good spots to hit the water on the windward side... but why go to all that work when the lee side is so convenient and easy ? The reef along the lee side execls in corals and smaller fish, as well as macro critters. Seahorses, frogfish, black coral and such other rareties can be located fairly easily by an experienced eye.Plenty of barracuda can also be found. Or will find you ;-) One other reason some folks might not be keen on Bonaire is the fact that Bonaire has only a couple of walls, and fairly small ones at that. There are no sheer drops to 2000' feet. The reef structure is instead usually comprised of terraces around 20-40', with steep drop-offs to the depths, sometimes with another terrace at 90'+. Spur and groves are found, as well as a large double reef sustem seperated by sand channels and gardens of eels. The coral islands of the double reef are bristling with loads of lobsters, chrinoids, eels, undamaged fans and sponges, and other neat stuff. The corals are for the most part in prisinte, untouched shape. Bonaires dive operators are fanatical about keeping the reefs untouched, and provide advanced bouyancy classes for all visiting divers, as well as strongly discouraging use of gloves. The glove rule is simple really- divers wearing gloves touch things. Divers without gloves are much less likely to. The advanced bouyancy class is not mandatory, but can be really usefull in learning to look at your weighting from a different perspective. Finally, there is not much nightlife. I don't know if one can party until all hours, as I haven't been up later than 11pm when on Bonaire. Morning dives come early, and visitors tend to be serious about getting in their 2-4 dives each day. The place is not dead, but very quite once 9pm rolls around. Personally, that is one reason that I do prefer Bonaire !

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Date : 11-23-92 15:40 From : Doug Hook To : Carl Wilson Subj : Bonaire

CW I stayed at the Divi Flamingo Beach Resort. I thought the shore diving as good or boring as the boat dives.

I believe that the problem you found was not due to Bonaire, but in fact due to the Divi Flamingo. They have a VERY poor reputation, too the point where my travel agent will not send clients there- even if they insist. There are just too many people who have a mediocre time when staying/diving there. We stay next door to the Divi at Bruce Bowkers Carib Inn. It is very reasonable, very friendly, and very good. We occaisonally eat lunch at the divi, only because it is very close. Our travel agent warned us against eating there, but the food was mediocre to good, and because the place was deserted, service was fast.

Too really dive Bonaire and see what it has too offer, try the Carib Inn, Sand Dollar condominiums, or Cap'n Dons Habitat. All three are exellent dive operations, and can really show you the best of the island. Sand Dollar and Habitat are similar in price to the Flamingo. Carib is very inexpensive - as little as 59$ a night for a poolside studio. An oceanfront one bedroom or bungalow is 79$ ! This is certainly the best value on the island. As to the big criiter encounters, when we asked the dive masters to find us turtles, they almost always did. As for sharks and rays, they are hit or miss, since they don't try to make the pelagics dependent on food handouts in order to provide encounters for divers.

Also, I would NOT recommend Sunset Beach Hotel, which is heavily advertised in the magazines. There have been 2 scathing trip reports in the last six months posted to the internet/usenet scuba mailinglist. PEople had problems with rooms, the dive operation, and the dive masters. They loved the diving all the same, but the dive masters were jerks, and the boats broken down. Things may have improved since the last report, in early September. If anyone has been there recently, please let us know !

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I was in Bonaire this past July, stayed at the Divi Flamingo. I was with the Moray Wheels, a group of disabled divers, filming a special for PBS, so we probably received unusually good attention in most cases. However, there are a few things I can point out without risk of having seen them with bias.

The grounds and equipment (both scuba, boats, and camera gear) are all in excellent shape. Rooms are exceptionally clean, in very good condition, and well-air conditioned (too well for my taste, I turned it off.) Boats are fast and we never saw a single breakdown of any of the boats. Divemasters are responsive to group demands (although this may be biased because we were generally an unmixed group on the boats.)

A two-tank trip with lunch down to the salt-mines is an excellent way to spend a lazy day in the sun, I'd recommend it. Watch out for divemaster Willie (if he's still alive), he tells a great monkey-joke.

The beach diving is better off Cap'n Don's than it is off Divi Flamingo, especially deeper than 50'. If you haven't been there yet, you might want to check out the wreck at the foot of Cap'n Don's wall -- there was an amazing EIGHT-FOOT green moray who lives there. And no, I wasn't THAT narced.

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My wife and I spent a week in Bonaire in early November, stayed a Cap'Don's. He has some relativly new rooms ("junior suites"???) which were nice, of course all of us prefer to keep wet! I enjoyed the freedon at Don's, any time that you wanted you could dive. The boats were not crowded and the dive masters lots of fun (esp. Tino) While we were there they were experiencing an "alge bloom" (and I thought that only happen in Lake Erie!) which reduced the visability to around 40-50 feet. Even with that we had great diving. Yes there is an 8-foot Moray off Don's and a large Tarpon (?) which likes to feed in the lights when nite diving. Most of the sites around Klein Bonaire and the main island had good fish, coral, and critters. There's not much else to do on the island, a National Park and limited shopping, which was fine with me.

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Me and my wife were there in 88, at the Sonesta Hotel (at that time the name was Bonaire Beach Hotel). At that time, the hotel was owned (I guess) by the Bonaire government, and was in really bad shape, although it was the ONLY hotel that had a white sand beach right in front. We heard that the hotel was completelly refurbished during the change to Sonesta, but that I cannot confirm. The dive operation there was OK, with a small shop at the beach, and the boats (flat top) departured right from there. They had mesh bags for you to leave your gear out of the room. Maybe someone else can give you a more updated information on the Sonesta. During our stay, we visited the Flamingo. It's a very nice hotel, with swimming pools, casino and restaurants, being located within walking distance to downtown. They have two dive shops (one in each side of the Hotel), and several dive boats (V-hulls mostly). I must confess that my wife wanted to move at once from the Bonaire Beach Hotel to the Flamingo, but we had paid upfront, so no deal. Again, we heard that the Sonesta today is far better than the old Bonaire Beach Hotel, and remember: if you enjoy beach, the Flamingo does NOT has one!

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Shore diving on Bonaire is definitey pretty hip. Alot of the Dutch tourists rent minivans and try all the beaches on the west coast. The biggest advantage of shore diving there is (was?) the privacy factor. You could dive alot of excellent sites (the boats also dive many places accessible from shore) and you do it on your own, not with a group of people. The surf was very small when I was there (Nov '90) so entries and exits were less work than on a boat. We rented a jeep and took a jug of water and some food with us. When we finished our dive, we would take a (jug) shower and have a picnic on our own "private" beach. (Note: We did all are scuba from a boat, but we snorkled at two of the beaches we dived at).

If this kind of thing appeals to you then definitely try the shore diving. If you want to dive the best spots, go by boat. They can go to all (most?) of the shore sites, and many others as well. Plus they know where the conditions are best. When we were there the vis was less than 15' at most sites for 3 days.

My favorite spot was Playa Funghi at the tip of Washington Slogabbi(sp?) park. We just snorkeled there. We were swimming between huge healthy coral heads in 10' of water and saw more cool stuff than I could possibly remember (I do remember a pair of GIANT midnight blue parrotfish -large enough to startle me when I bumped into them). After we got out we went bird and iguana watching.

Call me a wimp, but I would rather snorkel off the beach in Bonaire than dive from a boat.

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I was at the SandDollar in July '91. There were no crowds here or anywhere else on the island. The diving out front is quite good, but in general you will go somewhere else to dive so don't worry about this. They also let you take tanks anywhere; you just take one and mark your name on the board - it's the honor system. Don't forget a night dive out front here. At least when I was there, a six foot Tarpon, Charlie the Tarpon, was making a nightly appearance, and was attracted to the dive lights (or maybe he just liked people).

I have rented a car and dove on my own (ol blue), but it is not as convienient (driving 20 minutes back to the lodge in a hot car with no saltwater rinse is not much fun).

I am a die-hard boat diver here in California, but in Bonair I prefered shore diving. Except for Klein Bonaire (an island) the boats go to all the same spots we went to by van. In general, there is no need to decide this in advance. Go there and try a couple of boat dives and a couple of beach dives and decide which you prefer. Reservations are not necessary, so don't pay in advance.

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Here is a trip report of sorts. I was in Bonaire last week (Feb 15-22) at the Flamingo Beach hotel (actually at club flamingo). I was there with my wife, 17 month old daughter and my parents. My parents are avid divers, I had only made 10 dives before this trip, my wife does not dive but does snorkel. My daughter is certified for splashing in pools (Advanced). All divers were certified.

If you only care about diving you don't have to read the parts about snorkeling etc.

Diving:

I didn't do any boat diving this trip. I did several dives right on Calabas reef which is right in front of the hotel. There was plenty to see, no current and the water was a warm 80 degrees. I was there 6 years ago and I think the reef looked a little more banged up this time. I found the diving to the north of the hotel to be a little more pristine. I'm sure the boats would have taken me to "better spots" but I didn't want to be gone that long and there is plenty to see without ever leaving the pier. Also I had unlimited shore diving for only $77 for the whole week.

There is no real need for deep diving in Bonaire. No real need for dive computers either. This is because the reef starts right off shore. Where I was diving, the bottom tapered to about 30 feet and then dropped sharply to what I was told was 90-120 feet. I don't know because all of the diving I did was under 55 feet. There is great diving just at the drop off. Unless you are planning to be out there all day, its tough to build up residual nitrogen.

I also dove the salt pier which I recommend. Returning in the surf was kind of tricky, but the weather was a little rougher than usual for Bonaire. Still very calm though. In comparison to the town pier, the salt pier is more open with deeper water, wider spaced pilings and more light. There was more current here than inside the protection of Klein Bonaire but it was not strenuous. There is a lot less trash around the salt pier than the town pier which was nice. I think this would have also been a good night dive but I never made it back. To dive the salt pier, you will have to drive there. Shore entry is accomplished over a rocky "beach". The pier is T shaped. The top of the T out from the shore. We snorkelled out to the T and then went south because that was against the current. (The current is variable, so check yourself.) We moved slowy out to then end of the T. There was a gorgeous school of creole wrasses with excellent coloring. We were looking for Tarpon but never saw them. There was a school of large Jacks that had me fooled for a minute. We then drifted back to the intersection of the T and finned in. Our bottom time was about an hour. Max depth for me was 45 feet, although it was still sloping.

The old town pier was a good dive, fish in abundance, large French and Queen Angelfish. I also did a night dive on the new town pier. We were looking for a red frog fish but never found it. Mostly invertebrates. These are popular dive spots, you will not be alone, especially at night.

I don't know what they did on the boats, but after showing a certification card, the dive people never pestered us. My mom did some solo dives right in front of one of the dive shops and no one bothered her. I don't want to debate whether solo diving is a good thing or not. What I'm saying is that they let you do your own thing, which, in my opinion, is preferable. They might hassle you if you tried to go solo off a boat, but I have no experience to back that up.

There is now (this year)a required $10 fee for the Bonaire Marine Park, or some such. This is true if you are going to be doing any diving in Bonaire. This goes to the continued establishment of permanent buoys for dive sites. I didn't mind spending the $10. They have also been marking the dive spots from the road. You will see rocks painted orange-yellow along the side of the roads. They have the name of the dive site on them. I imagine your $10 also goes towards this. They are encouraging rotation of dive sites to allow regrowth/rest. You get a little tag to hang off your BC, its good for a year.

Snorkeling:

Since my daughter doesn't dive and prefers exploring, I didn't do as many dives (only 8 for the whole week) as I could have but I thoroughly enjoyed the dives I did do. My wife and I did a fair amount of snorkeling in front of the hotel. There is a lot to see there. Octopus, Porcupinefish, spotted moray, peacock flounder, bristle worm, sea cucumber, spiny lobster, lots more.

The best snorkel site I visited is Playa Funche at Washington National Park. Spectacular location, large stands of Elkhorn coral. Great Fish variety, sea fans. This has a very easy shore entry because of the remains of an old dock. Even without it, the beach is quite calm.

Technically this is still "rainy season" so you are self insured when you drive into the park. Don't be too scared about this. We did the drive in a Civic sedan with no trouble. The park is great anyway. I can't remember the names of the birds we saw. We saw 3 iguanas on that trip. Plenty of lizards, flamingos, humming birds. Since this was the end of the rainy season, much was in bloom including the aloe.

We also snorkeled at Cai, which is one of my parents favorite spots. I wasn't particularly impressed. There were a lot of juvenile fish there. The mangrove forest probably serves as a nursery.

Warmth:

The water was 80 degrees. This means different things to different people. I wore a lycra dive skin for snorkeling and the day dives. This was fine although after an hour I was ready to get out. At night I wore in addition to the dive skin a darlex skin and a darlex vest with hood. This kept me warm enough. I didn't feel as though a wetsuit were necessary although since the depth of most dives I did averaged 30 feet, I usually had plenty of air (AL 80's) on surfacing. If I wanted to stay down 2 hours, I would be pretty cold without a wetsuit, at least a shorty. I wasn't interested in long dives. You may have different warmth requirements. 6 years ago I dove in a tee shirt and still enjoyed the dives.

Babies:

Our little girl had a great time on the trip. She learned to call out "dock", "boat", "lizard". She enjoyed watching the spray crabs and could see some of the larger fish. She chased the ground doves and bananaquits around the hotel. With sun block, tee shirt and hat, she didn't get sunburned. We didn't use a baby sitter, but my parents were there and willing to watch her. You will definitely dive less if you bring your baby. For us, it was worth missing a few dives to have her there.

Food:

We had two units, both with kitchens. We only ate out once. This was at the hotel. The food was very good, but it was $110 for all of us. There is a great bakery in town with rolls for $0.12 each. We ate these like crazy. I was content to have these with gouda chese for my breakfast. The grocery store now has many american labels and except for produce, you might almost think you were in your local grocery store. We found the best produce to be at the "fish market" which is right by the old town pier. They don't sell fish but they do have good produce. The bananas are better than anything I have had here. (The bananas are the little banana like things, the larger ones are plantains which are also good, but pan fry them in butter first.) With the bakery, the grocery store and the "fish" market we were quite content. We don't eat a lot of meat, they had fresh meat in the grocery store which looked ok but I didn't try it.

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I'm Back from a very interesting diving vacation to Bonaire. I made travel arrangements through Barbara at Caradonna Caribbean tours. I had asked for a room with an unobstructed view of the ocean and was told that I would get one. My SO and I went on their sunset bonanza package. With an air add on from Cleveland to Miami. At the time of the initial purchase back before the fares dropped the add on was $201 dollars, the same price as a supersaver fare. When the fares dropped I called Barbara and asked her to switch me to the lower fare. She said she would try. I called her a day later and she said the phones were busy and she would try again. I had no problem getting through if I tried enough times. I called her later that day and she said she could not change my fare since it was a Q fare.

On the night before departure I called to confirm our seats. It turned out that someone at Caradonna had cancelled our outgoing segment. The airline agent said there was nothing they could do about it and that we should go to the airport early and try to get a seat. I called back and got a different agent who rebooked our flight.

My SO and I departed on June 10. We flew Continental airlines from Cleveberg to Miami and flew ALM from Miami to Curaso and from Curaso to Bonaire. No problems here. The food was excellent on ALM. We and our luggage arrived in Bonaire at 6:30pm and were greeted by a bus driver who took our bags and drove us to the sunset beach hotel where we were supposed to have an oceanfront room. You couldn't even see the ocean from the walkway in front of the first room they gave us. Fortunately the key didn't work and I asked for a room with a view of the ocean. It turns out that none of the rooms had a view of the ocean. If you left your room and got on the walkway out front you could see the ocean, but you couldn't see it from the room. The accommodations were O.K. They had a small refrigerator an air conditioner and cable TV.

The price was $827 each for the Bonanza package $201 each for the air add on from Cleveland and we added a rental car for 3 extra days at a cost of $56. Breakfast was included in our package. Everything was very expensive there. We tried to eat in as much as possible.

