Intro: Had a great week of diving. My wife and I flew down on United from EWR and stayed at Capt Dons in one of their oceanfront deluxe jr. suites. Booked the trip through Maduro. This was our 5th trip to Bon with our last in '16. First time using Maduro and they were easy to work with and all went as planned with the trip.
Travel: United nonstop from EWR went well and no complaints other than the ridiculously high airfare. We originally booked the trip in '19 for '20 and rescheduled a couple times due to Covid. With an extra space seat and bags tickets were around $1,000 each. We can fly to CUR and GCM for far less. We were the first flight in and getting through the airport was faster than I remember, maybe 5 minutes for immigration and another 10 mins for bags. We rented a truck from Avis which is conveniently located within a short walk from where you exit with your bags. 5 mins to pick up the truck and we were off. There is an advantage in getting in before other flights and sitting in the front of the plane. Short drive to Capt Dons. Roads still not much improved from the last trip.
Accommodations: First time staying at Capt Dons and enjoyed the room and resort. Our room was right on the water, near the dive lockers and dive dock with views of the dive boats and Klein. Room had a kitchenette: half fridge, microwave, sink, coffee maker. We were on the 2nd floor and enjoyed the balcony that had a drying area, two chairs and a table and two loungers. Capt Don's staff were friendly and helpful and check in and check out were easy and quick.
We met lots of divers, couples and small groups. There was one large group from the midwest and they had their own boat for the week. Mostly all Americans. Capt Don's is undergoing an expansion which is supposed to be done by the fall but I dont see how that will happen from what we observed. It did look like they spruced up the resort and were improving some landscaping as well. We enjoyed staying at Capt Dons and would stay again.
Diving: 20 dives for me of which 7 were boat, 13 shore and of the shore, 2 were night dives (early morning before sunrise) and 7 were solo. On the boat dives, mostly Klein and on the shore all were at Capt Dons, Buddys and Cliff. My wife logged 11 dives, 5 of which were boat which is a lot for her and a reflection of how easy and enjoyable the diving was. Water temps at 81 and vis ranging from 80'-100'. Wore mostly a long sleeve rash guard top with a bare hooded vest. Had a 3 mil shorty on some of the early morning dives. The reefs were extremely fishy and we enjoyed every dive.
There were clouds of brown and blue chromis everywhere on the house reefs and never ending streaming schools of creole wrasses. Eels, trunkfish, cowfish, parrot fish, tilefish everywhere. Arrow crabs, Banded and Pedersen Shrimp, Mysid Shrimp (correction Isopod - edit) on a Creole fish (creepy), Spiny lobster, slipper lobster, fire worms and urchins. Saw three juve drums, two no bigger than a quarter. Turtles. There were two seahorses at Cliff all week and we saw a frog fish on a Klein dive.
We rented a truck but the diving was so easy and enjoyable from Capt Dons we just were not motivated to do anything else. The dive set up at Capt Dons also now has the nitrox as well as air tanks available at the diving dock level and was pleased to see so many 63s available and I see more and more people using them. I dive with 63s at home and used them on all my Bon shore dives and have no problem getting 50-60 minutes from them on most dives. My wife dives 63s. At some places it can be a bit of a struggle finding and getting the smaller tanks but not at Capt Dons. On the boat dives I used 80s. Dove nitrox all week which was free with our package. Almost all of our fills were above 3000 and some closer to 3500. Our dive package included nitrox, 10 boat dives each and unlimited shore diving. `
Food: With just a kitchenette we ate out a bit more than our usual trips. Picked up supplies at the Zhung Kong market down the street (which as others have noted is much improved with expanded selections). We did breakfast in every day with lunch in most days. Dinners at Bobbi Jans take out, Rum Runners, Ingredients and Rain Fishes. Rum Runners looks like it was completely redone and it looks nicer, especially in the bar area. Nice improvements. We had a pizza dinner with island friends in the RR bar one night and appetizers another.
Conclusion: It was so nice to be able to return to Bonaire. This is where we started our family dive adventure back in 2009. Our two children, then 10 and 13, did their open water at Capt Dons and are still diving today. There were a number of families with small children doing the same on this trip. It made us happy to see.
We were fortunate to have a chance to visit with friends on the island we made on the first trip. On our last day, we drove down to Salt Pier and reminisced on our past trips and dives all along that stretch with two of our favorites being a late afternoon dives on the pier with the sunlight shining through the piers with the sun lower in the sky and the other on Angel City and watching eagle rays feeding in the sand. Hope to return again in a couple years. Would like to get to CUR or GCM next.
