Bonaire and Curacao Trip Report March 18- April 10
While I could have made this two separate trip reports I elected to keep it as one. We spent one week on Bonaire, our second time on the island, and a little over two weeks on Curacao, our first time there. Please keep in mind that the opinions and experiences stated here are mine and my wife's, yours may be different. My wife and I are both experienced divers and travel 3 to 4 times a year for dive vacations.
After many months of anticipation and planning, and many hours of packing, unpacking and moving stuff from one bag to another to meet the weight requirements while bringing recreational backplate and wing setups plus sidemount gear and a few clothes we finally arrived in Bonaire for the first part of our dive trip.
We used Avis for the car rental and vehicle pick up went fast and smoothly. We got a new small pickup truck with only 500 miles on it. One nice thing was that the electronic key fob was already listed as not working which meant I could put it in my swimsuit pocket under my wetsuit and not worry. We then headed to Den Laman to meet with them to get the key and be shown the room we were staying in. They insisted we meet them first before going to the market which added more time for us since we then had to drive back to the market to get food for the week, in retrospect I should have made them wait for us after all it’s my vacation.
The Condo
The condo, Grouper at Den Laman, was ok in a third world sort of way, ceiling fan ready to fall off, main door lock loose like it had been kicked etc. Bonaire is building a park immediately adjacent to Den Laman, and everything including the inside of the room and the outside patio was covered in dust constantly for the week that we were there. The new resort next door started playing loud music that could easily be heard in the room around 5 o’clock and stopped about 10pm. While convenient to most parts of the island and on Bari reef, (more on that later), I would probably not stay there again if on the island.
Next was to check in at Dive Friends on the premises and get rental tanks. So, I’m standing at the counter filling out the paperwork and the manager, a British gal, is tearing into an older gentleman, something about him bringing his weights back to the wrong location, then he asks about renting a tank for a solo dive, and she goes crazy! I’m standing there and she is totally being disrespectful to this guy while spewing a bunch of P@DI crap about how it’s not allowed because of bla bla bla. It took everything I had not to tear up the paperwork and head over to Buddys to rent tanks, even the young girl that was helping me with the paperwork was embarrassed. (strike 1).
The next day I was meeting my best friend who was also on the island, and I had invited him and his girlfriend to come over and dive Bari reef with us. When they arrived carrying all of their scuba gear, they were promptly stopped and told to leave by the “other boss lady” at Dive Friends. He sent me a text message and I went downstairs to find out what was going on. She says they can’t dive here unless they are staying here. I told her they were guests of mine; she says she doesn’t care they have to go!
I then tell her that they are staying in the room with us, she is still pissed off but realizes she’s not going to win and storms off like an angry 9-year-old. (strike 2)
Diving Bonaire
We dove Bari that afternoon and again that night. Both were very nice and convenient dives.
During the next 5 days we dove Salt Pier, something special, oil slick, 1000 steps, karpata, petries pillar Buddys to Bari sidemount and small wall. All of the dives were nice with pretty fish to see and relatively healthy reefs.
On the 4th day we were just coming back to our place at Den Laman, bringing our dive gear back to the locker room and again we see the Dive Friends reef police stopping a fully geared up couple, and telling them they can’t dive there. This is such total BS! I point out a simple path on the other side of Den Laman and still she says no. I asked her how is anybody able to get to Bari reef from the shore, she says only renters are allowed. I ask what if every place on the island does that and there is no more access to the reefs, who is going to come to dive here then? Her answer left my wife and the couple that was trying to dive there speechless; she says we don’t care if nobody comes. {strike 3)
If I were to go back to Bonaire, I would hand carry a week’s worth of 3 dives a day tanks for 2 people from the farthest side of the island before I would rent from Dive Unfriendly at Den Laman, (and that’s being nice).
The food Bonaire
Being a vegan/vegetarian is hard while on vacation, but I was able to find some very good food while on Bonaire. My top picks are Mezzes, we ate there twice, (reservations required), Umbrella, for great mixed drinks, (didn’t eat there only drinks), Between 2 buns, new location, Rumba cafe, good food, not so good service, Breeze and Bites at Den Laman actually had a very good vegetarian burger, Pasa Bon pizza, always good and Blennies at Buddys is a nice place to eat and drink. The food trucks were also pretty good for vegetarian options and are always convenient for close after dive food. Most every breakfast we made at the room and fresh eggs were not a problem to find at the store.
We tried all the places for ice cream and gelato and by far Luciano was the best.
Overall Bonaire
You don’t go to Bonaire for the scenery, the beaches or the food, you go for the diving. That being said the reef life and fish life is some of the best anywhere. We are all entitled to enjoy the reefs, they belong to all of us and we should all have access to them. Unfortunately, more places are building “my sh!t” walls and limiting that access, so go enjoy them while you still can!
Bags all packed and weighed for our flight to Curacao on Divi Divi air. They have very specific weights for each bag, not just checked bags so check before you go. The flight is in a 15-person plane and takes about 25 minutes.