The Diving We were in Bonaire for a total of 9 days. We didn't dive on the day of arrival or our departure day. It would have been pretty hard to dive then since we had a 7:30 flight. On the day before our departure we did two dives. We finished the last one at 3:00 pm and we limited our max depth to 52 feet. Most dives were for 1 hour and we used Sherwood Source Computers and stayed out of the caution zone. On deep dives we would spend the last 15 minutes putting around in shallow water as a precautionary method to avoid the bends. We did a total of 16 dives, 7 of which were boat dives. I would have liked to have dived a lot more but my SO had other ideas.

The diving was much much much better on the uninhabited island of Klein Bonaire. Unfortunately most of the boat dives were on Bonaire. A waste of money unless for some reason you have a problem carrying your gear a hundred feet or so from the car to the ocean. In most places you can park pretty darn close to the ocean. On the day of our first dive with the Dive Inn at the Sunset hotel we were told that one of the engines had broken that morning and would be fixed the next day. As a matter of fact each day we were told that the engine would be fixed the next day. It never was. One of the other divers told us that he was there last year and the boat had only one engine then also. The real kicker happened on one morning dive. The night before they had said they were going to Klein Bonaire the next morning. I called in the morning at 8:30 before leaving my room for the 9:00 dive. I was again told that they were going to Klein Bonaire. We boarded the boat, putted about half a mile up the coast and stopped to dive at a site that my SO and I had done as a shore dive the previous day. I told the captain that this would not count as my boat dive since they had said they were going to Klein. He said they had a lot of snorkelers on board and they would be going to Klein in the afternoon. He said that we could dive the afternoon and the morning dive wouldn't count. When we got back to the dive shop I went to confirm this with another employee and she said that the guy in charge of the boat did not have the authority to let us do that and we would have to talk to the manager who would be in later and he may or may not let us have another dive. Anyway he let us have another dive. The moral of this story is if you can carry your gear a few hundred feet you should purchase a shore diving only package and pay for boat dives only if the boat is going over to Klein. The coral cover was much more dense on the 3 boat dives we did on Klein Bonaire as compared to the 4 boat dives we did on the main island. Much of the coral cover on the slope to the drop off is dead on the main island. On Klein Bonaire it is still intact. The drop off area on the main island is still O.K to almost excellent in a few spots, but on Klein Bonaire it was Excellent everywhere we dived. On the main island as on most inhabited places in the world the shallow reef was suffering from pollution, silting and runoff. Near any sort of development on Bonaire the area from shore to about 30 feet where the steeper slopes start is suffering. However Bonaire and Klein Bonaire had the absolute best shore diving I have seen of the places I have been in the caribbean (Grand Turk, Ambergis Cay, Cozumel, Bonaire)

Overall the diving was excellent. The water was 80 degrees F. Visibility ranged from 60 feet to 100 feet or so. I was chilled but I was only wearing a bathing suit. I brought a body glove 3-2 pro full wet suit along but I never wore it. I would recommend either a shortie or a diveskin. We saw one hawksbill turtle on a dive on Klein. The gorgonians on Klein were the biggest I have ever seen. Some were about 10 feet wide and 7 feet tall. We never saw the famous frogfish or any seahorses. We did see a lot of queen angels, french angels, assorted parrot fish, some very large trumpetfish one was over 6 feet long, lots of moreys, a few snake eels, several pigmy angelfish, one stonefish, about 6 large black crinoids and several smaller yellow ones, large orange elephant ear sponges, black coral, lots of the yellow-orange tubastrea coral, some very big tube sponges some around 9 feet long, a lot of the azure vase sponges (very beautiful), and a a 4-5 foot barracuda who followed us on a night dive.

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I just wanted to let everyone in on how great the trip to Bonaire was. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Down to the details.

Air fares are very expensive into Bonaire and the airlines which fly in and out blow--they are never on time and luggage almost always arives on the next plane, which could be the morning after! However, if you can get past this slight inconvience you will have a great trip.

Hotels very greatly. We stayed at the Sunset Hotel. Getting there was pretty easy from the airport, we just showed someone our voucher and they got a gentleman to drive us to the hotel and the hotel covered it. Definately get a first floor room--they were going to put us on the second and I asked to change and they did. So all we had to do was walk out our door and within 50ft was the open air resturant and then the beach. (Sunset is one of the two hotels which have a beach on Bonaire.) The hotel was all you could ask for, AC, room service, towels, comfortable beds, refrig, safe, etc. However, the resturant left something to be desired. The food was okay...but they were out of fish 3 of the 4 nights we checked, out of fish on an island--they forgot to send someone to the fish market! If you get a package be sure the breakfast buffet is included, it costs too much otherwise, but it is a great convience before those early morning dives. Don't get dinner included becuase there are two other resturants within walking distance, a sefood resturant called Den Lemans(?) and the Green Parrot at the Sand Dollar Hotel, which everyone just loves for lunch and happy hour. If possible rent a car, it cost us $50 for three days- 2 days plus one free. If they say they don't have a car keep bugging them the cars somehow appear. Once you have a car the places to eat are at the Chibi Chibi at the Divi Divi Hotel, it was the best food I had on the Island, try the local dish which is called Kesha Yena. Richards was also good. The seafood resturant next to Sunset was okay. The Mentor Bar had delicious Nasi Goreng. The Divi Divi resturant, not the Divi Divi hotel, was so local that we had to have one of the customers help in the communication--it was an interesting experience. Unfortunately thanks to the Dive Bonaire book the Capricorn Resturant got so popular that they were expanding while we were there so we didn't get a chance to eat there. Driving the island is fun but driving around the park with two full tanks in the back of your van is scary, especially becuase of the bumpy lanes they call roads up there.

Now to the diving, it was wonderful. Many guests at the Sunset said the best diving was right in front of the hotel at the dive site called Front Porch--walk in the water and there it is. (Many people loved to night dive there because of these huge Tarpoon named Tommy who would follow the divers around hoping to be feed--you shine your light in front of him and he eats the small fish caught in the beam. The men got their kicks by not telling their wives or girlfriends about Tommy and watching their reactions when they saw him. The dive store at Sunset was exceptional. The rules were: sign in the morning after you get there, do a orientation dive off the beach(Front Porch)to check your weight etc. and they hit the afternoon boat dive. (Since we had a package which included 6 boat dives and one night dive they ask that you one boat dive a day and then the Tues night scheduled night boat dive.) The instructors/dive masters who ran the boats were wonderful. The rules for boat dives were 1 hour max, 100 ft max, don't bring anything but you buddy up--because all of Bonaire is a marine park, speaking of that you have to pay $10 to dive on Bonaire and $10 to get off the island when you leave the airport. Every day they had two boats leave in the morning, 9:00 and 9:30 and two boats in the afternoon, 1:30 and 2:00. We went on the 1:30 dive our first day there and dove Carl's Hill off of Klein Bonaire, the unihabited island on Bonaires leaward side. Unfortunately for many this was an unpleasent dive becuase of the currents which are rarely noticable but they were that day. The dive almost became a rescue dive becuase there were students on board who failed to listen to their instructor and drop as soon as they hit the water, therefore they got caught in the current. Other than that one dive we had no problems. We also dove Sharon's Serenity, Small Wall, Oil Slick, and a few others from the boat. We also went on the boat which traveled to the Hilma Hooker which is the wreck dive on the island. It is a 100ft dive and has different rules, only 20 min max--I was down 13 mins and that was enough for me, considereing I had only been recently certified--it was interesting but I don't think I like wrecks all that much...maybe I just need to get used to them. Also you could not do penitration diving unless you had the proper equipment because they did not gut the boat they just sank it as was. (It was taken by the government because of drugs.) The fish life is just incredible, as is the sponge and coral. I won't bore you with all the different kinds but the neatest fish I saw was a frog fish. I turned my head and there it was! It was so funny--it looks like Jaba the Hut and it doen't swim, it walks and camoflages itself with the coral it is on--this one was brownish. I could have spent the whole dive watching this fish. It made me wish I had a camera!

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A friend and I spent 7 nights in Bonaire (Netherlands Antilles). Our main purpose was to DIVE. We had a blast. The following is a trip report. It's long.

The article is set up in short sections. The first two describe our experiences with the hotel and its partner dive operation.

The Sunset Beach Hotel The Dive Inn

The rest of the sections contain details organized in more general categories:

Food Diving Snorkeling Above-water activities Transportation Money

----- The Sunset Beach Hotel

The WORST hotel I've ever stayed in. It used to be the Hotel Bonaire. I imagine it was a fairly decent resort hotel many years back. But it's current condition is bad enough that there's no way it could even receive one-diamond (the lowest) if AAA rated it. (I've stayed in jillions of hotels ranging from 5-stars in Tokyo to no-stars in Paris. The Sunset Beach Hotel was worse than the no-stars.)

The rooms were musty. The grounds were unkempt. The pool was non-existent. The walkways were dilapidated--big cracks and large chunks missing made for some tip-toe style walking. There was only ONE phone available in the complex for long-distance use--the rest of the phone system was down for repairs.

On four of the seven days we were there, the maid forgot to leave us towels. Each time this happened, we walked to the front desk and asked for towels--the desk workers promised it would never happen again. And it happened again and again.

The hotel restaurant had some of the WORST food I've ever eaten. We had lunch there twice and dinner once. And decided never to eat there again. Most of the other guests I talked to walked over to the Green Parrot at The Sand Dollar Inn next door for food.

And to top it off, at the end of the week, as we were checking out, they informed us of a 10% room gratuity charge ($7.50 per day) that was supposedly mandatory. We had NOT been informed of this extra charge when we checked in, or when we purchased the package. When I refused to pay it, citing the poor towel service as one of many complaints I had about the hotel, they said I had no choice. (I had pre-signed the credit card thang when we checked in--which is quite normal.) Anyway, I'm calling my credit card company and doing a chargeback on this one.

----- The Dive Inn

The WORST dive operation I've ever dove with. The operation is on the grounds of the Sunset Beach Hotel--any package deal that you get with the Sunset will be with the Dive Inn.

Supposedly, the package included unlimited shore diving--i.e., you could get tanks whenever you wanted. The dive store closes sometime before 5pm, and if you want tanks after closing time, you need to sign up in advance, and tanks will be left out. Sounds reasonable, at least in theory. But in practice, it didn't work. The first afternoon we signed up for tanks, no tanks were left out that night. The next afternoon, we had to remind them to put out the tanks.

Tank fills were a hit or miss proposition--mostly miss. Fills tended to range from 2300 psi to way over the hypdo-rated 3300 psi. (This is for Aluminum 80's rated for 3000 psi.) A dangerously overfilled tank blew out my regulator (an o-ring squeezed out of my US Divers SEA first stage) right after I opened the valve on my tank--I had just enough time to notice that the pressure was almost 4000 psi before my first stage popped. The Dive Inn refused to do anything about it. (Luckily, it turned out to be a free fix anyway here in Boston.)

The divemasters were also hit or miss. Karen and Mary were very good dm's. They each gave good 10-minute pre-dive orientations after parking the boat at the dive sites and before letting anyone in the water. On the other hand, Walter, who also happened to be the manager of the Dive Inn, was the WORST divemaster I've ever dove with. On the two dives he dm'ed, he mumbled a couple things and just sat back smoking a cigarette while everyone jumped in the water. (Luckily, Bonaire diving is relatively easy--so no one got too lost or too distressed.)

----- Food

We ate "off-campus" most of the time. Having a car the whole week was a saviour! As I said before, the food at the hotel restaurant was not only less-than-mediocre, it was barely edible.

The biggest trend we noticed on the island: fresh vegetables are hard to come by.

Our favorite restaurants (in order of preference--favorite first):

Mona Lisa -- On Kaya Grandi (a street) at the main plaza in Kralendijk (the main city). We ate here twice. The fresh vegetables were served separately from the main course (and varied according to the day's stock). Fantastic dutch-caribbean cuisine. Great service. A nice cozy candle-lit open-air atmosphere. For a filling multicourse meal with a bottle of wine (we have BIG appetites), the bill came out to $45 for two, including a generous tip. A comparable meal in a big city here in the states would have been at least as expensive.

Rendezvous -- On Kaya Gerharts less than one block from the main plaza in Kralendijk. The third place that we found with fresh vegetables. Once again, excellent dutch-caribbean cuisine. The only thing that we didn't like was the atmosphere. Too casual with distracting American music on the cheesy sound system. About $35 for two without wine.

Chibi Chibi -- Located on the grounds of the Divi Flamingo Hotel. The food was great (we ordered Kesha Yena, as someone on the net had suggested in a previous posting). The location was nice (above the water with full view of schooling fish). But the service was a little slow. This was the second place that we found with fresh vegetables. According to the prices on the menu (and the instructions that were also printed on the menu for package customers), getting the all-inclusive package at the Divi Flamingo seems like a great deal-- a significant savings on very good food. About $30 for two without wine or appetizers.

The Green Parrot -- On the grounds of the Sand Dollar Inn. Better-than- mediocre food. Frozen vegetables. Reasonable prices. On-water location. About $25 for two for dinner (no drinks or appetizers). About $10 for lunch for two. The best thing going for it was its location--only a five minute walk from where we were staying.

Other restaurants that were recommended to us (but we didn't have a chance to check out):

Richard's -- South of Kralendijk on Boulevard Julio A. Abraham near the airport access road. Walter, the aforementioned dive-master, suggested it. We decided that his lack of dm skills could be a result of a lack of a brain--so we didn't want to test his restauranting skills either.

Den Laman (sp?) -- On the beach between Sunset and Sand Dollar. A satisfied customer of Mona Lisa (our favorite restaurant), recommended this place after overhearing a conversation we were having with someone at the next table regarding the lack of fresh vegetables on the island. But we had to fly out the next morning, so we didn't get a change to check it out.

Three other restaurants in which we ate were so mediocre that their names have since been forgotten. (I should've kept a restaurant log instead of just a dive log!)

We also purchased groceries (sandwich meats, bread, snacks, drinks, etc,) at a number of supermarkets. Two are situated on Kaya Grandi just north of the town. The biggest ones that we found were outside of Kralendijk on Kaya Korona, including the Supermarket Korona. Easily accessible by car.

The tap water is drinkable and very good. We purchased bottled water on the first night at the town bakery (on Kaya L.D. Gerharts)--none of the supermarkets sold it--just to get the plastic bottles so we could continue to refill them with tap water throughout the week.

----- Diving

We had purchased a 6-day boat diving package with The Dive Inn before the trip. We ended up doing six boat dives (and one night boat dive) in five days. They took us to Carl's Hill on Klein Bonaire for four of those dives. (Actually, Carl's Hill, Carl's Hill Annex, Jerry's Jam, and Leonora's Reef--all within swimming distance of Carl's Hill.) When we mentioned this to them, the divemasters said that all the diving on Bonaire was the same--so no matter when you went, you'd see the same stuff. Ha!

The boat also took us to Something Special, about a 100 yards down from the Sunset Beach hotel (we could have swam there) and to Andrea II. We also did a night boat dive on Small Wall.

We did a number of shore dives jumping in from the Sunset's pier (Front Porch is the dive site name) and swam north toward Captain Don's. On one of our night dives, Tommy the Tarpon followed us throughout the whole dive (along with a smaller companian). On another night dive, we saw two good size squid (football size)--they were *amazingly* beautiful. Made my day. And of course, on every dive we saw tons of hard coral. Lots-o'-fish. Morays galore. Etc.

Our BEST dive was a shore dive at Ol' North. (We drove up the scenic road toward the Bonaire Petroleum Corp site.) We had no problem making the entry thru light surf. The coral here was much more pristine and healthy than at the sights we visited by boat (maybe because it's not dive'd as often?). We saw feeding barracuda and a small sea turtle along with all the usual stuff. And tons-o'-black-coral along with all sorts of soft and hard coral.

In general, most of our dives averaged a depth of 40 feet. Our deepest was down to 60 feet (although I did manage to break my personal free-diving record... I did 75 feet breath-hold off of Cliff (the dive site at Captain Don's Habitat)). We found that most of the cool stuff was at 30-50 feet. More light in this region made for more interesting dives.

The temperature was 80F. Cold enough that I wore a diveskin, and still got chilly after being in the water for a typical 60 minutes. (In contrast, the temperature in Cozumel at this time of year is about 84F. Warm enough to stay in for an hour without any sort of suit.)

