msubryan
Guest
Saturday - AM boarded plane in Mobile, Al with no problem. Arrived at gate for Bonaire with plenty of time. Met up with my brother and grabbed breakfast at mcdonalds. Back at gate recognized crewchef From scubaboard with his wife, son, and daughter(just certified/doing checkout dives). Flight left on time, ate sandwich on flight to prevent having to slow down for food upon arrival (Next time I will get food at airport and bring on plane). Landed, slow and hot wait to get cleared thru customs and luggage unloaded. Little confusion with what Taxi was there for us, but a quick call to Liz cleared it up and we were on our way to Island Car Rental to pick up rental truck. Mazda 4 door, not the nicest rental, but not the worst that we saw. (Budget had the nicest trucks, all toyota hiluxs). Checked in to room at Golden Reef Inn and got the tour of facilities. Unloaded all non scuba gear and went to Eden beach Wannadive for the checkout/marine tags. Got that all done and we were ready for food, kfc answered the mail and we returned to eden beach for the night dive.
Sunday - Dove 1000 steps, Oil slick leap, Hilma Hooker, windsock, and buddy's twice (day and night). Supper was at Pasa Bon?. This was our favorite food on island.
Monday - Hilma hooker, alice in wonderland, andrea 1, and Jeff Davis. On hilma hooker, O-ring blew out on hose, guys from indian valley scuba loaned us a tool to repair and we were on our way. JD was one of the best dives of the week with Large spotted eagle ray, spiny lobster, and sea turtle. Supper was at sunset house and was pretty good.
Tuesday - Tolo, double dip on Karpata. Ran into crew from scubaboard. We then headed back south for invisibles and tories reef. Supper was at the Plaza Barbque with the scubaboard crowd (herman, lucky days, crewchef, and several others.
Wednesday - ventured into washington park for 3 dives. We started with the "long trail" and amply named. First site Boka Bartol had huge waves and extremely difficult entry, so we passed. Boka Katuna had a similar entry, but we fought thru it and made the dive. Extremely large turtle swam up to us and nudged my brother (I think he wet himself).dove playa benge as well, but had to stop at 2 divescut due to 3rd tank being an empty. Headed out (took an hour from playa benge to park gate). Lunch was at Elis Deli and really good. Headed south again and dove white slave, red slave, and mangrate bay.
Thursday - not to be outdone by empty tank, we headed back to wahington park for 4 tank dive. We finished out the park sites playa funchi, bise morto, wayaka 1, and Boka slagbaai(my 100th dive). I only had 24 total dives one year ago. Not enough for a day, we reloaded with tanks and headed south once again. Dove the lake and did night dive at the plaza (18th palm I think). Showered off at plaza and went to the Banana tree for supper. By far the worst food choice of the week. I had the fish of the day (snapper) and it came out raw. Waiter was very understanding and offered me anything else that I wanted, but my hunger was gone.
Friday - we have 28 dives for the week and a 300 flight on saturday. To be safe, we decide to make 2 dives and end by 10:00 so we can detox some nitrogen. Angel city/Hilma hooker and Bachelors beach ended out the week of diving.
30 dives, 24:09 of bottom time, avg max depth was 104. Spent most of time from 40 to 80 feet.
Fri afternoon offgassing - rented wind surf board at Lac Bay for half day. Never done it before, no lesson, not a fun first hour to get the hang of it. Pretty fun once you do. Great opportuity to learn a new extreme sport. (Like I need another on top of Scuba, Wakeboarding, Snow skiing, and deep sea fishing)
We spent fri night physically walking several major resorts on the island to prepare for the next trip. We quickly determined that If you are coming to primarily do the shore dives (like we did.) GRI is the way to go. By far the shortest distance to travel from truck, to rinse bin, to room, to tanks. We came to dive, and dive we did from 7 am till 9 pm most days. If I come back with my wife and kids, I would probably do a resort on the water since I would be doing less diving. After walking all of the resorts below are my comments
Buddy's - great facility/great setup for tanks (drive thru tank service), storage, and boat dives. Pool, dock, and rooms are all in close proximity. This would be my first choice for family vacation with some non divers.
Divi - very similar to Buddy's, would be my second choice. Really like the gear storage on pier, and swimming area. Kids would love that.
Captain Don's - really nice resort, do not like the fact that they charges to dive from their pier. I am sure that they have reasons. I did not like the layout as well with dock and so forth.
In preparing for this trip, I got a lot of advise from scubaboard, some good and some bad.
Helpfull hints for those booking a trip to Bonaire:
1) Food - Pack your snack, crackers, and cereal. Warehouse is great when stocked. We got eggs and bacon for breakfast and soups for quick lunches.
2) Meals - Pizza at pasa dons rocks...large pizza (35 naf/20 US) fed us both for supper and lunch the next day.
3) Get bottled water and refill and freeze for trips. Keep couple bottles on hood for warm showers after dives
4) Theft is a problem on the island. If you take anything with you to a dive site that you want to keep, you better take it under with you. Leave the truck unlocked and your windows down. The thieves are too lazy to open an unlocked door. We talked to a couple who made that mistake. Thief took camera, mask, snorkel, and log book. We left ours down the entire week and only lost a pair of oakley sunglasses (my brothers/ I took cheap shades and they did not mess with them).
7) DIVE the park
8) Take extra tanks everywhere...load up and dive till your hearts content
9) Take cash - I did not have any problems with conversion...all locals were very honest
6) Airlines - prepare for hot wait upon arrival for your luggage.
