My husband had been to Bonaire before, but it was my first trip there. I’ve been diving many places in the Caribbean as well as Maui and the Great Barrier Reef. Bonaire was on my to do list to see if it really is all that it’s cracked up to be. In my opinion.... absolutely it is! I am hooked on Bonaire!
We arrived bright and early at 5:40 Sat. morning on the United flight from Newark (YVR - Chicago - Newark - Bonaire). Needless to say we were exhausted. We were shuttled over with a few other people to pick up our truck from AB. They were quick and friendly there. Out truck was ok. It had the mesh instead of an actual tailgate, which was a bit of a hassle undoing and doing up, but it did have a wooden tank rack we could balance our gear on to put on/off. The muffler rattled, but it stayed put. When the brakes got wet they were grabby. Was it a great vehicle? No, but it did the job.
We rented condo A1 at Sand Dollar through VRBO. Since the previous guests left early, we were able to check-in at 9:00. This gave us a little time to have some breakfast at Eddy’s. The food was good, and we were the only ones for awhile, so we chatted with Sonya (such a nice lady) and drank lots of coffee trying to wake up. We still had time to kill, so we wandered around the property. There aren’t many chairs except in a couple of patio areas and the beach, and they’re in pretty rough shape. We met the property manager, Inge, at the condo and check-in was quick and easy. Another friendly local. Seeing a real theme here for friendliness.
We had already decided to dive with Dive Friends, so eventually we wandered over there. The Sand Dollar location is right behind A1 so it is ridiculously convenient. We met Liz who manages that location, and knew right away we made the right choice with DF. She was super helpful and friendly. She gave us our orientation and told us we could do our check out dive whenever we were ready. Just let her know then gear up and she would meet us at the beach. There are 2 tanks rooms, one at the parking lot, and another above the beach, along with washrooms and shower. A1 is between the two and steps from the beach one. Super convenient. We had the code for both for 24/7 access.
We didn’t end up diving the first day. Just too exhausted. So we settled in, went for a drive, and did some shopping. We ended up doing most of our shopping at Van den Tweel. it was a bit of a fun adventure navigating all the Dutch, but the selection was good there, and it’s such a nice big, clean store.
So now to the best part... the diving. I won’t give a play by play of every dive; just the highlights (but wait, that is pretty much every dive!) We started with our check out at Bari Reef. What a great start. Such easy access off the beach and a beautiful reef to dive. Really no need for the pier to shore dive there. Liz gave us the rundown about the pier and to not go near it. Honestly we didn’t care for the attitude of the BDA staff, barking at people who came anywhere near the pier. God forbid anyone sit on their steps to the beach. It became a bit of a joke between us... No, don’t look at it, it’s not even there!... and under water sticking our finger out towards it, threatening to touch it. Surely someone would’ve appeared. It’s all quite ridiculous really.
Anyway, back to the diving... Overall I was impressed with the condition of the reefs and abundance of life. We heard that the green morays had nearly disappeared, but are making a comeback. We spotted several, as well as other moray species. Thankfully we only spotted a few lionfish, and we did report those that we found. The best spotting was the ones on our buns! Yes, we made it to the Cactus Blue food truck on Kite Beach for Hagen’s delicious grilled lionfish burger. YUM! The first time he was out, so we had his Kite Burgers. Also very tasty. We also tried a lionfish pizza at Pasa Bon. Delicious.
Sites... At the start, when we drove to the south it was a bit rough. There were small breakers coming in to many of the sites, and we were told there was some current. No biggie, we did more dives a little to the North. We did Oil Slick, 1000 Steps, Cliff.... ok, I loved Cliff. One of my favs for sure. Impressive. We did Buddy Reef one day, but it just didn’t thrill me, and man, Buddy is busy. It was the only place I felt like there were so many divers around. We did end up doing dives to the (somewhat) south, as the conditions vastly improved and the water calmed, making entries/exits easy again. The sites were nice, but even though the swims are really not that long, I admit the north spoiled me.
A couple of sites that surprised me...
Something Special - As we were surveying the entry, a local woman told us her dive buddy hadn’t shown up, so could she dive with us? She dove this site almost daily, knew it so well, and offered to show us the Frog Fish. Well sure! Why not? Sure enough, she showed us the rather large frog fish.
