dogenia
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Herman I'll be at Liz's the 19th.
Bonaire Trip Report (Den Laman & Bonaire Dive and Adventure)
- Thread starter dyarab
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We are on the red eye out of NJ and arrive very early on the 20th, will most likely eat breakfast at Den Laman and hit the water before noon....most likely the rest will crash on me but I will likely do some more shore diving at DL before supper.....although a night dive is not likely.
EnronX
Contributor
Herman and Clayjar...this year we are taking a new approach to the island, we are going to spend our week focusing on East Side diving...Have you guys been on the "wild side"? We are going with Bas, and are looking forward to seeing alot more...
Very interesting, let me know how that goes. Never dove with Bas but he has a very good rep. I am going to be with a fairly large group but I might be able to slip off for a few dives with one or 2 of them. I suspect taking most of them to the east side is not a good idea. The second week most are going home and I am down with just a couple of long time buddies so that week has some real possibility. Please let us know how it turns out.
reefdiva
Contributor
This will be my first trip to Bonaire, so nothing but the "basic" shore dives for me.
under water
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kwonger81
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Hey EnronX,
I thought I did post a trip report, but when I did a search of SB I didn't find anything so maybe I didn't. Our trip was in Jan 2007, so my memory is a little fuzzy now, but here goes...
1. I don't have a single criticism of DL. Virtually new, super clean, modern, spacious, courteous staff, air-conditioning throughout the unit, incredibly convenient, a safe in the unit, I could go on and on. We stayed in a 2BR Ocean View unit with another couple. Maybe the TV was a bit small, but we obviously didn't watch much TV.
2. BD&A was great as well. No problems whatsoever. Well, I got a reg that leaked a little bit of air, but exchanged it no prob.
3. Dives: my wife and I are total newbs, so we did Bari reef many times (yet never got sick of it; with all the fish diversity, we saw different stuff every time). We went over to Buddy's once and enjoyed that. We did Karpata as a boat dive, and we were awed by it - at least until I fed the fish after I got back to the boat. I enjoyed a night dive at the Town Pier. We thought Oil Slick Leap was OK - it wasn't too memorable. I think that was about all we did. We hope to do more sites on our next trip (coming up in 8 weeks!!). Overall, we thoroughly loved the shore diving - dive where you want, when you want. As newbies, we had some trepidation about diving without a DM, but we quickly realized how easy diving in Bonaire is. We wished that we had done our certification there so that we could spend the rest of the week laying down a solid foundation by logging a bunch of dives in quick succession. No better place to go for beginner divers, IMO (although we've only dove in 2 other places - Costa Rica and Palwan, Philippines). Since we've been home, we've been raving about how easy and great the diving is in Bonaire (yes, more than a year later...)
4. Food: we bought groceries and ate breakfast and lunch at the condo (with the full kitchen) and then we would go out for dinner. We tried: It Rains Fishes, Patagonia, the restaurant at DL, Whattaburger, Pasa Bon Pizza, Mona Lisa, Cactus Blue. They're sort of ranked in order of how much we enjoyed them (not necessarily just the food, but the mood we were in at the time)
5. Top-side activities: we relaxed a lot (some of the best afternoon naps ever), drove around the island (unfortunately we didn't make it to the national park), saw the flamingos and salt pools, hung out at the bar at DL (Carlos is a cool guy), felt sorry for the people on the cruise ship, etc.
6. Bottom line, we loved just about everything about Bonaire: the potable water, the absence of malaria, the laid back locals who leave tourists alone (unlike some of the other Caribbean islands), the subtle Dutch influence, the perpetually perfect weather (just the right mix of sun and trade winds)...
7. Our next trip: we're going again June 8-15 (taking the red-eye from Newark, 57 days and counting), this time with another couple and with our baby, who will be 7 months then (yes, Isabel was conceived right after our last trip, for those of you counting the months). This will be our first vacation since our last trip to Bonaire (another sign of how much we liked it, in case you haven't figured that out). For this trip, we'll be staying at Sand Dollar, but only because we got a deal through a friend, and I thought it'd be nice to see another place. This is not a slight of DL at all - we would stay there again in a flash. We hope to get nitrox training so that we can try diving Nitrox (free upgrade with BD&A), and we hope to try a few other sites on the island (1000 steps, the Andreas, etc.) Nothing too adventurous, since we're still beginners.
Anyway, if anyone else is going to be there June 8-15, we'd love to hear from you (if you want to dive with other beginners). Last time, we met a couple from New Mexico through SB and we hung out a bunch of times.
Jeff.
Thanks for that trip report Jeff! I keep hearing over and over how easy Bonaire diving is for newbies and it really makes my wife and I feel more at ease with our choice. We're in the same situation, and have some trepidation about diving without a DM or instructor. But I have read numerous times and had it reinforced at our local scuba club meeting last night that this is really a good place to do those first 'alone' (buddy team) dives.
Interesting that you didn't think Oil Slick Leap was all that, since everybody talks it up so much. What was it that made it so bland?
Interesting that you didn't think Oil Slick Leap was all that, since everybody talks it up so much. What was it that made it so bland?
DiveMaven
Contributor
Great trip report Jeff. So sorry we're going to miss you on Bonaire, we'll be arriving on June 28 (staying at Den Laman) and you guys sound like the type of people we love to meet on dive vacations. Hope you have a GREAT trip (congrats on your baby) and make sure you post another trip report, but this time a little earlier than last. 
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