Another Trip Report from Bonaire

[Michajoe13]

We returned from a week at Buddy Dive on Bonaire on Saturday. Second time there. Wanted for nothing sans a wash cloth as mentioned in other threads. We went as a group coordinated by our local dive shop. I have 75 dives, my wife has 55. A Caribbean species expert/fish surveyer was in our group. She documented 113 unique species during the week including a Chain Moray Eel that I found.

My wife and I had a total of 25 dives in the six days of diving. Five boat dives to Klein Bonaire and the rest were pretty equally split between the north shore and the south “beaches.” My deepest was 115’, but most dives bottomed around 80. The cool thing about Bonaire is that you can start an hour long dive at 80 and still average 40 feet. You usually don’t have to safety stop because you spend 5 mins leisurely swimming toward shore between 15 and 20’ anyway.

Karpata was our favorite spot with nearby Weber’s Joy (Witch’s Hut) being a close second. If going, find out about the secret short cut back if you go up past the one way point, otherwise, you have to drive all the way through the park, which is fine if you have the time.

We enjoyed the double reefs at Angel City and The Lake. We would surface swim to the second reef and “dive bomb” to get max bottom time. Alice and Wonderland and Aquarius are great as well, but the top of the second reef gets deeper as you go that direction. If you are not awed by the site looking off the second reef into oblivion, I suggest diving isn’t for you.

The worst spot was Andrea I. Toughest entry/exit and lots of Omar damage. Strong current at White Slave, but great stingray sightings, so we recommend.

 

[pdive]

What is unique about Chain Morays?

 

[Michajoe13]

Apparently they are quite rare. I had no idea what the strange looking eel was and she happened to be right there and I called her over. She had never seen one before. We ended up seeing another one on this trip.

 

[darook]

I agree with your opinion of the Lake. I cannot wake to my family to that site in October. We will definitely check out Karpata. I have only heard great things about that site.

 

[robint]

yeah, chain morays are pretty rare but not so much in Bonaire. We saw 2 of them during our week there, one of which was right at the Buddy's dock in the rocks in 6-10' deep water!

Sorry to hear that Andrea I is so badly beaten up now. We loved that dive! :depressed:

 

[reefdiva]

Karpata was our favorite spot with nearby Weber’s Joy (Witch’s Hut) being a close second. If going, find out about the secret short cut back if you go up past the one way point, otherwise, you have to drive all the way through the park, which is fine if you have the time.

The shortcut is easy to find and marked by an orange rock. It is NOT a good idea to use it after heavy rains. If you miss the shortcut you do not have to go back through the park but you do have to go through Rincon, which is actually a lovely little town.

 

[DiverVince]

I'm really not convinced that the "shortcut" does indeed save time. True, geographically it is a much shorter distance. However, due to the terrain you have to drive much slower up & down the mountain as opposed to traveling on the paved road to Rincon which will eventually lead you to Kaya Korona & then back into town. Perhaps others have a different perspective on this. It appears to me the regular route is much easier especially if you do not have a 4 WD vehicle.