seadoggirl
Guest
So after looking forward to a trip to Bonaire for nearly a year we were finally there on 11.8.08. The trip down was so easy since it is now a direct flight from Atlanta. Buddy Dive picked us up at the airport and within minutes we were there, checked in and down to the dive shop. That night we started out with a night dive on the Buddy Dive Reef which is right off the end of their pier. It would be one of the best dives that we did all week.
Everyone knows that in Bonaire you get in a rental car, drive through the tank refill station (kinda like a gas station but they give you full dive tanks) and then drive the roads looking for yellow rocks on the side of the road. The yellow rocks are painted with dive site names. You drive up to one, park and walk into the water. After mastering the yellow rock code and studying the map, we were able to get into the swing of things and ended up doing 30 dives in six days. And yes! The diving is everything that everyone says it is. The visibility is endless, the water was 85 degrees, the access to most of the dive sites is a dozen or so steps away from your rental truck. We were very pleased with the condition of most of the reefs. The ones off the public beach were a little disappointing but everything else was beautiful. SEE MY PICTURE GALLERY FOR PROOF. The coral is unbelievable and the marine life is beautiful. On one night dive I watched two Octopus mating until I almost ran out of air and had to surface.
My favorite day time dive was Oil Slick leap, where you jump off this cliff and into the water. Lots of fun! We did that one a couple of times just cause it was cool. We were impressed by the number of dive sites (60) and the care the island seems to take in keeping them up. We did notice some local fisherman on the reefs early in the morning.
The favorite dive was the night dives at Buddy Dive Reef which was right in front of our hotel. The second night we were surprised by eight or nine tarpon that are regulars at this reef. One, named Charlie by the resort, was approximately 150 pounds. The dude was huge! We would be swimming along the reef and they would come out of nowhere, scaring the crap out of you. Then they would continue to over you and under you and around you within inches. Captain was able to reach out and touch Charlie's tail. It was a blast.
My night pictures aren't that great but you can see how close Charlie was getting to us.
The big news was we got hit by a tornado while we were there. Okay, I know no one will believe this but here it goes. We went up to the north end of the island to the Washington Slagbaai (sp) State Park because it doesn't get the dive traffic that the rest of the island gets. We got there at 7:30 in the morning and were standing just inside the gate looking at a display of a whale skeleton. We noticed that it was looking like it was going to rain when A man that works there started yelling COME, COME and waving at me. I started to walk towards him thinking this guy is really wanting us to hurry up and sign in He continued to yell COME COME! So I turned and yelled for the Captain to come on and follow the guy. We went into the one room museum and he yelled DOWN DOWN and was squatting down in the corner by the wall and covering his face. I thought it was some kind of strange local ritual so I also squatted down in the corner and covered my head. Just then BBBOOOMMMMM!!!! I said What was that? and walked to the door of the building. The roof over the whale display was blown off and most of it was sitting on top of our rental car (again pictures in the gallery). A tornado had hit, I guess they call it a down spout. It was instant, I heard something that sounded like waves just before and the sky looked like it was going to rain but I have never seen anything like that before. I have been through a bunch of hurricanes and I will take those over tornados any day! At least with hurricanes you get 7-10 days to get out of town.
To make a long story longer Buddy Dive said they wouldn't let me off the island without giving them $2800 (American). Still fighting that one.
But the diving was amazing!
Everyone knows that in Bonaire you get in a rental car, drive through the tank refill station (kinda like a gas station but they give you full dive tanks) and then drive the roads looking for yellow rocks on the side of the road. The yellow rocks are painted with dive site names. You drive up to one, park and walk into the water. After mastering the yellow rock code and studying the map, we were able to get into the swing of things and ended up doing 30 dives in six days. And yes! The diving is everything that everyone says it is. The visibility is endless, the water was 85 degrees, the access to most of the dive sites is a dozen or so steps away from your rental truck. We were very pleased with the condition of most of the reefs. The ones off the public beach were a little disappointing but everything else was beautiful. SEE MY PICTURE GALLERY FOR PROOF. The coral is unbelievable and the marine life is beautiful. On one night dive I watched two Octopus mating until I almost ran out of air and had to surface.
My favorite day time dive was Oil Slick leap, where you jump off this cliff and into the water. Lots of fun! We did that one a couple of times just cause it was cool. We were impressed by the number of dive sites (60) and the care the island seems to take in keeping them up. We did notice some local fisherman on the reefs early in the morning.
The favorite dive was the night dives at Buddy Dive Reef which was right in front of our hotel. The second night we were surprised by eight or nine tarpon that are regulars at this reef. One, named Charlie by the resort, was approximately 150 pounds. The dude was huge! We would be swimming along the reef and they would come out of nowhere, scaring the crap out of you. Then they would continue to over you and under you and around you within inches. Captain was able to reach out and touch Charlie's tail. It was a blast.
My night pictures aren't that great but you can see how close Charlie was getting to us.
The big news was we got hit by a tornado while we were there. Okay, I know no one will believe this but here it goes. We went up to the north end of the island to the Washington Slagbaai (sp) State Park because it doesn't get the dive traffic that the rest of the island gets. We got there at 7:30 in the morning and were standing just inside the gate looking at a display of a whale skeleton. We noticed that it was looking like it was going to rain when A man that works there started yelling COME, COME and waving at me. I started to walk towards him thinking this guy is really wanting us to hurry up and sign in He continued to yell COME COME! So I turned and yelled for the Captain to come on and follow the guy. We went into the one room museum and he yelled DOWN DOWN and was squatting down in the corner by the wall and covering his face. I thought it was some kind of strange local ritual so I also squatted down in the corner and covered my head. Just then BBBOOOMMMMM!!!! I said What was that? and walked to the door of the building. The roof over the whale display was blown off and most of it was sitting on top of our rental car (again pictures in the gallery). A tornado had hit, I guess they call it a down spout. It was instant, I heard something that sounded like waves just before and the sky looked like it was going to rain but I have never seen anything like that before. I have been through a bunch of hurricanes and I will take those over tornados any day! At least with hurricanes you get 7-10 days to get out of town.
To make a long story longer Buddy Dive said they wouldn't let me off the island without giving them $2800 (American). Still fighting that one.
But the diving was amazing!
