ddawson
Contributor
Another great Bonaire trip in August 2011.
2011 Bonaire slideshow at the top of the page
https://sites.google.com/site/dkimdawson/home/scuba-shows
Bonaire 2011 pictures are at
Bonaire 2011 Photo Gallery by kimdawson at pbase.com
Details of the trip are written by Kim as given below.
Darren
We spent the week of July 30-August 6, 2011 in Bonaire. We stayed in a two-bedroom unit at the Bellevue condos on the south side of the island and dove with the Belmar dive shop. We took our two children (ages 13 and 7) and our baby-sitter with us on this trip, so it was more of a family vacation with diving than an intense dive trip.
Lodging:
We rented an oceanfront 2-bedroom, 2-bath condo at the Bellevue and were very pleased with the accommodations. The apartment was modern and clean and had A/C throughout. Our unit also had TVs in each bedroom and the den, which was nice for the children, and we had free wireless internet access. The kitchen was equipped with full-size appliances and plenty of plates, glasses, cookware, etc., and there was also a small washing machine in one of the bathrooms and a drying rack on the porch. We had plenty of towels and bed linens, and there were 2 pull-out trundle beds that allowed our group of five to sleep comfortably. The back patio offered a beautiful view of the pool and the ocean (see photos here: Bonaire Family Trip 2011 Photo Gallery by kimdawson at pbase.com). The children really enjoyed both the pool and the small beach on the property. We had maid service once, mid-way through the week. The only concern to note is that the dive gear storage area is small and this could be problematic if too many divers were staying at the Bellevue.
Dive Op:
The Bellevue is located just about 200 yards north of the Belmar dive shop (at the Belmar apartments), so getting our tanks for shore diving was very convenient. You do have to get tanks during the shop's open hours (8-5) as you need the key from the shop to open the tank storage area. The staff at the shop were all very friendly and helpful. Our 13-year-old daughter did the junior open water certification course with DM Michelle. She started the book work on Sunday and was certified on Wednesday afternoon, so she was able to join us on our dives on Thursday. Our 7-year-old son did the morning childrens program at the Belmar on Monday Friday and had lots of fun. The instructor, Wilma, brought her son every day so he had a companion, and two other children participated for 2 days. They snorkeled, did SASY in the pool and the ocean, and even took the water taxi to Klein for snorkeling and playing on the beach on Friday. We were very pleased with the Belmar dive shops programs for both children. Of course we had to work our diving around dropping the kids off and picking them up, but we were generally able to do two morning dives and be back to change tanks and pick them up at the Belmar at lunchtime.
Diving:
We did all shore diving on this trip and dove almost exclusively on the south side. We had not stayed on the south end of Bonaire since 2004. We stayed at Den Laman (next to the Sand Dollar) on the northern side of the island on our last three trips and thus we had not done many dives on the south side in recent years. We were pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the dives on this end of the island, especially the abundant large sponge formations and forests of gorgonians in some locations. The sites were much prettier than either of us remembered. We generally tried to dive at sites that were rated as good or excellent for snorkeling and fairly easy entry since we usually had our sitter and/or daughter with us.
We started the day on Sunday with a check-out dive at the Belmar and we just did afternoon dives off the back off the Bellevue so we could be with the kids on their first day, particularly since their activities didn't start until Monday. These sites were nice but not spectacular typical fringing reef - we saw plenty of fish and macro life, as well as some large sponges and corals.
Starting on Monday we did more truck diving we generally headed down south and looked for sites where conditions were good. On Monday morning we dove Tori's Reef and Margate Bay and then did a shore dive off the back of the Bellevue in the afternoon. Margate Bay is probably one of our favorite south side sides. Neither of us were very impressed with Tori's. On Tuesday morning we enjoyed really nice dives at Fish Hut and Soft Coral Garden, then did an afternoon dive back at the Bellevue. When we dove at the Bellevue in the afternoons we usually let the kids do a sort of SASY with our gear after the dive. Our 7-year old really enjoyed it - we would inflate the BC and float it on the water next to him and let him breathe through the reg instead of his snorkel.
