Dragon2115
Guest
Amazon and I just returned from our second trip to Bonaire on Tuesday. What a let down it is to be back at work. We went for nine days. I swear, next time it has to be for a full two weeks.
The trip was great though. We stayed at Deep Blue View and it was awesome. Menno and Ester really know how to take care of their guests. They only have five guest rooms and they don't take kids under twelve so it's quiet and peaceful. With so few guest rooms you get to know the other people staying there so it becomes this friendly group that meet at all diffent times as people come and go and hang out. It's a short drive away from the water but it's up on the hill in a nice neighborhood and the view is outstanding. You can easily see down beyond the salt pier and downtown Kralendijk as well as out over Klein. The lush gardens and the layout of the property make it feel very private and even secluded. There's a good sized pool to relax in. The usual routine after diving is to back the truck up to the lockers/rinse tanks/tank farm out in the driveway, wash and store the gear, and then walk straight into the pool after passing the fridge to grab a drink. They have a new RIB that's big enough to handle all 10 to 12 of the guests at the villa, but that doesn't happen. Some people will be shore diving or doing some other activity so usually it's 4 or 6 divers at a time on the boat. The boat is comfortable and fast. We left the dock at Harbor Village and was at Cai on the east side about 45 to 50 minutes later. It's capable of handling the east side and Menno will take you over there if he feels conditions are right.
These guys really understand what customer service is and how to take care of their guests. They pay attention to details and they make you feel like you're staying with friends. I highly recommend looking into them if the larger resorts turn you off.
The diving was great. We got lucky and the weather cooperated and we were able to dive the east side. We did one shore dive at Willemstorem Lighthouse and two boat drift dives, one at Cai and one between Cai and the lighthouse. The dives were very good and we did see eight turtles, some tarpon, and a large stringray between them but I think it may have been the wrong time of year to go there. We didn't see the sqaudron of Eagle Rays we had hoped to see and the fish life seemed less than accounts I had read. Even the DM thought it was a little off. We'll jsut have to give it another try next time is all. We did the salt pier (daytime) and that turned out to be a magnificent dive well beyond our expectations with schools of baitfish, two scorpion fish (one frilled, one regular), a turtle, two or three large green morays out in the open, a spotted moray, an octopus, a few tarpon, and an abundance of snappers and grunts schooling around the pilings.
I finally had a chance to put my new Canon A620 and housing to the test and it performed awesome. I got over 1000 photos and mpg's with a higher number of "keeper" shots than I had hoped for. Where I'm still learning I'm very happy with the results.
We had some really wild rain showers during our stay. 99% of the time we would miss them, as in we would be on one part of the island and they would be on another. The few that didn't miss us were intense to say the least, 2 or 3 inches of rain in a matter of moments. Wow. During dinner at sunset we could watch the thunder storms over Venezuala. Very spectacular to watch and glad they weren't over us.
The only downside to the trip was the travel. We had some vouchers to use with US Air and it forced us to fly into Aruba and then island hop with DAE. US AIR was fine. DAE on the other hand has a 20 kg (44lbs) check baggage limit. Not 20 kg per bag, 20 kg total checked baggage. You then have 10 kg of carry on. So total allowance is 66 lbs total. That doesn't allow for very much else when you have dive gear and cameras. If you go over it's $2/kg each way, so make sure your gear is dry before your return flight. We were 8kg over on the return trip due to some still slightly wet gear. It can be done you just need to plan for it.
The really cool part of the trip was that our son got his OW certification. He took the class at DBV with Menno and Esther as his instructors. Our son is 20 so we were shoo'ed away, which took about a nano-second.
If he was doing a skills dive from the shore we were put on the boat and then vice versa the following day. He wound up getting a private class with two instructors. Even though this is Bonaire which is known for easy diving he got a wide variety of experiences during the class and following days of diving with his mother and I. He got to try drift, boat, shore, night, deep, and multi-level diving. (The deep dive was to 88 fsw on the Hilma Hooker and was under close supervision.) He also got to meet and dive with Benji from Caribbean Gas Training, the only DIR instructor in the Antilles. Benji acted as DM for two drift dives on the east side while Menno ran the boat. We were fortunate that the weather and sea conditions were calm enough for our son to participate in the dives with us. On those dives he got to do horizontal multi-level (30'-20'-10') stops in open water and had no problem with them at all. On a boat dive off of Klein and on a shore dive at Willemstorem Lighthouse he got to experience swimming into a pretty strong current while hugging the reef (without touching anything of course) until a predecided air pressure and then drifting back to the decent point while working his way higher up the reef. What a way to start diving.
