Current Status of Bonaire

[TNEngineer]

Maybe 10 years ago

I forgot to mention, we were on the ground floor at Buddy, and the door to the patio had a broken lock. We kept asking to change rooms or have the lock fixed, but Buddy wouldn't do either. All I could think about was the room safe with our passports and money that someone could easily pick up and carry out.

A lot can change in a decade. We were on the first plane back onto Bonaire when they reopened after COVID-19 and stayed a week at Buddy Dive (their primary, northern location). Everything was absolutely wonderful! The apartment was clean and secure, the truck they provided had no issues, the tank station was manned every time we went there, the restaurants were both staffed and had plenty of dishes and food.

It's been a couple of years now since we've been there but our experience couldn't have been more different than the 10 years ago report above. Just wanted to offer some more recent data.

 

[tursiops]

Good News from Bonaire...
Copied from Facebook:

The newly opened sites between Karpata/Bopec and Playa Frans include Carel's Vision, Nukove, and the non-STINAPA sies Taylor Maid and Candyland. The latter two are terrific sites.

 

[tursiops]

A formal review paper on the state of knowledge of SCTLD (emergence, impacts, etiology, diagnostics, and intervention) has just been published and is openly available.

Frontiers | Stony coral tissue loss disease: a review of emergence, impacts, etiology, diagnostics, and intervention

Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is destructive and poses a significant threat to Caribbean coral reef ecosystems. Characterized by the acute loss of ...

www.frontiersin.org

 

[scubadada]

A formal review paper on the state of knowledge of SCTLD (emergence, impacts, etiology, diagnostics, and intervention) has just been published and is openly available.

Frontiers | Stony coral tissue loss disease: a review of emergence, impacts, etiology, diagnostics, and intervention

Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is destructive and poses a significant threat to Caribbean coral reef ecosystems. Characterized by the acute loss of ...

www.frontiersin.org

Thanks @tursiops

Extremely interesting reading, highly recommended

 

[nippurmagnum]

Thanks for those with honest feedback. Is sounds like my questions have been answered and there has not been any change to the positive. Unfortunately, for now, we will have to leave this beautiful island and its fantastic freedom of diving off of our agenda.
Off topic, but we will be diving Socorro for the first time this year!! So excited. Most likely won't see the Carib until 2025.
Thanks again and hope you all have a great 2024. Happy Diving!

I wouldn't give up on Bonaire just yet. I did my fifth trip with my wife earlier this month, and had a great time. Yes, there's been a lot of development in the last couple of years, and the cruise ships are awful, and there's theft/burglaries (the building where we rented a condo two years ago had 6 apts. quietly broken into in the middle of the night while we were there, and laptops/phones/wallets were stolen, and I had the spare tire from my rental truck stolen during a night dive four years ago), and there has been significant bleaching of hard corals, and STCD.

HOWEVER, this remains a unique place to dive. Dozens of dive sites where you can dive at your pace, and observe all kinds of marine behavior in an unrushed manner (like scrawled cowfish doing a spiral mating dance, moray eels hunting at night and swallowing large prey, turtles trying to shake off remoras, etc.). The ability to dive solo, if/when you are so inclined (not trying to start a debate, just pointing out that it can be done). Plenty of healthy corals in the farther southern and northern sites, especially in the 15-40 foot range. Inexpensive truck rentals. Inexpensive Airbnbs. Some of the best boat diving anywhere, with East Coast Divers, with whom you can see 100+ turtles, 50+ turtles, 10+ rays, and so much more on just a single dive). Sometimes there's so much to see that you don't know where to point your camera, like here:

New video by Gabriel Adler

photos.app.goo.gl

I was reluctant to go back to Bonaire this year, as I'd just done dive trips to Socorro, Hawaii and the Red Sea in 2023, and Bonaire seemed unexciting by comparison. But my wife convinced me when she found round trip tickets on American Airlines from Washington DC for just 20,000 miles. And I'm very glad I went back.

 

[Jasper]

Back to the petty crime issue... I'll be visiting in Mar and wondering what others are doing to counter the problems.

Sounds like its best to leave the truck unlocked and windows down. Do any of the truck rentals provide the key without the fob attached by cable? Is it worth bringing my magnetic key holder to hide under the fender?

I read even cheap sunglasses are liable to be stolen. What about dry clothes or towels? Thanks for ideas!

 

[MidOH]

My solution was crossing Bonaire off my list, or at least moving it to the bottom.

Them sneaking into people's rooms, was the last straw.

 

[tursiops]

My solution was crossing Bonaire off my list, or at least moving it to the bottom.

Them sneaking into people's rooms, was the last straw.

When was this? In a resort or elsewhere? Did it happen to you or is it hearsay?

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Back to the petty crime issue... I'll be visiting in Mar and wondering what others are doing to counter the problems.

Sounds like its best to leave the truck unlocked and windows down. Do any of the truck rentals provide the key without the fob attached by cable? Is it worth bringing my magnetic key holder to hide under the fender?

I read even cheap sunglasses are liable to be stolen. What about dry clothes or towels? Thanks for ideas!

Just got back from 2 weeks in Bonaire and didn’t have, or hear of, any problems. I use a dry fob for the key, which I do here at home for the same reason. We do leave doors unlocked and windows down some if it’s not raining. We don’t leave any clothes in the truck that we care about, but never had anything taken. Water bottles were never messed with.
There were 2 sets of divers, not always going to the same places, and no issues.
Ultimately, the real difference between Bonaire and anywhere in the US, if things are stolen from your truck in Bonaire at least the truck will still be there.

Erik

 

[schuylerclark]

Things we routinely left in the unlocked truck that didn’t get stolen:

Clothes
Shoes
Towels
Water bottles
Lunch in a cheap cooler bag with reusable ice packs
Guidebook
Sunglasses and regular glasses
Additional air tanks
Cables for charging phones

We usually left the windows up since it was cloudy and raining off and on most days.

We might have just been lucky, but I wouldn’t have my day ruined if any of those things disappeared. Had I left any of that in an unlocked truck here in the US, I’d give it a 50/50 chance of being taken.