Bonaire trip report March 10-17

[Texas Girl]

Part 1: The Good, Part 2: The Bad, Part 3: The Ugly

Profile: 2 adults, 1 diving son, 8 year old daughter. We have traveled all over the Caribbean for scuba diving. Third trip to Bonaire. Top-side and underwater pictures are in my photogallery: http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/2298

Part 1: The Good (long)

We took the Continental redeye out of Houston on Friday evening. Check-in and security screening went smoothly and quickly, as this is the only flight at the terminal at the time. Only complaint about the flight is that it was very cold and we didn't sleep well. No food service, which was fine, as it maximized the resting time.

Upon arrival, passport control went fairly quickly. It took a long time for all the baggage to be unloaded. Four of our bags were the first off, one of our bags never showed up (see Part 2: The Bad). The customs agents occasionally stopped people, asking some questions and having a few open up their luggage. By the time we had finally given up on our bag and left, the agents were gone.

Our rental car was through Total, and it wasn't available at the time (see Part 2: The Bad). They drove us over to the hotel. Our rental was a 4-door small Chevy pick-up, and it appeared to be fairly new and was in great shape. There was a note on the dash stating not to lock it and to leave windows rolled down.

We stayed at the Plaza Resort, where we have stayed before. Check-in went quickly. We paid in advance for their "Continental Brunch, Beach on Bonaire" ($37.50 per person), which gives you a breakfast buffet, lunch at the Banana Tree, luggage storage, and early check-in. We went for breakfast (adequate, nothing fancy) and did our dive briefing with the dive shop. We were way too tired to do a dive, and they said it was fine to do it later. We went back to the front office, and our room was ready for us at 9:30am.

We slept for about 2-3 hours, went and ate lunch, did our check-out dive, and were ready to go for the rest of the week. Following are more details about our stay.

THE HOTEL: as I said, we have stayed here before, both times in the villas. We like them because there is parking right there, you can cook meals, and we had 2 bedrooms (larger one with 2 doubles, one with 2 singles; each with a bathroom, separate AC, TV, and shelves in the closet). The kitchen was adequately stocked with dishes, glasses, pots, silverware, etc., although the knives were dull. There was a dishwasher that flooded the kitchen the one time we tried to use it; thereafter, we just left the dishes for the maid. There was a dining table (seats 6), 2 sofas, TV, and a dresser in the living area. The larger bedroom had a large dresser, the small one had a small table. The bathrooms did not have any ventilation, so nothing dried fast hanging in it; we would just put stuff out on the patio while we were in the room. There were toiletries (shampoo, lotion, soap) which were restocked, and a hair dryer in each bathroom.

While the resort is spread out, and it does seem like a long walk to the beach/dive shop, it is really only takes about 2-3 minutes. It is about a 5 minute drive over to the dive shop from the villas.

Our bedroom faced the airport, and the planes taking off never bothered me, and I am a fairly light sleeper. My husband said he heard them a few times, but was always able to go back to sleep quickly.

There is free high-speed wireless internet through out the resort. Because we were on the back-side of the resort, we could only get reception if we sat on the front porch.

THE DIVE SHOP: they have 3 boats, two of which were for the 2 tank morning dives; afternoon dives were always single tanks. Our package included 6 boats dives, unlimited shore diving, and free nitrox. Because of other difficulties (Parts 2 & 3), we ended up doing 2 2-tank dives, and the others as single tanks. One day, we were the only 3 on the boat. The boats leave promptly, no "island time" there. The boats had camera buckets, a rinse hose, and the usual emergency equipment. There was 1 DM and a captain. DMs gave good briefings, and you could stay with them or go off on your own. Depth limits were reasonable (I can't remember exactly, but something like 110' on the first dive, 90' on the second) and time limit of 1 hour. Once back on board and the boat was underway, you signed a log sheet with your max depth and time. They signed you up for a boat based upon what you had pre-paid for, but you could ask to be switched around. More about our dives later.

The dive shop itself had a fair amount of stock. The rental gear was fine, although they only have full-foot fins (see Part 2 for why we learned this), which aren't really good for shore diving.

