Bonaire Dive trip

[Ben Prusinski]

I spent past week diving in Bonaire for the first time and overall had a great time and experience with shore and boat diving with Buddy Dive Resort. Best things to me were diving the Hilma Hooker wreck and Thousand Steps. Saw tons of soft corals, barracuda, eels, colorful parrot fish and enjoyed the night dives where several large friendly tarpon followed us during the entire night dive. I also spotted a cool looking frog fish, different kinds of shrimp and tube sponges. The only sad part was that nearly half of the coral reefs are DEAD! Very sad to experience this and I am not sure why most of the coral in Bonaire is dead if the island is protected. What is killing the coral? Overall great experience but watch out for major theft of dive gear! I saw many trucks with smashed windows and stolen dive gear! Crime is very high in terms of theft here in Bonaire. Food was decent but very expensive. The snorkeling was nice and warm water a refreshing change from cold water California diving. I logged 22 dives in just a week so this built more valuable experience in terms of fine tuning my buoyancy, navigation, shore diving skills and lots of deep diving up to 100 feet. Visibility was ok at between 30-50 feet.

 

[drrich2]

Glad you had a good time. A few comments:

1.) Don't leave valuables in the rental truck. Petty thieves know divers will be down quite awhile, and encumbered with gear. Leave windows down & doors unlocked so they don't break windows trying to get in.

2.) Viz. varies, but it usually closer to 100 feet, I believe.

3.) I don't recall the reefs looking THAT dead, but I suppose that's subjective.

Richard.

 

[oly5050user]

I spent past week diving in Bonaire for the first time and overall had a great time and experience with shore and boat diving with Buddy Dive Resort. Best things to me were diving the Hilma Hooker wreck and Thousand Steps. Saw tons of soft corals, barracuda, eels, colorful parrot fish and enjoyed the night dives where several large friendly tarpon followed us during the entire night dive. I also spotted a cool looking frog fish, different kinds of shrimp and tube sponges. The only sad part was that nearly half of the coral reefs are DEAD! Very sad to experience this and I am not sure why most of the coral in Bonaire is dead if the island is protected. What is killing the coral? Overall great experience but watch out for major theft of dive gear! I saw many trucks with smashed windows and stolen dive gear! Crime is very high in terms of theft here in Bonaire. Food was decent but very expensive. The snorkeling was nice and warm water a refreshing change from cold water California diving. I logged 22 dives in just a week so this built more valuable experience in terms of fine tuning my buoyancy, navigation, shore diving skills and lots of deep diving up to 100 feet. Visibility was ok at between 30-50 feet.

We are there at Buddy Dive almost every year, sometimes 2 x a year and I would not say there is that much dead coral. Bonaire is like diving boot camp where you can get in may dives in a short period of time.As to food being expensive, I cannot agree with that statement. As an example Casablanca has a meal for 2 for $45.,enough for 2 to have leftovers for 2 lunch's. At "Mi Bananna" dinner for 2 less than $40. and that is with beer.Even an upscale place like Cappriccio's for 2 bill still came in less than $60.Lunch at Buddy was like $4.00 due to 50% off food deal we had with them.Breakfast is included with dive package at Buddy Dive. Living here in Westchester NY I find restaurants on Bonaire to be about the same and many times less than what we have here in NY.
In over 30 trips to Bonaire I have not ever had anything stolen from my truck or room. Just follow the same precautions you would do if at home.Do not close windows on parked truck and do not become careless about leaving gear lying around. Many times it is not the locals walking away with your gear but other "tourists".

 

[Craig66]

I spent past week diving in Bonaire for the first time and overall had a great time and experience with shore and boat diving with Buddy Dive Resort. Best things to me were diving the Hilma Hooker wreck and Thousand Steps. Saw tons of soft corals, barracuda, eels, colorful parrot fish and enjoyed the night dives where several large friendly tarpon followed us during the entire night dive. I also spotted a cool looking frog fish, different kinds of shrimp and tube sponges. The only sad part was that nearly half of the coral reefs are DEAD! Very sad to experience this and I am not sure why most of the coral in Bonaire is dead if the island is protected. What is killing the coral? Overall great experience but watch out for major theft of dive gear! I saw many trucks with smashed windows and stolen dive gear! Crime is very high in terms of theft here in Bonaire. Food was decent but very expensive. The snorkeling was nice and warm water a refreshing change from cold water California diving. I logged 22 dives in just a week so this built more valuable experience in terms of fine tuning my buoyancy, navigation, shore diving skills and lots of deep diving up to 100 feet. Visibility was ok at between 30-50 feet.

Thanks for the report. Those tarpon are very interesting although it wasn't the tarpon ironically that bothered me but rather the big red grouper at Buddy Dive that was far more aggressive than the tarpon. The tarpon are entertaining but get old fast.

Ben, remember that the natural evolution of a reef is for new coral to form on top of old coral. There is a natural process of coral dying without it needing to be a dead reef and I agree with rich that for all kinds of reasons no reefs are as pristince and healthy as they used to be that the reefs of Bonaire are anything but dead.

As to the theft I too saw none of that and felt especially safe in Bonaire. Yes there are some simple rules that you need to follow - as pointed out by Rich, but if you do that you and your stuff will be safe. I never found the need to leave anything in the truck and never felt that I was hampered by the "rules".

I was told about the expense of the food and whilst it definitely is a little pricier than say a place like Cozumel I did feel it was reasonable and probably placed midway between Cozumel and Grand Cayman. The money saving though comes in in the diving. Interestingly when I compared the price of my "mancation" in Coz vs Bonaire the two priced out similar except that in Coz most of your money goes towards diving and in Bonaire it is to food and accommodation.


Craig

 

[yodelhawk]

Hi, been back from Bonaire since the 9th. Loved the diving! food was ok. reef looked healthy, but we stayed to the south. Had some sob steal our spare tire from our rental truck! Other than that, we had a blast!

 

[TXreefer]

I was there a couple of weeks ago and viz was poor ~50' avg.

I think the OP may be referring to the couple of spots that the reef was destroyed during the last big hurricane (ie northward swim of Oilslick).

I could be mistaken, but was the "giant red fish" a giant dog snapper? It didn't look to me like it had a grouper body type.

 

[Ben Prusinski]

Yes, half of the reefs at Bonaire are DEAD. Viz is ok about 50 feet this past week. Crime is horrible and I saw tons of trucks that had been vandalized and robbed. Police do NOTHING about theft or stopping crime. Diving was fun but would not come back. I heard that Cayman has way better diving as does Malaysia and Indonesia.

 

[Craig66]

Tons of trucks vandalized??...really...really.... you sure you weren't in one of the large cities in the USA?

 

[Craig66]

I could be mistaken, but was the "giant red fish" a giant dog snapper? It didn't look to me like it had a grouper body type.

Now that you mention it I think you are right...giant dog snapper sounds reasonable.

 

[herman]

Is Pilot Fish back??

Ben did you actually SEE, with your own eyes the trucks with broken windows or did you just see a little glass on the ground? I am trying to remember for sure but in over 20 trips to Bonaire I don't recall ever actually seeing a broken window. I am sure it happens but not to the extent some like to post. Unless the rate has jumped a lot since last April and everyone is ignoring the recommendation to leave the windows down something does not add up.