On Island Trip Report Bonaire 20 Feb - 11 Mar
- Thread starter Adaveke
- Start date
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billmosel
Contributor
Hi Adaveke, I'm also here on the Island and my computer is always a few degrees colder.. but it has been reading 74 to 75 degrees on every dive since Sunday. I've started to wear my 3/5 hooded vest on my afternoon dives. I've never felt the temp this cold here.
Are your Gin and tonics better than mine? LOL!!
Are your Gin and tonics better than mine? LOL!!
Billmosel,
I checked with Hubby's computer and he has 26°C to 27°C (78.8°F - 80.6°F), but he has been drinking the same gin tonics
Maybe a difference in computers. I use a Mares Nemo Excel and he uses a Mares Puck.
Or perhaps you are going a lot deeper than us? we stay between 15m and 17m (49ft to 55ft) on most dives.
Guilosch,
we haven't melted yet, but we're used to it. We even took the 7 mils to the Maldives
01 Mar
The weather seems to have improved. There's been more sun than last week. And more important, less rain.
We spoke to a Dutch couple yesterday and they told us a part of the park is closed off due to flooding...
The first dive of the day brought us back to Oil Slick. It's just so much fun to giant stride into the water...
It was a fun dive and something rather interesting happened when we were exiting. Two people, one on the bottom, the other one on the surface, were conducting some sort of experiment. The one on the bottom was holding an iron cage like thing and had some sort of measuring device in there, which was connected to a reading device on the surface. We're not sure what they were testing, but we think it has something to do with light density and pollution?
Lunch was had at Elle's again.
We did our afternoon dive at Punt Vierkant. It was awesome. 2 Barracuda's, a turtle, porcupines and loads of black Durgeons. The coral formations are also very beautiful over there.
After this dive we headed back to BBB to rinse and get a change of clothes. It was time for all you can eat tuesdays at the Wanadive Hut. The food was good, some creole dish.
We talked to somebody who actively hunts lion fish and have decided to give our LF info directly to him in stead of the CIEE website. The general belief on the island seems to be that this CIEE website can't cope with the amount of info and therefore leaps behind. Who knows, I'm just glad to have found somebody that will do something with the info we give him.
I checked with Hubby's computer and he has 26°C to 27°C (78.8°F - 80.6°F), but he has been drinking the same gin tonics
Maybe a difference in computers. I use a Mares Nemo Excel and he uses a Mares Puck.
Or perhaps you are going a lot deeper than us? we stay between 15m and 17m (49ft to 55ft) on most dives.
Guilosch,
we haven't melted yet, but we're used to it. We even took the 7 mils to the Maldives
01 Mar
The weather seems to have improved. There's been more sun than last week. And more important, less rain.
We spoke to a Dutch couple yesterday and they told us a part of the park is closed off due to flooding...
The first dive of the day brought us back to Oil Slick. It's just so much fun to giant stride into the water...
It was a fun dive and something rather interesting happened when we were exiting. Two people, one on the bottom, the other one on the surface, were conducting some sort of experiment. The one on the bottom was holding an iron cage like thing and had some sort of measuring device in there, which was connected to a reading device on the surface. We're not sure what they were testing, but we think it has something to do with light density and pollution?
Lunch was had at Elle's again.
We did our afternoon dive at Punt Vierkant. It was awesome. 2 Barracuda's, a turtle, porcupines and loads of black Durgeons. The coral formations are also very beautiful over there.
After this dive we headed back to BBB to rinse and get a change of clothes. It was time for all you can eat tuesdays at the Wanadive Hut. The food was good, some creole dish.
We talked to somebody who actively hunts lion fish and have decided to give our LF info directly to him in stead of the CIEE website. The general belief on the island seems to be that this CIEE website can't cope with the amount of info and therefore leaps behind. Who knows, I'm just glad to have found somebody that will do something with the info we give him.
TheWizard
Contributor
I'm going to be next door on Curacao the end of this week and I'm hoping water temperatures are no lower than 79degF. With full 3mm suits we can cope with that just fine...
02 Mar
Have you ever noticed, when things are good, you forget to appreciate them?
I noticed today that I was starting to think (after certain dives) this was nothing special, when just minutes before I had been swarmed by tropical fish. Just because you see them on every dive and every dive you forget to appreciate them. Funny thing, Human Nature.
The first dive we did was on Andrea II, very lush coral. We saw a very big Bar Jack getting himself some cleaner service. Furthermore we encountered 6 Barracudas and a few morrays. Lots of other fish too off course, but that would probably lead too far.
For lunch we headed back to Rum Runners for a Kari Kari Sandwich. It was a bit more greasy than the last time, but still good.
Afternoon diving was done at Cliff and at Front Porch. The vis. in the afternoon was the worst yet.
At cliff we saw a school of 16 big Horse-eye Jacks, a barracuda, a squid(yay), a big ass Cubera snapper, ...
Front porch delivered us some sort of black anemone. It was beautiful and I have never seen it before. Unfortunately we spotted two small lionfish
We'll head to wannadive today to inform them about these pests on their doorstep.
Dinner was had at city café. The shrimp of the day (diablo) where very good (very spicy). Little negative point, City Café can be a bit noisy...
Have you ever noticed, when things are good, you forget to appreciate them?
I noticed today that I was starting to think (after certain dives) this was nothing special, when just minutes before I had been swarmed by tropical fish. Just because you see them on every dive and every dive you forget to appreciate them. Funny thing, Human Nature.
The first dive we did was on Andrea II, very lush coral. We saw a very big Bar Jack getting himself some cleaner service. Furthermore we encountered 6 Barracudas and a few morrays. Lots of other fish too off course, but that would probably lead too far.
