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Hi fellow divers!
My Name is Jacob and this is my first post to Scubaboard. I have been been diving for a few years now and enjoy diving a lot! Thanks for all the posts on the ABC islands. I reviewed many of them before taking a trip there. I just returned from Bonaire and Curacao! I enjoyed both destinations very well. I have been to Curacao before, but this was my first trip to Bonaire. Here is a brief report of my trip.
Bonaire:
As I mentioned, this was my first trip to Bonaire. I really like Bonaire a lot. I found the people to be extremely friendly. Why even on the plane there we met a local businessman that invited us over to his house Friday evening for dinner. On our flight into Bonaire our flight time changed causing us to arrive late. When we arrived we werent able to reach the owners of our apartment. However, an airport security person went out of her way to stop at the neighbors house of the apartment rental to get the owners cell number. Within minutes the owner was there. Since we arrived late we werent able to pick up our rental vehicle. Here again the owner of the apartment went out of his way to take us to a grocery store and then out to a restaurant for dinner. We spent six nights with Ocean View Villa's. We rented a two-bedroom apartment from them with A/C fully furnished with dishes, stove, microwave, refrigerator, and etc. They have three apartments and the owner and his family live on the premise. It is walled in and has a nice courtyard garden area. It is located about three hundred yards from Bachelors beach. I would highly recommend them!
Ive read some of the horror stories about people being robbed while shore diving and so forth. Thankfully I didnt have any problems, but here is what I did. I spoke to the local rental car place, as well as, the owners of the apartment and followed their recommendation. When diving I would bring only what I would use on the dive and leave nothing of value in the vehicle (either use a dry box or leave your license and credit cards/cash at your room. Furthermore do not lock your vehicle (apparently if locked vehicles will often have broken windows from people looking for valuables). They told me that when in town vehicles will rarely be broken into, it seems as though it only occurs to vehicles parked out of town. Also, they said it happens more when there is some big festival going on. I think if you follow these tips you shouldnt have any problems.
Bonaire Diving is awesome! Mostly we did shore diving, which Bonaire is so famous for. One day we did a two-tank boat dive to Klein Bonaire. We used Dive Friends for our boat dive and tank rentals. Here are a couple of the dives we did. I dont think there are any bad dive sites on Bonaire, but these are some of the ones we really liked.
Note: Some of the shore diving sites are rocky and have coral to shore! Make sure you use fins with booties you can wear in! Otherwise you may get scraped up a little.
Note: Before you can dive in Bonaire you have to pay a $25 reef sanctuary fee and do a buoyancy check (included in your reef fee is access to the national park).
Bonaire sites:
43 Hilma Hooker (pretty nice dive site with a 250ft freighter-personally I thought this site was way over rated. I think everyone does it to say they did the wreck)
44. Angel City (nice site-we saw a huge southern ray and lots of fish)
45. Alice In Wonderland (We did this site right before sunset-very nice! We saw around five eels and several varieties of them. Plus tons of fish!)
49. Salt Pier (I loved this site-it would rank near the top! The piers are so cool because they attract so many kinds of fish and tons of them! Toward the end of the piers you can find some really large fish just hanging out near the food supply. Also, the pilings themselves are overgrown with coral and sponges. Some of them have ladders and various implements that have become overgrown with sponges and coral.
53. Pink Beach (Another very nice dive. Probably one of the easier sites to access and very nice marine life.
60. Red Slave (I liked this site a lot! It starts out sandy but than breaks into several walls that get pretty deep. We found lots of fish and nice reef. Unfortunately, I found three large Lion Fish that were at around 130ft. We reported them to the Lion Fish killers!)
Klien Bonaire Sites:
M. Hands Off (Great dive! They say there are more than a hundred types of coral on this dive site)
V. Carls Hill (Very nice walls-apparently this dive site was named after a photographer that spent countless dives photographing this site.
If you arent a diver Bonaire can be a bit quiet and slow paced. Personally I liked it a lot. However, in contrast to Curacao you wont find lots of big sandy beaches and plush resorts with lots of stores and shopping.
