Bonaire Fun or Tropicana apartments

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both owned by the same people (who also now own the Dive Hut).
I stayed at Tropicana back in July. Basic but good enough - they arranged a package with accomodation, truck and also air/nitrox with WannaDive for me at very short notice. At the time they didn't take credit card (not sure if they do now), so I payed cash as soon as I got there (rather than waiting until the end of the week).
If you're really going to shore dive lots, and don't need an on water resort, it makes a great economical option. If you prefer to do a couple of dives and hang out by a pool each day or prefer doing most of you dives by boat, you may be better off at a resort.

I'll use them again next time I go (I do lots of shore diving so don't need the resort type of thing).
 
Sounds like what we're looking for. I've gotten the impression that the owners are good friends or relatives of the guys at Wannadive.
 
Hi Friends,

This is our review about Tropicana service. My friends and I, wanted to come back to Bonaire, since that my first time there I couldn´t dive. We thought that the first place we had been was a bit unsafe, so we searched on Tripadvisor and found Tropicana, with good reviews and price.

We sent an email and setup up everything with Irene, we made the reservation and didn´t needed to pay anything in advance. One week before going to Bonaire we sent an email to inform the time our plane would arrive at Bonaire.
Our first impression upon arriving in the neighborhood was a quiet and friendly place. Irene was there waiting for us, she showed us the apartment and told that we could count on for anything we needed.

After unpacking, we found a little friend inside our apartment. A little mouse was the previous guest. This was our first adventure, trying to get the mouse and kill or get rid of it. Well, everything ok. The apartment is in front of a vacant lot, so we didn´t care much about that. In case, we are divers with a lot of courage, lol.

We had a great week, there were guests in the other apartments. On Wednesday we met Irene around and she invited to a barbecue on Thursday at 6pm. On Thursday we waked up early and went diving, we missed others guests, but no problem until then.

At 6:30 pm we passed by the apartment to get money to pay for the Barbecue, we met some strange guys on the street, and we didn´t pay attention and cared about that. We arrive at the Barbecue that was on the street behind the apartment buiding. We were having fun through when Irene arrived scared, and asking if we left the lights on, we didn´t paid attention to that. But she came back again after checking the apartment and told us that we had been robbed.

The burglars took all of our electronic stuff. The following is the list of our stuff they took:

  • Acer Netbook
  • Google Nexus S
  • Iphone 3gs
  • Sony Erickson cellphone
  • 2 Nokia cellphone
  • 2 harddrives
  • Oakley Juliet sunglass
  • Targus notebook Bag
  • Citzen Divers Watch
  • 16gb corsair pendrive

Thank God that they didn´t found our money, reserved to pay the apartment rental. All our personal stuff, passports, credit cards and brazilian money was left behind.

We arrived at the apartment and Irene´s husband had called the police. I talked to them, and explained that we had seen two guys in front of the apartment. They asked us to try to identify the guys, but we were unable to do it, because it was dark and we didn´t pay any close attention at all. I went to Irene´s house, they offer me the computer, to cancel my credit cards that I thought that had been taken away. I´ve talked to her husband, and he said that is a problem that happens all around the world, and that was the third time that happened to them.

The cops asked us to make a list of missing things that they would pass by after to get it. When I gave the list to Musheline (the responsible for the report), I asked her how safe is the neighborhood and she told me that Tropicana gets robbed 5 or 6 times a year.
We attached images to show the locks of our apartments. When we came back after that shock, we noticed that the other apartments had a metal to protect the locks from being broken, but our didn´t.

I got so scared , that I told the guys that we should pay the rental promptly. We chose to stay in the same apartment, since we lost all of our electronic stuff, there were nothing left to be stolen. I gave Irene the money, and she didn´t offer any discount or anything to try to repair our damage. Thanks God that our scuba gear was with us.

Another thing I notice about the security. When I was at Irene´s house, I notice that they have extra locks and alarm sensors on all windows. When her husband and I left the house to try to search for all things on the vacant lot, he promptly turned the alarm on. Thus tells me that the neighborhood is insecure.

We lost all the our pictures, we had taken in curacao before, it was 10 day diving pictures, that would never been replaced. We advise you, don´t spend your time staying on Tropicana, look for more secure places. Check the neighborhoods with the local police before choosing a place to stay.
 
My name is Roland. As the owner of Tropicana I feel urged to make some statements and rectifications to the above posting, since it contains some incomplete information and exaggerations.

First of all, Bonaire is not a unsafe island, but petty crime is a serious problem over here. As everywhere on the world, crime is a community problem, which unfortunately can’t be solved by individuals or be solved easily at all. Police, schools and other stakeholders here on Bonaire work hard to improve the situation. Above writer Raphael tries to blame a private business or person for what happened to him. The only result is that a private business is damaged with no contribution to the solution of the problem. To put things right: it was not me or my wife Irene who broke into his apartment so no reason to accuse us personally. Not only Raphael, but in a way we are victims of this crime as well.

Irene and I take safety as a serious issue and as the owners of Tropicana did all possible to protect our guests, their belongings and our apartments against crime. Tropicana Apartment is a gated resort with cactus fences, double locked doors with quality locks and security barred windows. Unlike what above writer claims, we experienced 2 break-ins in Tropicana over the last 5 years (not 6 per year as writer claims). IMO this does not qualify for an unsafe place and area.

To give the story another perspective: common sense. The fact that we took all provisions to prevent break-ins, does not release our guests from taking their own responsibilities and take normal precautions. Raphael left the apartment not locked properly, a small window adjacent to the door was left open which enabled the burglar to open the door at all and computers and other valuables where left clearly visible from outside. Please understand me right: this does not mean he is not the victim in this story, but he should have used offered protection which could have prevented the burglary.

Feel free to make up your own mind. We are very sorry for what happened to Raphael last August and did all we could to help him in his unfortunate situation. We learned of the situation and have put extra measures for protection.

The many hundred satisfied guests we have welcomed over the last years will admit that Tropicana is not an unsafe place on Bonaire.


 
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