Doctorfish
Contributor
My family and I were back to Bonaire for at least the 10th time last week and stayed at Buddy
Dive.
We were on the Lion Dive (north) end of the resort and had a 2 bedroom unit. The unit had been recently updated and everything worked. The bathrooms are quite nice now the AC is no longer limited to just the bedrooms. Breakfast menu remains unchanged from prior and is more than adequate in terms of choices. There was good quality fresh fruit every day and a made to order egg/omelet/waffle station as well as pre prepared hot selections. Eating breakfast with a view of the ocean is always a high lite of staying at Buddy Dive.
The Pool Bar menu is improved and there is a good selection of sandwiches, wraps and salads for lunch. We had dinner there once as well and the fish of the day and rotisserie chicken were tasty and inexpensive.
The dive op was ok but not great. There are now lockers in the gear room which certainly increases the security. It was always a struggle to get on the board for boat dives when and where we wanted and some of the DMs seemed less enthusiastic than in the past. Murphin is not back in the water as yet but he was there to visit and hopefully will be back at work soon. He is by far the best DM I have ever had the privilege to dive with.
On boat dives, we were pressured to play follow the leader even though my wife and I are very experienced divers. I guess if you want to dive Klein, you have to put up with it. Shore diving, as always was great. There seemed to be a recovery of the reef from prior trips, minimal coral bleaching and more fish present than I remembered.
Buddy's Reef
Something Special
Karpata
La Dania's Leap
Bloodlet
Salt Pier
Were all excellent. We saw the usual array of Bonaire creatures including one daytime octopus, squid, eels of all varieties including numerous Chain Link..
We had no issues with theft from the truck but then again, never left anything of value when parked.
We dined at Blennie's, Mi Banana, Rumba Grill, Joe's Grill and Bobbe Jan's.
Joe's Grill was new for us and had a great selection of Belgian Beers as well as interesting dinner selections. The fresh Wahoo and Chicken Satay were both excellent.
The pizza at Rumba was IMO, much better than Pasa Bon in the past.
Overall, Bonaire for us, continues to be a great Caribbean dive destination.
Dive photos to follow once I get them organized.
Dive.
We were on the Lion Dive (north) end of the resort and had a 2 bedroom unit. The unit had been recently updated and everything worked. The bathrooms are quite nice now the AC is no longer limited to just the bedrooms. Breakfast menu remains unchanged from prior and is more than adequate in terms of choices. There was good quality fresh fruit every day and a made to order egg/omelet/waffle station as well as pre prepared hot selections. Eating breakfast with a view of the ocean is always a high lite of staying at Buddy Dive.
The Pool Bar menu is improved and there is a good selection of sandwiches, wraps and salads for lunch. We had dinner there once as well and the fish of the day and rotisserie chicken were tasty and inexpensive.
The dive op was ok but not great. There are now lockers in the gear room which certainly increases the security. It was always a struggle to get on the board for boat dives when and where we wanted and some of the DMs seemed less enthusiastic than in the past. Murphin is not back in the water as yet but he was there to visit and hopefully will be back at work soon. He is by far the best DM I have ever had the privilege to dive with.
On boat dives, we were pressured to play follow the leader even though my wife and I are very experienced divers. I guess if you want to dive Klein, you have to put up with it. Shore diving, as always was great. There seemed to be a recovery of the reef from prior trips, minimal coral bleaching and more fish present than I remembered.
Buddy's Reef
Something Special
Karpata
La Dania's Leap
Bloodlet
Salt Pier
Were all excellent. We saw the usual array of Bonaire creatures including one daytime octopus, squid, eels of all varieties including numerous Chain Link..
We had no issues with theft from the truck but then again, never left anything of value when parked.
We dined at Blennie's, Mi Banana, Rumba Grill, Joe's Grill and Bobbe Jan's.
Joe's Grill was new for us and had a great selection of Belgian Beers as well as interesting dinner selections. The fresh Wahoo and Chicken Satay were both excellent.
The pizza at Rumba was IMO, much better than Pasa Bon in the past.
Overall, Bonaire for us, continues to be a great Caribbean dive destination.
Dive photos to follow once I get them organized.