The visibility ranged from 60-80 feet (your mileage may vary). We were told it was very good visibility that week--the week before it was significantly lower. (We'd seen better vis in Cozumel and the Keys.)

Most dive sites had a slight current that changed direction every 15 minutes or so. Sometimes it was distracting, but mostly it didn't hinder our dive.

----- Snorkeling

The best snorkeling was off the coast of Klein Bonaire (reachable only by boat). Most hotels have lunch and afternoon snorkeling/beach trips. The boat ride is less than 10 minutes. Depths ranged from 5 feet to 60 feet.

We had the most fun snorkeling at Cliff. (We did our deep breath-hold dives here). We followed the directions in Tom van't Hof's book _Guide to the Bonaire Marine Park_ and swam through the narrow channel of elkhorn coral into the open water and swam south toward Captain Don's Habitat. Depths ranged from zero feet (for the elkhorn) to 60 feet (for the bottom of the cliff wall) to 75 feet (for the dropoff zone).

We also followed the recommendations given in previous postings and tried out Playa Funchi and Boca Slagbaai in Washington Park.

A fellow net'er had mentioned that Playa Funchi had lots of healthy coral at depths of 10 feet. Well, something must have happened since that previous posting... about 90% of the coral at depths shallower than 25 feet was just plain DEAD. I do not exaggerate. Only 10% of it was living. Huge fields of Staghorn coral lay dead and rotting from Whiteband Disease. And most of the other hard coral looked like it was ravaged by (a) sediment (from a storm?) and (b) divers. Near the dropoff (outside of the bay), at depths of 35 ft to 60 ft, the coral was much healthier, but not nearly as nice as the coral at Klein Bonaire, at Cliff, or at Ol' North. But there were lots of fish, including many schools of small cowfish that would approach us in hopes of getting handouts.

Boca Slagbaai was in slightly better condition. About 25% of the coral was still living. But the visibility was slightly lower (about 30 feet within the bay and 60 feet outside). Lots of fish. And a beautiful squid that let us follow it for about 20 minutes--it had huge eyes that stared back at us every time we came to within five feet or so. To the sides of the bay are some small caves that you can swim into. Boca Slagbaai also has a nice sandy beach--lots of uninhibited sunbathers.

----- Above Water Activities

Well, I've already mentioned the food and the diving. So what else is there?

Lots if you're into exploring. Caves, lagoons, hills, unbeaten paths. We had as much fun ABOVE water as we did below. Having a 4-wheel drive Suzuki Samari was a BLAST. (No, we didn't tip it.) $220 for 7 days thru Budget. (The rate is $249 if you don't book ahead.)

I'd recommend the following:

The hills of Montana -- Fabulous view of Kralendijk and Rincon. Lots of birds.

Solar Salt Works -- Pink sand for miles and miles!

Lacre Punt (south end of the island) -- Spend a night on the rocks with the crashing surf and the amazing view of the Milky Way. (I've never seen so many stars (and shooting stars too!).) The only visible light is from Kralendijk (and its airport). And there are two almost-invisible hazy halos on the horizon from Curacao to the west, and from Venezuela to the south.

Washington Park -- Enough's been written about this place (and this post is getting too long). We spent a whole day inside the park. The neatest thing... even the *lizards* expect hand-outs. Whenever we parked our jeep, a bunch of colorful lizards would come up to the jeep to sit in its shade. When I held cookie pieces in my hand, the lizards approached and licked the pieces out of my hand.

Lagun Goto -- Lots of Pink Flamingos inside a beautiful lagoon. Take the scenic one-way road north along the leeward coast (stop to see the caves and the dive sites along the way). Pass by the Radio Nederland towers and head for the Bonaire Petroleum station. Take a right once you get to the station and follow the road (take the dirt roads when they come up) around the lagoon.

And definitely check out as much of the windward side of the island as possible. There's only one paved road out there--but enough dirt roads to get you around once you're out there.

Shopping, night life, and anything city-oriented don't really exist in Bonaire.

----- Transportation

We flew in on ALM (All Luggage Missing) airlines. And sure enough, they screwed up our luggage. We spent some time in Curacao tracking down two bags that were incorrectly routed before taking the puddle jumper to Bonaire. My air route took me from Boston to Atlanta (via Delta (who handles ALM in the US)--I stopped flying Delta two years ago, and now I remember why. I will never fly Delta again.). Then to Aruba, Curacao, and finally to Bonaire (via ALM). On the way back, I stopped in Miami instead of Atlanta.

We had reserved a Suzuki Samari through Budget (and our travel agent). So when we arrived in Bonaire, we picked up the car at the airport, and dropped it back off on our way back to the states. No hassle. (Just very slow, but then again, everything in Bonaire is slow. There was only one employee working at the airport office--a single person checking in reservations, picking up and dropping off cars, and signing out the cars.)

There seemed to be public transportation--we saw bus stops outside of the city. But we didn't see any buses.

----- Money

The *total* cost for the trip (including $100 worth of presents brought home) was $1350. I.e., at the end of the week, I was $1350 poorer than 8 days before.

I took $170 in cash with me when I left my home in Boston. Much of my purchases (like food) were done with credit cards (VISA, MC). There are at least two banks with ATM's. Different vendors charge different exchange rates. Sometimes it's better to pay in Gelder (Guilder?). Sometimes it's better to pay in US Dollars. Everyone accepts US Dollars. And when you pay with a credit card, you have the option of specifying the payment in Gelder or Dollars.

I changed $100 into Gelder on the second day at a bank to use at the grocery stores (better to pay in Gelder (and they tend to round off prices)).

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No, nothing here to scare you away. Though I found that a Nurse shark can frighten you even in Death! I just got back from a week-long stay at the Black Durgon Inn. While there I did a night dive in the town harbor. Some fishermen must have caught the shark, gutted it and thrown the head and entrails off the pier. I'm tooling along, sweeping my flashlight's beam from side to side when I find myself face to face with a Nurse shark. Or at least its head. The "expression" is the same as that of a live shark making it all the more spooky.

The water is warm (~85F) and that can be a relief from the air temps (80-90F) and high humidity during the hours around noon. The visibility is a little low (40-80') due to the rains they had there recently. But the water's calm and there's plenty of sea life.

Of the three restaurants we ate at (Paul's, Zeezicht and Green Parrot, the latter was the best).

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History:

The Mairi Bhan ("Bonny Mary" in Gaelic) was an iron-hulled, 1300- ton, 3-masted clipper ship, launched in Scotland in 1874. One of the last of her breed, she was once the pride of the Pacific shipping lanes, but was reduced to hauling cheap cargoes in S. America by the time she tangled with a storm off Bonaire in 1912. Carrying a load of asphalt out of Venezuela, she got blown past safe anchorage and was trying to tack back in, but to no avail. Off the south- facing shore of the northern tip of Bonaire, where the big oil terminal now stands, she tried hooking bottom with an anchor but could not snag anything until too late to keep her off the rocks. In the process, the barrels of asphalt shifted, split open, and were ignited by a kerosene lamp, burning part of the contents and all of the decking. Four of the 32 crew perished trying to reach the rocky shore just a few yards away. The ship went down and heeled over, breaking off the center mast before coming to rest on her side, with the keel against the steep reef face and the starboard rail on a sand bottom at about 200 ft.

Diving the wreck (often called The Windjammer by the locals):

My guide for this dive was J.J. Joslin of the Carib Inn, who likes to do this one on his day off. For insurance and other reasons, J.J. will only take buddies with at least DM certification or above, since there is no way to dive this anywhere close to normal sport limits. If you stay up along the port rail the whole time, you will still be doing a 150-ft profile, and to really get a good view of the main deck area and holds, you are going to be down to at least 170 or more.

Since this was a planned decompression dive, we took along a stage tank (50) with two regulators, plus an extra 5 lb of lead each to make the deco stops a bit easier (a lot of surge here and nothing but sharp stuff to hold onto). Tanks were topped off to 3300 (cold) to ensure as much air as possible. There are two entry points, one far from the wreck and the other very far. The latter is a small boat landing gouged out of the ironshore, about 250 m east of the oil terminal fence. About 100 m closer there is a big iron beam sticking out of the shore. We opted for this point and entered just to the left of the beam (not without difficulty) and snorkelled west toward the oil terminal carrying our extra tank and weights. When we were almost in line with the oil terminal fence, we could see below us at 30 ft the crossed pieces of the broken off mainmast of the ship lying on the lip of the dropoff. This is directly in line with the bow of the ship below and serves as the convenient reference point for the rest of the dive.

We left our stage tank and extra weights at the cross point of the mast and immediately started a brisk kick down the face of the dropoff in order to minimize time at depth. At 100 ft, J.J. turned about 45 deg to the right (west) and continued down and out away from the reef face. Vis was pretty good and the sun was shining, so the bulk of the hull was looming below at this point. We headed straight for the stern (western end), went over and straight down to the midline of the main deck. My Dipper read 180, with elapsed time of 4 minutes at this point. The next 8 minutes or so were spent on a leisurely swim along the entire 240 ft length of this great old sailing ship.

When the ship went down and tipped over, the burning asphalt was evidently so hot that it stayed molten all the way down, spilling out over the bottom as the hull rolled over on its side. It now forms a frozen "waterfall" over the starboard side, flowing into a lake of tar still very visible on the bottom. The two remaining masts, with much attached rigging and even a crowsnest, stick down into this frozen lake of asphalt. The interior of the ships holds are largely empty, since the decking had evidently burned off, allowing everything to spill out with the tar. There are probably a whole bunch of neat artifacts down there in that tar pool, but you would need a lot more heavy tools and bottom time than a scuba diver on air could ever muster to get at them.

Having hit a max depth of 188 at mid ship, we continued up a bit to the bow at about 170, where there is a big, old-fashioned anchor still aboard. A big chain leads off the east, so I presume there is another similar anchor at the end of it, the one that failed to keep the ship off the shore. No time left to go look for it, as the Dipper was indicating in no uncertain terms that it had had enough fun for one dive. One last look around from the bowsprit and then over to the nearby wall and up, watching the gauge for ascent rate. We came up to 30 ft bang on our stage tank at the crossed mainmast pieces, grabbed our extra weights, and sucked on the stage tank for 3 minutes to conserve our main tanks. Then up to 20 for some more deco, and finally up to 10 for an extended period. With a swim at 10 ft back to our entry point, the total deco time was 38 minutes, providing (we felt) a very safe margin indeed, as our deco recipe was for a 200 ft square profile (Navy tables). BTW, the Dipper cleared us all the way to the surface after only about 3 min at 20 ft, to which we added almost 30 minutes more of shallow deco just to make sure, so I don't think we were hanging it out in a major way on this one.

If you are a DM or instructor and want to dive with J.J. on this wreck, contact him at the Carib Inn the next time you are on Bonaire. If you are an experienced deep/wreck diver and want to do it on your own, the above is one formula but in no way a recommendation for you to do so, as the margin for error at these depths is a bunch smaller than at normal sport depths. If you have never been this deep before, make sure your buddy has, as everyone gets narced to some extent and may need a more experienced hand to get them out of a jam.

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Hi. Glen Jaffe from North Hollywood responding. My wife and I spent a week in Bonaire last August. Great diving for beginners and experts alike. Not the dramatic walls of Little Cayman or the towering reef structures of Cozumel but beautiful nonetheless. Short boat rides and easy diving too. As for your specific needs, from what we could see you would be happy at the Sand Dollar condos, Captain Don's Habitat, or the new Coral Regency condos (where we stayed). The three places are right next to each other. None of them has a sandy beach but few places on Bonaire do. The diving and snorkeling in front of all three places is excellent and they all have fine dive operations. All three places will provide you with peace and quiet if that's what you're after. Diving highlights include the wreck of the Hilma Hooker (which we dived from the beach, and a night dive on the town pier (get permission from the harbormaster in town). Both dives are amazing. If you have a rental car drive up to the Washington-Slagbaai National Park. You'll drive on rough roads through hills covered with 20-foot high cactus, and ponds loaded with pink flamingos. There are also several beaches there with nice snorkeling or diving. I think the one we tried was called Playa Funchi. Lots of iguanas there too. All-in-all Bonaire is a great place to spend a week if you like diving or snorkeling (but not much to do if you don't want to get wet).

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My parents have decided to take a week-long vacation to Bonaire in May or June of this year, mostly to snorkel, and I've decided to accompany them -- mostly as this is the first of their vacations in years that hasn't included mountain climbing or crossing the desert with a backpack (my folks are *not* feeble.) We're currently reading up on accomodations (the various tourist guides, along with issues of UNDERCURRENT and "Divers Speak Out"); and while I plan to get a day or two of scuba diving in while I'm there, the majority of the diving will be snorkeling from the shore, something many of the dive guides don't go into in detail. We plan to rent a car and go snorkeling all over the west shore of the island, but would like to do some "right off the back porch", so to speak.

We're looking for a pretty low-key place -- not spartan, but definitely not swank or "party city". We plan to spend as much time in the water as possible; a condo would be fine. Main goals are a) comfort and nice atmosphere, and b) good snorkeling from the shore. Hotel support for scuba diving isn't an item on our "want" list; I plan to sign up for a couple dives with one of the recommended dive outfits on my own while I'm there.

We've noticed a couple of places that get good recommendations in several of the guides; if you've had any experiences with these (or any other hotels/condos), I'd greatly appreciate hearing from you. The places we've seen recommended are:

* Captain Don's Habitat

* Sand Dollar Beach Club

* Carib Inn

* Bonaire Beach Bungalows

* Sunset Inn

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I noticed your post (and the mention of the Sunset Inn, which is probably affiliated with the Sunset Beach Hotel--Sunset Properties owns a number of sites on the island). Below is a trip report I posted last fall, after a one week stay in August.

Also, regarding the list of places you're thinking of staying in... the order in which you listed these places is the order in which I'd put them, best to worst. Of course, this same order goes for price, most expensive to least! I visited the first three places (Cap Don's, Sand Dollar, Carib Inn) and thought they were all very swell. Cap Don's is in the best location for snorkeling and night diving. Carib Inn is south of the main city--all the fun stuff is north.

Definitely rent a 4-wheel drive vehicle and go diving along the west side of the north half of the island. Especially Ol' North (described in my post below).

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There are lots of places to stay in Bonaire, mostly centered on Kralendjik. When I go, I stay at the Black Durgon Inn, just to the north of Captain Don's etc. right on the beach. It's not the most glamorous place in the world but the rooms have AC and TV and you get breakfast in the morning. The gear locker is right on the beach, just seconds from the water (just north of the Small Wall dive site).

You can only book the place through a dive shop, so you would have to look around.

While there, go to Prisca's ice cream in Rincon (right in the middle of the island) - great ice cream, home made, a true treat.

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I'd like to strongly recommend the Sand Dollar. Part of this is that you are going to be there with your parents. I have stayed there and can find no fault. Even night snorkling can be done at your 'front door.' Facilities are like an apartment - convinenet and easy to use. Resturant is good, but room prepared meals are easy and there were plenty of pots/ pans dishes so to prepare meals without a fuss. Units are spread out that noise is not a problem (Vrs. the Carib in in which units are much smaller and very closely spaced.). The dive books/sources yuou list are reliable. Bonaire Beach Bungalows could be anywhere on the island ( a 'rental co-op for houses'). Sunset Inn very touristity, works with groups, provides all sorts of water 'fun', etc. Parasailing and a large tube pulled by a powerboat are always going by... If you like this then??? Cap. Don's gets mixed reviews. I have never stayed there, but I think you will find the good reviews are people not bothered by little things. Sand Dollar will work to please you. While it can get busy, things get done. Car will be a help for your plans. We often find the best snorkling is in Washington Park, and at windsock reef (a beach/reef area off the end of runway. Hard to go wrong. Disadvantages of Sand Dollar? My wife didn't like doing a back roll in the water from there boats (she just does like the unknown of falling backwards into something. Only a small sandy beach..but you can walk down to the Sunset Inn (next door) to the a large sandy beach. Better yet, take the car down to pink beach, or to Nukove (its north of the oil tanks, but its always our 'private' beach when we've been there.

Enjoy it. Bonaire may not be thrills-a-minute, but it's a wonderful place.

