Trip Report Bonaire Trip Report - V.I.P. Divers/Aqua Viva Suites

[SoccerDad]

Food Trucks​

There are 4 clustered along a fairly short stretch of the southern sites. All are cash only and can make you a single or double cheese burger. Here they are, in order, distinguished by what you can get with that burger.

1. Stoked Food Truck – A red double-decker bus. They have potato wedges.
2. Kite City Food Truck – They include plain chips with the burger.View attachment 711144
3. Cactus Blue Food Truck – At the Corporal Meiss dive site, just south from Windsock. They offer packaged branded chips (I had Doritos – and it wasn’t the smallest size personal bag, either). They emphasize offering lion fish, but that a lion fish burger or wrap isn’t likely to serve as a full meal.
4. King Kong Food Truck – At Bachelor’s Beach. They have fries!

View attachment 711143
I never met a food truck I didn’t like. A double cheese burger and chips or fries tended to run around $18 - $20 or so, cash (I had my own drinks).

On Beaches​

Historically I considered beach goers out of luck with Bonaire; there’s a little beach to either side of the pier at Sand Dollar (better) and Den Lamen (rockier), a small one at the Bachelor’s Beach dive site (you have to go down a natural rocky ‘ladder’ to reach it), and a few others. But standing at Stoked Food Truck, I saw this:
View attachment 711149
That doesn’t look bad! I see underwater masses I’d want to check for fire coral if I were bringing a little kid, but still, that’s a usable beach. Bachelor’s Beach (below) is a dive site and beach all in one (plus there’s a food truck!).
View attachment 711147

Crime​

My cheap little insulated cooler with freezable cold packs used to take a few canned sodas with me, that had a tube of sunscreen in a side pocket, went missing after a dive at Weber’s Joy up north. Parking was roadside and small, with a lot of shrubbery around, so an easy target. The Jeff Davis site looks similar, and there was finely broken glass (which is why we leave doors unlocked and windows down). Settle in your mind that you can let it go before you take such things, and if your number comes up…let it go.

Beach by the Stoke truck is Te Amo

 

[drrich2]

When it was time to turn it in, I was to take it to Prinz (at 3 Kaya Jawiri – head to the round-about past Van den Tweel, go through headed north

Minor error - go through headed east, not north.

Beach by the Stoke truck is Te Amo

Thanks. Wonder what the diving is like there? Seems like a place a diver with non-divers in tow could set up for awhile, if the dive is decent.

Richard.

 

[Trailboss123]

Minor error - go through headed east, not north.

Thanks. Wonder what the diving is like there? Seems like a place a diver with non-divers in tow could set up for awhile, if the dive is decent.

Richard.

It is a decent dive. I have done it a few times after lunch at Kite City or Stoke. It is not extraordinary or anything, but a very convenient dive once you are already there. Here in Bonaire now for 2 weeks.

 

[drrich2]

Here in Bonaire now for 2 weeks.

I'm jealous. While you're there, please note whether there's still a big tug boat (or whatever) parked perpendicular at the end of the fueling pier at Windsock daily. That was quite a change vs. my prior trips, and I'm curious as to whether it was a fluke.

Richard.

 

[Trailboss123]

I'm jealous. While you're there, please note whether there's still a big tug boat (or whatever) parked perpendicular at the end of the fueling pier at Windsock daily. That was quite a change vs. my prior trips, and I'm curious as to whether it was a fluke.

Richard.

Nothing parked there the last two days.

 

[Diver With Altitude]

Since you clip them to your BCD, you might be interested in these - I just ordered some. Not only to they telescope, they come apart into three sections (with a central cord connecting them), so they collapse down to 15." The strap that's used to keep the sections secured can probably be used as part of the attachment to your BCD. Thanks for another informative report!

View attachment 711303

Just an update on these poles:
Here’s one attached to my BCD. As you can see, it comes down to the waist strap.

I secured it with two lengths of 1/8” shock cord, cut to order at REI. I ran the ends through these toggle cord locks for quick adjustment:

 

[climb4blue]

Here is @drrich2 and @uncfnp at the Cliff.

View attachment 711427

love the pic