Suggestions and places to avoid in Bonaire

[compton384]

Have a reservation at Den Laman! I'm very excited. Thanks again for all the information from everyone

One last question- I've been looking at equipment rental pages and have not seen dive lights listed. I have a small light that I saw suggested last year on the forum, but nothing that I would feel comfortable doing night dives with. I was wondering if anyone knows whether any of the dive shops will rent out lights since buying a quality one is not in the budget right now. Not sure if I want to do a full-on night dive, but something right before dawn or right at dusk does sound cool!

 

[DeputyDan]

Have a reservation at Den Laman! I'm very excited. Thanks again for all the information from everyone

One last question- I've been looking at equipment rental pages and have not seen dive lights listed. I have a small light that I saw suggested last year on the forum, but nothing that I would feel comfortable doing night dives with. I was wondering if anyone knows whether any of the dive shops will rent out lights since buying a quality one is not in the budget right now. Not sure if I want to do a full-on night dive, but something right before dawn or right at dusk does sound cool!

Buddy Dive rents don't know about Den Laman.
One comment - batteries. You may have to provide your own and they are not cheap on island.

 

[RJP]

My favorite Bonaire tips:

Bring lots of your favorite powdered drink mix: iced tea, lemondade, gatorade. You'll save plenty of $ each day in soft drinks costs while out and about, and reduce the amount of trash you'll generate. Bring an insulated Camelback/Nalgene type bottle, or buy some bottled water on day 1 and reuse the bottles rest of week. We'd make drinks the night before, freeze them in the fridge in the room, and they were ready to go the next day. Put a few more in the fridge while you're out for the morning, and you're ready for the afternoon.

Buy bread, cold cuts, etc at the grocery store and "brown bag" your lunches. My buddy and I spent a grand total of $14 for lunches for the week last time we were there. (All the money we saved on soft drinks and lunch went to our bar bill and nice dinners each evening.)

Dive the park! Grab three tanks each, pack a lunch and some drinks, get there when the park opens, and make a half a day of it. The road through the park is an unpaved, one-way, gotta go all the way around, three-hour drive... so you can't just run back to your hotel for two new tanks. Great sites there that aren't dived as much as others, and high likelihood you'll have them pretty much to yourself.

 

[gypsyjim]

Other good tips

DEET is your friend if you are at all bothered by mosquitoes. At dinner time they can suck the enjoyment out of a nice meal at any restaurant on the island.

Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy, BSDME, Author Susan Porter
A very good primer, for accessing the many shore dive sites. Directions, landmarks, entries, exits and any secial observations or precautions unique that particular site.

Drinking water is good, so the drink mix suggestion is one we use too!

When you are told to leave nothing that you wish to ever see again in your vehicle at a dive site, listen to the advice. I have never been victimized, but it happens. One of our friends lost a cheap pair of sunglasses out of the truck, if you can imagine stealing such a low value item. Thefts do occasionally happen, and rolling up your windows seems to attract vandals, even if you do not lock the doors

 

[Doctorfish]

I know this is going to be criticized but IMO there is significant merit to doing at least some boat diving. It will get you to Klein, which is not accessible from shore. Further, if you boat dive, there is no need to lug gear from truck to iron shore, and entry and exit from the dive are dead easy. I have done some great shore diving on Bonaire, but as I get older and lazier, I gravitate to going out on the AM two tank boat dive and doing PM shore diving from the truck and then an evening or night dive from the dock at Buddy Dive. Nice to be able to rinse your gear and shower at the end of the dive. Boat diving in a package or a la carte tends to be relatively inexpensive on Bonaire as well. The boat dive ops tend to go to most of the same sites as you would do from shore as well as a few others where shore access might be difficult.

I know that boat diving is not absolutely necessary on Bonaire but it sure makes life easier. I'd personally take a package that included boat diving as well as unlimited tanks.

 

[DiverVince]

Doctorfish: Absolutely NOTHING wrong with doing all boat dives if that's your inclination. In our early years of visiting Bonaire 25 years ago, that's all we did. However generally once you start shore diving most folks continue to do it & do boat dives every now & then. I DO love diving at Klein.
The big advantages of the shore dives is it's much friendlier to your wallet; you can dive your own schedule and there will not be any crowds of other divers around you during the dive.

 

[drrich2]

I know this is going to be criticized but IMO there is significant merit to doing at least some boat diving. It will get you to Klein, which is not accessible from shore.

I think people emphasize shore diving in Bonaire partly for its powerful merits (dive when/where/how/with who you want, no tipping needed, etc...), and partly because that's much of what's so special about Bonaire. I've been 5 times & hope very much to go again, and shore diving is a huge part of that.

I could do boat dives on Bonaire, but if I decide to do boat dives, then the question becomes 'Gee, why not Cozumel? Or Turks & Caicos? How about Belize? Haven't been to the Bahamas or St. Croix yet. I heard there's wreck diving in Aruba...'

I haven't dove Klein Bonaire yet and hope to someday, which would require boat diving. That said, there is so much fine shore diving on the west coast, a person could go a few times before having done it all, or at least being 'tired of it' (would take me a LOT of trips), and desiring to 'do something different' (e.g.: boat trips to Klein Bonaire or a trip to sites up north in the park, or maybe some of that 'wild side' east coast diving I've heard about).

It's not that there's anything wrong with boat diving in Bonaire, which a lot of people do. It's just that it seems to skip Bonaire's main nearly unique (cough cough Curacao...) advantages by switching to boat diving that can be done elsewhere, with better odds of seeing large animals (which many people want to do).

Richard.

 

[gypsyjim]

Our last trip or two the package included a few boat dives, so we took advantage of the opportunity to visit Klien, and this last June, when I was sort of guide for the DNY SB group, I negotiated two 3 tank trips for the group to the Washington Slagbii site at the north end. That was fun, and avoided having to drag everything up there by truck, and spending an entire day, for just 3 tanks.

Mostly I do shore dives, as that is what sets Bonaire apart, as drrich2 points out. Easily possible to do more than 20-25 dives in a week, shore diving. That many tanks of boat diving would be quite costly, even if you could get wet that many times, having to fit into others schedules.

As for what to avoid on Bonaire: shore diving the east, or wild side, unless you find a knowledgeable guide to make the entries and exits less hostile. I do not think there was one person in our SB group headed up by SB's Cardzard two years ago that does not have some scar tissue to show for that escaped! A VERY interesting dive, that one was!

 

[midas6t6]

Lots of good advice above. Navigation is easy. Boat dives are not necessary but sites at Klein Bonaire are pristine and you probably should do a few. One thing I didn't see advice to take wash cloths. It's a Dutch thing, they don't have them. Enjoy your trip, Bonaire is addictive. I'm going again at the end of April, 3rd trip in 18 months.