There was a storage room adjacent to the docks, and you were issued a key for a locker that had room for 2 sets of gear. There were also rods/hangers for hanging up your wetsuit. My only complaint, not unique to this place: why can't dive resorts have adequate ventilation in gear storage rooms? Everything came out just as wet as when you put it in. I always took my wetsuit/boots back to the room. There were 5 rinse tanks around the dock area, and 1 dedicated for cameras.

You could drive up fairly close to pick up tanks, which were always available. There were also tanks on either end of the beach. We took 1-2 tanks apiece, depending upon where we were going.

Nitrox tanks were readily available, and it didn't seem like that many people were using it, at least on the boat dives. They have 2 analyzers, an air tank for each to calibrate, and a log book. The tanks were consistently 32% +/- 0.5%, except for 1 day that my son got 2 33% tanks, and yes, he claims he calibrated the analyzer. Once you ID'd your tanks, you told the DM which boat you were on and they would load them for you. The room is locked at night, so be sure to pick up nitrox tanks early if you want to do a night dive.

THE DIVES: were all fine, nothing to get too excited about. Visibility was around 40-60 feet, waves not significant to affect shore diving, but we didn't do the south sites this time. Lots of eels as usual, one small turtle on our check-out dive, lots of tarpon on the Hilma Hooker as usual, large stingray on Capt. Don's reef on Klein, squid at Karpata, scorpion fish at Nearest Point on Klein, large brown seahorse on Small Wall, large midnight parrot fish on several sites, large free swimming octopus on night dive at resort reef. Sites we dove: 18 Palms (house reef for checkout, and the boys did a night dive there), Angel City, Kalli's to Oil Slick (did it as a drift boat dive), Small Wall, Nearest Point/Klein, 1000 Steps (had my picture taken as I was going down the steps in full gear by the pod people!), Ol' Blue, Hilma Hooker (as a shore dive, killer entry and swim), Karpata (still one of my favorite sites, the boys were stopped by Marine Park employee to check for the tag and to ask general tourism questions), Capt. Don's/Klein, Rock Pile/Klein. We were not able to do a town pier dive because of the boats that were there, and decided it wasn't worth it to hire a DM for the Salt Pier (always one of our favorites). We had wanted to do a dive at Boca Slagbai in the National Park, but we didn't get an early enough start to be sure of getting out of the park before they closed. Water temperatures from 79-81°.

FOOD/EATING: We ate breakfast and lunch in our room. I had brought tuna fish, mayo, mustard, and deviled ham for sandwiches. We also had left-overs from dinners, and I made spaghetti one day - no parmesan cheese, tho. Restaurants: Pasa Bon Pizza (ended up having to take it to go as they had no table available), La Guernica (we were in Spain this summer, so we just had to go for their good tapas, wish we could have gone back for their fish specials), Old Inn, Tipsy Seagull (at the Plaza), Richard's, and Capriccio. One thing that I noticed when eating out is that aside from the pizza place, the restaurants were only half full. I don't know if this week just wasn't a busy time, although we were here during the same time frame the last trip, or if there is a general decrease in tourism.

AQUA KIDS: I will write up a separate post about this, to make it easier for others to search for it.

We settled our dive shop and hotel bills the night before we left. We got to the airport 2 hours before the flight, my husband dropped us off with the luggage and went and returned the car. It took almost an hour to check in. Security (didn't even have to take laptops out of bag) and passport control went quickly. For some reason or another one of our seats was changed, which happened to multiple people. Some went around trying to trade seats ahead of time. The flight back was bumpy, they never could find a smooth altitude; got a breakfast of cereal, milk, muffin, and a banana, and they showed 2 movies. We arrived about 5 minutes late because of the attempts to find a smooth ride.