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I've been to Bonaire twice. Both times we stayed at the Bonaire Beach Bungalows. The condos are not fancy by any means, but have two bedrooms, a kitchen and furniture. I recommend them. Stay away from Captain Don's-the good Captain is unpredictable in his moods and the shop is not efficient. I have dove with the Sand Dollar and recommend them highly. Smoothly run operation, divemasters are friendly and helpful. The Bonaire Beach Bungalows are south of the airport. Town in north of the airport. I recommend you rent a car to get you around. The snorkelling off of the dock at BBB is great. I spent most of my "surface intervals" snorkelling there. Night snorkelling ig good too. Saw lobsters and moray 20' from the dock. For your dives, try to go to Rappel or one of the Klein Dives. I suggest snorkkeling off of Pink Beach which is south of BBB. It is deeper water but more lush, even from the surface. Have a great time. *sigh* Wish I were going too.

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Bonaire has great shore diving regardless of which place you stay. There are rental cars available that can take you almost anyplace you want to go within the National Park. In regards to Capt'n Don's he has been around the longest and is considered the best place to go for serious divers. Not much for hotel amenities, but great diving service.

Bonaire has mostly shallow (30-60 feet) dives. I'd highly recommend that you check out a short boat trip first before you shore dive. It will give you a good comparison.

By the way.. Curacao is _very_ expensive. Cheapest hotels are in walking distance from downtown Willemstad, but they're not exactly plush. Adequate however ($60 - $100) per night.

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Just completed a week in Bonaire. I stayed at Captain Don's Habitat. At the risk of repeating some of the FAQ, I'll give a synopsis.

Day one was an hour+ reef lecture required by law. The environmental aspects of the reef were presented along with the rules and regs. Capt Don Stewart initiated the world's first mooring system whereby it's illegal to anchor a boat. It's also illegal to bring spearguns onto the island. They will hold them at customs for you. Every diver must pay a $10US fee to dive Bonaire. This money goes into a fund that maintains the reef mooring A token is attached to your dive gear and is good for the calendar year.

First dive is a "warm-up" dive from the dock at the Habitat. One major feature of Capt Don's is "dive freedom". Each dive is given a profile, recommendations and suggestions of where to go on each dive, cautions and considerations, and a divemaster. But beyond that there is no "mother henning". Every diver is reponsible for their own actions. Although safety was a primary consideration, there was no "you WILL stay at 50 feet, you WILL follow a 125 degree bearing, you WILL surface at 800 psi". The only request was that we surface with 500 psi to facilitate headcount, etc. During the warm-up dive everyone was checked for bouyancy control and proper weighting. If anyone needed specific help, there was a DM there to assist and give hints.

Air temperature at sea level was about 80 to 90 every day. Water temperature was 82-degrees at all depths. A breeze blew nearly every day. One rain storm...it was at night and lasted 10 minutes. Visibility ranged from 80 feet to well over 100 feet depending on the current.

Bonaire is a boomerang shaped island. On the leeward side is another little island (Klein Bonaire). All of the diving is on either the leeward side or on Klein Bonaire. All boat diving is done within 30 to 40 minutes of the dock. Both islands have a fringe reef system. The profile runs generally from the shore to about 40 feet, then a gradual slope to about 100 to 130 feet. Nearly all dives on the main island can be completed from shore with a 50 yard swim. The boat dives were moored, single tank dives. Since it's such a short trip back, it's more efficient to do single tanks. We occasionally did a quick shore dive between the morning and afternoon boat dive if profile permitted. Following the afternoon boat dive we would do a shore dive, break for dinner and do a night dive. Most of us did four dives a day. Nearly everyone had a computer.

Wildlife included the usual little purple, orange, yellow, and red fishies. We also saw turtle, rays, lots and lots of eels (including Mr. Rogers, an 8-foot green moray), tarpon (including Charlie, a 4 to 5 footer who eats anything you shine your light on at night), sea horses, frog fish, flying fish, and every sort of coral and sponge you could imagine.

Everyone goes down on the Hooker. The Helma Hooker is a 256-foot tramp freighter that steamed into Bonaire with a leak. While searching for the leak, 20-tons of pot was discovered. The crew vanished, and nobody would lay claim to the ship. She was towed to a shelf between two reefs and the pumps were shut off. She slowly sunk in 110 feet. She lies on her side with the starboard side of the stern around 65 feet, the port side bow at 110 feet. Great ego dive for those who have never done a wreck dive.... Plenty of groupers, tarpon, barracuda, and lots of crap hanging off of her.

There isn't that much wall diving in Bonaire. The "walls" are not sheer drops to the abyss, but more slightly angled, ending in sand at 100 to 200 feet and then a slope down to nowhere.

The dive sites blended into one another. About the only complaint I heard from our group was the "sameness". I felt there were similarities between some sites, but subtle differences were easy to register. Some areas were coral gardens of many small varieties; others were giant walls of huge brain and star corals. Most who had been to Grand Cayman prefered the latter, but everyone enjoyed themselves.

Capt Don's dive operation was wonderful. Tanks were available 24 hours. Just grab one, throw it in a van and take off. Or hop off the dock. Most of the tanks were 80s or 72s. The divemaster (Willie), and the captain (Karen) of the good ship Platinum were superb. They were efficient, helpful, and safety conscious. Both were biologically atuned. They would go out of their way to find frogfish, seahorses, etc. Karen asked that we only take one picture of a frogfish or seahorse. She said it makes them skittish and strobe blind. One of the studies on Bonaire found that touching seahorses makes them "socially unacceptable" to other seahorses. That was a hard rule. Don't toucha da seahorses or we breaka you face.

The accomodations at Capt Don's were very comfortable. Two bedrooms sharing a common living room and kitchen. Tile floors so you could drip without worry. Air conditioned bedrooms, hanger on the porch, swimming pool, volleyball, tanning beach, restaurant, buffet breakfast, dive and gift shop. Capt Don is into horticulture so the hotel was like a jungle. Iguanas, geckos, etc., scampered about along with some butt-ugly land crabs. Since it's a desert island, bugs weren't too much of a problem. The island is rather scrubby with cacti, wild burros, goats, and hotter than hell when you get away from the ocean. One walking beach was dotted with European dive babes sans tops. Aptly named "Pink Beach". There's a private nudist beach at one end of the island.

One of the things that impressed me was the multi-duty aspect of the employees. When she wasn't on the boat, Karen was filling tanks. Sparky was a divemaster one day and manning the dive shop the next and playing in the band at night! Willie maintained first aid kits and ran people to the airport in addition to being a divemaster and dockhand. (He also taught us how to blow air rings and told his internationally famous monkey joke). I asked about the many hats they wear they said they "do what needs to be done". The manager also said that "sameness breeds complacency", so everyone is cross-trained.

A note on certifications. I dived with a total of 40 people, all from central Oregon (Northwest). I would dive again with any one of them. Certifications ranged over five agencies. Levels ranged from Open Water to Instructor. The one thing they had in common was cold-water training and experience. The ultimate comment came from the dive operations manager when we left. He said he would have us back any time, and was impressed with our skills and focus. I attribute this to cold-water diving. When you're packing a wet/dry suit, 35-pounds of weight, 5-feet visibility, 45-degrees, incoming tide with a surge.....it somehow seems easier when the water is 82-degrees, 100+ viz, and nothing but 6-pounds and a swimsuit.

They had to beat me half to death to get me on the plane for home. When I got back to work I found a message waiting for me. "A customer wants training in Aruba in November. You gotta go back." From Aruba it's a 20-minute flight to Bonaire. This job is tough sometimes.

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I just got back from a weeks vacation at Captain Don's Habitat on Bonaire. My trip report follows:

Accommodations: ============== September, July, May are "spectacular pricing " months at Captain Don's Habitat. If you have four or more in your party, then "spectacular pricing" is in effect year round. Package includes: unlimited shore diving (take a tank and get into your rental car), unlimited boat diving (that means 2 per day), airport transfers, 3 dinners, all breakfasts, tanks, weights, welcome rum punch cocktails, all taxes and fees. This is for 8 days/7 nights.

cost per person (divers): $766 (Deluxe Jr. Suite) $704 (Villa Superior)

We got the Villa Superior since the Deluxe Jr. Suites were all booked. I think the only difference was that the suites had their own private balcony, while in the Villa Superior, we shared a balcony. Room was decent, not luxurious.

The other hotels that offered similar deals were the Divi Flamingo, Sand Dollar Condominiums. They did not include the three dinners and the airport transfers.

Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn was booked the week we needed. Rates were CHEAP. You have to call Bonaire to get in touch with them, they have no North American booking agent.

Travel: =======

Airfare (roundtrip) was $406 via Air Aruba (roundtrip). This is for Thurs.-Thurs. and is direct from Newark to Aruba, 45 minute stop and then on to Bonaire. (8:00 am departure from Newark, land in Bonaire 1:55pm ), the best way (I found) to get to Bonaire from the NY-NJ met area. Other times and flights made stops in Aruba , Curacao, taking an entire day of travel each way(also, about $50 more).

Other Airlines that make the trip are ALM and American. I heard several complaints about ALM from folks at Habitat re: missing luggage.

Information: ============

The Bonaire Tourist Office in NYC will send you some information as well. You'll have to get the number from information.

The "Birnbaum's Guide to the Carribean (1992)" was a good source of info as well. I have found it to be quite accurate.

Car Rental: ===========

We rented a minivan for a total (everything but CDW) for $192 for the week. Actually, they had no minivans left, so they gave us a short-bed Toyota pickup which worked out very well (plenty of room for multiple tanks and gear)

This was from Budget.

Trip: =====

The flight itself was fairly pleasant as the flight was only ~2/3rds full. Most folks got off in Aruba and about 10 people including ourselves stayed aboard for the hop to Bonaire. Customs took about 35 seconds. Walked outside to the car rental window, and left for the resort about 15 minutes later. It took about 10 minutes to drive from the airport, through the capital of Kralendijk, and arrive at the hotel. At check in, we were informed that diver orientation was at 9:00 am the next morning, so there is no diving the day of arrival. You must purchase a Bonaire Marine Park tag for $10 US before you can go into the water with SCUBA equipment. It is illegal to do otherwise. The money goes for the upkeep and preservation of the park. After spending a week in the marine park, I think it is a well spent $10.

The Marine Park is defined as all the waters surrounding Bonaire and Klein Bonaire from surface to a depth of 200'.

Other regulations include no anchoring in the park, no speargun equipment ( anywhere on the island ), don't take anything from underwater except your buddy, pictures, and memories, no gloves (depends on where you stay).

Diver orientation took about 45 minutes and basically described the above and took your $10 fee. Habitat allows buddy-diving from their boats, although the dive master will happily show you around and point out the sites.

Other Habitat procedures: 1 - you are assigned a dive number at the beginning of your week. Use this number to sign up for the boat dives. Boat sign up charts are placed outside in the middle of the resort and you can sign up/change at any time.

2 - they have at least 6 boats. Depending on number of divers at the resort, they send out anywhere from 2-6 boats (we saw both extremes). The boats themselves were of varied design and capacity. There were 3-4 boats that were (min=6,max=12 divers) the backward-roll-over-the-side type,1-2 boats (min=6, max=16) that were basically just a flat, covered diving platform (giant stride), and 1 bigger boat that had a cabin, with entry and exit over the rear wall. (min=6,max=16).

3 - The boats go to a pre-defined destination, but will go anywhere if there is a group majority. You can also talk to the dive operations manager (Jack Chalk) and tell him where you want to go. He's very accessible, and will accomodate you if possible. A typical trip is 10-20 minutes, with the longest trip being about 30-40 minutes. The boats are always loaded with fresh tanks. Typically, the boats leave between 8:30-8:45 am, and again 1:30-1:45pm. These are 1 tank dives.

4 - 24 hr-a-day diving. There are always plenty of tanks outside the compressor station. Just take as many as you want and go. We did this every day and it was hassle-free.

5 - Depth/Time Limits - None. Profiles for each dive are suggested by the DM.

6 - You do a check-out dive right in front of Captain Don's after your orientation. That is, you make a dive to make sure you are weighted properly and that your gear is still functioning. Nobody watches you or rates you or makes you demonstrate buddy-breathing or .... there are DM's present to help you with anything you need

Finally, the diving. ==================== I'll (arbitrarily) divide the sights as South of Kralendijk, North, and Klein Bonaire.

Water Temp: 81 F Air Temp: 80-90 F Visibility: (70' South, 100+ North, 100+ Klein Bonaire) Protection: Laura ( who gets cold easily ) wore a dive skin. I used a pair of shorts, except for a day when I felt a little sun-burnt, so I added a T-shirt. Thermally speaking, we both were very comfortable. If I had a skin, I would've worn it, as I had a run-in with fire coral while posing for a picture on the wreck of the Hilma Hooker. The fire coral won :-). Also, we both wore booties which are necessary for some of the rocky/sharp beach entry points. Current: Generally (as told by the DM's) 1/4 to 1/2 knot. There are some spots where it is significant, so check with a DM before you go to a shore dive. In fact, one DM recommended a dive site, but qualified it with "...check the site by snorkeling for a few minutes. If the current is running north, do the dive. If it runs south, then do not attempt it as the current will sweep you right out and around the southern tip of the island.". We didn't even go to that site :-)

General Comments: The sites are very "untouched". I didn't see any reef damage at all. Then again, I'm not that experienced. Certainly, there is no anchor damage since the entire park has mooring buoys for the boats to tie up to. This was supposedly invented by Captain Don Stewart way back when... :-)

Just about every site offered 30'-130' of depth possibilites. There are 80+ sites with many of the sites accessible from shore via clearly marked yellow rocks with the name of the site in black letters. Not all the sites are accessible from the road, however, and of course it is necessary to get on a boat for a (short) ride to Klein Bonaire.

Generally, the most activity was between 30'-50'. All the sites we did were beautiful and I could have spent all day at any one of them. An incredible variety of fish and reef life. I saw sea horses, squid, green morays, spotted morays, dolphins, a hawkbill turtle, some other type of turtle, barracuda, parrotfish, squirrelfish, grouper, yellowtails, angelfish, basket starfish, etc. etc. etc., not to mention all kinds of corals, sponges... :-)

I'll mention some of my personal favorite sites ...

Sites in the South: -------------------

We did Angel City, Tori's Reef, Hilma Hooker (twice), and Invisibles. Visibility here was not as good as the rest of the sites, but still pretty darn good.

Angel City - This site was beautiful. It has a sloping reef from shore that forms a sort of hills-and-valley scene with another offshore reef at about 50' before dropping off to 130' . There were schools of different types of fish everywhere. I would do this one again.

Hilma Hooker - this is the most popular wreck dive of the island. It is fairly shallow, easily accessible from shore, and is very picturesque, imho. It is a 230' long freighter that sank around 1987 as it was anchored offshore awaiting disposal by the government. It sank on it's side with the deck facing out towards the sea. Depth is 60' to the top, 100' at the sand. There are two wide open cargo holds with a door connecting them, and you can swim through this door easily. The propeller is still there and offers a good photo opportunity.

We did this twice, the first time from the boat(w/ a group), and the second time from shore so we could take some pictures. When we came from shore ( alone) there seemed to be more life in and around the wreck. I saw a big barracuda and the largest grouper I've ever seen on the second dive.

North: We did the reef in front of Captain Don's (2 night dives, 1 check-out dive). It's a nice little reef, with a wreck of a small boat right at 40'. During the orientation, they told us that they feel they have one of the best spots for night diving right in front and that they had a resident tarpon (Charlie) that liked to play scare-the-diver at night, as well as an 8' Green Moray that comes and goes. I didn't see Charlie, but I did see that Moray. Gulp. What a sight at night.

Other sites: Ol' Blue, Karpata, 1000 Steps, Oil Slick Leap, LaDania's Leap. Karpata and Ol' Blue are must-do's. Karpata is especially beautiful. The DM found some seahorses for us at Oil Slick Leap.

Klein Bonaire: Mi Dusha, Captain Don's Reef, Carls Hill, Munks Haven, Ebo's Reef

Simply spectacular. Sea Horse at Captain Don's Reef. Also, a nice plaque/monument dedicated to Captain Don for his efforts with the Bonaire Marine Park.

