underwasser bolt
Contributor
We stayed at Happy Holiday Homes and as usual everything there was in in order. This was our 4th trip to Bonaire.
Cruise ships have definitely changed the Island over the past years. Bonaire 15 years ago is nothing like Bonaire today. Heck, it has changed a lot in 5 years.
Diving was typical, which is to say excellent. There is a lot of construction on the beach front, so one has to wonder how much longer it will be easy to access shore dives. After all that is what makes Bonaire. We used Dive Friends and we were very pleased with the service. We scheduled our first boat dive while on the island and went to Klein. I was underwhelmed. The ratio was good with 1 guide to 8 divers. I was also surprised at the number of urchins in the shallows at some shore locations. Don't recall ever seeing that many urchins.
As for dining, Casablanca is gone, but Blue Garden has taken its place and it was very good dining. Everyone's favorite was Cuba Compagnie. At Sea was a very good restaurant, but a bit more upscale than what I like. The food was excellent and the wine list was not too bad. El Mundo was downtown and was new to me. I like the restaurant, however. The food was good as was the service. Pas Bon Pizza was excellent, as usual. The big disappointment was Patagonia, which used to be my favorite restaurant on the island. It has moved from it's water front location and is now downtown (due to cruise ships, no doubt) in a building that has all the ambiance of a cheap Chinese restaurant in a strip mall. They were out of all fish (on an island!!) and the food they did have was a disappointment. Service was nothing less than horrible and the waiter even had the audacity to request his tip in cash. He got cash, but not much of it.
There was a lost diver on the island, according to the dive shop. Apparently two divers decided to head to 117 meters on single tanks. On the way down, something went wrong. One made it up, the other did not. There was a large search for the body off of Karpata, but it was feared the body was on the bottom and they were looking for professional divers with the technical experience to dive to 120 meters plus.
The big take away: every time I return to Bonaire, maybe once every 5 years, it just doesn't fell the same.
Cruise ships have definitely changed the Island over the past years. Bonaire 15 years ago is nothing like Bonaire today. Heck, it has changed a lot in 5 years.
Diving was typical, which is to say excellent. There is a lot of construction on the beach front, so one has to wonder how much longer it will be easy to access shore dives. After all that is what makes Bonaire. We used Dive Friends and we were very pleased with the service. We scheduled our first boat dive while on the island and went to Klein. I was underwhelmed. The ratio was good with 1 guide to 8 divers. I was also surprised at the number of urchins in the shallows at some shore locations. Don't recall ever seeing that many urchins.
As for dining, Casablanca is gone, but Blue Garden has taken its place and it was very good dining. Everyone's favorite was Cuba Compagnie. At Sea was a very good restaurant, but a bit more upscale than what I like. The food was excellent and the wine list was not too bad. El Mundo was downtown and was new to me. I like the restaurant, however. The food was good as was the service. Pas Bon Pizza was excellent, as usual. The big disappointment was Patagonia, which used to be my favorite restaurant on the island. It has moved from it's water front location and is now downtown (due to cruise ships, no doubt) in a building that has all the ambiance of a cheap Chinese restaurant in a strip mall. They were out of all fish (on an island!!) and the food they did have was a disappointment. Service was nothing less than horrible and the waiter even had the audacity to request his tip in cash. He got cash, but not much of it.
There was a lost diver on the island, according to the dive shop. Apparently two divers decided to head to 117 meters on single tanks. On the way down, something went wrong. One made it up, the other did not. There was a large search for the body off of Karpata, but it was feared the body was on the bottom and they were looking for professional divers with the technical experience to dive to 120 meters plus.
The big take away: every time I return to Bonaire, maybe once every 5 years, it just doesn't fell the same.