Reidkon
Contributor
Today is our 19th full day on Bonaire and although we could have safely dived tomorrow until noon we have decided to make it a dry day as we fly home Sunday morning. Tomorrow we are driving up to Slagbaii to hike up to the top of Brandaris and check out the view from the top of the island. Tomorrow afternoon we will pack and later walk down to Dive Friends for the barbecue. Dive Friends is holding a cleanup dive tomorrow at the south pier and we would have loved to help but unfortunately we need to have our gear dry and packed by tomorrow evening so maybe next time.
We managed to get in 17 days of diving and 42 total dives, and not counting our east coast boat dives, our average cost per dive was $10.50.
Our favorite dives this trip were Candyland (2) Karpata (2), White Hole & Turtle City (east coast boat dives). We dove other sites more frequently, like Cliff and Something Special because of their proximity and ease of entry, and they were always enjoyable as well.
We loved Candyland because of the beautiful condition of the reef. There are huge coral heads and schools of fish, but we did not see any species here that you will not see on the easier west coast shore dives. Entry and exit are more challenging which is great because it weeds out the coral kickers and the faint of heart.
Notable creatures seen this trip include, scores of scorpion fish, seahorses, an orange frog fish, "schools" of turtles on the east coast, eagle rays, a nurse shark, slipper lobsters, and a lone octopus which I spotted while donning my fins at Cliff before by buoyancy checkout dive.
We only dined out once when a friend who was passing through Bonaire on a cruise ship was in port. We took him diving at Cliff and Bari, after which he treated us to lunch at El Mundo where we all had burgers and fries. The burgers were huge and very tasty but as expected the service was slow as the place was packed.
I celebrated two milestones this trip. The first was my 100th dive which we did at Salt Pier for no particular reason, and my 56th birthday which was one of our non-diving days. We did the morning 2 hour kayak/ snorkelling tour with the Mangrove Center which was very relaxing and informative. The same afternoon we did the 4 hour sunset dinner sailing cruise with Wim and his boat, the Compass. We had an absolutely wonderful time with Wim, his first mate Tammy and the other 8 guests. Check him out at Compass Sailing.
Our hosts for this vacation were Beachcomber Villas located in Hamlet Oasis, a stones throw from Dive Friends and the house reef Cliff. Robert manages this Dive Friends location and is so helpful and informative.
This is our second stay with Tim and Leanne and as many of you know you cannot go wrong staying with them. Thanks Tim and Leanne for another wonderful vacation!
I still have loads of video and photos to string together and will hopefully find time to put it all together before our next Bonaire trip, next year.
Bon nochi!
We managed to get in 17 days of diving and 42 total dives, and not counting our east coast boat dives, our average cost per dive was $10.50.
Our favorite dives this trip were Candyland (2) Karpata (2), White Hole & Turtle City (east coast boat dives). We dove other sites more frequently, like Cliff and Something Special because of their proximity and ease of entry, and they were always enjoyable as well.
We loved Candyland because of the beautiful condition of the reef. There are huge coral heads and schools of fish, but we did not see any species here that you will not see on the easier west coast shore dives. Entry and exit are more challenging which is great because it weeds out the coral kickers and the faint of heart.
Notable creatures seen this trip include, scores of scorpion fish, seahorses, an orange frog fish, "schools" of turtles on the east coast, eagle rays, a nurse shark, slipper lobsters, and a lone octopus which I spotted while donning my fins at Cliff before by buoyancy checkout dive.
We only dined out once when a friend who was passing through Bonaire on a cruise ship was in port. We took him diving at Cliff and Bari, after which he treated us to lunch at El Mundo where we all had burgers and fries. The burgers were huge and very tasty but as expected the service was slow as the place was packed.
I celebrated two milestones this trip. The first was my 100th dive which we did at Salt Pier for no particular reason, and my 56th birthday which was one of our non-diving days. We did the morning 2 hour kayak/ snorkelling tour with the Mangrove Center which was very relaxing and informative. The same afternoon we did the 4 hour sunset dinner sailing cruise with Wim and his boat, the Compass. We had an absolutely wonderful time with Wim, his first mate Tammy and the other 8 guests. Check him out at Compass Sailing.
Our hosts for this vacation were Beachcomber Villas located in Hamlet Oasis, a stones throw from Dive Friends and the house reef Cliff. Robert manages this Dive Friends location and is so helpful and informative.
This is our second stay with Tim and Leanne and as many of you know you cannot go wrong staying with them. Thanks Tim and Leanne for another wonderful vacation!
I still have loads of video and photos to string together and will hopefully find time to put it all together before our next Bonaire trip, next year.
Bon nochi!
