Dragon2115
Guest
My wife and I recently returned from our first trip to Bonaire. One of the first things we noticed was that other drivers tend to wave to you. And they use all five fingers, not just one!
We did the Boston Aruba Bonaire route, which worked out well for us. There was only one delay due to a cargo plane that had gotten a flat tire right smack in the middle of the runway in Curacao which closed the airport for several hours, trapping the BE plane there. We finally got out on the 9:00pm Curacao/Bonaire flight so better late than never. The return flights were no problem at all with only a few minutes delay leaving Charlotte.
We stayed at the Deep Blue View Bed & Breakfast. http://www.deepblueview.com The DBV is a nice quiet place up on the hill overlooking Kralendijk and Klein Bonaire. The DBV is owned and run by Menno de Bree & Esther Wiegerink, and I cant say enough nice things about them. Menno met us at the airport, helped us get our truck, and lead us up to the villa. The DBV is a full service dive operation so we decided to do our AOW and Nitrox courses with them. Menno taught the Nitrox class and Karin taught the AOW. Karin is another very nice person that it was our pleasure to meet and dive with.
Tanks are available on premises but are filled off-site so you dont have to listen to any compressors. Menno keeps the tank farm well stocked and we didnt see anyone run short.
The lockers are secure and very adequate for storing two sets of gear. Theyre robustly made so we had no fear of leaving our gear in them. Theyre just far enough away from the rooms that you can come back from a night dive, rinse and store your gear, and not disturb the other guests.
The boat diving schedule is very flexible at DBV. Menno tailors it to what the guests want. We needed to do a drift dive for our AOW and my wife was really hot to see a sea turtle so Menno made one of the boat dives a drift dive off of Klein Bonaire in a spot likely to see turtles. The other guests were invited to join us if they wished. We did get to see a couple of turtles but they were a bit skittish toward divers. Unfortunately the turtle conservation people were there before us and were catching and tagging them so the turtles werent letting anyone get too close afterwards. That was disappointing but we did at least get to see a couple of them.
We got in 18 dives each during our stay on the island with two of them being night dives. We saw lots of cool things such as a frogfish, flamingo tongue nudibranch, and a long snout sea horse, all of which Menno found for us. There were lots of eels ranging from small baby golden tail morays to a 6 free swimming green moray we ran into at Invisibles. That is one impressive animal to see out in the open. Especially when its swimming straight at you and then passes directly under you only a few feet away. We tried to follow it hoping for a better photo-op but it was hopeless, he was just moving along too fast for us to keep up.
The sites we dove were Petris Pillar, Carls Hill, Hilma Hooker, Angle City, Invisibles, Front Porch, Cliff, Andrea I, The Lake, Jerrys Reef, Bonaventure, Windsock, Windsock Right (This one has a story to it).
The first time we went to Windsock it was late in the day and we were scouting it out as a possible night dive site. Unfortunately we missed the proper entry point, by quite a bit. According to the map we had the dive site was on one side of the runway but in fact the actual site was on the other side of the runway. Thats why I refer to it as Windsock Right. The entry was fine with a sandy initial entry then iron shore. Thats when we found the dead coral that came up shallow and was in our path to open water. We were able to find a way over and through it but it just wasnt suitable for a night dive. Once past that minor obstacle though the dive was great.
During the dive briefing for one of our boat dives off of Klein we were told to keep an eye out for the elusive blue eared rabbit-fish as it had been seen recently there. Toward the end of our dive we were able to catch a glimpse of one for a brief moment. According to Menno we were lucky to spot it because apparently an encounter with one is pretty rare. Unfortunately we didnt have a camera with us at the time so we were left with only memories of the encounter. If you ever see one youll know it because theyre pretty hard to mistake for anything else. Typical coloration is gray, blue, and tan with large blue appendages on its head that can only be described as looking like rabbit ears. If you run into one snap a picture of it if you can.
We did one night dive at Front Porch next to Bongos and had a blast. Where we had already done the site earlier in the day with Karin for our deep and navigation dives we were familiar with it. Menno spotted a frogfish for us and we had a great time playing with the tarpon. We did the other night dive at nearby Cliff dive site in front of Hamlet Oasis. That was a good dive and I finally got to see a squid. Unfortunately as I got close it flashed me a series of colors that I can only imagine is the squid equivalent of Im outta here and took off before I could get a photo of it.
