Great summary of expenses. See you spent some time and money at Gio's! YUMMMMM!!!!
That comes from spending too much time on ScubaBoard reading trip reports, and pondering the logistics of '
Could I do that?' Round trip airfare and other costs, what lengths of flights one can tolerate (going off recall, I think a flight to Bonaire out of Miami is somewhere in the ball park of 3-hours, and out of Charlotte, NC more like 4-hours?), it adds up. It's nice to read about someone's grand diving adventure, much like it's nice to read about someone's experience in a new car or new house.
But...the question looms...what's this gonna cost me? What's the price tag? That's part of why I give an itemized summary; your airfare will be a bit different, you may or may not pay airport parking for your trip, etc...
Often when I was analyzing tanks in the morning one of the staff said 'good morning.' There was a friendly 'vibe' from them. They have more services than what I took advantage of. From what I understand, they have a good rep. for providing private guided shore diving services, and while I don't know the cost offhand, you can have them deliver tanks to your accommodation.
One thing I forgot to mention from meeting
@uncfnp and
@Soloist is that I got to see their Freedom plates on their BP/W rigs; nice! I knew of the Freedom plates from
@Eric Sedletzky from the high praise they get on ScubaBoard, but I don't recall whether I'd seen one before in person.
Part of the fun of interacting with other divers is seeing what toys they've got. I like my Deep6 Eddy fins and that DryFob for the truck key.
I prefer to dive 2 tanks per day and skip a day quite often - so the VIP "tank card" is a better option than the "unlimited" -- 2 leisurely dives leaves time for nap, hikes, long dinners, etc.
In years past I saw people hiking in Washington-Slagbaai Park up north, and wondered how they endured the brutal sun. Bonaire's daily highs don't tend to sound too bad, until one gets out walking around in it. It's beautiful in an arid, scrubby way. I enjoy the Bonaire whiptail lizards, iguanas and occasional glimpse of a yellow-shouldered Amazon parrot.
One thing I like about Bonaire is the general sense it's a pretty safe place to be in terms of getting out. Yes, there's concern about petty theft from rental trucks while shore diving, and there've been reports of burglarized accommodations, but in terms of walking around in the evenings, I never felt like I was apt to get mugged or assaulted. Walking home with take-out one evening (when I learned 6 p.m. was sunny and well-lit, but 7 p.m. was night!), I appreciated that.