Web Monkey:
Great info!
Thanks for the help, it sounds great!
I didn't necessarily need a boat. Taking a taxi to the beach is even better.
Terry
SandDollar is one of the few places in that area that actually has a little strip of
beach. I sat through part of a BD&A orientation one morning while waiting for someone, as I recall it was just b4 10am.
We saw squid just off the dock at Bari and lots of fish. After going deeper down the slope, I found some interesting stuff in 10' of water right out in front of Den Laman, there's a lot of construction debris in the water that stuff hides in. You can also do an official REEF fish survey there, ask the naturalist for details.
Be careful if you GS off the dock there, it's less than 5' deep on the side opposite the boats. There's a wide set of stairs there also. And rinse tanks, lockers, etc.
If you did want to go out on their afternoon boat, they sometimes find dolphins in the channel there between Bonaire and Klein Bonaire, they stop so you can snorkel with them on the return. I've seen/heard of it happening twice.
There's a divesite inside the channel off Klein called Jerry's Reef, there's turtles under the rocks in about 15' of water for the snorkelers and the divers can go deep by swimming away from the island. As I recall you could even snorkel over and get out on Klein near there - maybe not...ask BD&A.
Always ask about boat/DM availability even if it doesn't look like they're going out. We paid $18pp one afternoon for Toucan to take 4 of us out. The DM and Captain just floated around while we did our longer than normal dives.
Or you could get a ride to Capt. Don's a few blocks away and shore dive both the Cliff and LaMachaca sites also. Don't try to walk it though, the access is back 1/4 mile to the road then back in 1/4 mi. - all the resorts in that area run perpendicular to the beach. They have a big covered restaurant/deck and a bar overlooking the dive dock.
And if you had a little extra time, City Cafe is just across the street from the cruise dock. As is what little there is of souvenir shops, etc. downtown.