Bonaire Trip Report and Recommendations

[Papa_Bear]

BT, there is a big difference between "The gas cap being on" and a locking cap! It was not made clear in the post! Most are simple doors released from in side! so once in you pop the door and open the cap! But what if it were locked? Most thieves are lazy and will move on! Or was the lines cut and drained? Not enough info! So I will take a locking cap next trip!

 

[gypsyjim]

@herman: Yes, there's something to be said for granting greater weight to the words of a SB poster who has a great deal of experience planning/executing Bonaire dive trips...but to ignore "newbie" trip reports to the island is short-sighted. I think you will agree that the incidence of crime (and type of crime) probably varies over time. I would think a prospective dive tourist would be interested in what has been happening on Bonaire over the last few weeks/months as opposed to how things were 15 years ago. This may or may not be something that a seasoned Bonaire veteran who makes an annual Bonaire trip has a handle on. For instance, three years ago I did not hear of any reports of gas-siphoning from rental trucks. The fact that the car rental companies are currently warning their customers about this is telling.

I fully agree that there is a "response bias" on trip reports posted to Internet forums. This should be considered when figuring out how much weight to give a Bonaire horror story on SB. It is entirely understandable that people would feel more compelled to post a trip report if they had a very negative or a very positive experience on the island. Chances are the experiences of the prospective traveler (should h/she go to Bonaire) would fall somewhere in the middle.

I am with you 100% on placing high value on incidents that poster has seen/experienced first-hand and distinguishing that info from second- and third-hand accounts. I would also like to add that it's nice to discern whether the OP has any financial interest at all in pushing more dive tourism to Bonaire. This can be as indirect as a poster getting a comp'ed spot on a dive trip because he/she is serving as trip leader for a Bonaire trip sponsored by an LDS. That's why I really appreciated the entire last paragraph of your post.

One more point that I'd like to make is that when one is planning a trip for a large number of people, often the size of the party dictates where the group will ultimately stay. For instance, from a trip planner perspective, things are just much easier if the group stays at a place like Buddy Dive, where truck rentals, accommodations, and diving is managed through one entity. If you stayed at Buddy Dive on a majority of your Bonaire trips, then I would think that the probability of your truck getting vandalized in the middle of the night is rather low. AFAIK, the trucks are all parked in a gated parking lot where a nearby 24-hr watchman is posted. Smaller groups may end up staying at other places on the island where no such security force (however minimal) exists. Just my thoughts on the issue...

Whereas I have been renting off resort now for a number of years, with the same results. Smaller, unsecured places, renting trucks and diving roadside sites. Same results.

I am coming to suspect that a large proportion of "crime" posting is being done here, and elsewhere on the Net are being done by the same small number of posters, creating a larger than life "footprint", both on the Internet in general, and SB (as in this case). If you were to subtract all of the 2nd hand, non experienced posters from the mix, and read just the posts by those who have actually been to Bonaire, and those who have been suffered losses, you will begin to get a better picture of the problem.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

BT, there is a big difference between "The gas cap being on" and a locking cap! It was not made clear in the post! Most are simple doors released from in side! so once in you pop the door and open the cap! But what if it were locked? Most thieves are lazy and will move on! Or was the lines cut and drained? Not enough info! So I will take a locking cap next trip!

From Post #11 in this thread...

Well, I definitely had my gas siphoned down to empty so that is not hearsay. The tank cap had a lock but obviously that was no deterrent. FWIW, I rented from AB Rental (I think that was the name). I was told both by the car rental agency and by someone affiliated with CocoPalm that after a quiet period, they have had a resurgence of these types of issues lately. All 4 tires being stolen off my neighbors rental car is also not hearsay. I talked for half an hour or so with the woman who rented the car and she confirmed my suspicians (i.e., that were originally generated when I saw the car up on cinderblocks in the morning with all 4 tires missing). There is suppose to be a couple of security guys who patrol the neighborhood to deter this sort of thing, but either they have been falling down on the job or its just unrealistic to expect that a couple of guys supposedly walking around at night looking for thievery can cover the area adequately.