 

[Texas Girl]

Part 2: The Bad (long)

#1: Remember the bag that didn't arrive when we did? We never saw it again until we went to the baggage center at the airport in Houston. They had had it there since Wednesday (5 days after we left, and 3 days before coming home) and had not bothered to attempt to contact us to get it to us. Where it had been from Friday to Wednesday is anybody's guess, but it had been opened and inspected by TSA. It still had the original tags on it with our destination, plus there was an itinerary in the outside pocket. There were also several sheets of paper with the contacts that the KLM office at the airport had sent requesting information. Also on the paper was a note that they had tried to call a cell phone (don't know which one they have on file, but none of us had a received/missed call), noting our hotel as the Plaza Resort! So obviously, nobody actually tried to call us or get the bag to us. Did I mention the "priority handling" tag? I guess we never would have gotten the bag back at all without that. :-(

Fortunately, nothing was stolen from the bag, on which TSA failed to place a new zip tie. But there were things in that bag that we had packed because we wanted it on our trip. My daughter's snorkeling gear, vest and wetsuit; she was very upset about having to rent it when she had her own new mask and snorkel. My son's mask, snorkel, fins, boots, and wetsuit; they only rent full-foot fins, which made shore diving a real challenge for him, and he was less than enthusiastic to do many dives. Extra batteries for backup lights and "C" batteries for the night dive light (which we were not able to use). Beach toys for my daughter to play with while we dove. My rechargeable batteries for my underwater camera (ended up pulling batteries out of unused lights). Sunscreen - yeah, who needs that on a tropical island. Fish ID book and novels. Extra shoes for my son and me; I at least had one pair of sandals, he had nothing but his tennis shoes, no booties, no sandals, no water shoes. Just clothes would have been easier to replace. All week long we were going gee, I wished I had packed that, oh wait, I did, it is in the green bag.

The dive shop did not charge us for renting the fins for my son (he used my husband's back-up mask) or my daughter's snorkeling gear/vest, but they were clearly not happy about it. We did not ask them to do this, but they made sure that we knew what a big favor they were doing us by not charging it to us.

The worst part was the lack of response and caring that we received from the people at KLM. We weren't the only ones that had lost baggage, there were 6 other families, including 1 who didn't get any of their bags. As of Sunday night, the last time I saw any of them as we congregated at the airport to meet an AA flight that did not have our bags, no one had gotten their bags. Continental does not have a presence at the airport, so everything is done through KLM or directly with airport personnel. Even when we were filing out the missing bag report after our arrival, the attitude was "so what, it happens" and "you are on vacation, just relax". Hard to relax when you didn't get everything, or anything, you intended to bring with you. We were told to call the baggage office at the airport after the time that it closes, but it doesn't do any good to call them anyway, as they are never in the office. KLM people only work for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours late at night, so you had to call at those times to talk to anyone; we ended up only being able to dive a couple of times the first few days because we were trying to get any information about the bag. We would call in the morning, only to be told that their colleague would call us that night. After not receiving a call, we would call again, only to be told that the morning colleague would call. After a few days, we finally accepted the fact that no one cared and that we were never going to see our bag again. Once I figured out that we had wireless internet, I even emailed and got no response.

This type of non-communication is not acceptable, particularly in this day and age of cell phones and internet. I have had delayed bags before, in Hawaii and Curacao, but we got them from a later flight or the next day. We have had delayed bags on the way home that were delivered to my house. If Continental is going to fly into a destination, they need to have someone responsible directly to them at that location. Even having someone that works just a few hours a day, and can communicate directly with them, would be better than nothing. I have a complaint filed with them, waiting on a response.

Lessons learned:
a. Spread things out amongst all your bags. You can't do this with scuba gear, but have a little bit of everyone's clothes and shoes in all the bags. Pack sunscreen and batteries in every bag or just plan on buying it there, as you can't put much in a carry-on.
b. Know what to do if you have delayed/lost baggage. Take a look at Continental's baggage policy, and you will be shocked at how little they cover. We have an American Express baggage policy, which covers whatever the airline won't, but I still need to clarify exactly what they will cover; for example, only clothes and shoes like Continental, or would they cover purchasing scuba gear like a mask or fins.

In spite of this problem, I do like the convenience of flying directly instead of having to go through San Juan, Jamaica, or Aruba. You are still wiped out however, so don't plan on doing much that first day.

The Bad #2: the rental car. Remember I said that they didn't have a truck ready for us when we arrived? They told us we would get it by 11 am. When we finished our check -out dive that afternoon, we still hadn't gotten it. So we ended up not being able to do a second afternoon dive while we called and waited for the truck to be delivered. I understand it not being ready upon our arrival, as someone else had probably just dropped it off and it needed to be cleaned, but deliver it when you say you will. Because we got it so late, we ended up going into a tiny place to pick up a few groceries, and then had to go back out the next day to pick up more supplies.