Some things you may want to try after your dives are windsurfing and kite boarding (another reason Bonaire is famous). Bonaire has trade winds that make these sports possible almost year round. My wife and sister tried windsurfing they had fun with it. My buddy and I opted for kite boarding it was fun, but let me warn you it isnt for the faint at heart! The learning process includes having a kite drag you through miles of water LOL!
Curacao:
In Curacao we spent five nights at The Beach Emerald Marriott. It is a beautiful resort with an awesome beach and swimming pool! There is also a dive shop onsite offering both boat and shore diving. You can do a shore dive right in front of the Marriott-it is decent, but after Bonaire dont expect to be to impressed with there house reef! Some of the other dive sites mentioned are really nice! We used Ocean Encounters for tank rentals and boat dives.
Shore dives Curacao:
Porte Maria (Very nice site-I really liked this one. There is a beach here to chill on. Also, there is a small dive shop onsite where you can rent tanks)
Neptune (Another nice site. If you swim directly out from the small pier you will find a statue of the Greek god Neptune.)
Alice In Wonderland (A great shore dive with lots of fish and beautiful coral in front of the Hotel Kura Hulanda Lodge with a dive shop onsite)
Curacao boat dives:
Paradise (One of my favorites-just a beautiful dive site with pristine coral and lots of marine life)
Watamula (Another great site-very nice)
Mushroom forest (another famous must do site-I think it is a little overrated though!)
When visiting Curacao you have to tour the historic downtown! The buildings are so colorful-quite the sight to see! Some beaches we liked were Porte Maria, Mambo (parties happen here at night), and there are tons of more awesome beaches! Some are secluded others are more commercialized. I really recommend Asia De Cuba restaurant-I think on Saturday nights they run a special where the chef will custom sauté your entrée according to your selection from an open buffet. The food was awesome!
Either of these two destinations will prove to be an awesome dive trip! Have fun!!!
My Name is Jacob and this is my first post to Scubaboard. I have been been diving for a few years now and enjoy diving a lot! Thanks for all the posts on the ABC islands. I reviewed many of them before taking a trip there. I just returned from Bonaire and Curacao! I enjoyed both destinations very well. I have been to Curacao before, but this was my first trip to Bonaire. Here is a brief report of my trip.
Bonaire:
As I mentioned, this was my first trip to Bonaire. I really like Bonaire a lot. I found the people to be extremely friendly. Why even on the plane there we met a local businessman that invited us over to his house Friday evening for dinner. On our flight into Bonaire our flight time changed causing us to arrive late. When we arrived we werent able to reach the owners of our apartment. However, an airport security person went out of her way to stop at the neighbors house of the apartment rental to get the owners cell number. Within minutes the owner was there. Since we arrived late we werent able to pick up our rental vehicle. Here again the owner of the apartment went out of his way to take us to a grocery store and then out to a restaurant for dinner. We spent six nights with Ocean View Villa's. We rented a two-bedroom apartment from them with A/C fully furnished with dishes, stove, microwave, refrigerator, and etc. They have three apartments and the owner and his family live on the premise. It is walled in and has a nice courtyard garden area. It is located about three hundred yards from Bachelors beach. I would highly recommend them!
Ive read some of the horror stories about people being robbed while shore diving and so forth. Thankfully I didnt have any problems, but here is what I did. I spoke to the local rental car place, as well as, the owners of the apartment and followed their recommendation. When diving I would bring only what I would use on the dive and leave nothing of value in the vehicle (either use a dry box or leave your license and credit cards/cash at your room. Furthermore do not lock your vehicle (apparently if locked vehicles will often have broken windows from people looking for valuables). They told me that when in town vehicles will rarely be broken into, it seems as though it only occurs to vehicles parked out of town. Also, they said it happens more when there is some big festival going on. I think if you follow these tips you shouldnt have any problems.