@Papa Bear: Please refer to the quoted post above. I think it's pretty clear that the "tank cap had a lock" and the cap was somehow removed by the thieves. The thieves did not cut the gas line -- that was stated clearly in Post #1 of this thread. I suspect that you'll be switching out the car rental's locking cap for your own locking cap -- maybe yours will have some kind of extra special, heavy-duty lock on it which affords more protection, I don't know.

I completely agree that anything one can do to make it more inconvenient for the criminal element will probably just encourage the guys to go onto another truck. In some of your other posts to this thread, you talked about taking locking lug nuts with you. Have you really done this...or were you just kidding? I can see how things could get ridiculous pretty quickly if you had 20 people in your dive party and someone had to bring enough locking lug nuts for all of the trucks that you would be renting. Imagine what would happen if you lost the special socket that unlocks all of those lug nuts. Oh, boy. It seems to me that with a large group it would be better just to stay some place with a 24 hr watchman, like Buddy Dive.

P.S. Did someone steal the "period" key on your keyboard?

 

[Papa_Bear]

NO!!!!!!!!!!! Just like the passion!!!!!

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Whereas I have been renting off resort now for a number of years, with the same results. Smaller, unsecured places, renting trucks and diving roadside sites. Same results.

@gypsyjim: I'm glad that you haven't had any problems with theft there. Where did you stay? I rented off-resort on two separate occasions, once in December of 2006 and again in December 2007. I stayed in the Belnem area south of Kralendijk. On both occasions, I didn't experience any incidents of theft or vandalism, but the condo manager informed us that a night watchman would be walking the grounds in the middle of the night (and I can verify that this was the case). On our first trip, we spoke with a very nice Canadian couple while we were on a boat dive to Klein Bonaire. They had noticed that I had a drysuit hose hanging off my first stage, so they wanted to know where I was from. After sharing some dive stories, I jokingly asked them where their drysuit hoses were. That's when they told me that their expensive regs, BCDs, and wetsuits had been stolen two nights before from the patio right outside their room (Golden Reef Inn). The items had been stolen while they were taking showers and eating dinner inside their room. They had planned to lock up the gear inside the room before they turned in for the night. I felt bad for them and took a mental note to never leave dive gear unattended on Bonaire. (Yes, this is a secondhand account of a criminal act.) As far as I could tell, the Canadian couple had no ulterior motive in making up such a story. A few months later when we were planning our second trip to Bonaire, I read several accounts that the police had busted up an organized crime ring that was flying stolen goods to Curacao. We felt justified in making plans to return to the island on account of the police stepping up their efforts.

I am coming to suspect that a large proportion of "crime" posting is being done here, and elsewhere on the Net are being done by the same small number of posters, creating a larger than life "footprint", both on the Internet in general, and SB (as in this case). If you were to subtract all of the 2nd hand, non experienced posters from the mix, and read just the posts by those who have actually been to Bonaire, and those who have been suffered losses, you will begin to get a better picture of the problem.

You make a good point. It is entirely possible that people double/triple/quadruple post here and elsewhere about whatever was stolen from them. It is also possible that among the ScubaBoard audience, the notion of criminal activity on Bonaire is disproportionately high relative to the actual number of incidents that occur there. Is this unfair to the people who make a living on the dive tourist trade in Bonaire? Perhaps. It would be nice if the Bonaire police would publish accurate crime statistics. Unfortunately, they do not. It would be comforting to see posts from proprietors on the island who could keep us informed about any measures that the police or local residents were taking in order to minimize crime on the island. It's a small island. I think some people would notice if an enterprising individual started selling used truck tires out of his backyard. I would hope that SB threads like this would move local businesses to apply pressure to the police to do something about crimes perpetrated against tourists.