Overall: We did 3 tanks a day. It would be easy to 4 or more. However, the boat diving schedule makes it hard to do that, so if I wanted to do 4 a day, I would get a package with one boat dive a day, do two tanks in the morning doing shore dives, come back and have lunch, do one tank from a boat, preferably at a Klein Bonaire site, and then a late afternoon shore dive or a night dive.

Also, I wouldn't book the trip again if there is a large group staying there. The trouble being that the boats were nearly completely signed out by the time we got back from the afternoon boat dive. Large groups are pre-assigned to boats (I wouldn't go in a large group either) and left us a choice of one site. There were a couple of sites we wanted to go to ( Rappel and Forest) and couldn't.

The staff was very professional, helpful and friendly. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them or Captain Don's Habitat as great diving vacation.

My one regret is that I did not get to hear the famous monkey joke as told by Willie (a Habitat DM) :-)

Bring plenty of sunblock, 'cuz the sun is very strong (12 deg. latitude)

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In your question on Bonaire...It was wonderful diving. Most of the island tends to be the same but the visibility is wonderful! We won the trip so all our diving was included in the package. We stayed at the Divi Resort which is ok (but don't let them give you a room on the bottom level..they're horrible but anything up on the top floor is good. The dive shop there is said to be the best and I agree. Great help with getting your equiptment on/off and the boats aren't too crowded. The dive masters were very helpful. We didn't have a food plan and food is expensive. We got a refridgerator in our room and found the grocery store and stocked up on cheese, fruit, drinks, etc. that was good for most of our bkfst & lunches. There isn't anything to the island...cacti and brush..not your tropical island dream. But the diving was terrific. We saw tons of parrot fish, all sorts of tropicals, sponges, coral, grouper, etc. We looked for nurse shark and didn't find any. We saw seahorses, some eels, and only one barracuda. It was so nice we didn't want to surface. My boss recently went there and said Cosumel was better but I've never been there to compare. Oh, air rates ran two of us a total of about $ 850.00 . The water and air temp. is always 80 d and it almost never rains...

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From: hanson@kyoss1.enet.dec.com (Bob Hanson) Subject: Bonaire Trip Report [Long] 2/24-3/6/94 Date: 9 MAR 94 15:34:21

** Warning: Long Text Follows **

I've been prompted by a couple of people to post a trip report regarding my recent trek to Bonaire. I realize that a couple of readers may be going there soon, so I thought that some of this information might be useful. (In here, I may highlight some differences between various services, but it's only for com- parison's sake...your mileage may vary!)

Executive Summary: Air Temps: 80+ degrees F (Bring sunscreen) H2O Temps: 77-78 degrees F (Bring neoprene) Wind : 10-15mph constant tradewinds (Bring a kite) Viz : Only 30-50' (Bring realistic expectations) Dive Days: 8 Dives : 21, total 15.5 hrs dive time. Hotel : Sandollar Condominiums ** Top Notch ** Auto : Budget, Toyota Hilux Personnel: Friendly and helpful Residents: Very nice. Wave to them, and they'll break their arms trying to wave back in time for you to see them. Crime : Nil that we found, but leave your car open at the north end. Air : Air Aruba. We heard bad things about A/KLM.

We took off from Newark, NJ on Thursday, 2/24. All night I had been concern- ed with a winter storm, and while south of the airport all the precip was rain, the airport was seeing some freezing rain. That caused quite a delay getting into the air, putting us about 2 hours late to Aruba, our first stop. (Contrary to what I would call my "normal" behaviour in such circumstances, I was really laid back about the delay; dive orientation in Bonaire takes place at 9:30am only, so I knew that we weren't going to actually miss any diving. Unfortun- ately, others on the airplane weren't of the same mindset, and I have never heard such a rash of senseless bitchin' before, and from people that should have known better! Susan and I actually got into a fight with the people behind us, who were complaining because we put our seats back - what? - four inches. The stewardess finally intervened on our behalf, and we didn't hear much from them after the plane took off.

Since our departure was delayed, the flight from Aruba to Bonaire left with- out us. The Bonaire-bound passengers were hearded into the central waiting room in the Aruba airport, but we weren't told much about what was to happen from that point on. Susan and I checked out through immigration, found the Air Aruba desk, and asked a few questions. There was a flight bound for Caracas, Venezuala in about one hour, so we checked back in, told the other Bonaire people, and had a bit of hangtime until that flight took off.

Immigration/Customs in Bonaire was no problem at all. I had a couple of stunt kites with me, and they asked what was in the package, but they never stopped to check luggage, barely taking a moment to stamp the passports. (Note: Passports are highly recommended, if not required. I think the req is for at least a birth certificate, or other solid proof of citizenship.)

We gathered up our luggage, went to Budget, and found we had received an upgrade to the Toyota Hilux truck. Nice lift! Being a Jeep owner, I didn't think all that much of the truck overall, but it seemed a lot better than some of the minivans that were being rented. The minivans are small Mitsubishi's, the likes of which I haven't seen since we were in Japan. Little shitboxes, basically, but probably functional for the job. The Hilux is a small pickup with a bed liner and locking lid, so it was *perfect* for dive gear.

(NOTE: Up on the north end, near Karpata and Ole Blue, there have been reports of break-ins. It's easy for the locals to check out divers from the nearby hills, and then hit the car once you're in the water. For this reason, take only what you need to accomplish the dive, and leave your car windows rolled down while you're in. If they want your towel, they'll take your towel, but at least you won't wind up with a busted window. We *did* see two places with broken window glass on the ground.)

It was dark by the time we drove out to the Sandollar. If possible, see if you can hook up with an airport van or someone who knows where they're going; the roads are VERY confusing at first, particularly when you're there for the first time in the dark. We tailed another couple out to the condos, which was really a blessing. (The roads are a lot easier to navigate during the day, and become second nature after a couple of trips.)

And when we got to Sandollar, we found that our 1BR reservation had been up- graded to a 2BR unit! Lucky day, I suppose, for the unit was superlative in almost every respect. We were about as close to the dive dock as possible, we had tons of room (one whole bedroom just for keeping clothes and stuff, the other just for sleeping...what "luxury!"), and on the ground floor, which made for easier access on the way in and out.

I really can't say enough about the Sandollar. Normally, I'm willing to put up with less-than-"American" accomodations, particularly when traveling to far off places like Bonaire. But this time, we really didn't mind the comfort, since we had paid a pretty penny for the entire vacation, and this was the one big one for the year. Of all the resorts, hotels, and dive centers on Bonaire, I think that the Sandollar is the most modern, most complete, and most access- ible of all, and we were grateful for having done a bit of research on this.

Our condo (can't speak for the others, but they all seemed cookie-cuttered), was clean and comfortable. The kitchen had a few plates, a couple of pots and pans, and a few cleaners around. No food of course. While it wasn't the cool kitchen we enjoy at home, you could certainly scrub up a good meal there, and we wound up doing Mexican, soups, and pasta dishes during our stay. Even had a dishwasher! The floors are all marble tile, and most of the furnishings were rattan, glass, and mirror. The owner of the condo was a dive-photographer, so all of the wall decorations were shots he had taken around the island.

Two hints, if you stay there: Look in the closets. You'll probably find an electrical transformer and power strip, so you don't have to rent one. (The local electricity will fry your chargers if you don't use a transformer, but shavers and hairdryers work just fine.) You'll also find the hot-water heater. You have to crank up the HW heater after one or two showers, or you'll be going cold!

Outside the large, double patio doors, we had a nice partially-enclosed veranda. Tile again, with plenty of chaises and pool-type chairs. Plants everywhere, maintained by the hotel staff. There were even a couple of bars hanging under some shelves, so you could bring your wetsuits up to dry on the back porch. We found security fine, here, going so far as to sleep on the back porch two nights, and we often left our gear out there drying without any incidents.

And just beyond the veranda, in the areas between the other units and build- ings, the staff maintains a very nice garden of local flora, including aloe, palmettos, banana, boogenvilla (sp, I know...), and other tropicals. The net effect of the gardening is that you can barely see the rest of the complex from that first-floor view! I suppose that if you had a second-floor place, you could see other units, but they've even tried to fix this with some large ficus trees. Superlative stuff, and the gardener was out there bright and early at 7:00am each morning to water and trim.

Before going on to other stuff...I had been asked to pass messages along to a couple of people who ran other resorts (Don Stewart, for one), as well as to a mutual friend who runs the Black Durgon. Rather than "slam" any of the other places on the island, I'll simply observe that not one of the other hotels we visited seemed nearly as nice as Sandollar. While Habitat comes highly rec- ommended and looked quite comfortable, it seemed more spartan than Sandollar. If you're looking for comfort, amenities, and more modern accomodations, then you probably won't do any better than Sandollar. (Although the Marina just down the street looked pretty darned ritzy, I don't think they have a solid dive operation.)

Diver orientation began at 9:30 on Friday morning. It took a pretty long time, I thought, to tell us what I had already determined through research. Where to go, places to avoid, don't touch the reef, don't wear gloves, how to check your gear in and out, etc. After the verbal orientation, Sandollar MAKES you take a checkout dive on Bari Reef, just off the docks. You go to a desk, get your weightbelt and your lead, then meet up with the orienteer right near the Green Parrot. One-by-one, you jump in, deflating your vest, while the staff checks out your buoyancy. If you drop, you hand them a plate back. After you check out your bouancy, you take your first dive there, although a divemaster didn't accompany us. They give you that first tank 'gratis', but there seems to be no avoiding that dive, even for return visitors.

Sandollar has a gear room, lockers, rinse tanks (one exclusively for photo and video gear), a training room, photo shop, retail dive shop, and op center all right next to the Green Parrot restaurant on the same dock. Everything starts here, including their four 20+' boats.

If you're up for boat diving, you present your voucher (if you prepaid), and they start a rap sheet on you. You get a dive number, pay $10US park fees, and simply chalk your dive number onto any available spot on their posted boat dive trips, which change daily. So, looking over the lists, you might find that three of the four boats are running that day, usually each one going out at 8:45am, 10:45am, 1:00pm, and 3:30pm. Some are all booked up by the time you get there, others have open slots. If a box on the manifest is open, just chalk in your dive number and show up 15 minutes before departure. (The boats' destination, driver, and divemaster are all listed on the board.)

For shore diving (we were on the "unlimited" shore diving package, with 6 boat dives), if you want a tank between 8:30am and 5:30pm, simply take a tank and write your dive number up on a board. If you want to dive later than that, you should write your number up before 5:30pm so that they can ensure that enough tanks have been filled for the evening. You can take as many tanks during the day as you like, and some groups were seen checking out with 20+ tanks for a single outing.

The equipment room was cool. When you come back off the boats or from a shore dive, you simply use a wheeled cart to bring the stuff from the truck, or just drag your stuff from the boat to the e-room. (Note: It's MY stuff, but it's YOUR shit.) Hang up your suits, and you have two pegs to hang your weight belt, BC, and dive bag. I think they discourage bringing stuff back to the condos, but I saw an awful lot of gear drying on the balconies. Be aware, though, that the equipment room closes at about 10pm, so if you're diving past that time, you have to rescue your gear ahead of time.

All in all, you don't have to worry much about your things. Just be tidy, but I heard of no ripoffs or mixups the entire week+ that we were there. Like I said, we'd leave things on the balcony overnight (on the first floor) and it was still there in the morning.

The six boat dives we took were the best. Right now, there seems to be some sort of plankton bloom happening down there, so viz was fairly poor over what I would have expected. Usually, from what I hear, viz is in the 100' range, but we found only 30-50' at almost all sites.

Since Bonaire is very shore-oriented, we saved our boat dives for going exclusively out to Klein Bonaire. We just didn't see the sense in taking a boat to a dive that we could easily make by driving. The only real exceptions to this would be dives that aren't really feasible from shore, such as "1000 Steps," "LaDania's Leap," and "Rappel." You most certainly do NOT want to climb up 64 steps in full gear after a dive, LaDania's is a once-you-jump- in-you're-committed-'cause-you-can-only-egress-at-Karpata dive, and Rappel was named so because there's a sixty foot cliff at the dive site. Viz was noticeably better out on Klein, but not by all that much.

The run out to Klein takes only 15 minutes or so. There's a divemaster and second on-board. The DM goes in, although you certainly don't have to stick with them. Just sit quietly through a quick pre-dive orientation, then bail. When you come back up, the DM helps you get your gear off, and you barely have time to dry before they pull out and head back to the condos. Very quick operation, and no 2-tank diving. (Note: do not plan back-to-back boat trips. Take one in the morning, one in the afternoon. A couple of people were given a hard time when they took both the 8:45 and the 10:45, but they should've known better...it's a little thing called surface time.)

Shore diving is a breeze, with mostly easy entries. Get a dive book (they have copies at the dive dock at Sandollar), load up the truck, and get to the site. Each valid site is marked with a yellow rock with the name of the site painted on it. Drive right to the water, in most cases, gear up, find your easiest entry point, then take a short swim out to the dropoff. Susan and I tended to get out to deep water, then take the elevator down (we LOVE slow motion freefalling.) That put us at our deepest point right away, and we'd work deep for a while before heading back up the reef to shallow out. Because of our repetitive dives (3-4 dives per day over 10 full days) we'd usually spend a bunch of each dive at 40, then 30, with more at 20, then a sand-hang at 10. It seems there that the BEST region is at 30-40'. Below that, you get mostly plate corals, at 10-15 it was mostly soft corals and gorgonians, if not just sand.

And thus it was all week. Wake up, dive, drive, lunch, dive, snooze, warmup, dive, eat, maybe dive once more.

The one thing that took us by surprise was the 77-degree water. We were hoping for 98.6... Susan wore lycra skins, a short wetsuit with long sleeves, and she had to use the neoprene hooded vest I had brought. Since I was then vestless, I wore lycra skins, rented a full polartech bodysuit*, and threw my short-sleeve short-leg wetsuit over that with no hood. Both of us did fine with this arrangement, but at about 45 minutes into each dive, we'd both get a short chill or two. Mondo repetitive diving like this tends to cool you down over time, so we made sure that we had a hooded sweatshirt or shell for the windy boat rides back. With shore diving, the sun should warm you up just fine. DO bring one or two warm articles with you, though. You'll appreciate them, and you'll avoid the long-term heat loss associated with 3 dives/day.

(* Full Polartech suit rented from Sandollar for $6US/day.)

Air temps were in the 80's all days. We only had one smattering of rain one evening, and that didn't last long at all...just enough to spot up the truck. Winds were at least 10-15mph all day, every day, so you don't feel the intense sun as you might elsewhere. If you got out of the wind, e.g., at the pool, you'd positively bake. The wind did diminish during our last two days there, ending up at around 5-10mph, but count on steady (incessant!) tradewinds, always blowing from the east.

Although one boat reported a pilot whale sighting and one boat reported a pod of bottlenose dolphins, Susan and I never saw pelagics, nor did we find the turtles we had so desperately wanted to see. The only large life we saw was one spotted eagle ray - quite impressive - and one log-sized barracuda up at the Ole Blue site - very scary. This lack of sighting may have something to do with the decreased viz, although Bonaire is most noted for its "macro" life and not the big boys. (Right, Chuck?)

Macro life was incredible, and this is some of the best diving I had seen in some time. For the *most* part, the reefs were in good shape, with some of the reefs showing definite signs of wear and tear, particularly outside of the hotels and dive centers. For example, Bari Reef outside of Sandollar is a bust...while there is good stuff down there, you can definitely see all sorts of bad signage. Many bottles lying in the sand, covered with fire coral. Some old tires or oil drums, covered with silt and sand. Busted brains, etc. However, you have realize that they dump a great number of divers off the dock, mostly during checkouts and night dives, so it's a heavy use area.

To avoid this, go to some of the more remote spots such as Ole Blue, Karpata, Red Slave, and away from the wreck of the Hooker. (I had poo-poo'd diving the Hooker since I do a lot of wreck diving here in NJ, but I actually found it both impressive and enjoyable, so now I'd recommend it. If you do the Hooker, though, first check out the ship, then swim over to the reef to sightsee and avoid a square profile; more divers have been bent on the Hooker than at any other site at Bonaire.)

