darook
Contributor
Hi all,
Got back from trip number 6 to Bonaire last night. I thought I would pull my thoughts into a quick trip report.
Travel: MSP-ATL-BON on Delta RT. No issues at all.
Lodging: Plaza Resort in a Jr. Suite. Room was huge as was their property. The room was nice and had an old fashioned CRT TV. Other than to watch a little World Series action didn't use it much. Getting anywhere at Plaza takes some time as it is quite large. The staff was very friendly and helpful. They are dumping $6M into renovations which the common spaces badly need. I think it will take a year or two to see the fruit of their labor. It appears to me their ideal clientele is the Dutch which make sense as they are run by a Dutch company in a Dutch territory. Their food was okay to quite good. The AI breakfast and lunch got redundant but their dinners were usually tasty. Their BBQ night was very good as was the steel drum band they had.
Truck rental: Telerin met us at the airport and the rig was fine. Their little security system was a bit annoying but overall we were happy with the truck. I did have to add a little Nitrox to a tire at one point. I am not sure it was Nitrox certified but the tire seemed to handle it. The little adapters that you can connect to your reg are very handy.
Dive operation: Toucan diving is the onsite op at Plaza. They have turned their staff over quite a bit recently to improve their service and overall found them helpful and fun. This was a rare occasion when I got on a boat on Bonaire and for the most part was sorry I did. The boat we had most of the time was very slow and could really only reach Klein or other sites on the main island that were easy to shore dive. On one day we did get to use their "fast" boat and did La Dania's Leap and Rappel which were both WONDERFUL dives. I would get on a boat again if they were guaranteed to go there. Not so much if they are going to Bachelor's beach, the Lake, and Something Special. Nitrox fills were consistently good (3K+). My understanding is that air fills were a little shorter.
Diving: To my eye the reef looks the best I have seen it in the 6 years I have been going there. There are some small patches of bleaching but they seem unrelated to water temps. The lion fish are still there but there are lots of people hunting them and they are served across the island. Viz was great north and good south. We dove from Red Slave to La Dania's leap and saw nice coral, good fish populations and lots of turtles. We saw frog fish, sea horses, mating squid, octopus, eagle rays, schooling sardines, HUGE parrot fish, along with all of the usual suspects. On a surface interval on the boat by the Lake we had a pod of about 50 dolphin jumping around us! That was a first for me.
Heading back to Bonaire in Feb for trip number 7. We are staying at Buddy that trip as it is just my wife and I. Can't wait!
Got back from trip number 6 to Bonaire last night. I thought I would pull my thoughts into a quick trip report.
Travel: MSP-ATL-BON on Delta RT. No issues at all.
Lodging: Plaza Resort in a Jr. Suite. Room was huge as was their property. The room was nice and had an old fashioned CRT TV. Other than to watch a little World Series action didn't use it much. Getting anywhere at Plaza takes some time as it is quite large. The staff was very friendly and helpful. They are dumping $6M into renovations which the common spaces badly need. I think it will take a year or two to see the fruit of their labor. It appears to me their ideal clientele is the Dutch which make sense as they are run by a Dutch company in a Dutch territory. Their food was okay to quite good. The AI breakfast and lunch got redundant but their dinners were usually tasty. Their BBQ night was very good as was the steel drum band they had.
Truck rental: Telerin met us at the airport and the rig was fine. Their little security system was a bit annoying but overall we were happy with the truck. I did have to add a little Nitrox to a tire at one point. I am not sure it was Nitrox certified but the tire seemed to handle it. The little adapters that you can connect to your reg are very handy.
Dive operation: Toucan diving is the onsite op at Plaza. They have turned their staff over quite a bit recently to improve their service and overall found them helpful and fun. This was a rare occasion when I got on a boat on Bonaire and for the most part was sorry I did. The boat we had most of the time was very slow and could really only reach Klein or other sites on the main island that were easy to shore dive. On one day we did get to use their "fast" boat and did La Dania's Leap and Rappel which were both WONDERFUL dives. I would get on a boat again if they were guaranteed to go there. Not so much if they are going to Bachelor's beach, the Lake, and Something Special. Nitrox fills were consistently good (3K+). My understanding is that air fills were a little shorter.
Diving: To my eye the reef looks the best I have seen it in the 6 years I have been going there. There are some small patches of bleaching but they seem unrelated to water temps. The lion fish are still there but there are lots of people hunting them and they are served across the island. Viz was great north and good south. We dove from Red Slave to La Dania's leap and saw nice coral, good fish populations and lots of turtles. We saw frog fish, sea horses, mating squid, octopus, eagle rays, schooling sardines, HUGE parrot fish, along with all of the usual suspects. On a surface interval on the boat by the Lake we had a pod of about 50 dolphin jumping around us! That was a first for me.
Heading back to Bonaire in Feb for trip number 7. We are staying at Buddy that trip as it is just my wife and I. Can't wait!
