OP
smashweights
Registered
So if everyone leaves their phones back at the resort, what do you do if your rental breaks down and you're the only one out at a dive site?
September Caribbean Dive Trip Recs?
- Thread starter smashweights
- Start date
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bcaderunr
Contributor
Keeping keys/cards dry: We've been using one of these for the past 5 years. Dry down to 100 feet+ Sold everywhere on the Island at any dive shop - usually for less than $20
https://scubapro.johnsonoutdoors.com/us/shop/accessories/divers-egg-dry-box-black
Drive/explore the National Park the last day. Bring sandwiches/drinks. You can snorkel there too. It's already been paid for with your STINAPA Pass -- which we just leave in the glove box of the car whenever we go anywhere -- who is gonna steal THAT anyway? And don't forget photo ID which they check at entrance.
Finally, if the car breaks down, just flag someone down who may be driving by. There's cars EVERYWHERE! And everyone has a phone -- except us shore divers.
OP
smashweights
Registered
As we sit waiting for our flight home from Bonaire, I figured now is as good a time as any to circle back and close this thread out.
TL
R - Overall, great recommendation from the group. Bonaire and Buddy Dive were exactly what we were looking for.
However, it almost wasn’t. I started out the few days leading up to the trip getting sick, as seems to happen not infrequently before a big trip. Some kind of stomach bug left me feeling like crap, to the point I debated not going the morning we were slated to fly out. Felt pretty terrible the whole flight down, just exhausted, nauseated, no appetite. But I figured I’d rather be sick by the ocean. Slept about 12 hours the night we arrived and woke up feeling 95% better .
Got 4 dives in on the house reef on day 1 to get comfortable since the wife and I haven’t been in open water for 2 and 1 years, respectively. Bonaire is a great place to ease into diving as Buddy Reef, The Cliff, and Salt Pier all have fixed line, piping, and pier to make navigation a breeze. Unfortunately wife got sick and puked shortly after surfacing on day 2 at Salt Pier so Monday was cut a bit short. Hit up Tolo, The Lake, Angel City, and La Machaca wreck as well. Mostly tried to get in 2-3 dives per day and do two tanks on each site as the second dive felt a lot more relaxed once we understood the topography. Plenty of great fauna throughout. Ended up with 15 dives in 6 days and 12 hours underwater, so a little less than I’d planned but pretty good considering neither of us felt 100% well until halfway through the week.
Buddy Dive is a great set up. Good house reef to start, great dive set up, super easy from airport pickup to vehicle rental. The accommodations are pretty modest as we had a 1 bedroom apartment that we rarely used. The on-site dining was adequate, breakfast was pretty typical hotel Continental food. Having driven around Germany and Scotland previously, navigating Bonaire by car was a breeze. Pretty hard to get lost other than passing through Kralendijk can be a bit inefficient. I think we drove every major road on the island. The drive through tank station on site makes getting back out to dive quick and easy. They had no problem letting my wife set up her AI transmitter on their rental regs either. They had the Witz dry boxes at the dive shop so got on large enough for key cards, truck key, safe key, license, and cash and it held up the entire trip diving down to 70-80' regularly. We left the truck unlocked but I don't think anything ever got touched and most folks we met here seemed to think the theft issue is overblown.
Finished out the week Friday evening with a guided kayak trip through the mangroves in Lac Bay, which was pretty cool but the visibility for snorkeling was poor given the tide at the time we went.
Overall, good trip. Definitely feel like we still have things to do here due to a slow start due to illness and want to come back at some point. I would stay at Buddy Dive again as well, simply too convenient. Bonaire is perfect for folks who want to do easy, laid back diving on their own schedule. Driving out to shore dive whenever we were ready, picking our own sites, and the low key nature of the island was what I enjoyed. Bonaire definitely has a safe vibe to it: no big walls around everything, no bars on all the doors and windows, people walking around all over all times of the day. Most dive sites had plenty of other divers or snorkelers on them too. Though we are relatively experienced international travelers, having English spoken everywhere, USD currency, American power outlets, and drinkable tap water at the resort all made it about as easy of on international trip as we've had.
TL
R - Overall, great recommendation from the group. Bonaire and Buddy Dive were exactly what we were looking for.However, it almost wasn’t. I started out the few days leading up to the trip getting sick, as seems to happen not infrequently before a big trip. Some kind of stomach bug left me feeling like crap, to the point I debated not going the morning we were slated to fly out. Felt pretty terrible the whole flight down, just exhausted, nauseated, no appetite. But I figured I’d rather be sick by the ocean. Slept about 12 hours the night we arrived and woke up feeling 95% better .
Got 4 dives in on the house reef on day 1 to get comfortable since the wife and I haven’t been in open water for 2 and 1 years, respectively. Bonaire is a great place to ease into diving as Buddy Reef, The Cliff, and Salt Pier all have fixed line, piping, and pier to make navigation a breeze. Unfortunately wife got sick and puked shortly after surfacing on day 2 at Salt Pier so Monday was cut a bit short. Hit up Tolo, The Lake, Angel City, and La Machaca wreck as well. Mostly tried to get in 2-3 dives per day and do two tanks on each site as the second dive felt a lot more relaxed once we understood the topography. Plenty of great fauna throughout. Ended up with 15 dives in 6 days and 12 hours underwater, so a little less than I’d planned but pretty good considering neither of us felt 100% well until halfway through the week.
Buddy Dive is a great set up. Good house reef to start, great dive set up, super easy from airport pickup to vehicle rental. The accommodations are pretty modest as we had a 1 bedroom apartment that we rarely used. The on-site dining was adequate, breakfast was pretty typical hotel Continental food. Having driven around Germany and Scotland previously, navigating Bonaire by car was a breeze. Pretty hard to get lost other than passing through Kralendijk can be a bit inefficient. I think we drove every major road on the island. The drive through tank station on site makes getting back out to dive quick and easy. They had no problem letting my wife set up her AI transmitter on their rental regs either. They had the Witz dry boxes at the dive shop so got on large enough for key cards, truck key, safe key, license, and cash and it held up the entire trip diving down to 70-80' regularly. We left the truck unlocked but I don't think anything ever got touched and most folks we met here seemed to think the theft issue is overblown.
Finished out the week Friday evening with a guided kayak trip through the mangroves in Lac Bay, which was pretty cool but the visibility for snorkeling was poor given the tide at the time we went.
Overall, good trip. Definitely feel like we still have things to do here due to a slow start due to illness and want to come back at some point. I would stay at Buddy Dive again as well, simply too convenient. Bonaire is perfect for folks who want to do easy, laid back diving on their own schedule. Driving out to shore dive whenever we were ready, picking our own sites, and the low key nature of the island was what I enjoyed. Bonaire definitely has a safe vibe to it: no big walls around everything, no bars on all the doors and windows, people walking around all over all times of the day. Most dive sites had plenty of other divers or snorkelers on them too. Though we are relatively experienced international travelers, having English spoken everywhere, USD currency, American power outlets, and drinkable tap water at the resort all made it about as easy of on international trip as we've had.
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smashweights
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Oh and I think we made a friend: this little bar jack followed within a foot or two of us for 3-4 dives between The Lake and Angel City.
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