Bonaire better than ever

[dianem]

I have heard Bonaire had storm damage, but it was great!!! I expected the worst from the stories about the storm, but it is increadible. There were more juvinile fish than you could dream about. I found on one dive a kindergarten of Barricudas that were no longer than 2 inches long! All of the big stuff is there also. We saw Dolphins from the boat twice, a sting ray and a huge turtle. A few sites had some damage in the shallows and apparently some were closed to recover, but the places we went were great. Some non-divers that were with us did lots of snorkeling and they had a blast. They went with the Naturalist from Sand Dollar and never had a better time snorkeling. (and they have snorkeled the world!) We were worried when we heard the dive shop had moved, but it moved about 100yrds away and was the same wonderfull staff we dove with 2 years ago. In a way, it is better now as you can pull right up to the gear storage and drive away. I recommend Sand Dollar and Bonaire to everyone!

 

[Scubashark]

Has all the storm damage been repaired? My wife and I were thinking about Bonaire for our next vacation. I heard it almost shut the diving industry down for awhile. I take it it wasn't crowded, either.

 

[dianem]

The damage is not all repaired, but everyone is operational. Many places do not have their peirs rebuilt, but that means you have to take a 1 1/2 minute ride to the marina and leave from there with the boats. For Bonaire where we were used to the luxury of stepping on from the shop it may seem inconvienent, but for the rest of the world, a 1 1/2 minute ride is not much! Some of the shops also do not have as much retail as a lot of the inventory was litterally washed out of the door and they have concentrated on rebuilding all of the services before they put back the stores. Most still have the t-shirts and nick nacs, mask snorkel fins, but not as much of the big stuff. At Sand Dollar we found the new temporary shop to be very functional and actually easier than the old on e for shore diving. You could pull right up and pick up your tanks and gear and did not have to cart them out to the parking lot... For the diving, as I mentioned I guess the sites that are bad are closed to recover, but that left more than enough for us to enjoy for 2 weeks! As I said the first time, I recommend the Sand Dollar, they have a great naturalist Jerry. Malin was lots of fun on the boat and Leonel did a great job keeping everything well organized. Everyone else was great also.

 

[King_Neptune]

There are over 100 sites here to look from that might have more info on the damage:

Damage


[Edited by King_Neptune on 07-18-2000 at 02:02 PM]

 

[herman]

We just got back from a wonderful week of diving on Bonaire, while some of the shallower portions of the reef are in bad shape(<15 ft) the rest of the reefs are full of life!!! There were clouds of small fish as well as lots of the larger ones (including the 6 ft tarpon that escorted us on our night dives). The only "closed" sections of reef that I am aware of were research sites that have been closed for at least a year, they were closed last August as well. Most of the dive operations are up and running, as the earlier post said, Sand Dollar does not have their docks back but Buddy Dive which is next door to SD (www.buddydive.com ) was completing their dock this past Saturday and should be totally back and better than ever this week. Captain Don's Habitat appeared to be in full operation with 2 new docks and several boats operating every day. Also, Buddy Dive now has a fairly well stocked dive store down town. If you have not been to Bonaire, GO!!!, you will love it.

 

[Ladydiver]

Hi Herman,

That sounds fabulous! The first thing that came to my mind was .. Did you actually take any pictures while diving??? If so, I would love to show them on the website for other to see, especially ones that are so recent! If you're interested, let me know.

Cheers,

 

[caymaniac]

Bonaire is good but definitely not better. We were there last spring break and before that 14 years before. Klien Bonaires north shore is now a waste land, and many shallow dives are trashed. Now there are Pod people. The vis was way down.

Its not better than ever!


Been there,
Caymaniac

 

[Kat]

Caymaniac,
I'll be in Aruba in August & was planning on a side trip to Bonaire, to do some diving. Do you think it's worth it or would it be a wasted day? Also, what are pod people?

 

[caymaniac]

"Pod people" arrive on islands on cruise ships. And I think it is still a good place to dive but go soon, a few more years of the way its going and I'm sure you'll see the reef suffer even more. Bonaire still has some great dives, it will take well over 400 years for the reef to recover to what it used to be. There are areas that are still great like the south end of Klein Bon. and it is still the best shore diving in the Carribean. Its just not what it once was

;-0


Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

 

[herman]

Hi Kat,

Just got back from Bonaire last night. While the hard corals are not what they use to be and will take many years to recover, it's still a great place. All of the dive ops are in full operation except Sand Dollar and they are well on the way. The fish life is great. Lots and lots of fish everywhere. There were clouds of small fish. The soft corals on the south end of the island are still in pretty good shape and there is evidence of new hard corals patches everywhere. The vis was down some, 50-75 ft but we had a solid week of fairly high winds blowing up the surf some.