5th Trip to Bonaire was too short! Oct 14-22

[1_T_Submariner]

Getting there - American from St. Louis to Miami to Curacao then Insel from Curacao to Bonaire.
Flawless no issues.

Accomodations - Den Lamen Very nice! Stayed on 3rd floor in a studio. Nice room one maintenance Item taken care of right away.
Might request 2nd floor next time.

Dive op - BDA - Huge Improvements! They gave a great briefing and reminded everyone a few times to sign up for boat dives after the briefing this was an Issue for us last trip. They corrected this! 24hr access to Nitrox and Air tanks on the Pier also the gear locker. No more stashing tanks etc... Another great improvement!

Diving
6 - boat dives around Klien I think we visited Norh-South-East-West parts of Klien! always great diving.

14 - Shore Dives - Salt Pier (awesome 1st time for us), Salt City, Light house, Red Beryl, Jeff Davis, Tolo, Kapatra, Oil Slick, Wind sock and Bari in daylight.

3 - Night dives all on Bari reef.

Vis was great! I took quite a few pictures trying to figure out my strobe until now all I have taken are natrual light pics.

Just a touch disappointed on lack of turtle sightings. Lots of Eels and reef squid! also lots of lion fish which people on the boat dives kept wanting to show everyone.

A slide show from my pics.
Bonaire Oct 2011 :: Bonaire_10_11 slideshow by 1_T_Scot - Photobucket

Driving - Truck included through Total. Typical Bonaire truck. Mazda 4dr 4cyl gas 5sp. No problems. Has the price of gas went down on the Island Approx $4 a gallon.

Dining
Sunset - Tried to get something light the first night. NO ordering off the lunch menu! horrible attitude. Got in truck went to Karels. Hope this
changes last trip Sunset was good this one Not so much. The owner seemed mad the whole time we where there.

KFC - Lunch Mmmmm (I still miss the old location).

Karels - Zeecht menu really good! Sitting on the Pier WOW!

Paradise Moon 2X - Great Food Great setting Great staff. Crazy Nachos, Fajitas, and Fajita salad are what we sampled. Also Carl the Chef makes his own hot sauce. This hot sauce is serious! But if you like hot stuff ask for some.

Rib Factory - Good food nice view moderate prices.

City Cafe - Great Staff, Good burger, Great Pollo Loco Baguette! and Happy Hour!

Pasa Bon Pizza - Great Pizza! the Italian sausage is the best!

Patagonia - Mixed grill was really good. Wife's Filet even better.

Crime - We had a bag of candy, 3 refilled water bottles, $2, and a hotel towel stolen out of our truck while parked at Oil slick - 1st time anyone messed with our truck in 5 trips. If they would have asked I would have given them everything but the cash and towel.

Construction - Every road in Bonaire is being worked on for sewer project, great for the Island! and we found some interesting new roads.

Donkey Sanctuary - It's been flipped! the enterance is now at what used to be the back.

Trip back - Insel from Bonaire to Curacao we were delayed by 2 hours our lugage however stayed in Bonaire.
There where 8 of us in Curacao that didn't have their bags. We had 3 hours until our American Airlines flight home.
Insel said We will send your Lugage to Miami. Hmmm we don't live there. They said they would send them to our house in
Illinois. I'm thinking Yeah sure right! Never going to see those bags filled with Dive gear (minus Regs, Camera and computers).
Today FEDEX showed up with all of our lugage! I couldn't believe it all intact and complete! Excellent Job Insel!!! I'll fly them again.

 

[drrich2]

Glad to hear you had a great time.

How were baggage fees on Insel? I'd read elsewhere you have to watch those charges in Curacao, but that it might be different for divers.

Richard.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

For Insel international travel, you get 80LB of luggage per person. That applies to the flight from Curacao to Bonaire also. I think for inter-island, it is alot less.

 

[b1gcountry]

Sounds good. The tank and gear availability was one of my two biggest complaints about BDA. Do they still give the worlds longest dive briefing?

 

[1_T_Submariner]

Glad to hear you had a great time.

How were baggage fees on Insel? I'd read elsewhere you have to watch those charges in Curacao, but that it might be different for divers.

Richard.

No Baggage fees at all either direction. 3 bags 40-44 lbs each 125lbs total between 2 people. They were not really concerned with weight or contents etc...

 

[1_T_Submariner]

Sounds good. The tank and gear availability was one of my two biggest complaints about BDA. Do they still give the worlds longest dive briefing?

Briefing in 2 different stages previous guests and first timers. Previous guest briefing was brief good explanation of new procedures, Sign up for boat dives and some lionfish disscussion is all I remember.

 

[b1gcountry]

Briefing in 2 different stages previous guests and first timers. Previous guest briefing was brief good explanation of new procedures, Sign up for boat dives and some lionfish disscussion is all I remember.

We've been there three times and never gotten the "returning guest" option.

 

[Mossman]

We've been there three times and never gotten the "returning guest" option.

We did on our last time. You have to have been there within the past year!

Even so, it seemed that the only difference was that we got a private briefing. It still included a tour of the facilities and, AFAICT, all the same info presented in the regular briefing. It still took longer than any other briefing I've ever had anywhere else on the island or in the known universe, except that we were walking around in the heat while he was briefing instead of sitting down in the shade.

Personally, I know I could distill all the essentials into 15 min even for new divers. Presenting so much material over so long a time means that most of it goes in one ear and out the other while the supposed listeners are daydreaming about actually getting to dive at some point. Normally when I have to suffer through such a long presentation, I'm at least treated to free coffee and muffins, pastries, donuts, whatever. That little and inexpensive gesture (they could simply add on a couple bucks to the shore dive package) might go a long way towards making the bored briefees happier.

 

[lmorin]

My wife and I have been to Sand Dollar and BDA 6 times in the past 2 yrs. We have always had the "repeat guest" briefing. One can tell quite easily that it is shorter than the regular briefing because it always finishes well before the other folks have moved out from under the shade to experience the remainder of their briefing in the sun. Is it too long, regular format or repeat guest format? IMHO, yes, but it is certainly tolerable and the guest format even more so.