For lunch we headed back to Rum Runners for a Kari Kari Sandwich. It was a bit more greasy than the last time, but still good.
Afternoon diving was done at Cliff and at Front Porch. The vis. in the afternoon was the worst yet.
At cliff we saw a school of 16 big Horse-eye Jacks, a barracuda, a squid(yay), a big ass Cubera snapper, ...
Front porch delivered us some sort of black anemone. It was beautiful and I have never seen it before. Unfortunately we spotted two small lionfish
We'll head to wannadive today to inform them about these pests on their doorstep.
Dinner was had at city café. The shrimp of the day (diablo) where very good (very spicy). Little negative point, City Café can be a bit noisy...
We are considering Bonaire for our Fall trip this year. Can you give me a general idea on the average cost of lunch and dinners? AIs don't seem to be a big thing on Bonaire.
Hard to tell, you can make it as cheap or as expensive as you want to make it...
We generally pay about $30 for lunch and $60 for dinner. That's for two people, including drinks.
On the island you usually have the opportunity to cook your own meal and/or make your own sandwiches. We don't bother with that, but I found that some people do it to make things cheaper and/or win time in order to get more dives in.
03 Mar
Today we only did one dive. But man, it was a good one!
We went to something special, which is a really beautiful place. There was quite some current blowing north, so we decided to head back to the entry quite early (at 150 bar), giving us more than enough breathing room
We're sure glad that we did it that way, we arrived at our exit with still 90 bar left, and found two squids waiting for us. They seemed to be as much interested in us as we were in them. We hung out with them for at least another 15 minutes. They were awsome!!
For lunch we had ceasars salads at Rum Runners.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in peace and quiet, lounging at the pool, drinking some coronas on our patio, reading a book...
For dinner we went to the hut for free rum punch and all you can eat BBQ. The atmosphere was again very good and it ended again quite late
Good times!!
Today we only did one dive. But man, it was a good one!
We went to something special, which is a really beautiful place. There was quite some current blowing north, so we decided to head back to the entry quite early (at 150 bar), giving us more than enough breathing room
We're sure glad that we did it that way, we arrived at our exit with still 90 bar left, and found two squids waiting for us. They seemed to be as much interested in us as we were in them. We hung out with them for at least another 15 minutes. They were awsome!!
For lunch we had ceasars salads at Rum Runners.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in peace and quiet, lounging at the pool, drinking some coronas on our patio, reading a book...
For dinner we went to the hut for free rum punch and all you can eat BBQ. The atmosphere was again very good and it ended again quite late
Good times!!
4 MAR
Since the weather was pretty calm, we wondered if Red Slave would be calm as well.
We decided to check it out...
We got stuck at Kralendijk because there was some sort of parade going on, and we had to turn back in order to find another route. We weren't up for the entire tour via Rincon, so we tried to find a shorter route around Kralendijk... Well, at a certain point we ended up on a dirt road and it took us a great while to find the way back to the civilisation
At least we had some off road fun
Red Slave itself was pretty calm, so we did it. What a dive!! first of all the reef was beautiful. We saw an eagle ray, a stingray, a giant lobster, some lionfish, blue parrots fish, ... When we got out and turned around to face the water, we saw two dolphins at the buoy. Bad timing that's called
After lunch at Elle's, we went back to Red Slave and dove to the south in stead of the north, the reef looks completely different, but still very beautiful. Again we saw a stingray. This time we also got to see a turtle, two lobsters, again a lion fish, ...
Wonderful dives!!
For dinner we went to Bambu, the food was again wonderful but the service was a bit strange this time. They are looking for new wait staff and it is possible that it was the waitress her first day... But still, it was a bit awkward.
Since the weather was pretty calm, we wondered if Red Slave would be calm as well.
We decided to check it out...
We got stuck at Kralendijk because there was some sort of parade going on, and we had to turn back in order to find another route. We weren't up for the entire tour via Rincon, so we tried to find a shorter route around Kralendijk... Well, at a certain point we ended up on a dirt road and it took us a great while to find the way back to the civilisation
At least we had some off road fun
Red Slave itself was pretty calm, so we did it. What a dive!! first of all the reef was beautiful. We saw an eagle ray, a stingray, a giant lobster, some lionfish, blue parrots fish, ... When we got out and turned around to face the water, we saw two dolphins at the buoy. Bad timing that's called
After lunch at Elle's, we went back to Red Slave and dove to the south in stead of the north, the reef looks completely different, but still very beautiful. Again we saw a stingray. This time we also got to see a turtle, two lobsters, again a lion fish, ...
Wonderful dives!!
For dinner we went to Bambu, the food was again wonderful but the service was a bit strange this time. They are looking for new wait staff and it is possible that it was the waitress her first day... But still, it was a bit awkward.
robint
Contributor
we always take granola bars and gatoraid mix, for between dive snacks. At Buddy's last trip they gave residents 50% off the lunch menu, so the lunch was around $6-12pp cut in half when you charged to room and paid at end. We did that several days. We also bought sandwich makings at the grocery store the first day, kept them in room - lunch or early dinner before night dive.
As far as the restaurants go, we found things always around $10-16pp for a dinner, some places more but we didn't do those. Drinks and desserts extra. There is a Subway and KFC on island we heard but haven't gone there yet. There is also a Deli near Buddy's and SandDollar for cheaper eats, from what we have heard.
We will be there in 3+ weeks, so I will have a detailed trip report when we get back. I will also try to take photos of menus to post, as well as daily reports, hopefully.
Adeveke - you have me thinking we must do Red Slave. A friend did it and said the current was ripping but dive was great... so we may try it one day since you had no current issues. Thanks! Keep the reports coming!
robin
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