Increasing crime in Bonaire

[Lorenzoid]

Apologies for the Bonaire evangelism, Hintermann. As uncfnp said, there's no reason Bonaire should appeal to everyone. Between Bonaire and a liveaboard, I would go with the liveaboard, too. But a week on a liveaboard can easily cost twice as much as a week on Bonaire, so it's apples and oranges to me. Happy diving wherever you go.

 

[billt4sf]

how much more convenient and relaxed liveaboard diving is by comparison with land based diving. Yes, you may not have the discos to go to in the evening but there is so much relaxing time between dives that one of them commenetd that it felt like two vacations rolled into one.

Shoot, if I could afford liveboards I would do that in a heartbeat.

- Bill

 

[DeputyDan]

Shoot, if I could afford liveboards I would do that in a heartbeat.

- Bill

I second that comment!

I have loved the liveaboards that I have had a chance to go on.

 

[Hintermann]

Mind you, I confess that I do ovetime work to be able to afford 2 or 3 liveaboard trips every year. I do 4 late or night shifts per month usually on Tuesdays since Wednesdays are my days off. Overtime work gets premium rates and even after settling with the greedy taxman, I am able to afford the luxury of those liveaboards, which I could never have on my regular income.

If you are going to ask me the question that my wife has asked many times - it is worth the effort? Simple answer ....you bet!

 

[tracydr]

For some perspective. My brother was advised not to bring his boat up and dock it because people were clipping the locks and stealing motors. Where? Saratoga Lake, NY. The economy sucks worldwide and is driving property crime up everywhere.

We recently had our two brand new, expensive marine deep cycle batteries stolen from my horse trailer. In the front yard of our house.
Apparently, there was a battery stealing spree on our block. A bunch of people had batteries, mainly camper batteries, stolen.
Last year all of my dog training supplies, a wire ex-pen for dogs, and a bunch of t-posts, plus a t-post driver were also stolen, from our front yard. My husband hadn't had anything stolen from this yard or house in 15 years, until last year. Crime is definitely up, at least where we live, which is a fairly nice, older neighborhood with mainly Mormon neighbors.
My parents also had a break-in, in their very nice Scottsdale neighborhood, and there has been a whole bunch of break-ins in their neighborhood, all starting about 1-2 years ago. They had a neighbor held up at gunpoint.

 

[sparkinator]

For that matter, people have been posting that the guy who used to run a ferry between Roatan and Utila (I think it was) got murdered not too long ago. Hey, who wants to go to Jamaica?

Richard.

So that's what happened to Capt. Vern? WoW!!! I heard he died and his service was no longer available but didn't know he was murdered... YIKES!!! I was on Utila for six weeks last year and used his service once... Sad, but alas Honduras isn't a place for the feint of heart.

 

[csrkimberly]

We are looking into diving Bonaire next Feb. 2014, but have been reading the reef is pretty much dead and no fish life to speak of.....anyone help me out on this? Our second choice is Cayman Islands. We've been all over the world but constantly want to try new places, a bit perplexed reading the hugely diverse reviews....

 

[Lorenzoid]

We are looking into diving Bonaire next Feb. 2014, but have been reading the reef is pretty much dead and no fish life to speak of.....anyone help me out on this? Our second choice is Cayman Islands. We've been all over the world but constantly want to try new places, a bit perplexed reading the hugely diverse reviews....

This thread is about crime in Bonaire, so maybe your question about the health of the reef would be better suited for a new thread?

The reef in Bonaire is at least as healthy as reefs in other common Caribbean dive destinations. If your standard is the coral triangle of the Pacific, then you may be disappointed. For the Caribbean, Bonaire has very healthy reef with most of the reef fish and creatures you would expect to find. I am curious where you read a negative review of Bonaire's reef system?

 

[uncfnp]

This thread is about crime in Bonaire, so maybe your question about the health of the reef would be better suited for a new thread?

The reef in Bonaire is at least as healthy as reefs in other common Caribbean dive destinations. If your standard is the coral triangle of the Pacific, then you may be disappointed. For the Caribbean, Bonaire has very relatively healthy reef with most of the reef fish and creatures you would expect to find. I am curious where you read a negative review of Bonaire's reef system?

Agreed, you may want to start a new thread. Alternatively, take a look at some of the photos posted from Bonaire divers.

For example

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bonaire/458710-bonaire-photos-5-20-5-27-a.html

 

[DiveMaven]

We are looking into diving Bonaire next Feb. 2014, but have been reading the reef is pretty much dead and no fish life to speak of.....anyone help me out on this? Our second choice is Cayman Islands. We've been all over the world but constantly want to try new places, a bit perplexed reading the hugely diverse reviews....

We're currently on Bonaire and I can tell you that whomever is telling you that the reef is dead and there's no fish life doesn't know what they're talking about. We were last here in 2010 and are totally blown away at the new Elkhorn and Staghorn coral that are growing on every site. We've been excited to see the health of the reef and the HUGE schools of fish inhabiting them. We're seeing an amazing amount of biodiversity in the fish life, and the efforts to control the Lionfish on the regularly dived sites definitely shows. Back in 2010 they weren't actively hunting the Lionfish yet and we saw a few here and there. Three years later we're seeing about the same number of Lionfish that we did in 2010, so something is working. The numbers and variety of juvenile fish is wonderful to see as well.

I need to say that we haven't been diving on any of the northern sites as of yet. We prefer the southern sites, so have been diving our house reef (Bari Reef) and sites south of Hilma Hooker thus far.