Another website, BonaireTalk.com, has a policy of strictly moderating posts discussing criminal activity on the island. Mods for that site require that the OP provide a case number for the police report of the incident. I can understand their concern over how damaging such posts can be to the tourist trade. Personally, I think asking for a case report number is a thinly veiled excuse to "scrub" the forums of any unseemly complaints about the island. Although BonaireTalk.com describes itself as a non-profit entity, I'm pretty sure that it survives on donations from local businesses.

I don't personally know the OP who started this thread. But based on his story, I see no reason not to believe what he has written, even though this was his first trip there. In his weeklong stay, he had his gas siphoned and he saw evidence of tire theft perpetrated against another tourist nearby. Based on this, I'd say that that neighborhood over by Sorobon has some issues with crime. If I planned to go to Bonaire, I would choose not to stay in that area, that's for sure.

I think Bonaire offers fantastic shore diving, and the locals I met there were very warm and friendly. Unfortunately, I'll be visiting some other dive destination on my next dive trip. It's not that I feel unsafe in Bonaire. I'm just annoyed that the petty theft has gotten to this point. The police should be doing more. This is my way of voting with my vacation dollars and encouraging them to do so.

 

[herman]

@herman: Yes, there's something to be said for granting greater weight to the words of a SB poster who has a great deal of experience planning/executing Bonaire dive trips...but to ignore "newbie" trip reports to the island is short-sighted. I think you will agree that the incidence of crime (and type of crime) probably varies over time. I would think a prospective dive tourist would be interested in what has been happening on Bonaire over the last few weeks/months as opposed to how things were 15 years ago. This may or may not be something that a seasoned Bonaire veteran who makes an annual Bonaire trip has a handle on. For instance, three years ago I did not hear of any reports of gas-siphoning from rental trucks. The fact that the car rental companies are currently warning their customers about this is telling.

I fully agree that there is a "response bias" on trip reports posted to Internet forums. This should be considered when figuring out how much weight to give a Bonaire horror story on SB. It is entirely understandable that people would feel more compelled to post a trip report if they had a very negative or a very positive experience on the island. Chances are the experiences of the prospective traveler (should h/she go to Bonaire) would fall somewhere in the middle.

I am with you 100% on placing high value on incidents that poster has seen/experienced first-hand and distinguishing that info from second- and third-hand accounts. I would also like to add that it's nice to discern whether the OP has any financial interest at all in pushing more dive tourism to Bonaire. This can be as indirect as a poster getting a comp'ed spot on a dive trip because he/she is serving as trip leader for a Bonaire trip sponsored by an LDS. That's why I really appreciated the entire last paragraph of your post.

One more point that I'd like to make is that when one is planning a trip for a large number of people, often the size of the party dictates where the group will ultimately stay. For instance, from a trip planner perspective, things are just much easier if the group stays at a place like Buddy Dive, where truck rentals, accommodations, and diving is managed through one entity. If you stayed at Buddy Dive on a majority of your Bonaire trips, then I would think that the probability of your truck getting vandalized in the middle of the night is rather low. AFAIK, the trucks are all parked in a gated parking lot where a nearby 24-hr watchman is posted. Smaller groups may end up staying at other places on the island where no such security force (however minimal) exists. Just my thoughts on the issue...

