Need advice & info about Bonaire

[Joe Mack]

My wife and I are making our 1st trip to Bonaire the 2nd week of June and staying at La Pura Vista. I have tried to read up as much as possible about things to do and avoid. I even bought "Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy".

I am looking for insight on things to make the most of the trip ie... restaurant advice, favorite dive sites, etc.....

The last thing is how safe are items in the truck while we dive?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

JM

 

[divingjd]

Don't leave anything in the truck you can't live without and don't really care if you see again. I left my rattiest T-shirts, battered ball caps, old bent sunglasses, and some cheap sandals in the truck. You could just wear your dive booties. I did that a few times. The most valuable thing I left was a water bottle. My wife left some stuff she would miss, and it was gone. Take the keys with you underwater.

When choosing shore diving sites, consider whether you have the experience and expertise to fine a way through the coral. It's not as easy as it might seem. Consider you navigation skills carefully. Finding the exit after a long, engrossing dive can be a challenge.

On the food front, we liked El Fogon Latino a lot. Cafe de Paris was pretty good, but a bit of a patience tester when we took friends who had not been before and the power went out. Lots of places are at least pretty good. We what style of food and atmosphere sounds like it would treat you best. You will have a great time.

 

[bfisher]

You might find some answers on Bonaire Talk - The place to discuss everything and anything about Bonaire!.

I dn't know a lot about the restaurants although I've been to Bon 5 times in the last 3 years and am going again in Sept. Pardon me but I just eat to stay alive. Food just isn't one of my priorities. I would recommend Casablanca for a dinner.

I know nothing of where you are staying, but can say that Bon is a place to dive and there are a lot of places to stay. Therefore everybody is looking for a piece of the tourist action and so can't screw up too bad.

Leave nothing in your vehicle that you can't afford to do without. I've never had anything stolen, but I have heeded the warnings of those who went before me. About the only thing I leave in the truck is y baseball cap, sunglasses, and beach towel. Oh yeah, and a bottle of water. I can't verify this but most of the thievery that goes on is supposedly done at the northen dive sites.

Favorite dive sites? All of them. I do have a penchant to head south to Red Slave where I may see a spotted eagle ray. The Hooker is a good one. Heck, do all you can. Do a one tanker and then move during your surface interval. Don't foget to do some night diving and look for the tarpon They will follow you around as you are lighting up their next meal. If you are doing anything by boat then I'd recommend Klein Bonaire and Thousand Steps. Most everything else can be easily reached from shore.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

I'll start off the long parade of recommendations:

- First off, TONS of info can be culled from the forums at BonaireTalk Bonaire Talk - The place to discuss everything and anything about Bonaire! Spend some time perusing the postings there.

- My favorite dive sites: 1000 Steps, Karpata, Ol' Blue, Alice in Wonderland, The Cliff, Hilma Hooker

- My favorite night dives: Buddy's House Reef, Windsock

- Favorite critters: Seahorses, spotted eagle rays, turtles, squid, garden eels, tarpon, filefish, Caribbean slipper lobster, lettuce seaslug, boxfish, cowfish, porcupine pufferfish, tang gangs

- Consider buying an underwater camera. The Canon "A" series is fairly affordable - A720 camera + Canon underwater housing = about $370.

- Don't count on leaving anything of value in the truck while you're diving. Typically, people in our group would only leave behind cheap flipflops, old t-shirt, stinky towel, hat, cheap sunglasses, a bottle of water, and a granola bar. Do you see a pattern there? The car rental agencies suggest that divers leave their truck windows rolled down to prevent thieves from having to break the windows to get your stuff. Petty crime is an issue there, but the island is otherwise quite safe.

- Hard-soled dive booties are a good idea. The shore is quite rocky in places.

- Bring a save-a-dive kit containing o-rings for yoke tank valves. I replaced a number of those suckers during my last vacation there.

- Don't leave any expensive dive gear outside overnight. At the very least, lock up your dive computers and regs.

- Arrange to do a DM-led night dive at the Town Pier. Very colorful under there...and when we went in Dec 2007, we saw 2 seahorses!

- Take advantage of the free nitrox upgrades. Most of the dive ops include this with a weeklong shore dive package.

- Don't sign up for a multi-day boat dive package. Klein Bonaire is nice, but the shore diving is so good that you really won't be missing much.

- If you have kitchen facilities and don't mind cooking, explore the various grocery stores in the area. This can be a good way to stretch your food budget for the week.

- I realize that others will disagree, but Bonairean goat ain't that tasty.

