Short Video of our Bonaire trip

[Michaelszippy]

My dive buddy and I visited Bonaire for a week in January, 2019. We stayed in a two bedroom AirBnB. Roomy, centrally located and well equipped for divers. It was not on the water and didn't have a house reef. We didn't eat out much.

We generally did four dives a day, with three night dives in the mix. There's tons of info on Bonaire on this site, so I'll just provide some very specific thoughts:

• Paying for a boat trip to Klein Bonaire is not worth it -- no real difference in what you see and you're diving in a group of ten or more; perhaps use those funds for a dive on the windward side
• We spent one day diving the sites in Slagbaai. Glad we did. Be prepared to deal with mild to moderate current and cliff walls between entries (i.e., don't miss your exit) if you make this trip
• Inspect your rental truck carefully and insist on a tank rack in the back; a liftgate bolt rusted through on ours and a rolling tank almost dropped out the back while we were driving
• Restaurants, even the 'high end' ones, all allow smoking; if this is a sensitivity of yours, you need to sit an an upwind table.
• We stored cell phones, money, etc. under the hood while diving

Here's the video -- my first time using the GoPro and my first time using filmora, so cut me some slack.

 

[tursiops]

Paying for a boat trip to Klein Bonaire is not worth it -- no real difference in what you see and you're diving in a group of ten or more; perhaps use those funds for a dive on the windward side

Rather a broad generalization....not all the sites on Klein are the same, not all are like the main island, not all boat trips are full/big. But, diving on the East Coast is a good idea....

We stored cell phones, money, etc. under the hood while diving

Nice of you to tell the world where to look! You might just have been lucky...not all cars are stolen from.

Sorry you didn't eat out much; there are some really good and interesting restaurants on island.

 

[peeweediver]

No need for slack, it's a nice video. Thanks. The disappearing entities are Christmas Tree worms because they look just like ..... The color variation of these can be amazing. You are right about your dive buddy. You need to review hand signals with him and also remind him never to harass marine life, even to get them to turn towards the camera. Bad scuba behavior.
Sad about smoking in restaurants. It was years ago when we went so I don't remember that. We'll be back in May so I'll be prepared. We will try Klein Bonaire one morning just for the change of pace. It's cheap if you have the shore diving package so why not. I do remember some nice sites that differed from the mainland.
Thanks for posting the video and the narration. Fun to watch.
Rob

 

[Michaelszippy]

Christmas Tree Worms -- thanks. I figured someone would chime in with that.

Our package included three Klein Bonaire dive trips, which was at least two too many for me, but clearly others feel differently. For us there was essentially 100% species overlap with what we saw on the main island dive sites.

The smoking thing was rough, as I'm sensitive to it. Our best food was probably at La Cantina Ceverceria. The experience was largely ruined for me, as there were six smokers surrounding us and they puffed as they ate, from appetizer through dessert. Oh well.

 

[Jeyna]

Please remember when inspecting your rental truck to make sure you have a spare tire and changing tools. You want to make sure they are in your vehicle before entering the National Park.

 

[Rob9876]

Nice video! Lion fish are protected in Bonaire? Or you just can't hunt them on scuba?

 

[Michaelszippy]

You can hunt them, but you must pay $170 to take a class and get the 'lionfish hunter' certification and then you can only hunt when accompanied by a guide. We didn't see anyone doing it.

 

[boat sju]

You may not want to answer this but what truck rental did you use?

In no way am I being critical here but you may want to get a magenta filter. It's amazing what they do for your color. You'll find it worth the price.

 

[Michaelszippy]

We rented from Hertz.

Appreciate the filter advice. I had to manually color correct in Filmora, which can only do so much.

If I'm going to continue on the video path I need to update my camera anyway. It's an original GoPro hero with no rear screen. Can't frame your shots with it.

 

[boat sju]

My buddy's gopro doesn't have a rear screen either. He put it on a selfie stick which seems to help you aim it. Also, it doesn't seem to scare the fish as much. It does bother me that people might think we're actually using it to take selfies though