Little Cayman vs. Bonaire

[-hh]

parrotman once bubbled...
One of the posters above commented on the fact that all the dive sites on Bonaire are basically the same. I'm not sure which sites he dove, but I could not disagree more. The dive sites vary considerably from one end of the island to the other.

I don't think I said it on this thread, but I do agree with the general sentiment that Bonaire sites are IMO very repetitious: for the most part, they're all a sloping coral encrusted incline that eventually bottoms out on a sandy plain (100fsw down south and 200fsw up north). If you enjoy spending your entire week swimming along a 45 degree slanted surface, yep, Bonaire is for you.

Well, its not really that bad. There are some inner/outer reef formations down south (Angel City), some overhangs (Karpata...its hard to call them caves or swim-throughs) and the occasional 20ft true vertical relief (near Captain Don's), and some shallow water staghorns (mostly over on Kline), but compared to what it could be, that's really minor variations in topology.

What I haven't found in Bonaire are the things that you can find on Little Cayman: BIG sheer verticals (Great Wall West), swim-through canyons and caves (Hole in the Wall; Marlynn's Cut), wide sand chutes (Nancy's Cup of Tea), spur and groove formations (Windsock), pinnacles (Magic Roundabout), spot reef caves (Eagle Ray Roundup), fish-rich miniwalls (Mixing Bowl), chimneys (Randy's Gazebo), shallow gardens (Baracuda Bight), deep spurs/grooves (name forgotten; Southside), rocky tumbles (Joy's Joy), Double-Walls (another southside), and tunnels (Cumber's Caves; Bus Stop), even Hoo-doo's (The Edge), plus wrecks from the size of tankers down to diveboats if you're into that.

During my trip to Little Cayman last year, the vis was ok, not the best. On several of the dive sites there appeared to be some sort of yellow cloud in the water, hopefully not pollution from the resorts but it could have been. The thing that I noticed most was the lack of sea life compared to Bonaire..

I'll admit that the reefs in the Caymans seemed better a decade ago, but I don't know how much of that is my critical eye becoming better in looking for signs of poor reef health...I hope its my eye, but I suspect not. I'll also say that even the same location can vary greatly both year to year as well as week to week. For example, I suspect that the "yellow cloud" you saw was kicked up particulates from a set of swells from the north combined with winds from the south...the swells kick up the fines as they break on shore and the winds carry this water out ... in extreme cases, I've seen ~15ft visibility for 0-20fsw, with beautiful 150ft visibility 20fsw-infinity.

In any event, I don't dispute that Bonaire has a great variety of little macro critter life - - but where's the big critters and the occasional pelagic? LC is a pinnacle island in the middle of nowhere which does limit its juvenile gardens, but that also means that its visibility is generally better too. Photographically, I don't see the dramatic reef topology in Bonaire that makes me want to pull out my wide angle lens. Even on the Hilma Hooker isn't necessarily a great image because of all of the floating particulates...take a gander: http://tinyurl.com/m4t8. Having lots of pooge like this photo shows, floating in the water, is the trade-off of having the food to support lots of macro critters. And if nothing else, this simply illustrates that different people look for different things when we're diving.


-hh

 

[crispos]

This post was very interesting for me not having gone to either place. I've travelled to a fair number of spots in the Caribbean but always balked at paying big bucks for diving. I'm not sure I would call them the crappy Bahamas, there are over 500 islands there, not just Nassau. I lived there for a winter. My favorite spot was Rock Sound in Southern Eleuthera, nothing between you and the Atlantic, spearfishing for over a week off a beach and not seeing another human being. A maze of reefs with wrecks - that's why it was called "Wreck Sound" in the old days. No dive shops or divers. Reef sharks, nine footers. The untrained kind.

Tell me, how much is a week of 2 tank diving (either one shot or as a package) during the winter, at these fabled dive spots mentioned above, at Little Cayman and Bonaire? Maybe I'll break down and pay up.

 

[-hh]

crispos once bubbled...
Tell me, how much is a week of 2 tank diving (either one shot or as a package) during the winter, at these fabled dive spots mentioned above, at Little Cayman and Bonaire? Maybe I'll break down and pay up.

Generally speaking, people who talk about "bang for the buck" go to Bonaire, toss a bunch of tanks into a rental car and do a lot of shore diving. Of course what they don't like to mention is the petty criminal predation of unattended rental cars that were left with anything of potential value in them; see URL: http://tinyurl.com/m7io

For boat-based 2-3 tanks/day diving on Little Cayman, your best deal will probably be a dive package from Sam McCoy's. Their website is URL: http://www.mccoyslodge.com.ky/ and they currently are offering a $999/week special (based on Double Occupancy; includes all meals & diving)...don't know what their high season rate would be. FWIW, I haven't dived with Sam's, but a friend of mine is a faithful repeat customer.

Do note the following:

1) Sam's is a "Diving Lodge/Camp" and not a true hotel....if you insist on a "true" hotel, your only choice on Little Cayman is the Little Cayman Beach Resort. The cost there for a room, meals (FAP) & diving, is $1800/pp in high season, or $1600/pp in low season. Personally, I've stayed at the LCBR and at today's rates, I consider it to be overpriced, so I'm unlikely to go back.

2) Sam's is Little Cayman's only property on the North Side, which means that the often-claimed "unlimited shore diving" is actually possible without a $75/day rental jeep.

3) You can also do some diving of Little Cayman from the Cayman Brac based resorts. Sure, you'll do more Brac diving, but you'll at least get a sampling. The Brac hotels have been running a lot of sub-$1000 package specials.

4) Other costs to consider. For airfare, neither Bonaire nor Little Cayman (or the Brac) are super-cheap places to fly to. For rental cars, most people who go to Bonaire drop another $250/week* for a vehicle, whereas most LC or Brac visitors do not and have no real need to do so, particularly if they're only interested in 2-3 boat dives per day.

* - more, if you're wise enough to buy the comprehensive rental car insurance to avoid paying a possible $500 window (or stolen spare tire) repair bill.

5) There's so many properties on Bonaire that I'm not going to try to list them. There's so few on Little Cayman that it is worthwhile to do so: besides the LCBR and Sam's, the other major players are Southern Cross, Pirate's Point, Paradise Villas and IIRC, Neptune's Berth. Plus there's a smattering of private homes too.


Overall, its worth trying each island at least once, to see if you like them. If you have no particular preference for which to do first, then I'd suggest competing them on airline schedule convenience and total cost.


-hh

 

[JeffMandell]

I would only add that I've just recently returned from a week of diving LC and it more than lived up to my expectations. Bloody Bay wall is jawdropping and the reef at "Mixing Bowl" was one of the great collections of ocean life imagineable. You probably won't go wrong at either place, but LC tends to promote passionate evangelists.