- Restaurants that I like: El Fogon Latino, Cactus Blue, Pasa Bon Pizza, Will's Tropical Grill, El Fogon Latino (yes, I realize that I mentioned one of them twice)

- Restaurants that I didn't like: (I'll let others address this.)

- Enjoy diving on your own schedule.

Have fun and dive safe.

 

[driftwood]

You already have the best best resources, BSDME and Bonaire Talk.

Where to eat, Casablanca was disappointing on our last trip, as was Patagonia. The best of the bunch was City Cafe, I do miss Stiffler's. I am from Texas where BBQ is a food group and Bobby Jans didn't live up to the hype. If you plan to stock the frig, plan on hitting both Cultimara and the Warehouse. Neither one will have everything you are looking for.

Diving, Karparta can be very good, any site north of the northern marina all the way to Capt. Don's are excellent (part of the Bari reef system, see Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) | Diving That Counts for the diversity surveys). I have never been impressed with the dives off Klein Bonaire and do not see the need to go there again. If you go to Town Pier, make it a small group of divers. The site is small, the currents can be tricky and with the spacing of the pilings, the dive is best done vertically.

If you are diving at night, be sure to watch the moon cycle. The sea wasps congregate around lights at the surface the week after the full moon. You do not want to meet them. One good sting can cut your diving vacation in half or send you to the hospital.

Don't leave anything in you truck, leave it unlocked (unless you are pissed at the rental agency), be prepared to pay high prices for dining out and enjoy some of the best diving in the Carib!

 

[reefdiva]

My wife and I are making our 1st trip to Bonaire the 2nd week of June and staying at La Pura Vista. I have tried to read up as much as possible about things to do and avoid. I even bought "Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy".

I am looking for insight on things to make the most of the trip ie... restaurant advice, favorite dive sites, etc.....

The last thing is how safe are items in the truck while we dive?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

JM

The other posters have all given you great advice and having Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy will help you tremendously. La Pura Vista has gotten great reviews so hopefully it will meet your needs! A few more items to add to what others have said ...

In restaurants you will not be given your check until you ask.
Freeze some bottles of water to take with you in your truck so you can have cold drinking water after your dive.
Be sure to take time to drive around the southern end of the island ... the landscape is very different from other islands!
Dive slowly and look at all the small critters!
Enjoy!

 

[BEM]

VERY IMPORTANT FACT!

When you buy your case of beer and open it up - you haven't been ripped off - the beer bottles are smaller - 9 oz! Other than getting to and from Bonaire, this is the one of the worst things!!!

 

[DiveMaven]

I've already warned my husband about the smaller beer bottles as a pre-emptive strike!

 

[CajunDiva]

OK...what exactly do you consider "petty theft"??? Bonaire is high on our "to-do" list and we would love to go. But just how bad is the theft? I can handle not leaving anything of value in the truck while I dive, but what about leaving things of value back in the room? Are laptop computers, camera gear, etc. safe?

You'd think local law enforcement would realize that the island lives off of scuba divers and at least make an effort to curtail the crime rate! :no

 

[Bubbletrubble]

@CajunDiva:
During my last trip to Bonaire (Dec 2007), I heard from locals that a "sting" operation had been conducted just a few weeks before. The police made several arrests and recovered some property. Here's a link to a SB post of an article in the local newspaper: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/abc-islands/208874-updated-news-bonaire-crimewave.html

During my first trip to Bonaire, I did a boat dive with a nice Canadian couple who had all of their gear stolen the night before! They had left it out on their back balcony the night before. Regs, BCs, wetsuits, fins, mask (everything) were gone the next morning. Their experience taught me to lock up all of the dive gear at night.

BonaireTalk has a number of threads regarding theft of dive gear and computer equipment. At least one victim wrote that the local police filed a report but were otherwise dismissive: Bonaire Talk: Waiting to be censored.

I agree that law enforcement should be more pro-active about island theft. I'm certain that local business owners would put more pressure on them if it appeared to be negatively affecting tourism numbers. Everyone knows that the Natalee Holloway case significantly put a dent in Aruba's tourism.

FWIW, I felt quite safe while on the island. Nevertheless, valuables were locked up in the roomsafe at night and while diving. People in our group just buried their laptop computers in our luggage (stored inside our rooms). I took my driver's license and a few guilders (sealed inside a ziploc bag) with me during the dive. The bag was stuffed inside my trunks pocket underneath my wetsuit. Car key was attached to my BCD with a split-ring.

Even with the petty crime issues, I think the fantastic diving makes the experience worth it.