My favorite spots: Ole Blue, on the north side: One of the largest walls on the island. The reef is in good shape, since not many people go that far. Alice in Wonderland, Debbie Bob, etc: These are part of the doublereef system on the south end, near the Hooker. It's fun to hit two reefs on the same dive, and some of the star coral form- ations are awesome. Carl's Hill, on Klein Bonaire: Nice wall, more on the calm side of the islandette. Pink Beach, Southside. Nice reef dive, but a beautiful shallow shelf. There's report- edly a resident turtle there. Millions of small fish came rushing past us as we were egressing but still underwater. Wild. Later, as we were warming up on the sand, we watched 8 pelicans doing their fishing about 30 feet away. Very nice place.

The worst spot: Bari Reef, at Sandollar: Too beat up, kind of depressing. It is very easy to night-dive there, since you just launch off the dock at the hotel. There's a humongous tarpon that loves to catch fish that are caught in your divelight, but don't let him scare you. It's just a tad disturbing to be swimming along the reef in the dark, and suddenly he comes right over your shoulder and swims just in front of your mask. Come to think of it, he was kind of a pain in the ass.

The ONLY BEEF I had during the entire trip: People, watch your night diving! Be careful! Don't be a "Philistine!"

[FLAME ON] We signed up for the Wednesday night boat dive, and had been looking quite forward to it. Nice ride out at dusk, and 10 divers went in the water just as the sky was getting dark. Susan and I were holding at 40', and I noticed a couple holding hands coming across the reef toward us. We kept hovering near our focus of attention (I had seen an octopus slide into a hole there), and these two just plain bowled us over. They never looked, never seemed to see us, but simply collided with Susan and I and continued on without acknowledgement. (It didn't seem to help that the guy - topside - was acting like an a$$hole, or that his girlfriend had all- pink gear; yes, pink fins, pink bag, pink mask, pink suit, pink snorkle, even a pink knife sheath. Jeesh. I'm surprised she didn't dye her hair.)

Just after that, I saw a photographer grab hold of a live coral, jam his macro frame into a hole, breaking off pieces of coral, and take the shot. Then, he blasted up 10 feet to the top of the wall, turned, and swam right through a beautiful gorgonian, breaking off large chunks as he churned through. I looked down to see a heavily overweighted diver egg-beatering the bottom and kicking off big chunks of coral.

Later, topside, everyone was talking about the huge lobster that had been out and about. From the recountenances, several divers had taken their lights, holding it up to the bug's carapice to see just how big it was. All I could think of to say was, "Why didn't you just leave it the fuck alone?"

Susan and I appreciate the beauty of Bonaire, and took great pains to ensure that we never touched the coral with fins or fingers. The dive op people reminded everyone not to touch coral, not to wear gloves, and to leave nothing but bubbles, and they did so on *every* dive. So what happens to people at night? Do they not listen? Do they geek out over the dim and unfamiliar environment? Do they go brainless at night? Or did we just get a bad boatload?

I don't know, but I looked over and saw Susan crying into her mask at 40'. We acknowledged a double-thumbs-up and headed back to the boat, abandoning the dive. We just couldn't take seeing this any more. And when we got back, we reported this to Ops with the suggestion that they may want to more closely monitor their evening dives. It was simply unf*&^ing believe- able! [FlameOff]

The next day, we took another boatload over to Klein (Southwest Corner, I believe), and had a very nice, very positive dive, so it helped to recover from the "tone" that had been set the night before.

And so it went, sleep, wake up, dive, eat, snooze, dive, drive, eat, dive. No phones, no TV. Maybe a good book or two in between.

We saved the infamous Washington-Slaagbai National Park until Saturday. After we put in an early morning dive, we called Saturday our gassoff day, packed up food and drinks, and schlepped up to the park. It was a lovely visit. We took the long route, first checking out the east side inlets and plains. Wrapping around the the north and northwest sides, we drove through areas of heavy cactus, aloe, and a yucca-like tree, saw a few flamingos, then stopped by one of the west-side bays and beach.

There at the side of the road was a small thatch shelter where we stopped to make a sandwich. Evidently, the island's lizards and iguanas know what "sandwich" means, and we were soon over-run with the little buggers. Almost the stuff of nightmares, 'cause nothing would stop them. The only way to stave them off was to throw pieces of bread out to them, or else they would run right up on your feet. After three or four slices, almost all the lizards had been fed (watching the thievery was amusing...), and they tended to leave us alone.

As someone mentioned, and we were lucky enough to observe, make sure that you exit the park by 5pm. After that, they lock the gate, and you'll have a hell of a time getting out. We made it, quite literally, at 4:59pm, snapped up an Amstel, and drove back through Rincon.

Were it not for my tantrums, whining, and sniveling, Sunday's checkout and trip to the airport would've been uneventful. We took off on time, and landed in beautiful New Jersey (NOT!) by mid-afternoon.

Well, surprise, you've made it to the end of the trip report. If you've read this far, you must be going to Bonaire soon! (I can't imagine that you'd read this far on the merits of my poor writing abilities. 8^) Enjoy yourself. If you have any questions, feel free to mail or post a followup, and I'll tell you what I know.

Special thanks to Chuck Shipley for pointing me to a good booking agent, and hats off to Sandollar for a wonderful operation!

Bob Hanson

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From: narad@nudibranch.engr.sgi.com (Chuck Narad) Subject: Overdue Trip Report: Bonaire Date: 10 Mar 1994 03:32:34 GMT

Trip Report: Bonaire (long)

I spent two weeks in Bonaire back in December, staying at Captain Don's Habitat; on a previous trip I stayed at Harbour Village. In summary, the diving was fantastic, and very relaxed. These notes won't be super organized, but I'll try to cover the following:

1) Travel 2) Captain Don's Habitat 3) Harbour Village 4) The Diving 5) Touch the Sea with Dee Scarr 6) Eating 7) Surface Activities

----------------------------------- 1) Travel and general island stuff

I met up with my friends Mark and Martha at SFO. As is usual with most carribean trips we had to fly through Miami. We took United to Miami by way of Denver, then changed to ALM for the Miami to Curacao leg, and a smaller ALM plane from Curacao to Bonaire. The return flights followed a similar path: Bonaire to Curacao to Washington to SFO. Due to long layovers it was a very long day.

Miami is a hub of lost and stolen luggage; I always hand-carry the critical gear (regulator, dive computer, dive log, camera gear, toothbrush and one t-shirt will get you through the week). Checked luggage should have either metal locks or tie-wraps on all zippers, and I hand-carry between airlines in Miami to reduce the change of screw-ups. There is no real food available in the entire Miami airport.

ALM is called "Always Luggage Missing", but in my experience the problem is Miami. I've had luggage opened there, friends have had it misplaced.

One other generic travel tip for divers; air on planes is extremely dry; to avoid dehydration and sinus infections, drink a cup of water every half hour on the plane, and rub a little baby oil or neosporin inside your nose before the flight. I also carry saline spray and shoot a little into each nostril every hour or so. Sounds like a lot of fun, huh? :-)

ALM is now a United Airlines Mileage Plus associate, so you can get United miles on the entire trip. I don't know if United miles can get you to Bonaire for free, but I intend to find out next year!

Both ALM and United are good about providing vegetarian meals (or other special meals) with advance notice.

Bonaire is part of the Netherland Antilles, which include Curacao, St. Kitts, St. Maarten and others. Aruba recently went independent. The Netherland Antilles are a protectorate of Holland. The official language is Papiemento (a mixture of Dutch, Spanish, Portugese, English, and some indian languages), but English and Dutch are spoken pretty much everywhere. The currency is the Netherland Antilles Florin (also called a Guilder) which trades at a fixed rate of US$1 = NAF$1.77. US dollars are also traded freely, and unlike many countries where this is done, you can even get change in dollars.

The standard of living on the island is generally high, and there is very little crime. If however you leave a rental car at a dive site, they strongly advise you to lock it up and leave no valuables, since there has been an increase recently in car burglary; this is blamed on Curacao, where the courts apparently give misguided youths a 1-way ticket to Bonaire. Punish me, please! I can be a misguided youth!

Water comes from a desalination plant and is safe to drink, although it doesn't taste all that great. Electricity is 50 Hz, 127 volts, but "sometimes the power plant is generous and gives us 10% more". Most american equipment will burn out; the photo shop has a place to plug in battery chargers that is protected with a transformer. I plugged my Rayovac Renewal chargers into the wall in my room, and they melted some...

Fresh fruits and vegetables are all imported. Many come from Venezuela, which currently has a cholera epidemic, so if you buy anything fresh, especially from the stand or boat at the town pier, wash it thoroughly.

There is a hospital and a hyperbaric chamber on the island. As always, I recommend that you join DAN (919)684-2948 to get the diver's insurance and evacuation assistance.

All of the water around Bonaire is a protected marine park, and there is a $10/year fee for divers to help support this. They have done wonderful work in protecting the reefs and have served as a model for many other dive destinations.

2) Captain Don's Habitat

Habitat is the oldest dive resort on the island. They have several boats and do two 1-tank boat trips each day, plus beach dives right off of the dock. Their claim to fame is 24-hour unlimited diving, and the slogan is "Total Diving Freedom" (although a certain cynic translated that to "Give them enough rope..."). If you want to dive solo, you dive solo. If you want to dive deep, you dive deep. If you want to violate tables or ignore your computer, you're free to do so. They assume that we are all mature adults.

The Habitat is a 20 minute walk from downtown Kralendijk (pronounced "smith" :-). Sand Dollar Condominiums is right next door, and the Black Durgeon Inn is a little bit north, on the other side of the desalination plant. Divi Flamingo is far south of town. On sight is a dive service, a restaurant, 2 bars, a pool, a photo center (E-6 processing daily), a boutique (dive equipment, shirts, snacks) and car rentals.

Accomodations include cabins or cottages with kitchens, or suites (hotel rooms). The cottages are ocean front, and include a private yard for the downstairs, or a patio plus roof access for the upstairs. The downstairs has a bedroom, a living room, a bathroom wtih a tub, a kitchen, and and enclosed dining room. Upstairs is just a bedroom plus bathroom with shower.

Cabins are inland 50 feet or so, and have two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. Both cabins and cottages have outdoor tables and chairs. The kitchens come with some pots, pans, dishes, utensils, stove and refrigerator, but no suplies. More on this under "Eating".

The Deluxe Junior Suites are a bedroom with bathroom, plus a patio with some couches and chairs. All rooms have air conditioners and fans; no phones or television. Bring your own alarm clock.

Packages include all breakfasts plus some number of dinners. The restaurant used to be pretty bad, but it is now contracted out to an outfit called Rum Runners, which runs restaurants on Curacao and Aruba also. They do a decent job. More under "Eating".

Dive lockers are provided, but if you want to lock it you should bring a lock (or you can buy one at the boutique). There is a guard during off hours, but with 24-hour diving there is a lot of traffic. I kept the regulator, computer, and camera gear in the room and didn't bother locking the locker. No problem, Mon. There are several rinse tanks right there, plus rinse buckets special for cameras.

Tanks are stacked up and available 24 hours per day; also you can take tanks at any time and go diving elsewhere, like the town pier or the many beach spots around the south end and north towards the oil depot. There is also a nice dive site or two at Washington-Slaagbi park, but since the road is a one-way loop be prepared for a *long* bumpy ride to get there (maybe two hours from Rincon).

The Habitat has two resident dogs, many cats, and a full complement of the standard carribean cockroaches (slightly smaller than, say, a Toyota). Rooms come with cans of bug spray, and you can buy bug coils at the grocery. It's all part of the tropical experience, right?

Service was in general very good; the dive masters were characters (especially "Wee" Willie Wonga, and no I'm not making that up) and very helpful; the maids only had a little trouble understanding that we wanted more towels, although it *did* take 3 days to get across that we needed a big spoon for the kitchen... the only real problem was the taxi that failed to show up at 6:45 a.m. to take us to the airport. seems the taxi driver was sick, there was nobody at the office that early, the replacement taxi (that we had to call for) took his time getting there...damn, we were almost stuck in bonaire! :-)

We had a whole cottage; mark and martha were downstairs, and I had the room upstairs. (The other upstairs room was vacant for the entire two weeks.) We used the kitchen and downstairs living room as a common area, and cooked all lunches and many dinners. It worked out real well, and a good time was had by all!

3) Harbour Village

Last spring I flew to bonaire with Paul and Farhad, planning to stay at Habitat. Unfortuantely there was a booking glitch, and they didn't have our confirmed rooms. Albert Romijn, the manager, was very apologetic, and offered to make it up to us. We ended up negoiating a stay in Harbour village (the most expensive place on the island) with all dinners ($$) plus a rental car for the week.

Harbour village is an upscale resort targeted at the dutch, which has diving as an afterthought. The dive service was actually pretty good, but it was limited to two boat dives a day plus beach diving on only one not too spectacular reef ("Something Special" is the reef name). Unfortunately on that trip I got in only 5 dives, developed a sinus infection plus a nasty flu, and spent the rest of the trip (plus three more weeks at home) flat on my back. (That's why I just *had* to go back in December). Harbour village was overpriced, IMHO.

4) The Diving "Okay, Narad, enough of the damned travelogue, talk about the really IMPORTANT stuff!"

Well! If you go diving in Bonaire, you will see fish, corals, invertebrates, and sponges. Maybe even a marine mammal or two. Lots of water, too, and the ocassional manfish.

Oh, you want more detail? I see. The diving was, simply, spectacular. I did about 35 dives over two weeks there, and on every dive there was something new and interesting to see.

In addition to the two boat dives each day (you have to have a boat to get to some sites, such as the nearby island of Klein Bonaire), Habitat has a dock special for divers. "Papa" dock is for the boats, and "Baby" dock is for divers. (This is a pun based on the Duvalier family in Haiti, where both Papa Doc and Baby Doc took turns as President for Life).

Stepping off Baby Dock into 8 feet of water, you surface kick about 50 feet to a buoy and descend in about 20 feet of water. Just past this it begins to slope gradually to about 50 feet, then more steeply to the sandy bottom at about 120'. Current is very mild, and you can choose to go either left or right on the reef, pick a depth, and see what there is to see. On the return we often spent 20 minutes in the shallows at 10', seeing what there was to see in the coral rubble. To the left in 40 feet is the wreck of a small fishing boat, and at 120' is another. A rope stretches from the dock to the deeper wreck, so that divers can always find the way home on the 'highway'.

Vis was variable, especially late in the day. It ranged from about 60 feet to 100 feet, except in the shallows where it could get down to about 40. Apparently there is a lot of spawning around december.

Reef fish are abundant. On every single dive we saw at least a couple of morays, and several scorpion fish. Large whitespot filefish were common, as were trumpet fish, cowfish, groupers, spanish hogfish, smooth and spotted trunkfish, and spotted drums. During the two weeks there I saw peacock flounders, octopi, sharptail eels, turtles...a variety of shrimp could be found, often in cleaning stations. anemones, soft corals, and angel fish (french, gray, and queen) were abundant. For you macro photographers there are tons of christmas tree worms, sea cukes, brittle stars, arrow crabs, lettuce slugs, and bristle worms.

Expect to see lizard fish, garden eels, and stingrays. Our divemaster even spotted a Manta (he grabbed on for a ride and was promptly pulled to 150 feet. Total diving freedom...)

Night diving off the dock is great, and there was always plenty to see. There is a 5' tarpon (charlie) who likes to hunt by divers' lights; he manages to sneak up on most night divers and spook them. I saw brown spotted, golden spotted, and chain morays out hunting. Another interesting sight is trumpet fish 'shadow hunting' with a cowfish or parrot fish, using the algae eater as camoflogue while hunting. Basket stars can also be found at night.

Bonaire is famous for splitlure frogfish and seahorses, but they are very hard to find. Your best bet is to pester the dive masters and make sure they lead you to any that they are aware of. We only saw one of each, both under the town pier.

Special treats on this trip included a mating pair of octopi (after I was out of film, naturally), a school of dolphins that buzzed us at about 40', and Superman! No kidding, Christpher Reeves was on the island filming s dive special with ESPN, and we saw him at breakfast, also at several dive sites which we were moored near. The special aired last month on ESPN, and it was pretty bad; amateur photography, bad dialogue...basically an ad for PADI, I think. No mermaids or whale sharks, although they had a trio of whale sharks come through in the springtime.

