mbchiro
Registered
My wife and I travelled to Bonaire 8/27/2011 and returned on 9/3/2011. It almost didn't get off the ground due to Hurricane Irene. Our flight was supposed to leave out of CLT 3PM on Saturday the 27th on Insel Air. I logged in to Insel Air at around 5 PM 8/26/2011 and had to call them about our flight. Well, I was told our flight was cancelled and rescheduled 8/31-9/3/2011. There Customer Service was horrendous. I was basically told -not our problem, sucks to be you buddy in not so many words. Unfortunately, I had to book another flight ($2000) from Columbia, SC. We flew Delta to ATL, then straight to Bonaire. Great flight good service no complaints. BTW I am still trying to get ahold of Insel Air Customer Service. I emailed them and was told they would get back to me in 10 days. Still waiting. Called yesterday and got hung up on 2X waiting for someone to pick up. Arriving in Bonaire, around 3PM we were taken by our taxi driver (prepaid by our resort: Coral Paradise (immediately North of Capt. Don's)). After a quick orientation by the resort owner Kenny Treadway (super nice laid back fellow) we set off in our AB Car rental Mazda pickup.
Bonaire is an arid island with mostly cacti, scrub trees, and thorn bushes. Wild donkeys, goats, iguanas, and other reptiles inhabit this parched lanscape. The mosquitos can be bad at times in the early moring and late evening. Carry your bug spray.
We dined at Bistro de Paris and had great food. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the local area, a trip to the chinese market immediately north from Coral Paradise Resort (CPR) to buy beer, breakfast food, snacks. Nice selection. The next day we met up with a couple Ken and Jill we had met through Scubaboard. We made plans to dive the following day with them and have dinner later that night. We had our orientation meeting with Buddy dive which covers the Marine Park, facilities at Buddy Dive, and the flow of things around Buddy Dive. When we booked CPR, we booked simultaneous as a pkg 6 boat dives and unlim shore diving, along with a rental truck. We decided to book our diving with BD because of no extra charge for Nitrox. Also, they have a drive through tank pickup and dropoff (Very convenient for shore diving- grab 2 tanks each and go diving) After paying our marine park fee of 25 I believe maybe 35 I can't remember, we did our check out dive at the house reef Buddie's reef in front of BD. Beautiful. We follwed the divers highway a rope suspended by bottles to the reef, then proceeded north to La Macha in front of Captain Don's Habitat ( Cpt Don's House Reef) The house reefs of both resorts are beautiful. After swimming back, we picked up tanks, grabbed lunch at BD, then did our first dive at Andrea I a short drive north. Never having really shore dived before it took us several dives to get into the flow of things. I learned to rig my BC onto my tank prior to arriving at the dive site. This saved a little time. Our first day we managed just these 2 dives. We found ourselves tired and dehydrated somewhat on 8/27 and 8/28. On 8/29 we picked up 2 more tanks and dove Angel City and Invisibles on the southern end of the island. Easy shore entry ample parking withing 10 ft of the shore. Seeing the mounds of salt was a first for us. Along this stretch of the shore there are many sites within a few 100yards of one another. The Lake, Aquarius, Alice in Wonderland, Hilma Hooker, Larry's Lair, Jeannie's Glory, Angel City, Salt City, Invisibles, etc. According to BD, Salt Pier has to be a guided dive (they charge $35ea for it). Later that afternoon, after a nice lunch at Ellie's Deli, we dove BariReef and Front Porch. Turn right at the roundabout soouth of BD and park in the dirt lot by the fence adjoining Sand Dollar Condos. Entry is easy. The old collapsed pier holds a lot of fish. The reef is along a steep semi wall. While filming the pier, a huge manta ray swam by. I saw a juvenile lionfish on this dive about 4in long. Not a good thing. We had dinner at the plaza resort that evening It was steak night at the Banana Club. Food was fair, service terrible, but prices reasonable. The next day 8/30 we met up with Ken and Jill and dove Tolo (Old Blue) and Oil Slick in the morning. These were on the northern end of the island. These sights were great. Lush coral and abundant marine life. My wife and I didn't do an afternoon dive due to a planned night dive. She was tired and well you know how that goes folks. We had lunch at Captn Dons and relaxed for the afternoon. We met up with Ken and Jill at 6:30PM (sun is down mostly at 7) We dove La Macha at