Bonaire Diving is awesome! Mostly we did shore diving, which Bonaire is so famous for. One day we did a two-tank boat dive to Klein Bonaire. We used Dive Friends for our boat dive and tank rentals. Here are a couple of the dives we did. I dont think there are any bad dive sites on Bonaire, but these are some of the ones we really liked.
Note: Some of the shore diving sites are rocky and have coral to shore! Make sure you use fins with booties you can wear in! Otherwise you may get scraped up a little.
Note: Before you can dive in Bonaire you have to pay a $25 reef sanctuary fee and do a buoyancy check (included in your reef fee is access to the national park).
Bonaire sites:
43 Hilma Hooker (pretty nice dive site with a 250ft freighter-personally I thought this site was way over rated. I think everyone does it to say they did the wreck)
44. Angel City (nice site-we saw a huge southern ray and lots of fish)
45. Alice In Wonderland (We did this site right before sunset-very nice! We saw around five eels and several varieties of them. Plus tons of fish!)
49. Salt Pier (I loved this site-it would rank near the top! The piers are so cool because they attract so many kinds of fish and tons of them! Toward the end of the piers you can find some really large fish just hanging out near the food supply. Also, the pilings themselves are overgrown with coral and sponges. Some of them have ladders and various implements that have become overgrown with sponges and coral.
53. Pink Beach (Another very nice dive. Probably one of the easier sites to access and very nice marine life.
60. Red Slave (I liked this site a lot! It starts out sandy but than breaks into several walls that get pretty deep. We found lots of fish and nice reef. Unfortunately, I found three large Lion Fish that were at around 130ft. We reported them to the Lion Fish killers!)
Klien Bonaire Sites:
M. Hands Off (Great dive! They say there are more than a hundred types of coral on this dive site)
V. Carls Hill (Very nice walls-apparently this dive site was named after a photographer that spent countless dives photographing this site.
If you arent a diver Bonaire can be a bit quiet and slow paced. Personally I liked it a lot. However, in contrast to Curacao you wont find lots of big sandy beaches and plush resorts with lots of stores and shopping.
Some things you may want to try after your dives are windsurfing and kite boarding (another reason Bonaire is famous). Bonaire has trade winds that make these sports possible almost year round. My wife and sister tried windsurfing they had fun with it. My buddy and I opted for kite boarding it was fun, but let me warn you it isnt for the faint at heart! The learning process includes having a kite drag you through miles of water LOL!
Curacao:
In Curacao we spent five nights at The Beach Emerald Marriott. It is a beautiful resort with an awesome beach and swimming pool! There is also a dive shop onsite offering both boat and shore diving. You can do a shore dive right in front of the Marriott-it is decent, but after Bonaire dont expect to be to impressed with there house reef! Some of the other dive sites mentioned are really nice! We used Ocean Encounters for tank rentals and boat dives.
Shore dives Curacao:
Porte Maria (Very nice site-I really liked this one. There is a beach here to chill on. Also, there is a small dive shop onsite where you can rent tanks)
Neptune (Another nice site. If you swim directly out from the small pier you will find a statue of the Greek god Neptune.)
Alice In Wonderland (A great shore dive with lots of fish and beautiful coral in front of the Hotel Kura Hulanda Lodge with a dive shop onsite)
Curacao boat dives:
Paradise (One of my favorites-just a beautiful dive site with pristine coral and lots of marine life)
Watamula (Another great site-very nice)
Mushroom forest (another famous must do site-I think it is a little overrated though!)
When visiting Curacao you have to tour the historic downtown! The buildings are so colorful-quite the sight to see! Some beaches we liked were Porte Maria, Mambo (parties happen here at night), and there are tons of more awesome beaches! Some are secluded others are more commercialized. I really recommend Asia De Cuba restaurant-I think on Saturday nights they run a special where the chef will custom sauté your entrée according to your selection from an open buffet. The food was awesome!
Either of these two destinations will prove to be an awesome dive trip! Have fun!!!
......LOL! Actually, we swam out a ways before dropping down since we had a diver that was heavy on air and the wall was pretty deep!
