Bonaire site recommendations for my first and last trip

[KeithG]

Why night only? Don't the Octos come out during the day?

octopus are the racoons of the sea. they are night creatures. like lobsters, crab, eels and tarpon.

just like humans, there is the day shift and the night shift. underwater we prefer the nightshift.

 

[Chasin' Tales]

CS...as others have mentioned, definitely give the east coast some strong consideration. We did the boat dives with Bonaire East Coast Diving. I highly recommend doing the 2 tank trip. Tell them you want to go to the Blue Hole. It's a spot where the reef collapsed creating a 30' deep hole with a white sand bottom (which looks blue from above). During the day 100+ tarpon congregate along with turtles and rays. Great wide angle opportunities.

Regarding the trip overall, the island is regarded as a macro paradise, which it is. Bring your macro lens and spend hours in the shallows photographing the blennies, squid, frogfish and such. Also use the trip to refine your skills as a wide angle photographer. You may need to muster some creativity, but there is without a doubt plenty of opportunity for wide angle photography in Bonaire...on each and every dive site.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

CS...as others have mentioned, definitely give the east coast some strong consideration. We did the boat dives with Bonaire East Coast Diving. I highly recommend doing the 2 tank trip. Tell them you want to go to the Blue Hole. It's a spot where the reef collapsed creating a 30' deep hole with a white sand bottom (which looks blue from above). During the day 100+ tarpon congregate along with turtles and rays. Great wide angle opportunities.

Regarding the trip overall, the island is regarded as a macro paradise, which it is. Bring your macro lens and spend hours in the shallows photographing the blennies, squid, frogfish and such. Also use the trip to refine your skills as a wide angle photographer. You may need to muster some creativity, but there is without a doubt plenty of opportunity for wide angle photography in Bonaire...on each and every dive site.

Yes diving the East coast is definitely on the agenda. First I was curious to do boat dives on Klien Bonaire but it seems like boat diving or guided diving on the East coast would be more suited to my tastes. Looking forward to it.

 

[Aruba Bobs]

I vote East Coast Divers. We did the 2 tank dive and it was the BEST experience on Bonaire. A lot of BIG stuff. If its to rough, they will cancel. We booked early and that was good because we didn't do it until the last day we could dive because it was too rough the other days. Our favorite shore dives were north of Karpata. Not many people go there because we dove it one week solid and never seen another diver. Its alittle trickey but you just have to go for it. I am sure you will LOVE Bonaire. I really do understand how some people want to see the world so they do not want to go back to the same place. I think a lot more people are like me. When you find what you feel is the BEST, why keep looking around and getting disappointed. You might as well keep going back and exploring more options. I feel it takes me at least 1 week to check out a new place so that stinks for me. I will go to the place I love and know just where I want to dive, snorkel, eat and sleep!!!