Captn Dons where they were staying. If you dive as guest of folks staying at Captn. Don's then the fee of $5 is waived. We entered via giant stride from the small dock at Captn Don's (be careful if low tide). We proceeded north and actually did The Cliff dive site as well as La Macha, which are adjacent. We saw a beautiful spotted moray, several large tarpon that followed us around like dogs. We saw 4 lionfish on this dive. Ken a former diving instructor tied a flashing green neon light to our entry point at the reef on the divers highway, prior to us proceeding north. It was very easy to see on the way back. I learned a lot from him on this trip. We had a pizza at Captn Don's afterwards (Very good. On 8/31 we loaded up the truck with tanks and proceeded south to Tori's Reef. We entered via the small channel used to move water into the brine ponds, then swam out to the reef. A dive boat from the Divi was tied to the bouy. This reef was not that impressive to me. However I did see a beautiful spotted eagle ray on the way back in along the sand. We went to do the Windsock dive site next, but my wife had an equiptment problem we had to get the dive shop to fix. We decided to do one of our boat dives that afternoon. We went out with Buddy Dive to Lenories reef on Klein Boniare. It was not a great sight, but still plenty to see. We ate dinner at Patagonia that night an Argentinian steak house and was not impressed. Our food was fair. On 9/1 we did two boat dives Jeannie Sunchi (Kiss) on Klein, where we saw a spotted eagle ray. Then we did Something Special from the north side. Nice variety of fish and coral. My wife was tired again after this dive and didn't dive again. However, we did take an afternoon drive to Rincon due to a rain shower. We ate at Rose Hill restr. It is a creole restaraunt and a local favoret. Coldiest beer in town (it says exactly that on the sign and its true)As the sun set, I met up with Ken and Jill and did my second night dive at La Macha, this time heading south toward BD. We saw a huge lionfish at the wreck of La Macha. Once again we saw huge Tarpon and a variety of eels. We had a grouper follow us the entire dive hunting in our light beams. On 9/2 we had a limited opportunity to dive due to travel the next day at 2:30PM. We dove with BD via boat to Nearest Point dive site on Klein Boniare, where we saw several turtles. The next dive was Petrie's Pillar a boat only dive sight just north of Andrea I. We saw a seahorse on this trip, which made my wife very happy. Abundant varieties of hard and soft corals. There were a lot of diff species of fish on this sight. We dove with Ken and Jill again in the early afternoon at the Jeff Davis sight, just past Oil Slick. it was another semi wall dive with a nice transition from the sandy bottom to hard coral. Entry was a bit more challenging, but manageable. After the dive heading south from the dive site toward Oil Slick the water color is so beautiful looking adjacent to the rode along the coast. We met up with our friends again that evening for a bottle of wine and dinner at Unbelievable in town. This was the best place we ate the entire trip. Sitting on the top deck there is a nice breeze to keep the mozzies away. The prices were fair, the service timely and polite, and the portions huge!!! We checked out of CPR at 12PM on 9/3 and grabbed lunch at Capt Dons. My advice is get to the airport early. We were there 2 hours early and ended up waiting about 35-40 minutes after we cleared the check in process until we got to the Air Conditioned side.
Positives:
Coral Paradise Resort: clean, safe (fenced in) reasonable, nice owner who will help you in any possible. It was conveniently located adjacent to Capt. Don's Habitat. Full Kitchen, AC, clean saltwater poo, Cable TV. Gives you a cell phone which you can buy calling cards and use.
Delta airlines: on time, straight flight from ATL to Bonaire. We flew from Columbia, SC
Captn Don's Habitat: restrt. Good food, fair prices, convenient. Pizza Oven awesome! Breakfast awesome. Chicken fingers awesome. The couple we dove with liked there dive operation and had few if any complaints.
Buddy Dive: We used them as our dive operation. My wife had a problem with her regulator. They were more than helpful in fixing it. The drive through tank pickup is a breeze. Whether Nitrox or Compressedd Air. The dive masters were friendly. Most dives averaged 50-65mins. We had one tank out of 17 that had a leaky main O-ring.
Restaraunts: Unbelievable, Elle's Deli, Rose Hill (Rincon) Captn Don's, Bistro de Paris,
People: most of the locals were really nice.
Easy to get around.