Some special sites: The wreck of the Hilma Hooker, while fairly recent and not too encrusted yet, is very accessible at a sandy bottom in 100' of water; access by boat. (Ithink you can also get to it from the beach.) This was a freighter that pulled in for emergency repairs a few years ago, turned out to have a cargo of marijuana, and was impounded and eventually sunk as an artifical reef (without its cargo). Given that Bonaire recently legalized prostitution, you should be careful about telling tales of the time you went down on the Hooker :-)...

A night dive on the town pier is not to be missed. For that matter, a day dive there is also pretty neat. We did both, and the day dive was with Dee Scarr (see below). On one night dive we saw arrow crabs, sponge crabs, brown spotted morays, a sharptail eel, a baby scorpionfish (about 1/2" long), a sponge crab (like a decorator, but actually has a chunk of sponge growing on it), arrow crabs, Pederson's cleaning shrimp, burrfish, soapfish, an atlantic deer cowrie, lobsters, incredible soft corals, and more! (this is all from memory, I should bring in my logbook for this).

5) Touch the Sea with Dee Scarr

Well, this trip report is so late that I already posted something about diving with Dee. Look for "Re: Touch the Sea" as the topic.

6) Eating

Since there is not much to do on the surface, eating and changing film become significant activities on Bonaire.

Everything is imported. Food is in general expensive on the island. For example, a dinner is typically $25-30 or so. We had a package at the Habitat which included all breakfasts (decent buffet) and 5 dinners over 2 weeks. Dinner there was pretty good. We did not try any other restaurants on the island; our cottage had a kitchen.

Local bread is excellent and very cheap. There are a couple of small groceries on the road to "smith", kind of pricey; also there is a convenience store right in front of Sand Dollar Condos next to habitat that has the basics. They recently opened a supermarket a few blocks from the pier, which has a good selection of produce and canned things. The spice selection was minimal, and I recommend bringing your own if you want to get fancy. Also available at the supermarket was meat if you are so inclined (we are all veggies), and they *do* have fresh tofu!

Even in the market, beer is pretty expensive; Amstel is the local brew and is the cheapest. rice, noodles and such are available. be careful, we got some noodles at the sand dollar market that were full of weevils.

There is a fresh produce market at the pier; some good, some dubious. All from venezuela and must be washed thoroughly due to the cholera hazard.

Next to the sand dollar market is an ice cream store that has *awesome* Rum Raisin. Your Correspondent was compelled to sample this repeatedly in the interest of Accurate Reporting.

7) Surface Activities

If you like sand, cactus, and salt flats then this island will give you years of enjoyment. There are also lots of goats and lizards, and the salt flats have tons of flamingoes. About 1/4 of the land is Washington-Slaagbi National Park, which has about 40 km of kidney-jolting dirt road, a ruined lighthouse, a guesthouse (closed last time I was there), and dust. Oh yeah, a small museum at the entrance and a small fresh-water hole with some birds hanging out. Martha became the Lizard Queen, feeding the teeming masses of lizards with a bit of bread (they'll crawl all over you in a feeding frenzy!)

Downtown Kralendijk has a 1-block shopping district. There's a bar on the waterfront that has a band on Saturday nights, where most of the town meets, and where you can rent jet-skis and kayaks. (hidden in a courtyard across from the bar are some cages with monkeys, macaws, and rabbits). In town and just north are some restaurants.

Near Washington-Slaagbi is the town of Rincon, which has...goats.

South of Kralendijk ("Smith") is the airport, the old slave shacks (from the salt industry), the modern slave-free salt industry, dust, goats, and cactus. On the windward side are a couple of failed developments, a couple of settlements, and a beach where the reggae crowd meets on saturday night for a bonfire, and families meet on sunday for a picnic. And some goats. Apparently there is a fish market there sunday early morning. There is a casino or two at the Divi Flamingo resort south of town (didn't go so no report) and reportedly a newly-opened bordello nearby (ditto!).

North of "Smith" is the oil depot, where a deepwater port allows large tankers to unload and small tankers to load.

If you want to rent a car, you have a choice of the big chains or a couple of local companies. We rented a 4-door pickup with a locking cover on the back, ideal for diving around the island, from a small family-run company called Rich Car Rental. Good rates, great service, and highly recommended. They'll pick you up and drop you off (all of the companies will do this; expect 'island time' when making plans).

All in all I enjoyed the diving there, and will return! Now let's just keep this little island a secret here among us buddies, okay? ;-)

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From: jdp@polstra.com (John Polstra) Subject: Bonaire Trip Report Date: 20 May 1994 18:59:43 -0700

My wife and I just returned from a diving holiday on Bonaire. What follows is a summary of our experiences there. Maybe some of it will be useful to others planning a trip to Bonaire.

One thing in here that may be unique is a description of my encounter with the Bonaire health care system.

Just so there won't be any suspense ... we loved Bonaire! The diving was so great that I'm sure my descriptions won't do it justice.

I should mention that both my wife and I are novice divers. (At least we were, before the trip.) In fact, we did our final check-out dives (NAUI Open Water I) the day before we left for Bonaire. So I can't compare Bonaire with other diving experiences. Because of that, this trip report will probably say less about the actual diving than you would like.

Lodging ------- We stayed at the Sand Dollar, and were completely satisfied with it. I would not hesitate to stay there again. Our room had a reasonably-equipped kitchen, with plenty of pots and pans, stove, refrigerator, microwave oven, and coffee maker. As it turned out, we didn't do any real cooking there, but we did use the kitchen to make lunch most days.

There was also a separate bedroom, a living room area with television, and a patio. The bedroom had an air conditioner, but we didn't use it. It was windy most of the time we were there, and we were able to get comfortable just by opening windows and using the ceiling fans.

The other place we considered for lodging was Captain Don's Habitat. We chose the Sand Dollar mainly because we wanted a kitchen, and only the larger, more expensive rooms at Captain Don's have kitchens. Another consideration was that the Sand Dollar seemed to get slightly better reviews both in the books we bought and in "bonaire.txt" from the SCUBA archives. (ames.arc.nasa.gov: pub/SCUBA)

We visited Captain Don's a couple of times and decided it would have been an OK place to stay as well. There was a notable difference in atmosphere between Captain Don's and the Sand Dollar. Captain Don's seemed to cater to the younger, Jimmy Buffett crowd, while the Sand Dollar was more sedate.

Dive Operations --------------- The major resorts on Bonaire all have dive operations associated with them. As far as I could tell, just about everybody who travels to Bonaire is a diver (or at least a snorkeler).

I thought the dive operation at the Sand Dollar was superb. The whole thing is located directly on the shore. The dive shop had modern equipment available to rent or buy. The instructors, divemasters, and boat captains were all knowledgeable, personable, and helpful. These are happy people, and it is obvious that they love their work.

We had a dive package which included unlimited boat and shore dives. That made it easy to decide when to dive and when not to dive.

Every morning at 9:30 there is an orientation for the new arrivals. The purpose of the orientation is to give an overview of diving around the island, explain the systems for checking out equipment and going on boat dives, enter each person into the accounting system, and get weights. The orientation is not optional; you have to attend it in order to be able to check out tanks, etc. (It was a very useful introduction, in any case.)

Each person is assigned a "dive number" that is used for accounting purposes. There are large boards for shore dives and boat dives on the wall. If you want to go on a shore dive, you just chalk your dive number onto the appropriate board, grab a tank or two, and go. If you want to go on a boat dive, you chalk in your number under the desired dive, and show up at the right time. (You don't have to get tanks for the boat dives -- they're already on the boats.)

The compressor station is right there by the water -- literally less than 10 feet from the water. There is always a big supply of full tanks ready to go.

There is also a storage room by the water. Each dive number gets its own space in the the storage room. So there's no need to haul equipment to and from your room -- it's all right there by the water.

There are also three large fresh-water rinse tanks for cleaning your equipment after each dive. Again, these are right by the water.

Boats leave 4 times each day, at 8:45, 10:45, 1:30, and 3:30. The next day's dives are put on the board at 4:00 PM. We never had any trouble getting on the boat dives we wanted. But if a given boat is already fully booked, you can sign up for an "overflow" dive. If there are enough cancellations, you'll get to go on the original boat. Otherwise, you'll still get to go somewhere.

They welcome requests for particular dive sites for the boat dives.

There's also a night boat dive each Wednesday night.

I really can't imagine a way to make diving any easier than it was at the Sand Dollar.

The operation at Captain Don's looked very similar. Captain Don's has more boats, but that was never an issue at the Sand Dollar anyway.

The Dives --------- The coral reef around Bonaire begins very close to shore, at a depth of around 15-20 feet. It usually crests at 25-35 feet and begins a sloping descent from there, to deeper than you'd want to go. There aren't a lot of vertical walls as I understand there are in other places. (But if you want a wall, the dive site "Carl's Hill" is a close approximation -- and highly recommended.) The architecture of the reef is perfect for novice divers like me, because almost everything there is to see can be seen without going very deep. As beginners, we stayed at or above 60 feet the whole time. There was only a single dive that this caused us to omit: the wreck of the Hilma Hooker, which lies in 100 feet of water. (The top of the wreck is around 55 feet.)

The divemasters were complaining about the poor visibility the whole time we were there. But it looked very clear to us! I don't have enough experience to estimate it in feet (sorry).

Jellyfish and Divewear ---------------------- On some days, at some dive sites, at some depths, there were *lots* of stinging jellyfish-like creatures in the water. Most of them were in the form of transparent filaments. They were difficult to see. One kind was about 2" long, and another kind was about 18" long. They were hard to avoid, and they really *hurt* when they stung. It was like getting an electric shock. The pain went away in about 30 seconds. I had no lasting effects from these stings -- not even any detectable redness on the skin. But some people there were more sensitive to them. One woman had red welts all over her arms and legs, even 2 days after she got stung.

Because of the jellyfish, and also in order to keep warm, you will really want to wear something that covers your whole body, including your arms and legs. I took a 1/8" full-length farmer John wetsuit, and wore a tee shirt under it. Still, I started to get chilled after 40 minutes in the water. I really wished I would have brought a long sleeve shirt with me. (There just aren't any long sleeve shirts for sale on Bonaire.)

You can rent dive skins and wetsuits at the Sand Dollar.

If you plan to do any shore dives, you'll want booties.

Gloves are strongly discouraged. You are not supposed to touch *anything* while diving.

Restaurants ----------- When it comes to food, Bonaire is definitely not what you'd call a destination resort. Here is the list of restaurants we visited. I've marked them with (+), (o), or (-) according to whether they were above average, mediocre, or below average.

(+) Rendezvous. Quite a decent restaurant, located in town. About a third of the tables are outdoors, overlooking the beautiful ... street. The service was pleasant, and the food was good. Try the cream of mustard soup. We had a couple of seafood dishes as well as meat dishes, and liked everything. We went there twice.

(+) Kasa Coral. Located in the Harbour Village resort, a little bit south of the traffic circle (roundabout) north of town. This was the fanciest and most expensive restaurant we visited. The food was probably the best we had on the island. For dessert, they have a creme brulee that I might kill for under the right circumstances. The atmosphere is very nice, as you dine surrounded by the lushest garden I saw on Bonaire. (Harbour Village looks to be quite a fancy resort. They clearly spent lots of money to bring in many large plants for landscaping. I don't know where they get the water to keep them all irrigated.) We went to Kasa Coral twice. This was the only restaurant where I might have felt underdressed in shorts.

(+) Mona Lisa. In town amongst the fancier shops. You walk into a noisy bar scene, but if you can wade through that, you'll find the dining room to be tranquil. The food was excellent, and the service was personable. As far as I could tell, they are closed on weekends(!).

(o) Green Parrot. This is the restaurant at the Sand Dollar. It's right on the water (outdoors) where you can watch the fish. There are quite a few of them, because the waiters like to throw leftovers into the water rather than carry them back to the kitchen. One evening at dinner, we got to see the resident green moray eel (named "killer") devour a nice hunk of bread. Another day, we watched a school of at least 20 porpoises go by. The food is mediocre. We got four free dinners there with our package, but we only used two of them. Some of the wait staff are outgoing and fun, others are downright reserved.

(-) China Garden. This place seemed very popular among the locals, but we didn't like it at all. The service was surly, neglectful, and error-prone. The food was pretty bad. They have the world's worst hot and sour soup. Here's the recipe: Fill a bowl with vinegar. Add a bunch of pepper. Throw in a few diced mystery vegetables. Serve lukewarm. We also had the curried goat, supposedly a local specialty. It was edible but lacked character. (If it hadn't been called "curried" I never would have guessed.) Our third dish was conch in black bean sauce. The flavor was OK, but the conch was extremely tough. (I thought that might be normal for conch, but later in the week I had it at a better restaurant. It's not supposed to be all that tough.) I'd never go back to the China Garden.

Money ----- Every place we went accepted US dollars without any hassle. The exchange rate given at shops and restaurants was reasonable. It would not have been worth the bother to go to a bank and change dollars into guilders.

Resorts and most restaurants accept major credit cards.

Language -------- Language was never a problem in any of the shops, dive shops, or restaurants. The employees are all fluent in English, Dutch, and Papiamento.

Medical Care ------------ I came down with an ear infection near the end of our visit to Bonaire. So I got to find out what the Bonaire medical care system is like. This began with a 4:00 AM visit to the hospital in town. I decided to go there because the pain had gotten really bad, and I was worried that my eardrum might rupture. (That actually happened to me once, when I was a small child.)

The hospital was small, as you'd expect on an island where the total population is 11,500. There was a nurse on duty. She cleaned the wax out of my ear, took a look, telephoned a doctor, gave me 3 pain pills (Meclomen), and told me I needed to visit a doctor that day. She spent quite a bit of time on me and was pleasant about it. For that, she charged me 25 guilders (about $14).

The visit to the doctor later that morning wasn't so pleasant. I arrived there at 8:00 as instructed. The waiting room was already full of patients. The nurse at the hospital had advised me that the doctor's office used a "take a number" system for scheduling, and had instructed me to tell the nurse at the doctor's office that I'd been sent there by the hospital.

All the patients in the waiting room already had numbers. The door to the office itself was closed. There was no nurse or receptionist in sight. I waited a few minutes, then knocked on the office door. Nobody answered it. I knocked again. No answer. I knocked again. Finally, the nurse opened a panel in the door and glared at me. Our conversation went like this:

John: Do you speak English?

Big Nurse: Yes.

John: I have a problem in my ear, and ...

Big Nurse: You must have a number first.

John: I have been to the hospital, and they ...

Big Nurse: You MUST have a number first!

John: They said I should tell you that ...

Big Nurse: YOU MUST HAVE A NUMBER FIRST!

John: WHERE DO I GET A NUMBER?????

Big Nurse: I will bring you one later. [Panel slams shut.]

Twenty minutes later, she opened the panel and handed out a few numbers. I got number 22. I knew there was only one doctor there, and I figured I'd be lucky to get in to see him that same day. In reality, they really moved people through there fast. I was seen by the doctor before noon.

The doctor said I had an infection of the outer ear. It was obvious that he saw several such cases almost every day. (Number 23 was a Dutch tourist who also had an ear infection. She was really hurting.) The doctor wrote me a prescription for some "antibiotic drops." Surprisingly, he said I could keep diving if I wanted to. (I took the rest of that day off, but did make one final dive the next day, without any problems.)

The only thing tolerable about the visit to the doctor's office was the fee: $20. Otherwise, it was a classic example of what government-run services degrade into. The client is resented as an addition to the work load, instead of being valued as a source of profits.

Incidentally, the antibiotic drops didn't cure my ear infection. My doctor here told me that they're rarely effective. They did get me through the trip, though.

The next time I go diving in the tropics, I'm going to do the following to try to avoid another ear infection:

* Get the wax cleaned out of my ears before I go, so water will be less likely to accumulate.

* Use "swimmer's ear" drops to help dry out my ears between dives. (They have shelves full of them at the dive shops on Bonaire.)