Bad #2 wasn't enough to ruin a vacation, but put it together with Bad #1 and The Ugly to follow, and it didn't help. Between them all, we lost 4-5 potential dives.

 

[Texas Girl]

Part 3: The Ugly

This is what is going to get the discussion going.

Our room was broken into on our second night, sometime between 3 and 6 am. Yes, WHILE WE WERE THERE SLEEPING. AND there was a light on in living room. This is someone who is not concerned about getting caught, because nothing would be done to him if he was. I shudder to think what might have happened if my eight-year old had wandered out into the living room while the burglar was still there. They took all the cash out of my husband's wallet, which was sitting on the kitchen counter, but fortunately left the wallet with the credit cards. They also didn't take computers and cameras that were also sitting out. Our room was right next to the guard house, so either the burglar entered while the guard was making rounds, or the guard was in on it. Four other rooms were broken into at the same time; this was confirmed by the day guard (as people had reported it to him), they head guard who took our report, and another guest who told us that their room was broken into and money and a bathing suit (who knows why) were taken.

The Plaza management's response was actually appropriate: they had us give a report to the head guard, who admitted that there wasn't much that they could do. They immediately sent over someone to check the sliding glass doors (although there is no guarantee that the burglar did not somehow have a key) and installed a broom handle in both tracks to prevent the doors from opening. They sent us a chilled bottle of wine that afternoon. The manager on Monday (there is no manager on the weekend) issued us a $300 room credit; while this was generous, it did not really cover the cash that was taken as we ended up not using $40 of it, and had to eat at the resort to use up part of it, which we may or may not have done anyway. Yes, we were "lucky" that only cash was stolen, but that doesn't make the situation OK.

The fact is that Bonaire is not a safe place to take anything to. I read a statement similar to this before we traveled, and blew it off. I have never been to a place that I had to take such care about locking up absolutely everything of value, and I have been to a wide variety of places. The in-room safe is tiny, so I guess you shouldn't bring anything of value at all with you. I have never been to a place that I was afraid to leave sunglasses and a t-shirt in a car, and being instructed that I had to leave it unlocked. I never feared for my personal safety while we were walking around town, but we weren't even safe in our hotel room. We talked to someone on our flight who's room at the Sand Dollar was broken into and his entire wallet was taken, and a resident who was renting tanks at the dive shop that is installing bars on her house windows, so it is not an issue unique to the Plaza. It is not a rare occurrence, rather it has been happening frequently for many years.

Bonaire can and should do something about this. Jamaica and New York City used to have bad crime problems, but they cracked down on it. Why can't Bonaire? Until tourists, and by that I mean divers, say enough and stop going, nothing will change. It was obvious to me that there are less people there than the last time that we visited. I know that we won't be back until the situation improves.

Wearing my flame-retardant gear now.

 

[kwonger81]

I'm sorry to hear about your terrible experience in Bonaire. (I'm surprised to be the first to respond!) We were there in January and were fortunate to not encounter any problems at all.

We stayed at Den Laman, where they had locked doors requring a magnetic access card to enter the stairway to the units, 2 locks on the unit doors, plus the unit safe. I suppose someone could have scaled the wall and broken in through the balcony doors, but that seems unlikely. Or if there's an insider or staff person involved, then there's not much one can do. I suppose putting all valuables (or whatever can fit) in the safe each night is another precaution.

Our rental car was also with Total and we had no problems whatsoever.

Despite all the stories of theft, my wife and I won't hesitate to go back - the diving is too good and cheap, and we just love the island (I haven't been to any others before, but my wife has gone to a few other Caribbean islands and this is her favourite due to the laidback atmosphere, having potable water, and being malaria-free. Grand Cayman is supposedly nice as well, but way more expensive). I do agree that something needs to be done about this property crime issue, but I'm not sure boycotting is the way to go.

