Bonaire October Trip Report

[jpdunc]

I just got back from a week in Bonaire (October 6-13) with a group of 15. We stayed at Sand Dollar for the second year in a row and had no complaints or issues with the accomodations or security. My wife and I plus her brother and his wife had a two bedroom, second floor unit (A-8).

The bedrooms are air conditioned, but the remainder of the space is not. This unit has a large screened porch and the flow through ventilation works pretty well. The unit has a safe large enough for a laptop, dive computers, passports, cash, etc.

Unfortunately, October is apparently part of the rainy season and it rained some almost daily. This didn't really affect the diving and it did keep the temperatures down in the 80's.

The diving was all good and the highlights were finding three frogfish on the house reef--Bari--and another on Andrea II.

We left the truck unlocked and had no issues except one member of the party locked his at 1000 Steps and a rear window was smashed and a dry bag taken. My hat , t-shirt, and sunglasses were moved around, but apparently the thieves were not impressed enough to take them. The driver had purchased the $18 per day insurance coverage and still had a $100 deductible and had to get the glass cleaned up before Total Car Rental would repair the window.

We used Air Jamaica from Atlanta to Montego Bay to Bonaire and back and had no problems except they were about an hour late on both trips. Apparently, AJ is ending their Bonaire flights later this year and Delta is adding a non-stop from Atlanta. Unfortunately, after a teaser opening rate of $179 the real rate appears to be in the $900 to $1000 range. We had paid about $450 for the AJ flights.

The Marine Park fee is $25 pp and the Airport Departure Tax is $32 pp.

Overall, in spite of the rain, we had a very good week in Bonaire and will likely do it again.

 

[ETnScuba]

JPDunc:
Glad to see your post and hear from you. My wife, daughter and I were in unit B4.

We also had no problems with security, but we did talk to the member of your party that had window broken.

Rain was not much of an issue, except it seemed to bring the mosquitoes out. This was the first trip I had to use any bug spray.

Each unit at Sand Dollar is equipped differently. We had A/C in both the bedroom and the living room. But with the rain keeping the temperature down, we only ran them about half the time.

Along with the frogfish and a seahorse at Bari, our highlights were Eagle Rays at Angel City, several massive Tarpon at Margate Bay and the small hawksbill turtle that came up beside my daughter and swam with her for about five minutes. Another interesting sight was two sharp tail eels fighting for a hole at Bari during a night dive. They went at it for several minutes before the larger finally dislodged the smaller one and sent it packing.

We also had a good week and plan on returning for our third trip.

 

[CLEAR BLUE]

Love the trip reports. Brings back good memories and starts the PBD all over again!

 

[scuba3705]

I came in the following week (Oct 13-20) and it rained on the 13th but cleared the rest of the week. They've had more rain this past year than is typical. Stayed at the Divi Flamingo for the second time - love the Divi Dive team and the Chibi Chibi onsite restaurant. Also tried Richard's restaurant this trip and enjoyed the meal and waterfront seating. Also tried Mambo Jambo in town for lunch and the meal was quite good. Looking forward to returning again.