avlena
Contributor
We just got back from our first ever dive trip, and our first trip to Bonaire. It was AWESOME! My hubby and I do a lot of shore-diving in California, so we were thrilled with all the super-easy Bonaire diving! Many thanks to all the people on this board; we were well-prepared for our trip! To pass on some of the knowledge, here's my trip report...
We stayed at the Divi Flamingo, because we wanted a resort with a beach, and we liked the idea of being able to walk into town. The beach is rather small, but it didn't really matter since we only used it once. The dive shop setup is fantastic - we'd store our gear in the lockers on the dock, and literally just fall off into the water. The dive shop was friendly & knowledgeable, and we even took a Nitrox class from them. We did one 2 tank boat trip to Klein Bonaire, which was really a waste - don't bother, you can see the same stuff on the shore dives. The rooms at Divi aren't great - in fact, there was a gross moldy ceiling panel in the bathroom that dripped every time we showered. I did complain to the front desk, but they didn't fix it, and I didn't care enough to push it. We did talk to another couple, and they said that they're remodeling the studios. So hopefully it will be greatly improved! Despite the unimpressive rooms, I was very happy due to the great location - they were about mid-way on the island, so it was a short dive to both the North & South dive sites, and walking to town was really nice.
The shore dives were very easy, especially compared to Southern-California diving. The navigation was easy - just drop down, pick a landmark at a particular depth, go one direction along the reef, switch direction when you're half done with air, and surface at your landmark. We saw a lot of tarpon, and overall just tons and tons of tangs, wrasses, angelfish, parrotfish, moray eels, etc. Didn't see any rays unfortunately, and only one turtle, but I guess we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Shore Diving book is incredibly useful, though I plan on emailing the author with a few suggestions on how to make the directions to the site a bit clearer. Some of our favorites were Atlantis, Hilma Hooker, Esmeralda, Karpata, and Oil Slick Leap.
We ate very well on the island. Our favorite restaurants were Cactus Blue & Papaya Moon - highly recommended, you should definitely try it! We did try to go to the Golden Reef Inn for the Scubaboard meet-up, but I guess it was canceled - when we arrived, the entire place was completely dead.
During our last day (no-diving 24 hours before our flight), we went up to the National Park. Personally, we found it a waste of time. We saw a few flamingos, donkeys, & parrots, but nothing you couldn't see just driving on the West side of the island. And the west side has better roads! We would have rather spent the day exploring the rest of the island, but due to the confusing roadways, it took us almost all day to get through the park, and then 2 hours to get home again (long story - we tried to take some dirt road shortcuts, and ended up circling the same area a few times!).
Speaking of driving, if you have any appointments (ex: scheduled class, boat launch time, etc), leave plenty of time to make it back from your dive site. We had to drive around the island a few times, because we accidentally ended up on a one-way road, or ran into construction on the only major road. The roads are super narrow, so that makes things interesting too!
Umm... let's see, other lessons learned... bring lots and lots of tank tops, shorts, & swimsuits! Clothes don't air dry overnight - due to the humidity, everything just got kinda musty & smelly. And since we were always covered in saltwater or sweat, we preferred to change clothes after a day of diving. Thankfully everywhere we went it was island casual, so no one cared if we were a bit smelly!
Don't stress too much over island theft, just use common sense. We didn't get anything stolen, but we also didn't leave anything important in the truck or our dive lockers.
A lot of the stores in town are closed on Sunday, and close early (6ish). Restaurants usually close their kitchens around 10pm. So if you want souveniers or a late dinner, plan accordingly.
Oh, and invest in some SafeSea for jelly protection!! During a night dive, we had our first experience with sea-wasps. I felt a pain on the back of my hand, and when I asked my hubby to check if something was on my BC, he looked and discovered our lights had attracted tons of sea wasps! We freaked out, and got out of the water faster then we ever have in our entire life. Despite being surrounded by stingers, I only got stung on the back of my hand, and my husband only got a little sting on his lip. All our other exposed skin, which was covered with SafeSea, was okay. And, the stings on my hand were very minor compared to how bad it could have been. So yeah, we're BIG believers in SafeSea!!