Fair enough and if I seemed to imply that a new poster should be discounted, it was not intended, I respect any and all first hand accounts. At the same time, I do have somewhat more of a critical eye twards posters who's very first post is a rant on a particular place or person. Having been on this board a long time, more often than not, the other side of the story is often quite different. A very good or bad post by a first time poster often has a lot of underlying issues. I do however have issue with post that are 2nd or 3rd hand accounts. We have all played the "pass the message" game as kids and we all know how confused the story gets after a few versions. As for current information- no issues since last Wed until now... that current enough for you (joking with you - just so there is no mistake) Something that has some bearing on the whole issue on the volume of crime- specifically car break ins came to mind while diving Andra II yesterday. There are often reports of glass indicating a breakin but what is never discussed is when that breakin occured. My buddy and I started looking over the site and found what looks like 4 incidences of a broken window but as we talked we recalled having seem them in years past and then something occured to me. Glass does not go away and pretty much remains in the same spot unless moved. Unlike trash or other material the glass is there pretty much there forever so those 4 appearant breakins could have been last week, all in one day 10 years ago or spread out over many years. Without police reports or at least 4 first hand- my window got broken reports, there is simply no way to know when or for that matter how it occured. My back yard still has glass from a broken truck window...lawnmowers can really zing a rock. I suspect a carelessly swung scuba tank would do wonders on a window. The point being, "there is a lot of glass on the ground" pretty much means nothing other than at some time in the last 10 years or so 4 windows got broken here.
More than likely I have more post on Bonaire than anyone else on the board and for sure I have been doing it longer than anyone else here and I have never said it was a perfect place where you can place a stack of $100 bills on the hood of your truck and weight it down with your Rolex while you dive- I wish it was but with over 500 person days on the island with absolutely no problems at all I am either darn lucky, living really right (and that not it for sure ) or the problem is not that bad if you use common sence- the reader can choose for themselves which it is.

While most of my stays were at Buddy here is the list. Sand Dollar (1- first trip with a LSD and a group of 24), Buddy ( 7), Golden Reef Inn (2 if you include this trip and 3 if you include some last minute additions that we did not have room for on a past trip), Den Laman (3 with 4 planned), Bel Mar (1) and last but not least Wannadivehut (1) . Plus this trip I am also staying at a private home for 7 days.

Jim, you and your family are 1 of 3 on this board who have been with me, You know 1 of the others and will get to meet the other in June. I choose not to call names but thanks for volunteering the info. A first hand account of the validity of my post as it were.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Herman, I really appreciate reading all of your SB posts. I share your "critical eye" approach to any first post rants here on SB. Thanks for your contributions to the discussions about Bonaire. It's always nice to hear what experienced voices have to say. Have a great time diving! (apologies to Papa Bear for stealing his exclamation point)

 

[herman]

@gypsyjim: .............................Another website, BonaireTalk.com, has a policy of strictly moderating posts discussing criminal activity on the island. Mods for that site require that the OP provide a case number for the police report of the incident. I can understand their concern over how damaging such posts can be to the tourist trade. Personally, I think asking for a case report number is a thinly veiled excuse to "scrub" the forums of any unseemly complaints about the island. Although BonaireTalk.com describes itself as a non-profit entity, I'm pretty sure that it survives on donations from local businesses.

I can shed a little light on this. BT has taken a lot of heat for that action but it was done because there was a rash of first time poster(s ?) who were posting either false or reporting old crimes as new. The requirement for a police report was put into effect to stop that kind of mischief but at the same time allow valid post on current crimes to be posted. In essence it stopped the second and third hand reports as being posted first hand accounts. It's a pity it had to be done but they saw no other way to sort out fact from fiction. Had it been long time posters posting first hand current events I suspect it would have never happened - I am speculating on that point with no solid proof. I was an active member of that board when it happened but with so many boards I rarely visit there any more.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

@herman:
Thanks for the info regarding BonaireTalk. In the past, I frequented that site only when I was planning a Bonaire trip. The board seemed to have lots of current info on restaurants and shops on the island. I didn't realize that they were being inundated with numerous false reports of criminal activity. That's too bad.

Still, there's a part of me that finds it a little ridiculous that an Internet mod has to go to the trouble of verifying theft reports with the Bonaire police. A poster who is purposefully posting false reports of criminal activity hurts business on the entire island. Is it possible that such a poster could be a shill from Curacao? Is there inter-island business competition among the ABC islands? I can't think of any other angle that a malicious poster might have.

 

[herman]

I have no clue why and any speculation would be purely a guess on my part. They may have had an issue with one person and decided to "fix them" by taking it out on the entire island population. The dislike for one person turning into hate for their entire sex, race, country of origin...whatever is not unheard of. There are some sick puppies in this world.