seagull
Registered
Finally getting around to do a trip report from May 20-27 that my wife and I experienced, should have done the report before leaving Bonaire, that way PBD would not have set in and taken this long to do a report, along with other factors involved. The way we ended up going to Bonaire was through "Nikons School of Underwater Photography" to take the SLR class and celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.
Flight to and from on American Airlines from New Orleans via Miami, San Juan and back the same route were on time and luggage was not lost or damaged. Only glitch in travel was when we arrived in Bonaire at 9:25pm and no one was there from Capt. Dons Habitat to pick us up, as Nikons representative told us. While we were giving them a few minutes to maybe show up before taking a taxi, Dee Scarr from "Touch the Sea", whom we just met on the flight from San Juan, was taking care of us like we knew her forever. She called Habitat and found out no one was coming and since she had to pass in front of Habitat to get home, we loaded our luggage in her truck and got a little tour on the way there, beside making a new friend who we ran into several time during our stay on Bonaire.
Diving, all I can say is it was spectacular and the staff at Habitat was great during our stay. The first day diving, we got orientated at 9:00am paid the Marine Park fees and were in the water at 10:00am. Our package with Nikon included six boat dives and unlimited shore diving. We logged 14 dives for the six days of diving with one night dive and probably would have done 20 if not for the photo class topside work required each day. We dove LaMachaca (Habitat House Reef), Small Cliff, Something Special and off of Klein we dove Sharons Serenity, Bonadvetura, South Bay, Capt. Dons Reef and Lenoras Reef. The visibility always seemed to be better off of Klein than on the main island, which we measured in wow and ohhh wooowwww. Stayed in an Ocean View Villa at Capt. Dons Habitat and loved the patio setup, after each dive we were able to spread out our wet gear, that we did not leave in the dockside lockers and kick back in the shade and comfortable patio furniture to regroup for the next adventure. The dock side lockers were large enough to handle both our gear that we did not want to carry back to the villa after each dive. Only wish that their wireless internet connection would have reached the Villas, we had to get our internet and email fix in the restaurant/bar/dive shop area, was not that big a deal, because the weather was great and the view was awesome.
Nikon Class was instructed by Susan Lee Swygert and after the first day of instruction was given a Nikon D70 in a SeaCam housing with a single strobe to use for the rest of the week. Susan is a professional photographer on Bonaire and published underwater photographer, so she knows some stuff about taking photos and covered a great deal about camera settings and what to look for in the underwater world. My wife is an amateur photo buff, so she was able to follow the camera setting lingo with ease, she just had to get used to handling the camera underwater. We also brought along our own camera setup that I used, which is a Nikon Coolpix 7900 in an Ikelite housing. Each day we were free to dive as we pleased and met with Susan around 5:00 pm every evening, were she reviewed, critiqued the days shots and gave the next days assignment. Each day involved using a different lens setup (regular, macro, wide angle, etc.), with your choice on the last day. You get to keep all the photos taken during the week, but prepare a slide show for the last night with all your good and touched up shots from the week. Since we pretty much fulfilled all the requirements for PADI Underwater Digital Photographer Certification through the Nikon Class and Habitat is a PADI certification center we paid the PADI fee and got that certification through Habitat.
We did take time to eat while on Bonaire, breakfast buffet was included with our package at Rum Runners, was pretty good eats and we usually snacked for lunch with such a big breakfast. We did not rent a vehicle, so had most of our evening meals at Rum Runners also, was usually getting late by the time we finished photo class. Every item on the menu we tried was prepared very well and tasted great and also had a very good pizza from there one afternoon. On Monday night May 21, Habitat had a special Rum Punch Party, because it was Capt. Dons 45th anniversary on Bonaire, so we got to meet him and his wife. The night of our anniversary May 22, the dessert we ordered was prepared special for us and was the only night we did not carry a camera to dinner with us so we do not have a pic of it. Our last night on the island we ate at Cactus Blue, because of the good reviews it received from visitors and we were not let down. We had the Crab Balls for an appetizer, Caribbean Shrimp, Curry Chicken and Tuna Sashimi for entrees and every dish was wonderful and very tasteful as was the assortment of bar drinks we consumed. The owners, Hagen and Corinna each took the time to come to the table and chat with us and make sure we were satisfied with our meals and drinks, just wish I would have had room for that Key Lime Pie I read about.
Did not think my trip report was going to be this long, but we had a great time and I only just touched on the highlights and looking forward to diving Bonaire again. Here is a link to some of the photos I took with the Coolpix 7900, they are right off the camera and onto the web, so you get the good with the bad. Will post my wifes pics at a later date, when she gets them organized the way she wants.
http://picasaweb.google.com/beebabin/Bonaire
P.S. The pic labeled "Capt. Don and wife", the lady is actually the animal shelter representative at the Rum Punch Party, not his wife.