Other Things To Do on Bonaire ----------------------------- Pink Beach is worth visiting. It's a very nice sandy beach, excellent for swimming. The sand really is pink when it's wet.

Lac Bay, on the windward side of the island, is an interesting place to visit. If you windsurf or are interested in learning, be sure to go there. It's a huge bay that is almost totally enclosed by land. The water is only about waist deep throughout the entire bay. There's plenty of wind, but the water is smooth. It's a perfect place for windsurfing, and it's especially good for learning. You can rent equipment and get instruction there.

The 20-minute drive to Lac Bay is interesting in itself, because you drive across the middle of the island. It's a desert. There are herds of (apparently) wild goats, as well as (apparently) wild donkeys.

There's a big national park, Washington Park, to the north. But we didn't go there.

Bonaire is famous for pink flamingos. We saw a bunch of them in the salt evaporation ponds on the way to Pink Beach.

A local divemaster recommended the "Windsock" dive site, near the airport (duh), as one of the best spots for snorkeling.

Bugs ---- We never had any problem with mosquitos outdoors, but they got pretty bad in our room. They are small and elusive. They wait until you're almost asleep before attacking. Then they feast all night long.

Mosquito repellant helped. Also, we got some insecticide incense spirals at the supermarket. We closed the bedroom door at night and burned one of those, and it was quite effective. (And oh so romantic, gasp, cough.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: del@fc.hp.com (Dave Larson) Subject: Re: Bonaire Trip Report Date: 27 May 1994 16:00:06 GMT

Here is yet another trip report for Bonaire. We were there 13-20 May 1994 and stayed at the Sand Dollar.

Summary: It was great! We'll probably go again.

Details: We flew on ALM to/from Atlanta on Friday. The plane was nearly empty both directions. According to the Flight Attendants, Friday in the summer is a very slow day (~20 people in an MD-80). No baggage problems, but everything was in suitcases. We used United FF miles for this trip. It was somewhat difficult to get the tickets (about 2 months early) which seemed surprising given the number of empty seats...

We rented a micro-van from Budget which cost about $200 for the week. This was arranged through Sand Dollar reservations. It's quite a vehicle: a motorcycle engine on a wheelbase of about 6'. It drove ok, but we didn't push the speed. It's great for transporting up to 4 people and dive gear. If you have an AMEX gold card, Budget will waive the CDW charges; otherwise it seems that the CDW is mandatory. Gas for the week was $15.

Sand Dollar is nice, but you've heard that before. We even had plenty of towels! Our only complaint was that the kitchen equipment is somewhat sparse. We did breakfast and lunch in the condo and most dinners at the Green Parrot. The staff at the front desk and the Green Parrot were all very friendly and liked to "play games" with you. It took a couple of times before we caught on -- then we started to play back, which seems to be what they are looking for.

We did not get any pre-paid meal plan for the Green Parrot. The details of the plans are that you can order anything off the menu, including the nightly specials (except for "special" days, about 10 per year). For us, the meal plan would not have worked. A couple of nights we had sandwiches rather than a big dinner. If you plan to have a big dinner each night, the meal plan would probably make sense. Our total for all dinners (2 people) came to about $230, including some drinks.

As others have said, the big grocery store downtown is the place to shop. There is a mini-shop at the Sand Dollar, but prices on many items were quite a bit higher than downtown. We spent about $100 on groceries and beer.

The dive shop was pretty good; not the best that I've seen, but near the top. One area where they appear to excel is in photography. I'm fairly new to UW photography and they helped me a lot! The first morning, you sit through a 1 hour orientation, get your weights and do a bouyancy check. After that you are pretty much on your own. I brought a 5mm shortie suit, since that's all that I have. I was plenty warm in the 78 deg water. Several others were in Polartec or Polartec plus skin and were cold -- cold enough to come up quite early. On the other hand, one guy from Netherlands was going in with nothing but a swim suit and t-shirt...

You sign up for boat dives by putting your number on the board. We didn't have any trouble getting onto boats and they would add boats during the busy times. We also requested specific dives and got to sign up in advance for those.

The diving was very good. The coral is very well protected. Before each boat dive, the DM would give a short intro (where the mooring is(15-20'), what to look for, when to come back(500psi), max depth(100'am, 60'pm, but they never checked anything) and then you were on your own. The DM would go in the water as a guide, but the divers could do whatever they wanted (except damage the coral! The DM's looked for that). You were responsible for your own dive plans.

My most "exciting" dive was on the second day. I was at 40' when the DM came over and told me to stop. He poked around on my back near the top of the tank with his slate for a minute. He then showed me a scorpion that had been headed for my neck! I have no clue where it came from, but it was pretty pissed at that point. I feel that the DM earned his pay on that dive!

Shore dives were totally up to you. Do what you want, when you want. Tanks are available 24 hours a day. Take as many as you want.

I did see quite a few new fish, coral, aninomie and small inverts (ie shrimp) during my dives. This was great, since they were mostly aquarium size and it gave me lots of ideas for our home tank. Find a large coral head and it's easy to spend 10 minutes looking at all of the small life:-)

I thought that the best diving was on the west side of Klein and north of Sand Dollar near the antenna farm (however, I didn't try town or salt pier).

The vis was a disappointment. It was about 60' when we arrived and decreased to about 30' when we left. However, since most of my diving is close to the bottom, looking for small life, it wasn't too bad.

I found the night dives to be a disappointment. I usually find lots of inverts at night, but not on Bonaire.

If you can, bring your passport (you get a nice stamp in Bonaire!). One person on our flight brought only photocopies (not certified) of his birth certificate. This is not adequate for US immigration, and they gave him lots of (well deserved) grief.

Language and money were not a problem. Virtually everyone speaks an ok level of english. Every shop that we went to accepted USD at 175 or 177 Naf to 1 USD. This was as good or better than at the airport. We didn't bother checking at an in town bank. Amex, Visa and MC signs were on almost every shop door.

Dave Larson

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Here is a trip report of sorts. I was in Bonaire last week (Feb 15-22) at the Flamingo Beach hotel (actually at club flamingo). I was there with my wife, 17 month old daughter and my parents. My parents are avid divers, I had only made 10 dives before this trip, my wife does not dive but does snorkel. My daughter is certified for splashing in pools (Advanced). All divers were certified.

If you only care about diving you don't have to read the parts about snorkeling etc.

Diving:

I didn't do any boat diving this trip. I did several dives right on Calabas reef which is right in front of the hotel. There was plenty to see, no current and the water was a warm 80 degrees. I was there 6 years ago and I think the reef looked a little more banged up this time. I found the diving to the north of the hotel to be a little more pristine. I'm sure the boats would have taken me to "better spots" but I didn't want to be gone that long and there is plenty to see without ever leaving the pier. Also I had unlimited shore diving for only $77 for the whole week.

There is no real need for deep diving in Bonaire. No real need for dive computers either. This is because the reef starts right off shore. Where I was diving, the bottom tapered to about 30 feet and then dropped sharply to what I was told was 90-120 feet. I don't know because all of the diving I did was under 55 feet. There is great diving just at the drop off. Unless you are planning to be out there all day, its tough to build up residual nitrogen.

I also dove the salt pier which I recommend. Returning in the surf was kind of tricky, but the weather was a little rougher than usual for Bonaire. Still very calm though. In comparison to the town pier, the salt pier is more open with deeper water, wider spaced pilings and more light. There was more current here than inside the protection of Klein Bonaire but it was not strenuous. There is a lot less trash around the salt pier than the town pier which was nice. I think this would have also been a good night dive but I never made it back. To dive the salt pier, you will have to drive there. Shore entry is accomplished over a rocky "beach". The pier is T shaped. The top of the T out from the shore. We snorkelled out to the T and then went south because that was against the current. (The current is variable, so check yourself.) We moved slowy out to then end of the T. There was a gorgeous school of creole wrasses with excellent coloring. We were looking for Tarpon but never saw them. There was a school of large Jacks that had me fooled for a minute. We then drifted back to the intersection of the T and finned in. Our bottom time was about an hour. Max depth for me was 45 feet, although it was still sloping.

The old town pier was a good dive, fish in abundance, large French and Queen Angelfish. I also did a night dive on the new town pier. We were looking for a red frog fish but never found it. Mostly invertebrates. These are popular dive spots, you will not be alone, especially at night.

I don't know what they did on the boats, but after showing a certification card, the dive people never pestered us. My mom did some solo dives right in front of one of the dive shops and no one bothered her. I don't want to debate whether solo diving is a good thing or not. What I'm saying is that they let you do your own thing, which, in my opinion, is preferable. They might hassle you if you tried to go solo off a boat, but I have no experience to back that up.

There is now (this year)a required $10 fee for the Bonaire Marine Park, or some such. This is true if you are going to be doing any diving in Bonaire. This goes to the continued establishment of permanent buoys for dive sites. I didn't mind spending the $10. They have also been marking the dive spots from the road. You will see rocks painted orange-yellow along the side of the roads. They have the name of the dive site on them. I imagine your $10 also goes towards this. They are encouraging rotation of dive sites to allow regrowth/rest. You get a little tag to hang off your BC, its good for a year.

Snorkeling:

Since my daughter doesn't dive and prefers exploring, I didn't do as many dives (only 8 for the whole week) as I could have but I thoroughly enjoyed the dives I did do. My wife and I did a fair amount of snorkeling in front of the hotel. There is a lot to see there. Octopus, Porcupinefish, spotted moray, peacock flounder, bristle worm, sea cucumber, spiny lobster, lots more.

The best snorkel site I visited is Playa Funche at Washington National Park. Spectacular location, large stands of Elkhorn coral. Great Fish variety, sea fans. This has a very easy shore entry because of the remains of an old dock. Even without it, the beach is quite calm.

Technically this is still "rainy season" so you are self insured when you drive into the park. Don't be too scared about this. We did the drive in a Civic sedan with no trouble. The park is great anyway. I can't remember the names of the birds we saw. We saw 3 iguanas on that trip. Plenty of lizards, flamingos, humming birds. Since this was the end of the rainy season, much was in bloom including the aloe.

We also snorkeled at Cai, which is one of my parents favorite spots. I wasn't particularly impressed. There were a lot of juvenile fish there. The mangrove forest probably serves as a nursery.

Warmth:

The water was 80 degrees. This means different things to different people. I wore a lycra dive skin for snorkeling and the day dives. This was fine although after an hour I was ready to get out. At night I wore in addition to the dive skin a darlex skin and a darlex vest with hood. This kept me warm enough. I didn't feel as though a wetsuit were necessary although since the depth of most dives I did averaged 30 feet, I usually had plenty of air (AL 80's) on surfacing. If I wanted to stay down 2 hours, I would be pretty cold without a wetsuit, at least a shorty. I wasn't interested in long dives. You may have different warmth requirements. 6 years ago I dove in a tee shirt and still enjoyed the dives.

Babies:

Our little girl had a great time on the trip. She learned to call out "dock", "boat", "lizard". She enjoyed watching the spray crabs and could see some of the larger fish. She chased the ground doves and bananaquits around the hotel. With sun block, tee shirt and hat, she didn't get sunburned. We didn't use a baby sitter, but my parents were there and willing to watch her. You will definitely dive less if you bring your baby. For us, it was worth missing a few dives to have her there.

Food:

We had two units, both with kitchens. We only ate out once. This was at the hotel. The food was very good, but it was $110 for all of us. There is a great bakery in town with rolls for $0.12 each. We ate these like crazy. I was content to have these with gouda chese for my breakfast. The grocery store now has many american labels and except for produce, you might almost think you were in your local grocery store. We found the best produce to be at the "fish market" which is right by the old town pier. They don't sell fish but they do have good produce. The bananas are better than anything I have had here. (The bananas are the little banana like things, the larger ones are plantains which are also good, but pan fry them in butter first.) With the bakery, the grocery store and the "fish" market we were quite content. We don't eat a lot of meat, they had fresh meat in the grocery store which looked ok but I didn't try it.

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I have been to Bonaire three times and always stayed at the Sand Dollar Condominiums. I highly recommend them and their dive operation, Sand Dollar Dive and Photo. Although I have had no experience with any other dive operations on the island I suspect that they operate similarly to the Sand Dollar.

The first morning begins with an orientation lecture starting around 9:00 AM and lasting about an hour. They explain their operation and rules, discuss the layout of the island, and warn about petty crime (break-ins to unattended cars) which, unfortunately, is increasing. After the orientation you gear up a do a checkout dive off the dock. No one rides herd on you and the purpose is probably for you to check out your gear rather than for them to check out you. However, this checkout dive is required for you to be allowed on boat dives. You are assigned a number which you use to sign up for boat dives or taking out tanks for shore dives. Boats dives for the next day are listed on a board shortly after the last boat returns in the late afternoon, and you sign up by chalking your number up on the board. If a given boat dive fills up a second dive, to a different location, will often be added. The boats go out four times a day and you are not allowed to go out in two consecutive time slots - their way of enforcing a long surface interval. The island allows only one boat per mooring so if a dive boat from another operation gets to your chosen site first, your boat has to find a different site.

There are always full tanks on the dock and any time you feel like doing a shore dive you grab one (or more) and chalk your number on the appropriate board. Carts are available to help you get your equipment and tanks to your car. There is a locker room on the dock with numbered (corresponding to you assigned number) pegs to hang your dive bag. The locker room is locked in the evening until 8AM the next morning unless someone is signed up for a night dive, in which case it is left unlocked until 10 or 11PM? For those who want to dive later than that or before 8AM, there are outdoor lockers, with keys available from the desk, where you can store your gear. In my opinion, they have made the operation as user friendly as possible.

A typical boat dive starts with a fifteen minute or less ride to the site followed by a short talk by one of the dive masters. After that, gear up and dive. They request that you not exceed 100' on a morning dive, 70' on an afternoon dive, and return with at least 500 PSI in your tank. However no one is hovering around you to check your depth. The recommended dive profile is dive to your desired depth and then swim along the reef, against the current, until you're down to 1500 PSI. Come up to an intermediate depth and return along the reef until you are back under the boat. If you have more than 500 PSI left at this point you can explore the reef below the boat until you're down to 500 PSI. They do not practice safety stops at 15'.

Shore dives are marked by yellow painted stones along the side of the road and there are plenty of them. They typically involve a swim of 50 to 100 yards from shore to the edge of the reef and then a dive profile similar to a boat dive. The advantages to shore dives are many, not the least of which is cost - $8 compared to $20 for a boat dive. They are less crowded; you will often find that you're the only group at a particular site, and if you do pull up to a site and find it teeming with divers, you can drive to the next one, it's often only a couple hundred yards down the road, and dive that. I strongly recommend saving boat dives for those sites that are inaccessable from shore - Klein Bonaire and some of the northern sites. The sites are described in three dive guides to Bonaire and at least two of these are available for browsing at the Sand Dollar Dive and Photo Desk.

Night dives off the dock at the Sand Dollar are highly recommended. You're almost certain to be followed by a 3' tarpon who will dart past you to try to grab small fish illuminated by your light. There is a night boat dive, usually to the town pier, every wednesday. I have not been on it but most people recommend it because of all the critters you can see there at night. There are some detractors who consider it a bit of a zoo due to all the lights in the water in a relatively small area.

I'm not sure if there is any advantage to a prepaid dive package because they claim that at the end of your stay your bill will be computed to give you the cheapest rate. That is, if you've done lots of shore dives and only a couple of boat dives, you'll be charged the flat rate for unlimited shore dives plus the cost of each boat dive. If you've done enough boat dives so that the two boat dives a day for a week rate is cheaper you'll be charged that. Equipment rental is fairly cheap - $12/day for BC, regulator, octopus, and gauges, and I think the sixth day is free. You're charged only for the days you use the gear, as indicated by your sign up for boat dives or tanks, so if you decide not to dive one day you're not paying for something you're not using.

In general, don't expect to see large pelagics like sharks and rays. However the coral is very healthy and the fish are relatively unafraid due to a ban on spearfishing. There are lots of morays and I was fortunate enough to see one free swimming during the middle of the day; we followed him for several minutes until he got too deep. I've also seen turtles.

The above is my standard answer to questions about Bonaire. If on your trip you discover any errors in my account, I would appreciate hearing from you so that I can correct it.