Cha Cha Cha - house reef at the DF Dive Inn. We went for the seahorses, studied the map, and went for a dive. When I found one, I was quite surprised. At about 6 inches or so, it was much larger than I imagined it would be. We looked around the area for it’s mate, but no luck. Of course this nagged at us, and bugged my hubby that he hadn’t found one. So we did end up going back a few days later. This time we talked to one of the DF staff and found out that 2 had been spotted in the shallow sandy area. His directions were perfect and he found both. We also spotted the original again, as well as it’s mate.... and a frog fish... all on 1 dive!
Hubby did a UV night dive, but I gave it a miss for cocktails with Liz
Another great site was Salt Pier. When we first arrived on Bonaire there was a ship there, so no luck. However, a couple days later it was gone. We ended up diving it twice, later in the afternoon both times, so that the sunlight was shining in between the pilings. Such an abundance of fish life here, and the only place we saw a turtle.
Sadly, early in our trip there was an incident. A group from Columbia diving the Lighthouse site were swept out in the currents. The conditions were rough. All were picked up, mostly by fishing boats, I believe. However, 1 diver did not make it. last I heard they had not found his body. I don’t know any more, so would prefer not to discuss or speculate. Not sure if this was posted in the incidents section.
We took two days off. The one day we went to the Donkey Sanctuary. It was an adventure driving through with bags of carrots and getting mauled through the windows by dozens of donkeys. We even had them trotting alongside the truck with their head in the window. if you do this, be warned - do not have anything in the box of your truck, or back seats with open windows. They will chew it all. We had to show them off to stop them chewing the tank rack and mesh tail guard!
Our last day we had hoped to the to the park, but it was torrential rain. We had had a few showers here and there, but nothing like this. It bucketed rain all morning. Funny, but we had the same thing on our last day in Aruba last Dec. and the same on our last day in Maui. Anyway, the power went out for awhile and we had to wait for it to come back on to pay our bill at DF. They checked the park for us and only the short route was open. It sounded like too much inland driving, so we gave it a miss.
It was a great week, with lost of diving, but next time we plan to stay longer and have a little more diving and a little more down time.
We arrived bright and early at 5:40 Sat. morning on the United flight from Newark (YVR - Chicago - Newark - Bonaire). Needless to say we were exhausted. We were shuttled over with a few other people to pick up our truck from AB. They were quick and friendly there. Out truck was ok. It had the mesh instead of an actual tailgate, which was a bit of a hassle undoing and doing up, but it did have a wooden tank rack we could balance our gear on to put on/off. The muffler rattled, but it stayed put. When the brakes got wet they were grabby. Was it a great vehicle? No, but it did the job.
We rented condo A1 at Sand Dollar through VRBO. Since the previous guests left early, we were able to check-in at 9:00. This gave us a little time to have some breakfast at Eddy’s. The food was good, and we were the only ones for awhile, so we chatted with Sonya (such a nice lady) and drank lots of coffee trying to wake up. We still had time to kill, so we wandered around the property. There aren’t many chairs except in a couple of patio areas and the beach, and they’re in pretty rough shape. We met the property manager, Inge, at the condo and check-in was quick and easy. Another friendly local. Seeing a real theme here for friendliness.
We had already decided to dive with Dive Friends, so eventually we wandered over there. The Sand Dollar location is right behind A1 so it is ridiculously convenient. We met Liz who manages that location, and knew right away we made the right choice with DF. She was super helpful and friendly. She gave us our orientation and told us we could do our check out dive whenever we were ready. Just let her know then gear up and she would meet us at the beach. There are 2 tanks rooms, one at the parking lot, and another above the beach, along with washrooms and shower. A1 is between the two and steps from the beach one. Super convenient. We had the code for both for 24/7 access.
We didn’t end up diving the first day. Just too exhausted. So we settled in, went for a drive, and did some shopping. We ended up doing most of our shopping at Van den Tweel. it was a bit of a fun adventure navigating all the Dutch, but the selection was good there, and it’s such a nice big, clean store.
