Bonaire dive sites in the Park

[jbinbonaire]

This will be our 4th trip to Bonaire and we are considering diving in the park this year. We've driven through the park before and are familiar with the terrain! Any advice on the top two dives worthy of that drive?

 

[RJP]

This will be our 4th trip to Bonaire and we are considering diving in the park this year. We've driven through the park before and are familiar with the terrain! Any advice on the top two dives worthy of that drive?

If you've been 3 times already and not done the park yet you are missing out!

My recommendation is to bring 3 or 4 tanks each, plus lunch and make a full morning/day of it. Not worth the long drive for 2 dives. My buddy and I did Playa Bengi and Bise Morto which were both quite nice. Wish we had brought at least one if not two extra tanks as Playa Funchi and Boca Slagbaai also looked very nice, with the latter having a very nice beach and bathroom facilities I believe.

Note Bise Morto required a bit of a climb down and then back up to the parking area. We lowered our tanks, then our gear, then assembled our kit once down there. Not a huge issue, as not much deters us from diving a spot we have our sites set on. I can see someone of smaller stature or with limited physical strength finding it challenging.

 

[DiveMaven]

Thanks for the question and reply! We're doing our second visit to Bonaire in a few weeks and have been talking about making a day of diving in the park one day. We're looking at doing the short route though, and diving Playa Funchi, Bise Morto, Wayaka (II or III), and/or Boka Slagbaai.

We talked about taking 3-4 tanks each and lunch and making a day of it, and it's great to hear that someone recommends doing that highly.

 

[RJP]

Thanks for the question and reply! We're doing our second visit to Bonaire in a few weeks and have been talking about making a day of diving in the park one day. We're looking at doing the short route though, and diving Playa Funchi, Bise Morto, Wayaka (II or III), and/or Boka Slagbaai.

We talked about taking 3-4 tanks each and lunch and making a day of it, and it's great to hear that someone recommends doing that highly.

PS - plan to get to the park right when it opens. If you've not driven through there before, you'll soon appreciate just how long it takes to circumnavigate the entire park on that winding, one-way, dirt road.



We got there at 8am and didn't exit the park until almost 1pm after only two dives.

 

[sasscuba]

We have done a few dives driving the short route but have only driven the long route. Is it worth it to dive on the long route?

 

[rakayaker]

We were told by the Dive Ops at Captain DOn's last Friday that the hurricane had wiped out the park's corals down to 100 feet and it wasn't worth it at all. fwiw we dove Karpata and Rappel and 1000 steps and they were great (Karpata and Rappel our favorites for the week).

 

[DiveMaven]

Oooh, thanks for the update rakayaker! We'll talk with the folks at BDA and Tim at Fish Eye Photo to hear what they think when we arrive on island later this month before we venture into the park to dive.