Negatives:
Insel Air for rescheduling my flight 4 days later than my original day of departure because of Irene. Insel Air customer service call center. (It took me 2 days to finally get ahold of someone). Mosquitos were ocasionally bad.
We are looking at going back in April of next year.
A special thanks to Scubaboard for providing a forum to interact with other like-minded folks who enjoy diving. We met new friends from California -Ken and Jill through a post I put on about needing dive buddies while in Bonaire. They were actually on our flight from ATL. Good folks! Feel free to message me if you have any questions. Go to Bonaire!- it is amazing!
Michael
Bonaire is an arid island with mostly cacti, scrub trees, and thorn bushes. Wild donkeys, goats, iguanas, and other reptiles inhabit this parched lanscape. The mosquitos can be bad at times in the early moring and late evening. Carry your bug spray.
We dined at Bistro de Paris and had great food. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the local area, a trip to the chinese market immediately north from Coral Paradise Resort (CPR) to buy beer, breakfast food, snacks. Nice selection. The next day we met up with a couple Ken and Jill we had met through Scubaboard. We made plans to dive the following day with them and have dinner later that night. We had our orientation meeting with Buddy dive which covers the Marine Park, facilities at Buddy Dive, and the flow of things around Buddy Dive. When we booked CPR, we booked simultaneous as a pkg 6 boat dives and unlim shore diving, along with a rental truck. We decided to book our diving with BD because of no extra charge for Nitrox. Also, they have a drive through tank pickup and dropoff (Very convenient for shore diving- grab 2 tanks each and go diving) After paying our marine park fee of 25 I believe maybe 35 I can't remember, we did our check out dive at the house reef Buddie's reef in front of BD. Beautiful. We follwed the divers highway a rope suspended by bottles to the reef, then proceeded north to La Macha in front of Captain Don's Habitat ( Cpt Don's House Reef) The house reefs of both resorts are beautiful. After swimming back, we picked up tanks, grabbed lunch at BD, then did our first dive at Andrea I a short drive north. Never having really shore dived before it took us several dives to get into the flow of things. I learned to rig my BC onto my tank prior to arriving at the dive site. This saved a little time. Our first day we managed just these 2 dives. We found ourselves tired and dehydrated somewhat on 8/27 and 8/28. On 8/29 we picked up 2 more tanks and dove Angel City and Invisibles on the southern end of the island. Easy shore entry ample parking withing 10 ft of the shore. Seeing the mounds of salt was a first for us. Along this stretch of the shore there are many sites within a few 100yards of one another. The Lake, Aquarius, Alice in Wonderland, Hilma Hooker, Larry's Lair, Jeannie's Glory, Angel City, Salt City, Invisibles, etc. According to BD, Salt Pier has to be a guided dive (they charge $35ea for it). Later that afternoon, after a nice lunch at Ellie's Deli, we dove BariReef and Front Porch. Turn right at the roundabout soouth of BD and park in the dirt lot by the fence adjoining Sand Dollar Condos. Entry is easy. The old collapsed pier holds a lot of fish. The reef is along a steep semi wall. While filming the pier, a huge manta ray swam by. I saw a juvenile lionfish on this dive about 4in long. Not a good thing. We had dinner at the plaza resort that evening It was steak night at the Banana Club. Food was fair, service terrible, but prices reasonable. The next day 8/30 we met up with Ken and Jill and dove Tolo (Old Blue) and Oil Slick in the morning. These were on the northern end of the island. These sights were great. Lush coral and abundant marine life. My wife and I didn't do an afternoon dive due to a planned night dive. She was tired and well you know how that goes folks. We had lunch at Captn Dons and relaxed for the afternoon. We met up with Ken and Jill at 6:30PM (sun is down mostly at 7) We dove La Macha at Captn Dons where they were staying. If you dive as guest of folks staying at Captn. Don's then the fee of $5 is waived. We entered via giant stride from the small dock at Captn Don's (be careful if low tide). We proceeded north and actually did The Cliff dive site as well as La Macha, which are adjacent. We saw a beautiful spotted moray, several large tarpon that followed us around like dogs. We saw 4 lionfish on this dive. Ken a former diving instructor tied a flashing green neon light to our entry point at the reef on the divers highway, prior to us proceeding north. It was very