While I could have made this two separate trip reports I elected to keep it as one. We spent one week on Bonaire, our second time on the island, and a little over two weeks on Curacao, our first time there. Please keep in mind that the opinions and experiences stated here are mine and my wife's, yours may be different. My wife and I are both experienced divers and travel 3 to 4 times a year for dive vacations.
After many months of anticipation and planning, and many hours of packing, unpacking and moving stuff from one bag to another to meet the weight requirements while bringing recreational backplate and wing setups plus sidemount gear and a few clothes we finally arrived in Bonaire for the first part of our dive trip.
We used Avis for the car rental and vehicle pick up went fast and smoothly. We got a new small pickup truck with only 500 miles on it. One nice thing was that the electronic key fob was already listed as not working which meant I could put it in my swimsuit pocket under my wetsuit and not worry. We then headed to Den Laman to meet with them to get the key and be shown the room we were staying in. They insisted we meet them first before going to the market which added more time for us since we then had to drive back to the market to get food for the week, in retrospect I should have made them wait for us after all it’s my vacation.
The Condo
The condo, Grouper at Den Laman, was ok in a third world sort of way, ceiling fan ready to fall off, main door lock loose like it had been kicked etc. Bonaire is building a park immediately adjacent to Den Laman, and everything including the inside of the room and the outside patio was covered in dust constantly for the week that we were there. The new resort next door started playing loud music that could easily be heard in the room around 5 o’clock and stopped about 10pm. While convenient to most parts of the island and on Bari reef, (more on that later), I would probably not stay there again if on the island.
Next was to check in at Dive Friends on the premises and get rental tanks. So, I’m standing at the counter filling out the paperwork and the manager, a British gal, is tearing into an older gentleman, something about him bringing his weights back to the wrong location, then he asks about renting a tank for a solo dive, and she goes crazy! I’m standing there and she is totally being disrespectful to this guy while spewing a bunch of P@DI crap about how it’s not allowed because of bla bla bla. It took everything I had not to tear up the paperwork and head over to Buddys to rent tanks, even the young girl that was helping me with the paperwork was embarrassed. (strike 1).
The next day I was meeting my best friend who was also on the island, and I had invited him and his girlfriend to come over and dive Bari reef with us. When they arrived carrying all of their scuba gear, they were promptly stopped and told to leave by the “other boss lady” at Dive Friends. He sent me a text message and I went downstairs to find out what was going on. She says they can’t dive here unless they are staying here. I told her they were guests of mine; she says she doesn’t care they have to go!
I then tell her that they are staying in the room with us, she is still pissed off but realizes she’s not going to win and storms off like an angry 9-year-old. (strike 2)
Diving Bonaire
We dove Bari that afternoon and again that night. Both were very nice and convenient dives.
During the next 5 days we dove Salt Pier, something special, oil slick, 1000 steps, karpata, petries pillar Buddys to Bari sidemount and small wall. All of the dives were nice with pretty fish to see and relatively healthy reefs.
On the 4th day we were just coming back to our place at Den Laman, bringing our dive gear back to the locker room and again we see the Dive Friends reef police stopping a fully geared up couple, and telling them they can’t dive there. This is such total BS! I point out a simple path on the other side of Den Laman and still she says no. I asked her how is anybody able to get to Bari reef from the shore, she says only renters are allowed. I ask what if every place on the island does that and there is no more access to the reefs, who is going to come to dive here then? Her answer left my wife and the couple that was trying to dive there speechless; she says we don’t care if nobody comes. {strike 3)
If I were to go back to Bonaire, I would hand carry a week’s worth of 3 dives a day tanks for 2 people from the farthest side of the island before I would rent from Dive Unfriendly at Den Laman, (and that’s being nice).
The food Bonaire
Being a vegan/vegetarian is hard while on vacation, but I was able to find some very good food while on Bonaire. My top picks are Mezzes, we ate there twice, (reservations required), Umbrella, for great mixed drinks, (didn’t eat there only drinks), Between 2 buns, new location, Rumba cafe, good food, not so good service, Breeze and Bites at Den Laman actually had a very good vegetarian burger, Pasa Bon pizza, always good and Blennies at Buddys is a nice place to eat and drink. The food trucks were also pretty good for vegetarian options and are always convenient for close after dive food. Most every breakfast we made at the room and fresh eggs were not a problem to find at the store.
We tried all the places for ice cream and gelato and by far Luciano was the best.
Overall Bonaire
You don’t go to Bonaire for the scenery, the beaches or the food, you go for the diving. That being said the reef life and fish life is some of the best anywhere. We are all entitled to enjoy the reefs, they belong to all of us and we should all have access to them. Unfortunately, more places are building “my sh!t” walls and limiting that access, so go enjoy them while you still can!
Bags all packed and weighed for our flight to Curacao on Divi Divi air. They have very specific weights for each bag, not just checked bags so check before you go. The flight is in a 15-person plane and takes about 25 minutes.