Anyhow, that's about it. We're happy to be home, but we can't wait until we can return to Bonaire again!! Hope this helps anyone else planning on going to Bonaire soon!
We stayed at the Divi Flamingo, because we wanted a resort with a beach, and we liked the idea of being able to walk into town. The beach is rather small, but it didn't really matter since we only used it once. The dive shop setup is fantastic - we'd store our gear in the lockers on the dock, and literally just fall off into the water. The dive shop was friendly & knowledgeable, and we even took a Nitrox class from them. We did one 2 tank boat trip to Klein Bonaire, which was really a waste - don't bother, you can see the same stuff on the shore dives. The rooms at Divi aren't great - in fact, there was a gross moldy ceiling panel in the bathroom that dripped every time we showered. I did complain to the front desk, but they didn't fix it, and I didn't care enough to push it. We did talk to another couple, and they said that they're remodeling the studios. So hopefully it will be greatly improved! Despite the unimpressive rooms, I was very happy due to the great location - they were about mid-way on the island, so it was a short dive to both the North & South dive sites, and walking to town was really nice.
The shore dives were very easy, especially compared to Southern-California diving. The navigation was easy - just drop down, pick a landmark at a particular depth, go one direction along the reef, switch direction when you're half done with air, and surface at your landmark. We saw a lot of tarpon, and overall just tons and tons of tangs, wrasses, angelfish, parrotfish, moray eels, etc. Didn't see any rays unfortunately, and only one turtle, but I guess we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Shore Diving book is incredibly useful, though I plan on emailing the author with a few suggestions on how to make the directions to the site a bit clearer. Some of our favorites were Atlantis, Hilma Hooker, Esmeralda, Karpata, and Oil Slick Leap.
We ate very well on the island. Our favorite restaurants were Cactus Blue & Papaya Moon - highly recommended, you should definitely try it! We did try to go to the Golden Reef Inn for the Scubaboard meet-up, but I guess it was canceled - when we arrived, the entire place was completely dead.
During our last day (no-diving 24 hours before our flight), we went up to the National Park. Personally, we found it a waste of time. We saw a few flamingos, donkeys, & parrots, but nothing you couldn't see just driving on the West side of the island. And the west side has better roads! We would have rather spent the day exploring the rest of the island, but due to the confusing roadways, it took us almost all day to get through the park, and then 2 hours to get home again (long story - we tried to take some dirt road shortcuts, and ended up circling the same area a few times!).
Speaking of driving, if you have any appointments (ex: scheduled class, boat launch time, etc), leave plenty of time to make it back from your dive site. We had to drive around the island a few times, because we accidentally ended up on a one-way road, or ran into construction on the only major road. The roads are super narrow, so that makes things interesting too!
Umm... let's see, other lessons learned... bring lots and lots of tank tops, shorts, & swimsuits! Clothes don't air dry overnight - due to the humidity, everything just got kinda musty & smelly. And since we were always covered in saltwater or sweat, we preferred to change clothes after a day of diving. Thankfully everywhere we went it was island casual, so no one cared if we were a bit smelly!
Don't stress too much over island theft, just use common sense. We didn't get anything stolen, but we also didn't leave anything important in the truck or our dive lockers.
A lot of the stores in town are closed on Sunday, and close early (6ish). Restaurants usually close their kitchens around 10pm. So if you want souveniers or a late dinner, plan accordingly.
Oh, and invest in some SafeSea for jelly protection!! During a night dive, we had our first experience with sea-wasps. I felt a pain on the back of my hand, and when I asked my hubby to check if something was on my BC, he looked and discovered our lights had attracted tons of sea wasps! We freaked out, and got out of the water faster then we ever have in our entire life. Despite being surrounded by stingers, I only got stung on the back of my hand, and my husband only got a little sting on his lip. All our other exposed skin, which was covered with SafeSea, was okay. And, the stings on my hand were very minor compared to how bad it could have been. So yeah, we're BIG believers in SafeSea!!
Anyhow, that's about it. We're happy to be home, but we can't wait until we can return to Bonaire again!! Hope this helps anyone else planning on going to Bonaire soon!
