Trip Report Bonaire: Den Laman and Dive Friends, August 17-31. 2022

[rmorgan]

Nice Sea Goddess!

Sadly (I think, anyway), Tui, which owns Chogogo and Resort Bonaire, is ready to build another resort in the skinny but deep lot just south of Chogogo and Eden Beach. With the Public Authority putting in a park between DL and Chogogo (and Bonaire certainly needs better access to the sea for families), the future of that space for diving Bari seems in doubt. I saw a recommendation that divers use the Sand Dollar beach, but that’s pretty hard to imagine, even aside from the parking. With the Eden Beach lot gone too, would there be any parking close to the water between Something Special and Cliff? Casts a little chill over Dive Freedom.

 

[scubadada]

Not everyone knows the Purple Crowned Sea Goddess

I heard there would be access to Bari Reef from the park? I doubt there would be public access from Sand Dollar, Den Laman, or their pier. I guess we will see.

 

[staggsSevin]

Thanks for the write up. We are returning in December for our first trip back to Bonaire since 2019. I was a bit concerned with Chogogo, and actually booked Bellafonte this trip. We've stayed Den Laman around 6 times previously and always enjoyed it though. This will be our first time at Bellafonte.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @staggsSevin

I look forward to your review of Bellafonte. What is the house reef?

 

[Catito]

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Super cool

 

[Catito]

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Super cool

 

[scubadada]

The Den Laman/Sand Dollar pier got a major facelift since our last visit, new planking, benches, and table. I'm not sure what the frame is for that is over part of the larger bench.

Edit: I heard back from Dive Friends. There is now fabric on top of the frame to protect from the sun. We could have used that at the end of August, It was very sunny and extremely hot.

 

[jonhall]

Great report and fantastic pictures.

 

[rmorgan]

Not everyone knows the Purple Crowned Sea Goddess

I heard there would be access to Bari Reef from the park? I doubt there would be public access from Sand Dollar, Den Laman, or their pier. I guess we will see.

It's hard to find the nudibranchs and slugs around Bonaire, but they're there, eh? Here's the rendering of the park from a recent BES Reporter. Looking at it again, there's more parking than I thought, so maybe it'll work out great for divers. When we were at Den Laman in June, the self-help wall between the parking lot and Den Laman was pretty huge, so divers were going straight in. The table rocks there are pretty slick, and we saw a couple of people take some hard falls trying to get across it and down to the sand.

 

[drrich2]

Fine trip report. Love that huge elk horn shot; glad to see one of those looking so beautiful and healthy. Sweet pics of the frogfish, and congratulations on seeing so many in one trip; very nice.

Richard.