Last week was our first encounter with diving in tropical waters: 8 days of diving in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. To summarize it: WOW! We didn't do really challenging dives, mainly fish 'n' ships 
Out hotel was WannaDiveHut in Kralendijk. A budget place to stay, not a resort, very helpfull staff. They even stopped by at the airport to see us off. But since there were more than 20 divers present in our group, there was no shortage of buddies or fun.
On the first day we did our first two dives at the Eden Beach resort (Front Porch). For most of us it was very useful since this was the first time that we dove with a longy (3.5 mm) and aluminium tanks (12 L). There's a very nice wreck, upside down at 24 m.
Pity was that it started to rain after the first dive so the visibility wasn't as good as we'd have liked it to be. But still better than
what we are used to in local conditions.
On the second day we dove at Oil Slick Leap (great) and Cliff (entrance and exit was difficult due to the wind and surf. A few divers with a shorty instead of a longy experienced this the hard way.)
Sunday we attempted to have a look at the William Express aka Hilma Hooker. Due to a navigational error we completely missed it. While struggling to leave the water I managed to lose both my fins :11: (good excuse to get Jetfins
). So, to strengthen our spirits we went back to Front Porch for two nice relaxing dives and one at Oil Slick Leap.
Tuesday we went back to the Hilma Hooker. This time we didn't try to navigate our way over, just swim out to the middle buoy and descend to 18 m. Can't miss. Buddy was a bit nervous so we just stayed on the outside of the wreck.
The dive from La Dania's Leap to Karpata was nice as well, lots of coral and fish. So we ended up doing Karpata on two other occasions as well.
Other sites we visited were Witches Hut and Red Slave. We tried to go to Lighthouse but the weather conditions were too bad.
All in all, if it hadn't been for the rain, it would have been a perfect week with 15 dives. Town Pier was a no-no, every time we wanted to go there was a cruise ship blocking us .
We'll probably go back next year, maybe to Buddy Dive or Plaza Resort.
No crime whatsoever encountered...
Out hotel was WannaDiveHut in Kralendijk. A budget place to stay, not a resort, very helpfull staff. They even stopped by at the airport to see us off. But since there were more than 20 divers present in our group, there was no shortage of buddies or fun.
On the first day we did our first two dives at the Eden Beach resort (Front Porch). For most of us it was very useful since this was the first time that we dove with a longy (3.5 mm) and aluminium tanks (12 L). There's a very nice wreck, upside down at 24 m.
Pity was that it started to rain after the first dive so the visibility wasn't as good as we'd have liked it to be. But still better than
what we are used to in local conditions.
On the second day we dove at Oil Slick Leap (great) and Cliff (entrance and exit was difficult due to the wind and surf. A few divers with a shorty instead of a longy experienced this the hard way.)
Sunday we attempted to have a look at the William Express aka Hilma Hooker. Due to a navigational error we completely missed it. While struggling to leave the water I managed to lose both my fins :11: (good excuse to get Jetfins
). So, to strengthen our spirits we went back to Front Porch for two nice relaxing dives and one at Oil Slick Leap.Tuesday we went back to the Hilma Hooker. This time we didn't try to navigate our way over, just swim out to the middle buoy and descend to 18 m. Can't miss. Buddy was a bit nervous so we just stayed on the outside of the wreck.
The dive from La Dania's Leap to Karpata was nice as well, lots of coral and fish. So we ended up doing Karpata on two other occasions as well.
Other sites we visited were Witches Hut and Red Slave. We tried to go to Lighthouse but the weather conditions were too bad.
All in all, if it hadn't been for the rain, it would have been a perfect week with 15 dives. Town Pier was a no-no, every time we wanted to go there was a cruise ship blocking us .
We'll probably go back next year, maybe to Buddy Dive or Plaza Resort.
No crime whatsoever encountered...
