Bad Ending to Otherwise Good Bonaire Trip

[herman]

Yep Herman, I agree with you...DON join Herman....as a matter of fact....

DON, IF YOU WANT TO COME DOWN WITH HERMAN, I WILL GIVE YOU GUYS AN EXCELLENT UNBELIEVEABLE RATE.

After your trip, you then have to POST on Scubaboard how great your trip was and how you should have EXPERIENCED Bonaire, before making your decisions on the island.

I MEAN COME ON, YOU WILL VISIT A RESORT THAT HAS ARMED GUARDS AND GUNS RIGHT????

Come on, stay with us, you know know how safe we are and you can then make a determination yourself, FOR REAL by experiencing.

Liz

Dushi, you do know how to torture me don't you.
I have about burned my kitchen passes for the year but ya never know, maybe I can get down at the same time as Rich.

 

[gypsyjim]

Yep Herman, I agree with you...DON join Herman....as a matter of fact....

DON, IF YOU WANT TO COME DOWN WITH HERMAN, I WILL GIVE YOU GUYS AN EXCELLENT UNBELIEVEABLE RATE.

After your trip, you then have to POST on Scubaboard how great your trip was and how you should have EXPERIENCED Bonaire, before making your decisions on the island.

I MEAN COME ON, YOU WILL VISIT A RESORT THAT HAS ARMED GUARDS AND GUNS RIGHT????

Come on, stay with us, you know know how safe we are and you can then make a determination yourself, FOR REAL by experiencing.

Liz

I second that, Don!
Herman and Deputy Dan introduced us to Bonaire threw one of these SB threads a few years back, and we joined them. We had a ball.
Been back at least 5 times since and would be joining Herman and friends again this summer , but I'm introducing my little brother and his team to Bonaire end of July and we'll miss each other by @2weeks! :depressed: great group of divers, and Herman knows everyone!
I live in real rural NY, and drugs and crime are a fact of life in any place you go. There is no place on this green earth you can truly let your guard down completely, and Bonaire is no exception

 

[pdive]

There are no more or less criminals per capita on that Island then anywhere else!

please provide a link to these statistics, I have been trying to find these. Thanks!

 

[ronski101]

so much for on site security. We certainly plan to change the way we conduct ourselves on our next trip there in feb 2010.

 

[Karelmakov]

Hello everyone, OP here.

I'd like to take this opportunity to hijack my own thread (I started it, I can do what I want with it) and point people to the other half of my dive report. As the title of this thread indicates, we had a good trip with a bad ending. So I've posted my "good trip" portion of the story, where we break down the different dive sites we did. Take a look. And yes, its just as long-winded as my first post on this thread...

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/abc-islands/286003-two-noobs-report-bonaire-detail.html

 

[DiverVince]

Nice report Darren. But one thing I've noticed on Bonaire is that the ocean & sites are always changing. We're down there twice a year & I see changes all the time at sites we frequently dive. Currents, viz & marine life vary on a daily, weekly & monthly basis.

 

[gypsyjim]

Even hourly!

 

[Tom Smedley]

I could talk about renting a car in Curacao and having to sign a waver that if I parked in certain places that the insurance would be void.

I could also talk about having to pay for access to beach sites in Curacao. To me that is more of a crime than anything anywhere.

Then I could go on for about two-thousand pages about how Bonaire is absoutely the best thing on Earth. I could talk about eighteen trips in sixteen years.

I could talk about the roll of film I had stolen once or I could talk about my partner's gear bag that fell out of the truck and someone turned it in to the police station.

I could talk about delayed luggage and how Wannadive loaned the diver stuff at no charge. I could talk about dawn dives and sunset dives and picnics on Seru Largu. I could talk about sunsets at Pink Beach. I could talk about flamingo migrations. I could talk about cabritu stoba.

I could talk about warm, friendly folks with smiling faces. Friends for life. I could talk about the Lions Den, or Bobby Jans and the Wannadive Hut. Seahorses and frogfish. I could talk about Cactus Blue - Or the Golden Reef Inn.

I can personally describe the agonies of PBD.

Two-thousand pages Liz - now how about those rates??

DON, IF YOU WANT TO COME DOWN WITH HERMAN, I WILL GIVE YOU GUYS AN EXCELLENT UNBELIEVEABLE RATE. After your trip, you then have to POST on Scubaboard how great your trip was and how you should have EXPERIENCED Bonaire, before making your decisions on the island.Liz

 

[DandyDon]

Would 2,000 pages fix the crime problem? Cute smokescreen hijack. Actually island fans like you are part of the problem. Since many of you will keep going back and writing about all the good in spite of the risks, then the locals have no reason to address the crimes - none. It's just part of life there: rip off the tourists when you can.

Hope Liz's work in making her property more secure goes well and serves as an example to others. I like her attitude and hope the follow thru goes well.

Of course the beach dive parking areas and even apartment parking areas cannot be protected. I know nothing about Netherlands law and why prosecuting is so difficult?

So don't leave anything valuable in the vehicles;

Insure well;

And hope the vehicles are not damaged in the apartment lots - or sleep in them as has been mentioned.​

I'll see about working the island in on my 2010 trips. Sounds like wonderful diving if Liz can get the property better secured.

Air fare and lousy connections are the other deterrents for me. Dela finally returned to Lubbock and the merger is progressing so maybe I can use FF-miles someday soon as well as not have to spend a whole day in IAH airport going and coming.

 

[Tom Smedley]

Hey I don't write about all good stuff. I did a long dissertation once about bad service in a restaurant. And those dastardly cruise ships.

The thread is about crime in Bonaire and I don't consider my post a hijack. If the OP's passport and cell phone had been in the safe it would not have been stolen. If the young man in Montgomery had been home this morning at two-am he would not have been shot dead over some trivial matter.

I 'm just saying that the crime problem in Bonaire is greatly exaggerated. You get twenty rave reports and one report of theft. Then the crime rate has soared.

Don - your favorite place is Cozumel. I suppose that no one you know has been fined a thousand pesos - usually to be paid on the spot - by the Policia. This is not a crime - is it?

Go forth - enjoy adventure - and laud those folks like Liz who see a problem and work to fix it.
And if you obsess over losing some baubles - don't leave them on the car seat in Bonaire - or in Lubbock.