- Messages
- 21,111
- Reaction score
- 21,028
- Location
- Philadelphia and Boynton Beach
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
Bonaire: Den Laman and Dive Friends, May 7-21, 2025
My wife and I recently made our twelfth trip to Bonaire and stayed at Den Laman and dived with Dive Friends
Reservations: We made all of our reservations online, Sun Rentals for Den Laman and our PB truck rental, Dive Friends, and American Airlines. All our reservations worked perfectly.
Travel: We flew American Airlines from Philadelphia to Miami to Bonaire. Flights in both directions were perfect. PB Car Rental is in kiosk at the airport. Our paperwork was ready and it took only minutes to pick up our truck and be on our way. The truck was fine for the entire visit.
We paid our Bonaire visitor entry fee ahead of time and breezed though the checkpoint prior to immigration. We also bought our STINAPA park tag ahead of time and got our souvenir medallions at Dive Friends Sand Dollar/Den Laman.
Accommodations: We stopped by Sun Rentals and picked up the cards to our 1-bedroom oceanfront condo, Flying Fish, at Den Laman. We had stayed in that unit previously and knew it well. The condo was very well stocked, we only needed a few personal items.
Meals: We prepared nearly all of our own meals on this visit and did most of our shopping at Zhung Kong, just north of Den Laman. The only take out meal we had was the delicious chicken gyros from the Pita Madre food truck, conveniently located in the Hato Circle, just before Chogogo.
Dive Operation: Dive Friends Sand Dollar/Den Laman is located between the two resorts. Divers staying at either have access to the very nice gear storage room and access to the pier, with easy access to Bari Reef. There is a 10% discount with Dive Friends when booking through Sun Rentals. Our good friend Joan is still working at Dive Friends after more than 20 years, starting when it was Bonaire Dive & Adventure.
Dive Friends boats pick up at the Sand Dollar/Den Laman pier for 2 tank dives to Klein Bonaire or northern sites not accessible from shore. Tank fills were good, averaging 2960 psi (2772-3186 psi) and nitrox ran 31-32%.
I dived the Avelo System on 3 days during this trip and reported that separately
Review - Diving the Avelo System
Diving: We had very good weather on this trip, warm, but generally not hot. It only rained a few times, mostly at night. Much of the time, it was moderately windy, making the temperature feel more pleasant but not affecting sea conditions. The water temperature was 82-83 degrees, Generally, there was not much current but, on a few occasions, the south current on Bari Reef was brisk. Visibility was quite good, around 80 feet. We were last here in October 2024. There appears to be some coral recovery from bleaching since then. There is not a lot of algae.
Sea life was quite good on this visit. There were gigantic rivers of creole wrasse and large schools of brown chromis. Gangs of blue tangs were all over the reefs. There were many moray eels, spotted, goldentail, green, and chain, in order of numbers. All but chain morays were seen free swimming. There were many sharptail eels, often seen with their accomplices while out hunting. We saw many turtles and several octopuses. The octopuses were my favorite this visit. We spotted only a single brown seahorse and a single small red frogfish. Tarpon were common and larger tiger grouper were seen more frequently than on our last visit. There were several small schools of squid. We spotted many juvenile spotted drums and trunkfish. We encountered only a single eagle ray in the shallows near the pier on Bari Reef. The usual reef fish were abundant, butterflyfish, angels, filefish, parrotfish, grunt…
We had a very good time on this visit and are already scheming on our thirteenth trip.
My wife and I recently made our twelfth trip to Bonaire and stayed at Den Laman and dived with Dive Friends
Reservations: We made all of our reservations online, Sun Rentals for Den Laman and our PB truck rental, Dive Friends, and American Airlines. All our reservations worked perfectly.
Travel: We flew American Airlines from Philadelphia to Miami to Bonaire. Flights in both directions were perfect. PB Car Rental is in kiosk at the airport. Our paperwork was ready and it took only minutes to pick up our truck and be on our way. The truck was fine for the entire visit.
We paid our Bonaire visitor entry fee ahead of time and breezed though the checkpoint prior to immigration. We also bought our STINAPA park tag ahead of time and got our souvenir medallions at Dive Friends Sand Dollar/Den Laman.
Accommodations: We stopped by Sun Rentals and picked up the cards to our 1-bedroom oceanfront condo, Flying Fish, at Den Laman. We had stayed in that unit previously and knew it well. The condo was very well stocked, we only needed a few personal items.
Meals: We prepared nearly all of our own meals on this visit and did most of our shopping at Zhung Kong, just north of Den Laman. The only take out meal we had was the delicious chicken gyros from the Pita Madre food truck, conveniently located in the Hato Circle, just before Chogogo.
Dive Operation: Dive Friends Sand Dollar/Den Laman is located between the two resorts. Divers staying at either have access to the very nice gear storage room and access to the pier, with easy access to Bari Reef. There is a 10% discount with Dive Friends when booking through Sun Rentals. Our good friend Joan is still working at Dive Friends after more than 20 years, starting when it was Bonaire Dive & Adventure.
Dive Friends boats pick up at the Sand Dollar/Den Laman pier for 2 tank dives to Klein Bonaire or northern sites not accessible from shore. Tank fills were good, averaging 2960 psi (2772-3186 psi) and nitrox ran 31-32%.
I dived the Avelo System on 3 days during this trip and reported that separately
Review - Diving the Avelo System
Diving: We had very good weather on this trip, warm, but generally not hot. It only rained a few times, mostly at night. Much of the time, it was moderately windy, making the temperature feel more pleasant but not affecting sea conditions. The water temperature was 82-83 degrees, Generally, there was not much current but, on a few occasions, the south current on Bari Reef was brisk. Visibility was quite good, around 80 feet. We were last here in October 2024. There appears to be some coral recovery from bleaching since then. There is not a lot of algae.
Sea life was quite good on this visit. There were gigantic rivers of creole wrasse and large schools of brown chromis. Gangs of blue tangs were all over the reefs. There were many moray eels, spotted, goldentail, green, and chain, in order of numbers. All but chain morays were seen free swimming. There were many sharptail eels, often seen with their accomplices while out hunting. We saw many turtles and several octopuses. The octopuses were my favorite this visit. We spotted only a single brown seahorse and a single small red frogfish. Tarpon were common and larger tiger grouper were seen more frequently than on our last visit. There were several small schools of squid. We spotted many juvenile spotted drums and trunkfish. We encountered only a single eagle ray in the shallows near the pier on Bari Reef. The usual reef fish were abundant, butterflyfish, angels, filefish, parrotfish, grunt…
We had a very good time on this visit and are already scheming on our thirteenth trip.
