- Messages
- 26,281
- Reaction score
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- # of dives
- I'm a Fish!
One thing no one has mentioned yet is the need for good treaded boots. You will be scrambling over ironshore and coral rubble both on-shore and in the water at just about every shore dive site except the "Leaps" - even they have ironshore cliffs you jump off of. Images of most of the entries can be seen here: Scuba Shore Diving Region: ABC Islands It's slick, sharp and frequently wet. Some of the south sites have sandy channels that bisect the ironshore - they're not always where the parking is so look around b4 you gear up. The best example I know is at Vista Blue - http://shorediving.com/Earth/ABC/BonaireS/Vista_Blue/c004508.jpg
At some sites people have piled up coral rubble indicating the best entry point also. Once you leave town except for a couple of traveling food trucks you won't find any food/water at any of the sites so bring your own as needed. We usually manage with water since no site is more than about 15-20 minutes from any resort property. If you go thru the "gate" north of town (clearly marked) you're committed to driving back around thru Rincon - nice drive - takes 20-30mins. From the road in some spots you can see the east shore.
Since just about every oceanfront dive resort is also on a named dive site, you can dive any of them, just check in at the shop. You don't have to but we often rent tanks for the day as a thank you - they provide lockers/showers/dive docks etc. Habitat is the only one that charges for this - I think it's still $5. There's about 3 shore dives off sandy beaches, Windsock, Bachelors and Pink.
Every resort has an affiliated shop, there's a few free-standing shops in town but south of town there's 3 options - Dive Friends at Port Bonaire, Wannadive at Windsock Beach (tank exch. only) or Buddy Dive at BelMar Condos.
All three have their fans, Dive Friends has the most locations island-wide and most of them are in convenient locations. Buddy has the drive-thru tank pickup at their north side location - it's just off the street. And Wannadive also has several N/S locations. Corollary to that, when you first arrive on Bonaire you're required to go through a Bonaire Marine Park orientation before starting to dive. Most shops/resorts do that around 9AM the next morning, takes about an hour and most shops ask you to do a self-buoyancy check afterwards on their house reef. Dive Friends is one of few that will do it on demand if you want to start diving sooner.
My top 10 dives in no order
Bari Reef
Cliff/LaMachaca
Salt Pier
Invisibles
Angel City
Vista Blue
Alice in Wonderland
Jeff Davis
Karpata
1000 Steps
Boat dives
Forest at Klein Bonaire
Jerry's Reef "" "" ""
Rappel
Other little quirks:
Service is really slow at restaurants. And they're almost reluctant to bring your check - sometimes you have to ask 3-4 times. They're not indifferent, they feel like you're their guest and should be allowed to stay as long as you'd like. At a now closed restaurant I've even seen that happen when people were waiting for tables.
Power is 127/50 so things with North American motors (hair dryer) run a little hot. Most electronics have universal chargers but in case you have some flash charger that won't - the larger shops have transformers and charging stations. Probably not the problem it was a decade ago.
At some sites people have piled up coral rubble indicating the best entry point also. Once you leave town except for a couple of traveling food trucks you won't find any food/water at any of the sites so bring your own as needed. We usually manage with water since no site is more than about 15-20 minutes from any resort property. If you go thru the "gate" north of town (clearly marked) you're committed to driving back around thru Rincon - nice drive - takes 20-30mins. From the road in some spots you can see the east shore.
Since just about every oceanfront dive resort is also on a named dive site, you can dive any of them, just check in at the shop. You don't have to but we often rent tanks for the day as a thank you - they provide lockers/showers/dive docks etc. Habitat is the only one that charges for this - I think it's still $5. There's about 3 shore dives off sandy beaches, Windsock, Bachelors and Pink.
Every resort has an affiliated shop, there's a few free-standing shops in town but south of town there's 3 options - Dive Friends at Port Bonaire, Wannadive at Windsock Beach (tank exch. only) or Buddy Dive at BelMar Condos.
All three have their fans, Dive Friends has the most locations island-wide and most of them are in convenient locations. Buddy has the drive-thru tank pickup at their north side location - it's just off the street. And Wannadive also has several N/S locations. Corollary to that, when you first arrive on Bonaire you're required to go through a Bonaire Marine Park orientation before starting to dive. Most shops/resorts do that around 9AM the next morning, takes about an hour and most shops ask you to do a self-buoyancy check afterwards on their house reef. Dive Friends is one of few that will do it on demand if you want to start diving sooner.
My top 10 dives in no order
Bari Reef
Cliff/LaMachaca
Salt Pier
Invisibles
Angel City
Vista Blue
Alice in Wonderland
Jeff Davis
Karpata
1000 Steps
Boat dives
Forest at Klein Bonaire
Jerry's Reef "" "" ""
Rappel
Other little quirks:
Service is really slow at restaurants. And they're almost reluctant to bring your check - sometimes you have to ask 3-4 times. They're not indifferent, they feel like you're their guest and should be allowed to stay as long as you'd like. At a now closed restaurant I've even seen that happen when people were waiting for tables.
Power is 127/50 so things with North American motors (hair dryer) run a little hot. Most electronics have universal chargers but in case you have some flash charger that won't - the larger shops have transformers and charging stations. Probably not the problem it was a decade ago.