The top of the reef appeared to be in better shape at the southern sites than the northern ones. We were told this was due to the damage Lenny so theres a bit of dead zone down to around 20 30 fsw. Below that they're fine. At the southern sites however we got to enjoy doing our safety stops and finishing out our tanks poking around the plants and soft corals looking for little critters.
We decided to rent an underwater camera (DX3000 w/ YS25 flash) for a few days to see if we could get some photos for the scrapbook. Since this was my first attempt at underwater photography I was pleasantly surprised that most of them are worth keeping. Im glad we decided to rent the digital rather than the film camera because it can be addicting. During the AOW photography dive I had Karin and my wife working the reef ahead of me finding subjects to photograph. They found all sorts of things including a scorpionfish each. On that one dive we took over 100 photos. In total we shot over 420 underwater photos with about 350 of them worth keeping. I don't think that was too bad for a first attempt.
Shore diving was fun but it took my wife and I a couple of entries before we had the hang of it. The water is so clear its easy to misjudge if what youre about to step on is higher or lower than you think it is. Even though there was only a very little amount of surge its enough to take you off your feet if youre not ready for it. add to that I'm carrying a camera and things really get interesting fast. We worked it out by holding onto each others bc with one hand and moving one at a time until we were in water deep enough to put our fins on and start swimming. That gave us just enough stability to feel out what we about to step on and keep our balance. Other than that the diving was a piece of cake.
Disappointments:
I popped an ear infection the second morning on the island and got to find out about the Bonairian medical system. I must say that for my limited experience with them I was impressed. Karin was able to get an appointment right away and it only cost $20 US and a prescription for $40 US (double prescription). Luckily they had me back in action the next day. Not totally fixed up, but well enough to dive.
The only other disappointment we found was with some of the development that is going on along the waterfront to the south of town. I think it was at Kings Beach Resort there was a dive site marker stone next to the road with a Private Property sign and a chain across the entrance. I hope that trend doesnt continue or it may ruin what Bonaire is all about. I think would be wise if the local government made a provision in the building code that requires new waterfront construction to preserve public access to any dive site that it may block.
Conclusion:
For my wife and I, the Deep Blue View and Bonaire in general have earned a must go again rating on our places to vacation list. The whole atmosphere of the island was very relaxed and caused us to have one of the best vacations we can remember. So until next time, well just have to be happy looking at our photos, remembering the fun we had, and looking forward to our next opportunity to visit Bonaire.
We did the Boston Aruba Bonaire route, which worked out well for us. There was only one delay due to a cargo plane that had gotten a flat tire right smack in the middle of the runway in Curacao which closed the airport for several hours, trapping the BE plane there. We finally got out on the 9:00pm Curacao/Bonaire flight so better late than never. The return flights were no problem at all with only a few minutes delay leaving Charlotte.
We stayed at the Deep Blue View Bed & Breakfast. http://www.deepblueview.com The DBV is a nice quiet place up on the hill overlooking Kralendijk and Klein Bonaire. The DBV is owned and run by Menno de Bree & Esther Wiegerink, and I cant say enough nice things about them. Menno met us at the airport, helped us get our truck, and lead us up to the villa. The DBV is a full service dive operation so we decided to do our AOW and Nitrox courses with them. Menno taught the Nitrox class and Karin taught the AOW. Karin is another very nice person that it was our pleasure to meet and dive with.
Tanks are available on premises but are filled off-site so you dont have to listen to any compressors. Menno keeps the tank farm well stocked and we didnt see anyone run short.
The lockers are secure and very adequate for storing two sets of gear. Theyre robustly made so we had no fear of leaving our gear in them. Theyre just far enough away from the rooms that you can come back from a night dive, rinse and store your gear, and not disturb the other guests.
The boat diving schedule is very flexible at DBV. Menno tailors it to what the guests want. We needed to do a drift dive for our AOW and my wife was really hot to see a sea turtle so Menno made one of the boat dives a drift dive off of Klein Bonaire in a spot likely to see turtles. The other guests were invited to join us if they wished. We did get to see a couple of turtles but they were a bit skittish toward divers. Unfortunately the turtle conservation people were there before us and were catching and tagging them so the turtles werent letting anyone get too close afterwards. That was disappointing but we did at least get to see a couple of them.
We got in 18 dives each during our stay on the island with two of them being night dives. We saw lots of cool things such as a frogfish, flamingo tongue nudibranch, and a long snout sea horse, all of which Menno found for us. There were lots of eels ranging from small baby golden tail morays to a 6 free swimming green moray we ran into at Invisibles. That is one impressive animal to see out in the open. Especially when its swimming straight at you and then passes directly under you only a few feet away. We tried to follow it hoping for a better photo-op but it was hopeless, he was just moving along too fast for us to keep up.