Travel: United nonstop from EWR went well and no complaints other than the ridiculously high airfare. We originally booked the trip in '19 for '20 and rescheduled a couple times due to Covid. With an extra space seat and bags tickets were around $1,000 each. We can fly to CUR and GCM for far less. We were the first flight in and getting through the airport was faster than I remember, maybe 5 minutes for immigration and another 10 mins for bags. We rented a truck from Avis which is conveniently located within a short walk from where you exit with your bags. 5 mins to pick up the truck and we were off. There is an advantage in getting in before other flights and sitting in the front of the plane. Short drive to Capt Dons. Roads still not much improved from the last trip.
Accommodations: First time staying at Capt Dons and enjoyed the room and resort. Our room was right on the water, near the dive lockers and dive dock with views of the dive boats and Klein. Room had a kitchenette: half fridge, microwave, sink, coffee maker. We were on the 2nd floor and enjoyed the balcony that had a drying area, two chairs and a table and two loungers. Capt Don's staff were friendly and helpful and check in and check out were easy and quick.
We met lots of divers, couples and small groups. There was one large group from the midwest and they had their own boat for the week. Mostly all Americans. Capt Don's is undergoing an expansion which is supposed to be done by the fall but I dont see how that will happen from what we observed. It did look like they spruced up the resort and were improving some landscaping as well. We enjoyed staying at Capt Dons and would stay again.
Diving: 20 dives for me of which 7 were boat, 13 shore and of the shore, 2 were night dives (early morning before sunrise) and 7 were solo. On the boat dives, mostly Klein and on the shore all were at Capt Dons, Buddys and Cliff. My wife logged 11 dives, 5 of which were boat which is a lot for her and a reflection of how easy and enjoyable the diving was. Water temps at 81 and vis ranging from 80'-100'. Wore mostly a long sleeve rash guard top with a bare hooded vest. Had a 3 mil shorty on some of the early morning dives. The reefs were extremely fishy and we enjoyed every dive.
There were clouds of brown and blue chromis everywhere on the house reefs and never ending streaming schools of creole wrasses. Eels, trunkfish, cowfish, parrot fish, tilefish everywhere. Arrow crabs, Banded and Pedersen Shrimp, Mysid Shrimp (correction Isopod - edit) on a Creole fish (creepy), Spiny lobster, slipper lobster, fire worms and urchins. Saw three juve drums, two no bigger than a quarter. Turtles. There were two seahorses at Cliff all week and we saw a frog fish on a Klein dive.
We rented a truck but the diving was so easy and enjoyable from Capt Dons we just were not motivated to do anything else. The dive set up at Capt Dons also now has the nitrox as well as air tanks available at the diving dock level and was pleased to see so many 63s available and I see more and more people using them. I dive with 63s at home and used them on all my Bon shore dives and have no problem getting 50-60 minutes from them on most dives. My wife dives 63s. At some places it can be a bit of a struggle finding and getting the smaller tanks but not at Capt Dons. On the boat dives I used 80s. Dove nitrox all week which was free with our package. Almost all of our fills were above 3000 and some closer to 3500. Our dive package included nitrox, 10 boat dives each and unlimited shore diving. `
Food: With just a kitchenette we ate out a bit more than our usual trips. Picked up supplies at the Zhung Kong market down the street (which as others have noted is much improved with expanded selections). We did breakfast in every day with lunch in most days. Dinners at Bobbi Jans take out, Rum Runners, Ingredients and Rain Fishes. Rum Runners looks like it was completely redone and it looks nicer, especially in the bar area. Nice improvements. We had a pizza dinner with island friends in the RR bar one night and appetizers another.
Conclusion: It was so nice to be able to return to Bonaire. This is where we started our family dive adventure back in 2009. Our two children, then 10 and 13, did their open water at Capt Dons and are still diving today. There were a number of families with small children doing the same on this trip. It made us happy to see.
We were fortunate to have a chance to visit with friends on the island we made on the first trip. On our last day, we drove down to Salt Pier and reminisced on our past trips and dives all along that stretch with two of our favorites being a late afternoon dives on the pier with the sunlight shining through the piers with the sun lower in the sky and the other on Angel City and watching eagle rays feeding in the sand. Hope to return again in a couple years. Would like to get to CUR or GCM next.