easy to see on the way back. I learned a lot from him on this trip. We had a pizza at Captn Don's afterwards (Very good. On 8/31 we loaded up the truck with tanks and proceeded south to Tori's Reef. We entered via the small channel used to move water into the brine ponds, then swam out to the reef. A dive boat from the Divi was tied to the bouy. This reef was not that impressive to me. However I did see a beautiful spotted eagle ray on the way back in along the sand. We went to do the Windsock dive site next, but my wife had an equiptment problem we had to get the dive shop to fix. We decided to do one of our boat dives that afternoon. We went out with Buddy Dive to Lenories reef on Klein Boniare. It was not a great sight, but still plenty to see. We ate dinner at Patagonia that night an Argentinian steak house and was not impressed. Our food was fair. On 9/1 we did two boat dives Jeannie Sunchi (Kiss) on Klein, where we saw a spotted eagle ray. Then we did Something Special from the north side. Nice variety of fish and coral. My wife was tired again after this dive and didn't dive again. However, we did take an afternoon drive to Rincon due to a rain shower. We ate at Rose Hill restr. It is a creole restaraunt and a local favoret. Coldiest beer in town (it says exactly that on the sign and its true)As the sun set, I met up with Ken and Jill and did my second night dive at La Macha, this time heading south toward BD. We saw a huge lionfish at the wreck of La Macha. Once again we saw huge Tarpon and a variety of eels. We had a grouper follow us the entire dive hunting in our light beams. On 9/2 we had a limited opportunity to dive due to travel the next day at 2:30PM. We dove with BD via boat to Nearest Point dive site on Klein Boniare, where we saw several turtles. The next dive was Petrie's Pillar a boat only dive sight just north of Andrea I. We saw a seahorse on this trip, which made my wife very happy. Abundant varieties of hard and soft corals. There were a lot of diff species of fish on this sight. We dove with Ken and Jill again in the early afternoon at the Jeff Davis sight, just past Oil Slick. it was another semi wall dive with a nice transition from the sandy bottom to hard coral. Entry was a bit more challenging, but manageable. After the dive heading south from the dive site toward Oil Slick the water color is so beautiful looking adjacent to the rode along the coast. We met up with our friends again that evening for a bottle of wine and dinner at Unbelievable in town. This was the best place we ate the entire trip. Sitting on the top deck there is a nice breeze to keep the mozzies away. The prices were fair, the service timely and polite, and the portions huge!!! We checked out of CPR at 12PM on 9/3 and grabbed lunch at Capt Dons. My advice is get to the airport early. We were there 2 hours early and ended up waiting about 35-40 minutes after we cleared the check in process until we got to the Air Conditioned side.
Positives:
Coral Paradise Resort: clean, safe (fenced in) reasonable, nice owner who will help you in any possible. It was conveniently located adjacent to Capt. Don's Habitat. Full Kitchen, AC, clean saltwater poo, Cable TV. Gives you a cell phone which you can buy calling cards and use.
Delta airlines: on time, straight flight from ATL to Bonaire. We flew from Columbia, SC
Captn Don's Habitat: restrt. Good food, fair prices, convenient. Pizza Oven awesome! Breakfast awesome. Chicken fingers awesome. The couple we dove with liked there dive operation and had few if any complaints.
Buddy Dive: We used them as our dive operation. My wife had a problem with her regulator. They were more than helpful in fixing it. The drive through tank pickup is a breeze. Whether Nitrox or Compressedd Air. The dive masters were friendly. Most dives averaged 50-65mins. We had one tank out of 17 that had a leaky main O-ring.
Restaraunts: Unbelievable, Elle's Deli, Rose Hill (Rincon) Captn Don's, Bistro de Paris,
People: most of the locals were really nice.
Easy to get around.
Negatives:
Insel Air for rescheduling my flight 4 days later than my original day of departure because of Irene. Insel Air customer service call center. (It took me 2 days to finally get ahold of someone). Mosquitos were ocasionally bad.
We are looking at going back in April of next year.
A special thanks to Scubaboard for providing a forum to interact with other like-minded folks who enjoy diving. We met new friends from California -Ken and Jill through a post I put on about needing dive buddies while in Bonaire. They were actually on our flight from ATL. Good folks! Feel free to message me if you have any questions. Go to Bonaire!- it is amazing!
Michael