The trip was great though. We stayed at Deep Blue View and it was awesome. Menno and Ester really know how to take care of their guests. They only have five guest rooms and they don't take kids under twelve so it's quiet and peaceful. With so few guest rooms you get to know the other people staying there so it becomes this friendly group that meet at all diffent times as people come and go and hang out. It's a short drive away from the water but it's up on the hill in a nice neighborhood and the view is outstanding. You can easily see down beyond the salt pier and downtown Kralendijk as well as out over Klein. The lush gardens and the layout of the property make it feel very private and even secluded. There's a good sized pool to relax in. The usual routine after diving is to back the truck up to the lockers/rinse tanks/tank farm out in the driveway, wash and store the gear, and then walk straight into the pool after passing the fridge to grab a drink. They have a new RIB that's big enough to handle all 10 to 12 of the guests at the villa, but that doesn't happen. Some people will be shore diving or doing some other activity so usually it's 4 or 6 divers at a time on the boat. The boat is comfortable and fast. We left the dock at Harbor Village and was at Cai on the east side about 45 to 50 minutes later. It's capable of handling the east side and Menno will take you over there if he feels conditions are right.
These guys really understand what customer service is and how to take care of their guests. They pay attention to details and they make you feel like you're staying with friends. I highly recommend looking into them if the larger resorts turn you off.
The diving was great. We got lucky and the weather cooperated and we were able to dive the east side. We did one shore dive at Willemstorem Lighthouse and two boat drift dives, one at Cai and one between Cai and the lighthouse. The dives were very good and we did see eight turtles, some tarpon, and a large stringray between them but I think it may have been the wrong time of year to go there. We didn't see the sqaudron of Eagle Rays we had hoped to see and the fish life seemed less than accounts I had read. Even the DM thought it was a little off. We'll jsut have to give it another try next time is all. We did the salt pier (daytime) and that turned out to be a magnificent dive well beyond our expectations with schools of baitfish, two scorpion fish (one frilled, one regular), a turtle, two or three large green morays out in the open, a spotted moray, an octopus, a few tarpon, and an abundance of snappers and grunts schooling around the pilings.
I finally had a chance to put my new Canon A620 and housing to the test and it performed awesome. I got over 1000 photos and mpg's with a higher number of "keeper" shots than I had hoped for. Where I'm still learning I'm very happy with the results.
We had some really wild rain showers during our stay. 99% of the time we would miss them, as in we would be on one part of the island and they would be on another. The few that didn't miss us were intense to say the least, 2 or 3 inches of rain in a matter of moments. Wow. During dinner at sunset we could watch the thunder storms over Venezuala. Very spectacular to watch and glad they weren't over us.
The only downside to the trip was the travel. We had some vouchers to use with US Air and it forced us to fly into Aruba and then island hop with DAE. US AIR was fine. DAE on the other hand has a 20 kg (44lbs) check baggage limit. Not 20 kg per bag, 20 kg total checked baggage. You then have 10 kg of carry on. So total allowance is 66 lbs total. That doesn't allow for very much else when you have dive gear and cameras. If you go over it's $2/kg each way, so make sure your gear is dry before your return flight. We were 8kg over on the return trip due to some still slightly wet gear. It can be done you just need to plan for it.
The really cool part of the trip was that our son got his OW certification. He took the class at DBV with Menno and Esther as his instructors. Our son is 20 so we were shoo'ed away, which took about a nano-second.
If he was doing a skills dive from the shore we were put on the boat and then vice versa the following day. He wound up getting a private class with two instructors. Even though this is Bonaire which is known for easy diving he got a wide variety of experiences during the class and following days of diving with his mother and I. He got to try drift, boat, shore, night, deep, and multi-level diving. (The deep dive was to 88 fsw on the Hilma Hooker and was under close supervision.) He also got to meet and dive with Benji from Caribbean Gas Training, the only DIR instructor in the Antilles. Benji acted as DM for two drift dives on the east side while Menno ran the boat. We were fortunate that the weather and sea conditions were calm enough for our son to participate in the dives with us. On those dives he got to do horizontal multi-level (30'-20'-10') stops in open water and had no problem with them at all. On a boat dive off of Klein and on a shore dive at Willemstorem Lighthouse he got to experience swimming into a pretty strong current while hugging the reef (without touching anything of course) until a predecided air pressure and then drifting back to the decent point while working his way higher up the reef. What a way to start diving.