The sites we dove were Petris Pillar, Carls Hill, Hilma Hooker, Angle City, Invisibles, Front Porch, Cliff, Andrea I, The Lake, Jerrys Reef, Bonaventure, Windsock, Windsock Right (This one has a story to it).
The first time we went to Windsock it was late in the day and we were scouting it out as a possible night dive site. Unfortunately we missed the proper entry point, by quite a bit. According to the map we had the dive site was on one side of the runway but in fact the actual site was on the other side of the runway. Thats why I refer to it as Windsock Right. The entry was fine with a sandy initial entry then iron shore. Thats when we found the dead coral that came up shallow and was in our path to open water. We were able to find a way over and through it but it just wasnt suitable for a night dive. Once past that minor obstacle though the dive was great.
During the dive briefing for one of our boat dives off of Klein we were told to keep an eye out for the elusive blue eared rabbit-fish as it had been seen recently there. Toward the end of our dive we were able to catch a glimpse of one for a brief moment. According to Menno we were lucky to spot it because apparently an encounter with one is pretty rare. Unfortunately we didnt have a camera with us at the time so we were left with only memories of the encounter. If you ever see one youll know it because theyre pretty hard to mistake for anything else. Typical coloration is gray, blue, and tan with large blue appendages on its head that can only be described as looking like rabbit ears. If you run into one snap a picture of it if you can.
We did one night dive at Front Porch next to Bongos and had a blast. Where we had already done the site earlier in the day with Karin for our deep and navigation dives we were familiar with it. Menno spotted a frogfish for us and we had a great time playing with the tarpon. We did the other night dive at nearby Cliff dive site in front of Hamlet Oasis. That was a good dive and I finally got to see a squid. Unfortunately as I got close it flashed me a series of colors that I can only imagine is the squid equivalent of Im outta here and took off before I could get a photo of it.
The top of the reef appeared to be in better shape at the southern sites than the northern ones. We were told this was due to the damage Lenny so theres a bit of dead zone down to around 20 30 fsw. Below that they're fine. At the southern sites however we got to enjoy doing our safety stops and finishing out our tanks poking around the plants and soft corals looking for little critters.
We decided to rent an underwater camera (DX3000 w/ YS25 flash) for a few days to see if we could get some photos for the scrapbook. Since this was my first attempt at underwater photography I was pleasantly surprised that most of them are worth keeping. Im glad we decided to rent the digital rather than the film camera because it can be addicting. During the AOW photography dive I had Karin and my wife working the reef ahead of me finding subjects to photograph. They found all sorts of things including a scorpionfish each. On that one dive we took over 100 photos. In total we shot over 420 underwater photos with about 350 of them worth keeping. I don't think that was too bad for a first attempt.
Shore diving was fun but it took my wife and I a couple of entries before we had the hang of it. The water is so clear its easy to misjudge if what youre about to step on is higher or lower than you think it is. Even though there was only a very little amount of surge its enough to take you off your feet if youre not ready for it. add to that I'm carrying a camera and things really get interesting fast. We worked it out by holding onto each others bc with one hand and moving one at a time until we were in water deep enough to put our fins on and start swimming. That gave us just enough stability to feel out what we about to step on and keep our balance. Other than that the diving was a piece of cake.
Disappointments:
I popped an ear infection the second morning on the island and got to find out about the Bonairian medical system. I must say that for my limited experience with them I was impressed. Karin was able to get an appointment right away and it only cost $20 US and a prescription for $40 US (double prescription). Luckily they had me back in action the next day. Not totally fixed up, but well enough to dive.
The only other disappointment we found was with some of the development that is going on along the waterfront to the south of town. I think it was at Kings Beach Resort there was a dive site marker stone next to the road with a Private Property sign and a chain across the entrance. I hope that trend doesnt continue or it may ruin what Bonaire is all about. I think would be wise if the local government made a provision in the building code that requires new waterfront construction to preserve public access to any dive site that it may block.
Conclusion:
For my wife and I, the Deep Blue View and Bonaire in general have earned a must go again rating on our places to vacation list. The whole atmosphere of the island was very relaxed and caused us to have one of the best vacations we can remember. So until next time, well just have to be happy looking at our photos, remembering the fun we had, and looking forward to our next opportunity to visit Bonaire.
