This was our fifth trip to Bonaire, and it was as great as I remembered.
We traveled on the United red eye flight from Newark, and arrived on time Saturday morning. Bonaire Immigration and Customs went smooth and we had our luggage in a short time. The Telerin representative met us with our truck, and the rental process went smoothly.
Our group of ten stayed at Divi Flamingo Beach Resort this visit. Check in was smooth and our rooms were ready upon arrival. The breakfast buffet at Calabas Restaurant was included in our package, and it was especially welcomed after traveling overnight.
We met at the pavilion outside the Divi dive shop at 9:30 am for dive orientation.
Alvins presentation was detailed and very informative. We picked up our weights at the dive shop, and as a group, decided when to do the orientation dive off the Divi dock.
I always enjoy this chance to check buoyancy and get reacquainted with dive gear.
We did 2 tank boat dives each morning and shore dives in the afternoon.
Each dive site we visited was beautiful and we spotted something interesting at each one.
At Eighteen Palms, Enrique, one of the dive masters at Divi Dive, showed us two frog fish, a sea horse, and then spotted a turtle on the reef. At Andrea I we spotted a Queen Angelfish, at Cliff, a scorpion fish was moving across the sand, and at Captain Dons Reef, we swam with a turtle for a few minutes. We did spot a few lion fish of various sizes at a few sites through out the week.
We went to Warehouse, Van den Tweel, and Sunshine Market for groceries through out the week. We found items at each that we were familiar with or preferred over others.
We had the breakfast buffet each day, and ate sandwiches for lunch. We enjoyed the Saturday BBQ, Tuesday Taco Night, and Friday Pasta Night at Divi Resort. Other nights we visited old favorites and found a few new places. LeAnn with BonPhoto recommended Rumba, located across the street from Karels in town. The food here was very good and you cant beat the atmosphere and service. We planned to eat at Richards on Sunday night, but when we arrived found a sign stating they were closed. We got to speak to Richard and he informed us he was retiring and Friday had been his last night of operation. We wish him the best and were glad we got to see him, if not eat there.
One memorable part of our trip occurred on Friday evening, when a young man in our group proposed to his girlfriend while walking along the beach.
Taking some advise from a previous trip report, we left for the airport at 4:30 am Saturday morning, and were ahead of most travelers at check in. We breezed through security, only to discover our flight would be late arriving in Bonaire. This delay caused some of our group to miss connections in Newark. United got us on another flight to Chicago and our next connection had enough lay over that we made it.
Travel can sometimes be difficult from the middle part of US , but it is sure worth the effort!
---------- Post Merged at 01:15 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 01:14 PM ----------
I posted some video in this thread a few days ago:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/abc-islands/425919-bonire-gopro-video.html
We traveled on the United red eye flight from Newark, and arrived on time Saturday morning. Bonaire Immigration and Customs went smooth and we had our luggage in a short time. The Telerin representative met us with our truck, and the rental process went smoothly.
Our group of ten stayed at Divi Flamingo Beach Resort this visit. Check in was smooth and our rooms were ready upon arrival. The breakfast buffet at Calabas Restaurant was included in our package, and it was especially welcomed after traveling overnight.
We met at the pavilion outside the Divi dive shop at 9:30 am for dive orientation.
Alvins presentation was detailed and very informative. We picked up our weights at the dive shop, and as a group, decided when to do the orientation dive off the Divi dock.
I always enjoy this chance to check buoyancy and get reacquainted with dive gear.
We did 2 tank boat dives each morning and shore dives in the afternoon.
Each dive site we visited was beautiful and we spotted something interesting at each one.
At Eighteen Palms, Enrique, one of the dive masters at Divi Dive, showed us two frog fish, a sea horse, and then spotted a turtle on the reef. At Andrea I we spotted a Queen Angelfish, at Cliff, a scorpion fish was moving across the sand, and at Captain Dons Reef, we swam with a turtle for a few minutes. We did spot a few lion fish of various sizes at a few sites through out the week.
We went to Warehouse, Van den Tweel, and Sunshine Market for groceries through out the week. We found items at each that we were familiar with or preferred over others.
We had the breakfast buffet each day, and ate sandwiches for lunch. We enjoyed the Saturday BBQ, Tuesday Taco Night, and Friday Pasta Night at Divi Resort. Other nights we visited old favorites and found a few new places. LeAnn with BonPhoto recommended Rumba, located across the street from Karels in town. The food here was very good and you cant beat the atmosphere and service. We planned to eat at Richards on Sunday night, but when we arrived found a sign stating they were closed. We got to speak to Richard and he informed us he was retiring and Friday had been his last night of operation. We wish him the best and were glad we got to see him, if not eat there.
One memorable part of our trip occurred on Friday evening, when a young man in our group proposed to his girlfriend while walking along the beach.
Taking some advise from a previous trip report, we left for the airport at 4:30 am Saturday morning, and were ahead of most travelers at check in. We breezed through security, only to discover our flight would be late arriving in Bonaire. This delay caused some of our group to miss connections in Newark. United got us on another flight to Chicago and our next connection had enough lay over that we made it.
Travel can sometimes be difficult from the middle part of US , but it is sure worth the effort!
---------- Post Merged at 01:15 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 01:14 PM ----------
I posted some video in this thread a few days ago:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/abc-islands/425919-bonire-gopro-video.html
