Bonaire Advice.... sites and places to eat

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Hey BonaireDan,

Ribs are like underwear, very personal. To me Bobbejan's ribs have a real nice sauce. And if I wanted sauce I'd order sauce. The ribs themselves (each of the many times I've been there) are meatless and tough.

Now, yall may eat ribs like that in KC, and I know them Texans think barbecue is made from cows (and in NC they eat vinegar and call it barbecue sauce). I can tell you that ribs like those served at Bobbejans wouldn't get past the judges gate at MIM, and I'd throw them out before serving them to my guests.

That said, we enjoy Bobbejans and return multiple times each trip. Everything else we've had there has been good. I believe they are a victim of meat quality. If they had good ribs to begin with I believe they'd turn out a good rack (but they don't).

Like I said before, personal. Yall enjoy the ribs and I'll enjoy the sateh, fish, etc. When I encounter something on Bonaire I don't like I just skip it, order another beer, and continue to enjoy...
 
yea boy, the chicken is excellent.

Also at Plazita Lemena...
 
If you haven't been in 10 years then you will find the reefs have changed substantially from at least 3 hurricanes( or their surges) ... that includes sites at klein.

I would suggest Rappel, bon bini na ca and some of the klein sites for boat dives. Also Karpata and Ole Blue to avoid the drive thru Rincon ( which is a beautiful drive - but some like to avoid it). Red Slave and Margate in the far south have bouys -- again if you want to avoid drives.
 
We got back from Bonaire yesterday. It was our first trip & loved it.

did some boat diving at Klein. The reef was in great shape and no other divers around! The shore diving was also fantastic.

La Guernica for tapas and seafood.
Wil's Tropical Grill for the smoked marlin appetizer (bring your high-concentration DEET repellant). Burger at Lion's Den.
Goat stew at Rose Inn in Rincon--but make sure you ask the prices first so you don't get hit by the tourist triple-price.
Paradise Moon (formerly Papaya Moon) is located by the Harbor. Cannot recommend them. Food was generally good (except the crunchy rice and rancid-tasting tortilla chips) but a bit overpriced. Service was HORRIBLY inefficient & slow despite very few customers, then we were hit with a 17% gratuity added-on for parties of 6 or more. A nearby table had a different waitress who seemed to be doing a better job.
Pasa Bon Pizza, so good we ate there twice. Supreme pizza was better than the pepperoni, unfortunately they were out of the seafood pizza.
 
I would say the best place for a boat dive is either Rappel or Bloodlet. Two sites not accessible by shore.

For large group dinners, I would recommend the BBQ night at Rum Runners.

Tom
 
We just returned yesterday from or second trip to Bonaire, our first was in Sept. of 2008 and we left the week before Omar passed by. From what I could tell most of the damage to be seen was above 20' with the northern sites showing more than southern. I did notice a lack of Moray Eels, I didn't see any green ones and only a few other colors. Having said that, I would not hesitate to jump back on a plane and go back and dive them all again:D .

We did see quite a few turtles out on the Klein boat dives, we did Capt' Dons reef, Jerry's Reef as a drift dive and two others the name is escaping me at the moment. I would suggest the boat dives at Klein as well.

My very favorite shore dive is Lac Cai (on the wild side), we swim out submerged in the channel from the pile of conch shells and out over the reef to the mooring line, back the same way and surface swim the last 60 or so yards back. We have done this both trips and it is a 75 minute dive for me with a generously filled 80cf cylinder.

For dinning I have really enjoyed It Rains Fishes, I would put it as a must dine. Donna and Giorgio's is good Italian and Unbelievable was excellent also. I can only think of one bad meal and that was because I didn't really understand what I was ordering.
 
SNIP

My very favorite shore dive is Lac Cai (on the wild side), we swim out submerged in the channel from the pile of conch shells and out over the reef to the mooring line, back the same way and surface swim the last 60 or so yards back. We have done this both trips and it is a 75 minute dive for me with a generously filled 80cf cylinder.

SNIP

.

mooring line? where dat?
 
We just returned yesterday from or second trip to Bonaire, our first was in Sept. of 2008 and we left the week before Omar passed by. From what I could tell most of the damage to be seen was above 20' with the northern sites showing more than southern. I did notice a lack of Moray Eels, I didn't see any green ones and only a few other colors. Having said that, I would not hesitate to jump back on a plane and go back and dive them all again:D .

Agreed that the northern sites were clearly hit harder than the southern, which is why we did more diving down south on this trip. Interesting that we were there at the same time as you, yet we saw MANY moray eels (on every dive), though only 2 HUGE Green Morays. We saw mostly Spotted and Goldentail, but also a couple of gorgeous Chain Morays as well.

We did see quite a few turtles out on the Klein boat dives, we did Capt' Dons reef, Jerry's Reef as a drift dive and two others the name is escaping me at the moment. I would suggest the boat dives at Klein as well.

We did all shore diving and out of 40 dives we saw turtles 24x (I counted), and sometimes it was more than one turtle at a site. That was FAR more turtles than we saw last year, so clearly nesting season has begun.
 

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