On Island Trip Report Bonaire 20 Feb - 11 Mar

[Adaveke]

Hi everybody,

in stead of trying to remember everything when I get home with a serious case of the post Bonaire Blues, I decided to do an on island report this year.

so here goes:

20 Feb
We arrived with a 9 hour delay on the Island. The flight from Amsterdam to Bonaire was delayed due to a bird strike. **** happens, but KLM solved everything gracefully by providing a free hotel room and meals in Amsterdam.
Once we arrived on the Island we were greeted by Stanley, the taxi driver of Bamboo Bali Bonaire, who got us to BBB very fast.
Our first impression of BBB was that it had changed quite a lot since last year. The garden has matured even further and some changes to the lay-out have been made to improve the privacy even more. They also installed new eco friendlier A/C and they are in the proces of getting the jacuzzis to work.

We have been provided a rental truck from Bonaire Rent A Car, it works fine, except for the radio. This is quite a bummer for me as I really love the sound of Dolfijn FM while touring the island. (my husband is trying to solve this radio thingy as I type this.)

Furthermore we did our check in with Wannadive, the check dive will be for later today. We also visited Zung Kong to buy some necessary items as beer, gin, tonic, lime, ... You catch my drift

The day came to an end real fast while we were enjoying a few Brights at Karels Bar.

From there it went on to Rum Runners for dinner. Hubby had the chicken stew and really liked it. I had the Fish Fajittas, it was really nice, but a word to wise: they might be a bit too much to handle for one person... Phew, I was stuffed!

 

[Jersey]

We also visited Zung Kong to buy some necessary items as beer, gin, tonic, lime, ... You catch my drift

I like your priorities!

 

[Adaveke]

We're having some problems with our internet connection, so I'm doing this on a digicel mobile account. How's that for dedication?

21 Feb

there seems to be quite a big military presence on the Island. What's up with that? Is the queen building an army to take over the rest of the Caribbean?

The day was not of to a good start. I'm doing a 'start to run' program in Belgium, and being a good pupil I felt the need to continue this on the Island. After 5.38 km I thought I was going to die! But hey, I brought it on my own didn't I?

Hubby went over to the car rental company in order to get the radio fixed or to get another car. Unfortunately, nothing available at the moment. So there will be no Dolfijn FM for me
He also went over to Digicel to get some mobile dataplan for our cell phones. Lucky thing, as we are now experiencing some problems with the internet available at BBB. (Not their fault, but the phone company)

Around noon we did our check dive at Front Porch. As usual, the reef is nothing much to look at, but this leaves all the critters nicely exposed. We saw a big octopus, and all the usual reef dwellers. Fun Dive!
Afterwards we went back to BBB for a rince, to get the salt out of our hair and went for lunch at the City Café. Lunch was nice and the staff was friendly as always.

In the afternoon, Hubby tried to set up his SMS account with digicel via their customer service. It is proving to be quite an ordeal to get his sms working, but the digicel customer service is great!

We also managed to find time for another dive. This one took us to Bari Reef, where I learned that some people should not be allowed into the water! Some residents (Saw them getting in at the peer) where bouncing up and down all over the place, their console and octo hung loose and where dragging along the bottom whenever they got close enough.
The reef itself looked very much alive, although there is apparently some bleaching going on. We found our first Lion Fish at Bari Reef (it was tagged, but still present)
Furthermore we saw a lot of morray eels and peacock flounders.

We ended the day with Gin Tonic on our patio an went into town for Dinner. We first wanted to grab some pizza at Bon Pizza, but they are closed on monday so we ended up at Bambu. I had the Tuna Sashimi and the grilled Tuna with red wine sauce. It was a wonderful meal!! Michelin standard quality food!

 

[billmosel]

I love the reports. Keep them coming. I will be there Sunday!!

 

[Jersey]

Loving the on-island updates! I'm at 32 day countdown, started packing. Good for you bringing the running gear, guessing I found the same issue - high heat, low humidity - kills a workout.

 

[Adaveke]

22 Feb

Hubby broke the strap of his fin and we had to shop for a replacement. They apparently cost a pretty penny on this Island, but what are you to do when you need them?
Furthermore we had to stop by at digicel in order to get some things solved (still the SMS thing, and the data plan, ...)
It took some time away from diving, but we still managed to get two dives in.

Our first dive of the day was at Vista Blue.
Wonderful place. Vibrant reef, lots of colours... and lots of Lion Fish. We spotted two of them, both unmarked. so after the dive we headed back to BBB to report the damned critters on the ciee website.
It dawned on me that I hadn't seen a single turtle, barracuda or lettuce leaf slug. Must all have been eaten by the Lion Fish (joke).

For lunch we headed over to Elle's Deli: friendly service, good bread, ... happy customer.

Our second dive of the day was at my beloved Oil Slick.
We get into the water and low and behold, I spot a turtle. A few more minutes into the dive we see a Barracuda and lots of lettuce leaf slugs... Life is good again on Bonaire
Unfortunately we spot a Lion fish again.

After our return to BBB, while enjoying our gin tonic on the patio, Anno comes over and informs us that the pool/jacuzzi area is ready.
A quick shower later, we are in the lounge pool and the jacuzzi. Life is good!

For dinner we decided to head south and go to Cactus Blue. Apparently it's good (judging on the reviews here). We both order cocktails, a blue cactus martini for myself and a margarita for the Hubby. Mine came with a marachino cherry, which is not a good mix with the blue curacao. Hubbies Margarita cam with not enough alcohol, or so he claims
We got some complementary bread, which was really good!
For the main dish I ordered the caribbean style shrimp with mashed sweet potato. Hubby went for the oven baked Mahi Mahi.
I'm sorry to say that we were both well under impressed. There was lemon grass mixed under the shrimp, how's that Caribbean? The vegetables came out of the freezer and the service was kind of awkward... Not impressed at all. There is much better food to be had on this Island and it will be more fresh.

 

[chauncy19]

adaveke,
did you go to the carib inn for a replacement strap? also highly recommend spring straps, i switched and i am glad i did don't know about cost but carib inn is a great place to go when in need of scuba fix. Bruce is the best and prices seem competitive to me.

 

[Jersey]

Keep up the progress reports! Glad to hear about the turtle, cuda and slug spotting. How are the winds and weather?

Heartily second Bruce @ the Carib Inn for the quick fix or forgotten item. He straightened out a free flowing Sherwood with some spare parts while we where there (not "come back tomorrow") and charged $5.00. We struck Cactus Blu off the list a few years back for the same reasons, thou others still rave. (Check out Sense if you happen upon it. Across from the entrance to Plaza.)

 

[DeputyDan]

A big second for the carib Inn for repairs etc....

 

[Adaveke]

Hi all,

thanks for the feedback.
It was a spring strap he broke, we're also big fans of those! We went to the Dive Friends Bonaire Diveshop in Kralendijk to buy a new set and it set us $43.10 back. We'll keep Carib Inn in mind if we need anything else (knock on wood).

Jersey, thanks for the tip on Sense, we'll give them a try one of these days.
The winds are quite low. The weather has been pretty good although we had some light rain yesterday and already a heavy shower this morning. I don't really mind, I like clouds, less chance on getting sunburned.