Pics from our fall 2011 trip to Bonaire. Hope you enjoy.

[mbchiro]

https://picasaweb.google.com/1175892...eat=directlink

All pics shot with Canon S95. UW shots Canon S95, Ikelite housing, Automagic filter. Ambient light. RAW mode. Edited with Canon Software that was included. My first time taking UW shots. How did I do????

 

[calicant]

I liked your pics. A nice preview of what to expect when we visit in June. Thanks for uploading!

 

[Reidster]

Very nice shots both above and below the water! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Craig66]

Some really beautiful shots - looks like an amazing vacation. The picture of you guys leaving your SMB for orientation to the exit site seems like a great idea. Is this something that is routinely done or was it specific to that site. I know that there are often permanent markers but this seemed like a good idea.

Also could you give me a couple of recs for restaurants - the food looked really really good

Thanks

Craig

 

[mbchiro]

Bonaire 2011 Invisibles Dive Site - YouTube

check this one out of another dive site on Bonaire called Invisibles. Its south of Salt Pier. This unique coral formation was only in about 10ft of water near shore. We saw it on the way to the reef. Hundreds of tiny fish surrounding this little oasis in the sand.

 

[mbchiro]

Craig,

My friend Ken that I hooked up with on Scubaboard prior to the trip taught us to put one of those out. What we did was go out from the entrance point following a compass heading of say west. We would put the safety sausage out just prior to the reef. The reefs on Bonaire run North and South parallel with the coast. When you put out your bouy, turn into the current and go along the reef wall. When you get to 1/2 tank of air come back other way with the current. If you find a couple of landmarks you will know when you are about at the bouy. You can also see it unless you are really deep. Then, when you retrieve the bouy take a compass heading opposite i.e east. You will end up just about where you put in. (or you can just surface and look for the truck) we had to do that at times. We did several night dives at Capt Dons where ken put blinking flourescnt LED lights on the sausage. You could see those a long way off. Once again go down the reef, turn around and come back. Most dives are like this. My wife and I only got turned around 2X. Once at Andrea I and the other time at Angel City. In both cases, just surface and look for truck.

Michael.

 

[mbchiro]

Craig,

We ate breakfast at Captn Dons a few mornings. We also bought groceries at the chinese market just north of Captn Dons. We stayed at Coral Paradise Resort. (great) We could walk to Dons each morning or cook in our room, which we did the first few mornings. For lunch, we ate at Elles Deli at the 1st roundabout South of Buddy Dive. We enjoyed it. We ate at Bistro de Paris (great, avg price, nice people) We ate at Unbelievable, which is near Divi Flamingo. It was my wife's favorite. We ate at Plaza Resort's Banana Grill or something like that. We were going to eat at the Tipsy Seagull, but it was closed. The place we ate at was the first restr on the left as you enter the plaza resort. Service was slow. Food was ok. Price ok for Bonaire. We wanted to eat at Will's Tropical Grill, but never got to. We ate at several others including one that is just prior to Elles Deli on the right near a marina. It was not that goos and very expensive. I wanted to try the Thai restraunt on the left just before the center of town, but like other restrs it had strange hours. Pasa Bon Pizza got a lot of accolades, but we didn't get the chance to eat there. Whenever you go out to eat>>>>>>>BRING BUG SPRAY.

 

[mbchiro]

any other questions please let me know. It doesn't take long to get thru customs. When you go diving do not leave anything in vehicle. Leave windows down and nothing in the vehicle. I even buried my flip flops under the coral rocks if I could. We never had anything stolen, but we didn't give anyone the opportunity. The biggest thing I would tell you is go to bed early, when you are down there. We were very tired our first few days. I do not know if it was the humidity or what. We picked our tanks up at B.D. the afternoon before and because our residence was gated we left the tanks in the truck. I would get up and put our BC's on the tank hook everything up and lay it down on the racks in the truck so we wouldn't have to do it in the morning. I wore a 2mm Bare full because of what I had heard about the fire coral. After a few days I ditched it. I was very comfortable without it. A Shorty would have been sufficient if you get cold. Make sure you have hard soled booties. They are a must!!! Diving is so easy in Bonaire. If you have never been its a complete diffence to other locales.

 

[Craig66]

Michael, Thanks for your replies and helpful info. Its going to be a long couple of months waiting for my trip. I am a confirmed non-recovering Cozumel addict but it seems like that addiction is soon to be shared by Bonaire!!!!

Craig

 

[mbchiro]

You will really like Bonaire my friend.