On Wednesday we headed to Yellow Hut and decided the water was too rough to enter, but when we got back in the truck the engine wouldnt turn over. We were able to flag down a nice passerby who had a phone and let us call Total Car Rental to send a mechanic. The mechanic came out and installed a new battery but that didnt fix the problem so he gave us a ride back to our apartment and the airport to get a new truck. We were able to transfer the gear over and get in one morning dive. Due to time constraints we dove at Tori's Reef again since we needed a site that was good for snorkeling as well as diving. Again, it was okay but not great. We dove the Hilma Hooker late in the afternoon. We had always heard it was a difficult dive to do from shore, but we found it to be easy. We just swam on the surface to the one of the marker buoys and descended the water was calm so it was no problem. There was only one other pair of divers in the water with us so it was a very nice dive, especially for wide angle photography. The ship was covered in many places with lots of colorful sponges especially around the propeller. We will definitely keep the Hooker on our list for future trips.
Thursday was the only day that we did four dives we started out by going north to Oil Slick leap, as this was our first dive with our 13-year old newly certified daughter, and we thought the entry and exit would be relatively easy for her. It was so much fun having her in the water with us kind of weird, but great! We didn't think the dive here was particularly good, and we noticed a fair amount of red algae growing on the reef. We came back south to Windsock for our second dive. This is a really good site for a new diver - easy entry and exit and a short swim to a shallow sloping reef with a good variety of marine life. Thursday afternoon the two of us went south and dove Yellow Hut (very nice dive beautiful topography). Our daughter wanted to do a night dive, so we went back to Windsock so she could dive a familiar site. We saw quite a few small crabs and other night life including some nice areas of orange cup coral (my personal favorite) on the large rocks near the entrance.
On Friday morning we decided to try another dive up north so we went to Andrea I. Our daughters ear was hurting a bit so she opted to snorkel on Friday rather than dive. As at Oil Slick, we noticed a good bit of red algae, but we saw lots of fish life and juveniles here. We did our last dive at Red Beryl on the south side. Lots of large sponge and coral formations here, as well as abundant fish life - a beautiful dive.
The only dive we really missed was Salt Pier. We had scheduled a guided dive of the pier for Thursday afternoon but it was cancelled because a ship was docked there that afternoon. We hope to do that on our next trip. The new security regulations prohibit unguided dives you have to go with a DM that must register your dive in advance. And then if a ship comes to dock the dive is cancelled. Of course the town pier is no longer accessible even with a guide - a real shame.
Other:
We did some basic grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon at Cultimara but they were out of a lot of items. Then we stocked up on more "American" food on Monday at Warehouse Grocery so the kids could have chicken, hot dogs, grilled cheese, etc. We stopped in the grocery store by the sand dollar and it had changed owners again and didn't offer much other than snack food, soft drinks and some very basic canned/dry foods.
We didn't eat out much since one of the things we really like about Bonaire is enjoying time by ourselves and eating on our patio overlooking the ocean. We went to Bobby Jeans on Saturday night and ordered take out but we thought it was overpriced and we had a wait a very long time (with a hot, tired 7 year old) for our food. We picked up food from Casablanca one night and didn't think it was as good as we remembered. We ordered a couple of pizzas from Pasa Bon Pizza one night and they were really good. The kids enjoyed these for a few days. We had great weather for the whole week - hot, of course, but we had a nice breeze most of the time. There were a few light rainshowers were at night but we had beautiful clear days.
Travel:
The only negative aspect of the trip was the travel. We took a direct flight from Atlanta to Bonaire and the trip down wasn't bad. We drove to Atlanta from Clemson early Saturday morning and ran into some traffic near the airport so we improvised a detour and made it to the airport in plenty of time. We ran into problems on the way back because of issues at the Atlanta airport. The international terminal there is so bad on Saturdays. The flight left Bonaire on time but we had to wait about 40 minutes on the runway when we arrived in Atlanta because the departing plane couldn't leave. Then when we finally got to the gate, we had to stay on the plane another 20 minutes because there were too many planes and arriving for customs and security to handle. Then we had to wait at BOTH baggage claims an incredibly long time waiting for one last piece of luggage to arrive. Fortunately our 7-year-old was on his absolute best behavior so it wasn't as miserable as it could have been. We didn't arrive home until about 1:00 - we should have been home by around 9:00 or 10:00 at the latest. Due to these consistent problems with international travel through Atlanta, we are take our family trip to Curacao next year so that we can fly from Charlotte.