So now to the best part... the diving. I won’t give a play by play of every dive; just the highlights (but wait, that is pretty much every dive!) We started with our check out at Bari Reef. What a great start. Such easy access off the beach and a beautiful reef to dive. Really no need for the pier to shore dive there. Liz gave us the rundown about the pier and to not go near it. Honestly we didn’t care for the attitude of the BDA staff, barking at people who came anywhere near the pier. God forbid anyone sit on their steps to the beach. It became a bit of a joke between us... No, don’t look at it, it’s not even there!... and under water sticking our finger out towards it, threatening to touch it. Surely someone would’ve appeared. It’s all quite ridiculous really.
Anyway, back to the diving... Overall I was impressed with the condition of the reefs and abundance of life. We heard that the green morays had nearly disappeared, but are making a comeback. We spotted several, as well as other moray species. Thankfully we only spotted a few lionfish, and we did report those that we found. The best spotting was the ones on our buns! Yes, we made it to the Cactus Blue food truck on Kite Beach for Hagen’s delicious grilled lionfish burger. YUM! The first time he was out, so we had his Kite Burgers. Also very tasty. We also tried a lionfish pizza at Pasa Bon. Delicious.
Sites... At the start, when we drove to the south it was a bit rough. There were small breakers coming in to many of the sites, and we were told there was some current. No biggie, we did more dives a little to the North. We did Oil Slick, 1000 Steps, Cliff.... ok, I loved Cliff. One of my favs for sure. Impressive. We did Buddy Reef one day, but it just didn’t thrill me, and man, Buddy is busy. It was the only place I felt like there were so many divers around. We did end up doing dives to the (somewhat) south, as the conditions vastly improved and the water calmed, making entries/exits easy again. The sites were nice, but even though the swims are really not that long, I admit the north spoiled me.
A couple of sites that surprised me...
Something Special - As we were surveying the entry, a local woman told us her dive buddy hadn’t shown up, so could she dive with us? She dove this site almost daily, knew it so well, and offered to show us the Frog Fish. Well sure! Why not? Sure enough, she showed us the rather large frog fish.
Cha Cha Cha - house reef at the DF Dive Inn. We went for the seahorses, studied the map, and went for a dive. When I found one, I was quite surprised. At about 6 inches or so, it was much larger than I imagined it would be. We looked around the area for it’s mate, but no luck. Of course this nagged at us, and bugged my hubby that he hadn’t found one. So we did end up going back a few days later. This time we talked to one of the DF staff and found out that 2 had been spotted in the shallow sandy area. His directions were perfect and he found both. We also spotted the original again, as well as it’s mate.... and a frog fish... all on 1 dive!
Hubby did a UV night dive, but I gave it a miss for cocktails with Liz
Another great site was Salt Pier. When we first arrived on Bonaire there was a ship there, so no luck. However, a couple days later it was gone. We ended up diving it twice, later in the afternoon both times, so that the sunlight was shining in between the pilings. Such an abundance of fish life here, and the only place we saw a turtle.
Sadly, early in our trip there was an incident. A group from Columbia diving the Lighthouse site were swept out in the currents. The conditions were rough. All were picked up, mostly by fishing boats, I believe. However, 1 diver did not make it. last I heard they had not found his body. I don’t know any more, so would prefer not to discuss or speculate. Not sure if this was posted in the incidents section.
We took two days off. The one day we went to the Donkey Sanctuary. It was an adventure driving through with bags of carrots and getting mauled through the windows by dozens of donkeys. We even had them trotting alongside the truck with their head in the window. if you do this, be warned - do not have anything in the box of your truck, or back seats with open windows. They will chew it all. We had to show them off to stop them chewing the tank rack and mesh tail guard!
Our last day we had hoped to the to the park, but it was torrential rain. We had had a few showers here and there, but nothing like this. It bucketed rain all morning. Funny, but we had the same thing on our last day in Aruba last Dec. and the same on our last day in Maui. Anyway, the power went out for awhile and we had to wait for it to come back on to pay our bill at DF. They checked the park for us and only the short route was open. It sounded like too much inland driving, so we gave it a miss.
It was a great week, with lost of diving, but next time we plan to stay longer and have a little more diving and a little more down time.