7 ) Bigger the group the better - I considered going with the IVS group, but chose not to due to sharing vehicle...find a group that matches your plan for trip and get in with them!!
Bottom line - Bonaire is shore dive capital of the world...to go there and boad dive is like going to cozumel and not wall diving....
If I met you on the trip, drop me a line...i didnt catch every bodys name that I ate with and visited with...
Where to next? Coz/Roaton/Grand caymen??? Time to start planning!!!
Sunday - Dove 1000 steps, Oil slick leap, Hilma Hooker, windsock, and buddy's twice (day and night). Supper was at Pasa Bon?. This was our favorite food on island.
Monday - Hilma hooker, alice in wonderland, andrea 1, and Jeff Davis. On hilma hooker, O-ring blew out on hose, guys from indian valley scuba loaned us a tool to repair and we were on our way. JD was one of the best dives of the week with Large spotted eagle ray, spiny lobster, and sea turtle. Supper was at sunset house and was pretty good.
Tuesday - Tolo, double dip on Karpata. Ran into crew from scubaboard. We then headed back south for invisibles and tories reef. Supper was at the Plaza Barbque with the scubaboard crowd (herman, lucky days, crewchef, and several others.
Wednesday - ventured into washington park for 3 dives. We started with the "long trail" and amply named. First site Boka Bartol had huge waves and extremely difficult entry, so we passed. Boka Katuna had a similar entry, but we fought thru it and made the dive. Extremely large turtle swam up to us and nudged my brother (I think he wet himself).dove playa benge as well, but had to stop at 2 divescut due to 3rd tank being an empty. Headed out (took an hour from playa benge to park gate). Lunch was at Elis Deli and really good. Headed south again and dove white slave, red slave, and mangrate bay.
Thursday - not to be outdone by empty tank, we headed back to wahington park for 4 tank dive. We finished out the park sites playa funchi, bise morto, wayaka 1, and Boka slagbaai(my 100th dive). I only had 24 total dives one year ago. Not enough for a day, we reloaded with tanks and headed south once again. Dove the lake and did night dive at the plaza (18th palm I think). Showered off at plaza and went to the Banana tree for supper. By far the worst food choice of the week. I had the fish of the day (snapper) and it came out raw. Waiter was very understanding and offered me anything else that I wanted, but my hunger was gone.
Friday - we have 28 dives for the week and a 300 flight on saturday. To be safe, we decide to make 2 dives and end by 10:00 so we can detox some nitrogen. Angel city/Hilma hooker and Bachelors beach ended out the week of diving.
30 dives, 24:09 of bottom time, avg max depth was 104. Spent most of time from 40 to 80 feet.
Fri afternoon offgassing - rented wind surf board at Lac Bay for half day. Never done it before, no lesson, not a fun first hour to get the hang of it. Pretty fun once you do. Great opportuity to learn a new extreme sport. (Like I need another on top of Scuba, Wakeboarding, Snow skiing, and deep sea fishing)
We spent fri night physically walking several major resorts on the island to prepare for the next trip. We quickly determined that If you are coming to primarily do the shore dives (like we did.) GRI is the way to go. By far the shortest distance to travel from truck, to rinse bin, to room, to tanks. We came to dive, and dive we did from 7 am till 9 pm most days. If I come back with my wife and kids, I would probably do a resort on the water since I would be doing less diving. After walking all of the resorts below are my comments
Buddy's - great facility/great setup for tanks (drive thru tank service), storage, and boat dives. Pool, dock, and rooms are all in close proximity. This would be my first choice for family vacation with some non divers.
Divi - very similar to Buddy's, would be my second choice. Really like the gear storage on pier, and swimming area. Kids would love that.
Captain Don's - really nice resort, do not like the fact that they charges to dive from their pier. I am sure that they have reasons. I did not like the layout as well with dock and so forth.
In preparing for this trip, I got a lot of advise from scubaboard, some good and some bad.
Helpfull hints for those booking a trip to Bonaire:
1) Food - Pack your snack, crackers, and cereal. Warehouse is great when stocked. We got eggs and bacon for breakfast and soups for quick lunches.
2) Meals - Pizza at pasa dons rocks...large pizza (35 naf/20 US) fed us both for supper and lunch the next day.
3) Get bottled water and refill and freeze for trips. Keep couple bottles on hood for warm showers after dives
4) Theft is a problem on the island. If you take anything with you to a dive site that you want to keep, you better take it under with you. Leave the truck unlocked and your windows down. The thieves are too lazy to open an unlocked door. We talked to a couple who made that mistake. Thief took camera, mask, snorkel, and log book. We left ours down the entire week and only lost a pair of oakley sunglasses (my brothers/ I took cheap shades and they did not mess with them).
7) DIVE the park
8) Take extra tanks everywhere...load up and dive till your hearts content
9) Take cash - I did not have any problems with conversion...all locals were very honest
6) Airlines - prepare for hot wait upon arrival for your luggage.
7 ) Bigger the group the better - I considered going with the IVS group, but chose not to due to sharing vehicle...find a group that matches your plan for trip and get in with them!!
Bottom line - Bonaire is shore dive capital of the world...to go there and boad dive is like going to cozumel and not wall diving....
If I met you on the trip, drop me a line...i didnt catch every bodys name that I ate with and visited with...
Where to next? Coz/Roaton/Grand caymen??? Time to start planning!!!
Good eatin tho!