Flight to and from on American Airlines from New Orleans via Miami, San Juan and back the same route were on time and luggage was not lost or damaged. Only glitch in travel was when we arrived in Bonaire at 9:25pm and no one was there from Capt. Dons Habitat to pick us up, as Nikons representative told us. While we were giving them a few minutes to maybe show up before taking a taxi, Dee Scarr from "Touch the Sea", whom we just met on the flight from San Juan, was taking care of us like we knew her forever. She called Habitat and found out no one was coming and since she had to pass in front of Habitat to get home, we loaded our luggage in her truck and got a little tour on the way there, beside making a new friend who we ran into several time during our stay on Bonaire.
Diving, all I can say is it was spectacular and the staff at Habitat was great during our stay. The first day diving, we got orientated at 9:00am paid the Marine Park fees and were in the water at 10:00am. Our package with Nikon included six boat dives and unlimited shore diving. We logged 14 dives for the six days of diving with one night dive and probably would have done 20 if not for the photo class topside work required each day. We dove LaMachaca (Habitat House Reef), Small Cliff, Something Special and off of Klein we dove Sharons Serenity, Bonadvetura, South Bay, Capt. Dons Reef and Lenoras Reef. The visibility always seemed to be better off of Klein than on the main island, which we measured in wow and ohhh wooowwww. Stayed in an Ocean View Villa at Capt. Dons Habitat and loved the patio setup, after each dive we were able to spread out our wet gear, that we did not leave in the dockside lockers and kick back in the shade and comfortable patio furniture to regroup for the next adventure. The dock side lockers were large enough to handle both our gear that we did not want to carry back to the villa after each dive. Only wish that their wireless internet connection would have reached the Villas, we had to get our internet and email fix in the restaurant/bar/dive shop area, was not that big a deal, because the weather was great and the view was awesome.
Nikon Class was instructed by Susan Lee Swygert and after the first day of instruction was given a Nikon D70 in a SeaCam housing with a single strobe to use for the rest of the week. Susan is a professional photographer on Bonaire and published underwater photographer, so she knows some stuff about taking photos and covered a great deal about camera settings and what to look for in the underwater world. My wife is an amateur photo buff, so she was able to follow the camera setting lingo with ease, she just had to get used to handling the camera underwater. We also brought along our own camera setup that I used, which is a Nikon Coolpix 7900 in an Ikelite housing. Each day we were free to dive as we pleased and met with Susan around 5:00 pm every evening, were she reviewed, critiqued the days shots and gave the next days assignment. Each day involved using a different lens setup (regular, macro, wide angle, etc.), with your choice on the last day. You get to keep all the photos taken during the week, but prepare a slide show for the last night with all your good and touched up shots from the week. Since we pretty much fulfilled all the requirements for PADI Underwater Digital Photographer Certification through the Nikon Class and Habitat is a PADI certification center we paid the PADI fee and got that certification through Habitat.
We did take time to eat while on Bonaire, breakfast buffet was included with our package at Rum Runners, was pretty good eats and we usually snacked for lunch with such a big breakfast. We did not rent a vehicle, so had most of our evening meals at Rum Runners also, was usually getting late by the time we finished photo class. Every item on the menu we tried was prepared very well and tasted great and also had a very good pizza from there one afternoon. On Monday night May 21, Habitat had a special Rum Punch Party, because it was Capt. Dons 45th anniversary on Bonaire, so we got to meet him and his wife. The night of our anniversary May 22, the dessert we ordered was prepared special for us and was the only night we did not carry a camera to dinner with us so we do not have a pic of it. Our last night on the island we ate at Cactus Blue, because of the good reviews it received from visitors and we were not let down. We had the Crab Balls for an appetizer, Caribbean Shrimp, Curry Chicken and Tuna Sashimi for entrees and every dish was wonderful and very tasteful as was the assortment of bar drinks we consumed. The owners, Hagen and Corinna each took the time to come to the table and chat with us and make sure we were satisfied with our meals and drinks, just wish I would have had room for that Key Lime Pie I read about.
Did not think my trip report was going to be this long, but we had a great time and I only just touched on the highlights and looking forward to diving Bonaire again. Here is a link to some of the photos I took with the Coolpix 7900, they are right off the camera and onto the web, so you get the good with the bad. Will post my wifes pics at a later date, when she gets them organized the way she wants.
http://picasaweb.google.com/beebabin/Bonaire
P.S. The pic labeled "Capt. Don and wife", the lady is actually the animal shelter representative at the Rum Punch Party, not his wife.