2011 Bonaire slideshow at the top of the page
https://sites.google.com/site/dkimdawson/home/scuba-shows
Bonaire 2011 pictures are at
Bonaire 2011 Photo Gallery by kimdawson at pbase.com
Details of the trip are written by Kim as given below.
Darren
We spent the week of July 30-August 6, 2011 in Bonaire. We stayed in a two-bedroom unit at the Bellevue condos on the south side of the island and dove with the Belmar dive shop. We took our two children (ages 13 and 7) and our baby-sitter with us on this trip, so it was more of a family vacation with diving than an intense dive trip.
Lodging:
We rented an oceanfront 2-bedroom, 2-bath condo at the Bellevue and were very pleased with the accommodations. The apartment was modern and clean and had A/C throughout. Our unit also had TVs in each bedroom and the den, which was nice for the children, and we had free wireless internet access. The kitchen was equipped with full-size appliances and plenty of plates, glasses, cookware, etc., and there was also a small washing machine in one of the bathrooms and a drying rack on the porch. We had plenty of towels and bed linens, and there were 2 pull-out trundle beds that allowed our group of five to sleep comfortably. The back patio offered a beautiful view of the pool and the ocean (see photos here: Bonaire Family Trip 2011 Photo Gallery by kimdawson at pbase.com). The children really enjoyed both the pool and the small beach on the property. We had maid service once, mid-way through the week. The only concern to note is that the dive gear storage area is small and this could be problematic if too many divers were staying at the Bellevue.
Dive Op:
The Bellevue is located just about 200 yards north of the Belmar dive shop (at the Belmar apartments), so getting our tanks for shore diving was very convenient. You do have to get tanks during the shop's open hours (8-5) as you need the key from the shop to open the tank storage area. The staff at the shop were all very friendly and helpful. Our 13-year-old daughter did the junior open water certification course with DM Michelle. She started the book work on Sunday and was certified on Wednesday afternoon, so she was able to join us on our dives on Thursday. Our 7-year-old son did the morning childrens program at the Belmar on Monday Friday and had lots of fun. The instructor, Wilma, brought her son every day so he had a companion, and two other children participated for 2 days. They snorkeled, did SASY in the pool and the ocean, and even took the water taxi to Klein for snorkeling and playing on the beach on Friday. We were very pleased with the Belmar dive shops programs for both children. Of course we had to work our diving around dropping the kids off and picking them up, but we were generally able to do two morning dives and be back to change tanks and pick them up at the Belmar at lunchtime.
Diving:
We did all shore diving on this trip and dove almost exclusively on the south side. We had not stayed on the south end of Bonaire since 2004. We stayed at Den Laman (next to the Sand Dollar) on the northern side of the island on our last three trips and thus we had not done many dives on the south side in recent years. We were pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the dives on this end of the island, especially the abundant large sponge formations and forests of gorgonians in some locations. The sites were much prettier than either of us remembered. We generally tried to dive at sites that were rated as good or excellent for snorkeling and fairly easy entry since we usually had our sitter and/or daughter with us.
We started the day on Sunday with a check-out dive at the Belmar and we just did afternoon dives off the back off the Bellevue so we could be with the kids on their first day, particularly since their activities didn't start until Monday. These sites were nice but not spectacular typical fringing reef - we saw plenty of fish and macro life, as well as some large sponges and corals.
Starting on Monday we did more truck diving we generally headed down south and looked for sites where conditions were good. On Monday morning we dove Tori's Reef and Margate Bay and then did a shore dive off the back of the Bellevue in the afternoon. Margate Bay is probably one of our favorite south side sides. Neither of us were very impressed with Tori's. On Tuesday morning we enjoyed really nice dives at Fish Hut and Soft Coral Garden, then did an afternoon dive back at the Bellevue. When we dove at the Bellevue in the afternoons we usually let the kids do a sort of SASY with our gear after the dive. Our 7-year old really enjoyed it - we would inflate the BC and float it on the water next to him and let him breathe through the reg instead of his snorkel.
