Went to Bonaire for a week and I promised some of you a report. Last year we found ourselves in the position of having two free tickets on American we needed to book, and we picked Bonaire because it was supposed to have the best beach diving in the world. I don't know about best but if someone wants to hold the contest please hire me as a judge. The bottom line is you want to go to Bonaire - but you might not know it yet.
The down side is its hard to get there from here. Continental has a direct flight out of Houston, and American has a direct LA to San Juan, but with free tickets on American we were stuck with LA to DFW to San Juan and finally Bonaire on American Eagle.
Once you get to Bonaire you immediately need a beat up old pick-up truck with a manual transmission. The more beat up the better - trust me, you'll be sweating when they reinspect it at turn it, and if its already beat up pretty badly it will help your case. This pick-up truck will be left unlocked with the windows rolled down for the entire week, otherwise theives will break in looking for stuff to steal. Some of the more famous (if not best) dive sites (1000 steps) have broken window glass to prove this rule. Here is photo of one of the many break in attempts on my truck:
Here is a link to a map of Bonaire if you don't know the geography:
http://www.skyviews.com/bonaire/map.html
Klein Bonaire is uninhabited and you need a boat to dive it. The North side takes the ocean surf and it looks like this:
Huge surf smacking rough volcanic rock and whipping up cauldrons and rips. No beach diving here.
One operation called Larry's Wildside Diving does boat trips out to the more manageable East side around the Lac. I'm sure its fun but I was determined to not get on any boats. Another thing I refused to do was hire a guide to dive Town Pier at night - famous dive or famously overrated? With so many other options who needs to see?
90% of the West side is great diving. For the most part that means you can pick ANY point on that side, do a clean entry, and hit a great reef - maybe a double reef. Sometimes you walk in. Sometimes you jump off a six foot cliff. Sometimes you climb out on ladders bolted to the cliff. The whole place is a Marine Park out to 200 ft. depth.
I picked this trip to do UW photography for the first time ever: here are few samples:
We had turtles, eels, or giant tarpon with us on most dives. The latter are giant silver puppy dogs that swim at your side - way cool on night dives.
The wrecks deliver. I thought the Hilma Hooker would be another overrated famous dive like the King Cruiser in Phuket. Wrong. Coming on it while swimming down from the reef it looms above you. Its majestic, and behind it the double reef system in the distance. The prop is a great photo backdrop:
Found a great tugboat in 96 ft.
Up north you have the Washington Slagbaai National Park. Great dirt road driving for hours and the most beautiful dive sites you will ever have to yourself. We were the only people diving Boka Slagbaai - this place is unimaginable.
Bonaire is beautiful and wild - lizards, paraketes, donkeys and goats everywhere.
Nice restaurants too. But the stores are kind of disturbing:
As Joe Bob used to say, "Check it out". The Lonely Planet Guide is 90% accurate and useful except ignore the experience level ratings of the dive sites. Unless they are near the very North or South where currents are problematic, only nuances of entry and dive plan differentiate the difficulty of any West Bonaire site.
Viz was outrageous the whole time - usually 60 to 100+. Temp 78 to 82. Some jellyfish stings. One thing- we're pretty tough in our rock boots and other armor in SoCal. In Bonaire you're in a shorty and even in 1 ft. surf the ledge reefs near the beach can tear your shins and knees up on exit. I really noticed the lack of ankle support in my Henderson shoe-style booties relative to rock boots.
32% is picked up all over the place by just pulling in to some dive op - almost any place (most are owned by Buddy Dive), analyzing, loading and running. I grabbed six tanks at a time. Only thing no one will steal since they can't fence it. Disadvantage is Al 80 with yoke valves - so bring your DIN to yoke adapter whch I would characterize as being a double failure point.
Bonaire would be paradise for Tech 1 style diving if your expedition had the right logistics. Most of the reefs sand out at 130 ft. Many of the reefs approach walls in terms of steepness. In some places the top of the outer double reef is at ca. 120, so some interesting dives would be feasible if you could work out the gas and other logistics. I didn't run across any technical shop on the island but I also didn't look very hard.