As for travelling, my wife and I typically use only carry-on luggage for our trips (for some trips as long as 2 weeks), with 1 small luggage and a backpack for each of us. You'd be surprised how much you can fit, as long as you're a light traveller. When we went to Costa Rica last year, we managed to fit our mask, snorkel and full foot fins and about 4 changes of clothes (and did laundry a couple of times on our trip - we stayed at a condo so this wasn't a problem) and a couple of types of footwear (sandals, aquashoes). We got Tusa Zoom split fins recently, and they're huge, so we can't fit our fins in carry-on luggage anymore, but we made sure to put our mask (I use a prescription mask), snorkel and booties in our carry-on luggage (as well as 1 change of clothes, just in case). We've heard too many stories of our friends having their luggage lost or delayed so we don't take any chances - anything you REALLY need, and can't expect to buy there, bring it on the plane with you. This is especially relevant when you're taking multiple flights and/or the connection times are short (so the chances of a screw-up increase). The other benefit if you only have carry-on luggage is that you don't have to wait to pick up any checked luggage, so you get out of the airport much faster. However, things are more complicated now with all the restrictions on liquids, so admittedly it's a bit harder to do the carry-on only thing (I guess you just have to buy your sunscreen and bugspray at your destination).

Anyway, I hope you've seen the end of your bad luck!

 

[oly5050user]

I had a group at the Plaza one year and a bcd was stolen from the rear patio of the room.Granted the owner could have been more careful as there is free access to the area,but the entire resort is gated !! Also at Sand Dollar a bcd was stolen,from the dock area that the owner left there and had forgotten,went back to get it and it was gone..I think a family of tourist took it as they had been seen on the dock and were not diving as they were to leave the island that day. Crime is everywhere and you simply should not let your guard down.Have stayed at Buddies a few times and nothing taken/stolen/lost there.Maybe just lucky as I am sure this is an island wide problem at all the resorts.

 

[SueMermaid]

I went to Bonaire about 10 years ago, and things were bad. We were not able to leave our vehicle unattended, and had to dive in shifts. I am thinking of going back after being out of diving for a couple of years. Is crime getting worse there? If it is, I am picking another destination.

 

[Texas Girl]

With scuba gear, it is virtually impossible to do carry-on only, particularly if you are a photographer and have to carry that stuff on. I do pack light, and when it is just my husband and I, we can manage with just a dive bag and a carry-on apiece.

And yes, stuff like this happens everywhere. But I personally know of at least a dozen people who have had problems in Bonaire over the years and not anywhere else. In fact, the last time we were there, I had a wetsuit stolen out of the pickup when we were at the dock dropping off tanks.

Even if my son had carried on his booties, which was probably the missing item that caused the most problems, it wouldn't have done him any good because they only rent full-foot fins. We were on a direct flight, it was late at night so fewer flights were departing/arriving, we checked in 1.5 hours before the flights, and we had priority baggage handling, so there was absolutely no reason for our bag to be missing.

 

[piikki]

Does this "renting only full foot fins" go for all ops on Bonaire"?
I think boots will go to carry-on now but this makes me consider packing strategy even more... Trip is only a week, I don't want to fool around waiting/not having real fins to dive with.

 

[Texas Girl]

I only know about Toucan Divers at the Plaza Resort. However, now that I think about it, I am not sure I have ever seen rental booties, not that I have paid attention. I would recommend that you e-mail the dive shop if you want to be sure.

One thing I forgot to mention about the dive boats in my report: there is very little shade on them. They do provide towels, so I just used that to cover my shoulders and neck.

 

[highlandfarmwv]

Divi Flamingo only rents full foot booties, too. I know because my luggage also didn't get to me for 5 days. And it was sitting in the Bonaire airport for 3 of those days--WITH phone # and address of the hotel, and US Airways (who originally lost it) paid alot to have it sent to a place they don't service. I don't think the people in Bonaire are "tourist accommodating" as, say, Aruba. Even the hotel wouldn't let me have access to the computer because they had run out of pieces of paper with time we could buy. Had they done that, I would have known my bags were are the airport. Whe I wnet to the airport (every day), no one there knew anything about it.

The following week, I went to Aruba, and the diving there was very nice with Dive Aruba. The visibility was not as good as Bonaire, but the animals were larger; same coral; and the dive op was great at allowing you to dive your computer. It is a lot less hassle to get to Aruba!

I'm returning to Aruba in April.