On Wednesday we headed to Yellow Hut and decided the water was too rough to enter, but when we got back in the truck the engine wouldnt turn over. We were able to flag down a nice passerby who had a phone and let us call Total Car Rental to send a mechanic. The mechanic came out and installed a new battery but that didnt fix the problem so he gave us a ride back to our apartment and the airport to get a new truck. We were able to transfer the gear over and get in one morning dive. Due to time constraints we dove at Tori's Reef again since we needed a site that was good for snorkeling as well as diving. Again, it was okay but not great. We dove the Hilma Hooker late in the afternoon. We had always heard it was a difficult dive to do from shore, but we found it to be easy. We just swam on the surface to the one of the marker buoys and descended the water was calm so it was no problem. There was only one other pair of divers in the water with us so it was a very nice dive, especially for wide angle photography. The ship was covered in many places with lots of colorful sponges especially around the propeller. We will definitely keep the Hooker on our list for future trips.
Thursday was the only day that we did four dives we started out by going north to Oil Slick leap, as this was our first dive with our 13-year old newly certified daughter, and we thought the entry and exit would be relatively easy for her. It was so much fun having her in the water with us kind of weird, but great! We didn't think the dive here was particularly good, and we noticed a fair amount of red algae growing on the reef. We came back south to Windsock for our second dive. This is a really good site for a new diver - easy entry and exit and a short swim to a shallow sloping reef with a good variety of marine life. Thursday afternoon the two of us went south and dove Yellow Hut (very nice dive beautiful topography). Our daughter wanted to do a night dive, so we went back to Windsock so she could dive a familiar site. We saw quite a few small crabs and other night life including some nice areas of orange cup coral (my personal favorite) on the large rocks near the entrance.
On Friday morning we decided to try another dive up north so we went to Andrea I. Our daughters ear was hurting a bit so she opted to snorkel on Friday rather than dive. As at Oil Slick, we noticed a good bit of red algae, but we saw lots of fish life and juveniles here. We did our last dive at Red Beryl on the south side. Lots of large sponge and coral formations here, as well as abundant fish life - a beautiful dive.
The only dive we really missed was Salt Pier. We had scheduled a guided dive of the pier for Thursday afternoon but it was cancelled because a ship was docked there that afternoon. We hope to do that on our next trip. The new security regulations prohibit unguided dives you have to go with a DM that must register your dive in advance. And then if a ship comes to dock the dive is cancelled. Of course the town pier is no longer accessible even with a guide - a real shame.
Other:
We did some basic grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon at Cultimara but they were out of a lot of items. Then we stocked up on more "American" food on Monday at Warehouse Grocery so the kids could have chicken, hot dogs, grilled cheese, etc. We stopped in the grocery store by the sand dollar and it had changed owners again and didn't offer much other than snack food, soft drinks and some very basic canned/dry foods.
We didn't eat out much since one of the things we really like about Bonaire is enjoying time by ourselves and eating on our patio overlooking the ocean. We went to Bobby Jeans on Saturday night and ordered take out but we thought it was overpriced and we had a wait a very long time (with a hot, tired 7 year old) for our food. We picked up food from Casablanca one night and didn't think it was as good as we remembered. We ordered a couple of pizzas from Pasa Bon Pizza one night and they were really good. The kids enjoyed these for a few days. We had great weather for the whole week - hot, of course, but we had a nice breeze most of the time. There were a few light rainshowers were at night but we had beautiful clear days.
Travel:
The only negative aspect of the trip was the travel. We took a direct flight from Atlanta to Bonaire and the trip down wasn't bad. We drove to Atlanta from Clemson early Saturday morning and ran into some traffic near the airport so we improvised a detour and made it to the airport in plenty of time. We ran into problems on the way back because of issues at the Atlanta airport. The international terminal there is so bad on Saturdays. The flight left Bonaire on time but we had to wait about 40 minutes on the runway when we arrived in Atlanta because the departing plane couldn't leave. Then when we finally got to the gate, we had to stay on the plane another 20 minutes because there were too many planes and arriving for customs and security to handle. Then we had to wait at BOTH baggage claims an incredibly long time waiting for one last piece of luggage to arrive. Fortunately our 7-year-old was on his absolute best behavior so it wasn't as miserable as it could have been. We didn't arrive home until about 1:00 - we should have been home by around 9:00 or 10:00 at the latest. Due to these consistent problems with international travel through Atlanta, we are take our family trip to Curacao next year so that we can fly from Charlotte.