Nice place to visit.
Jim
The down side is its hard to get there from here. Continental has a direct flight out of Houston, and American has a direct LA to San Juan, but with free tickets on American we were stuck with LA to DFW to San Juan and finally Bonaire on American Eagle.
Once you get to Bonaire you immediately need a beat up old pick-up truck with a manual transmission. The more beat up the better - trust me, you'll be sweating when they reinspect it at turn it, and if its already beat up pretty badly it will help your case. This pick-up truck will be left unlocked with the windows rolled down for the entire week, otherwise theives will break in looking for stuff to steal. Some of the more famous (if not best) dive sites (1000 steps) have broken window glass to prove this rule. Here is photo of one of the many break in attempts on my truck:
Here is a link to a map of Bonaire if you don't know the geography:
http://www.skyviews.com/bonaire/map.html
Klein Bonaire is uninhabited and you need a boat to dive it. The North side takes the ocean surf and it looks like this:
Huge surf smacking rough volcanic rock and whipping up cauldrons and rips. No beach diving here.
One operation called Larry's Wildside Diving does boat trips out to the more manageable East side around the Lac. I'm sure its fun but I was determined to not get on any boats. Another thing I refused to do was hire a guide to dive Town Pier at night - famous dive or famously overrated? With so many other options who needs to see?
90% of the West side is great diving. For the most part that means you can pick ANY point on that side, do a clean entry, and hit a great reef - maybe a double reef. Sometimes you walk in. Sometimes you jump off a six foot cliff. Sometimes you climb out on ladders bolted to the cliff. The whole place is a Marine Park out to 200 ft. depth.
I picked this trip to do UW photography for the first time ever: here are few samples:
We had turtles, eels, or giant tarpon with us on most dives. The latter are giant silver puppy dogs that swim at your side - way cool on night dives.
The wrecks deliver. I thought the Hilma Hooker would be another overrated famous dive like the King Cruiser in Phuket. Wrong. Coming on it while swimming down from the reef it looms above you. Its majestic, and behind it the double reef system in the distance. The prop is a great photo backdrop:
Found a great tugboat in 96 ft.
Up north you have the Washington Slagbaai National Park. Great dirt road driving for hours and the most beautiful dive sites you will ever have to yourself. We were the only people diving Boka Slagbaai - this place is unimaginable.
Bonaire is beautiful and wild - lizards, paraketes, donkeys and goats everywhere.
Nice restaurants too. But the stores are kind of disturbing:
As Joe Bob used to say, "Check it out". The Lonely Planet Guide is 90% accurate and useful except ignore the experience level ratings of the dive sites. Unless they are near the very North or South where currents are problematic, only nuances of entry and dive plan differentiate the difficulty of any West Bonaire site.
Viz was outrageous the whole time - usually 60 to 100+. Temp 78 to 82. Some jellyfish stings. One thing- we're pretty tough in our rock boots and other armor in SoCal. In Bonaire you're in a shorty and even in 1 ft. surf the ledge reefs near the beach can tear your shins and knees up on exit. I really noticed the lack of ankle support in my Henderson shoe-style booties relative to rock boots.
32% is picked up all over the place by just pulling in to some dive op - almost any place (most are owned by Buddy Dive), analyzing, loading and running. I grabbed six tanks at a time. Only thing no one will steal since they can't fence it. Disadvantage is Al 80 with yoke valves - so bring your DIN to yoke adapter whch I would characterize as being a double failure point.
Bonaire would be paradise for Tech 1 style diving if your expedition had the right logistics. Most of the reefs sand out at 130 ft. Many of the reefs approach walls in terms of steepness. In some places the top of the outer double reef is at ca. 120, so some interesting dives would be feasible if you could work out the gas and other logistics. I didn't run across any technical shop on the island but I also didn't look very hard.
Nice place to visit.
Jim
