Nuub
Registered
Trip Report Bonaire 8.23 - 8.30.2013
Diving
Overall - wow! great diving. Shore diving is a breeze, though some ironshore entries can be a teeny bit tricky. Vis was very very good for the most part - 80’ visibility was a bad day. You get spoiled real quick. I’m a little concerned that other easy to get to dive vacation sites won’t measure up - We ran into many repeat visitors from around the world that you begin to wonder.. Abundant fish life everywhere during all dives, except for some blown out areas near shore. Just walking around on the seawall, you can look into the water and see some enormous parrots and puffers. Huge Urchins too.
We did the AOW course while there, so the first two days were repeat dives at Cliff and Cha cha cha.
Night dives are awesome. Holy crap those Tarpon are HUGE. There were a couple that were as long as our divemaster, who was 6’. I got a clear view as it would swim alongside her waiting to gulp a fish. BUT there were also many of these ‘bloodworms’ that would come spiraling up from the bottom in a corkscrew swim, attracted to the light. They were extremely creepy and freaked us out. I would hit them with the light and they’d break up like a nightmare into tiny wiggly bits. Yeech.
We used Dive Friends, who are aptly named. Everyone we dealt with were super friendly and great. Some are characters. Prices were really reasonable, and they have five locations were you can pickup tanks so you don;t have to go far from any west coast or southern site. Small boat, no more than 10 divers per plus captain, DM and assistant. Special shout outs to Suus and Tim. There was just my sister and I for many dives with them, and they are cool to hang out with afterwards.
Here are some highlights of specific sites:
Rappel and Bloodlet
Northern trips were definitely a highlight, don’t miss. Super clear and and shelf-and-reef wall system that meant you could do the deep stuff on the way out, and the upper shelf on the way back, so you see something new the whole dive. Very interesting terrain with big Fans, hard staghorn, plate, christmas tree corals and linguini and black corals, and crevices and wallish nooks and crannies all along the mini-wall. Turtles, Eels, Lionfish, Spotted Drum, Cleaner shrimp, beautiful schools of Chromis and the usual cast of reef fish everywhere. Bloodlet was especially pristine-looking. Great visibility.
Cliff
Dove it a few times during the day and did our night UV dive here. Good variety of life, saw the remains of the statue and my first moray of the trip in it. Big puffers with their permanent smiles (love them!). My sister got stung here by some jellies. This site was a good intro into Bonaire. Lots of usual reef fish - parrots, schoolmasters, trunkfish and the like. My favorites are the tiny pea-sized juvenile boxfish - they are so cute! Spotted my only arrow crab of the trip here. Big brain boulder corals.
Night UV dive was psychedelic. They have special issue Blue lights with Orange filters that fit over your mask. Really really cool to see the neon glow of sealife. The brain and star coral was really awesome, and scorpionfish and sanddivers light up like cheap shirts at a disco. Noticed that there were more worms crawling around on the coral than I ever suspected during day dives. Brittlestars unfold at night, looking really beautiful. Glowing lettuce slugs. Some coral were fluorescing bright yellow, red and orange and blue - colors unexpected underwater, so vivid!
But for me, the squadron of Huge Tarpon that accompanied us stole the show. I swear some were 5-6 ft long and thicker around than my fat thighs. They glide around you effortlessly and I watched the biggest one often glide just over a diver’s shoulder, looking for something interesting to eat. When they did, you could hear a “THOMP” sound as they sucked in a fish. I experimented and shined a light on a small fish and followed it around - sure enough, a Tarpon quickly “THOMP”ed it right up.
Something Special
Very nice reef with great variety of life and opportunities for macro photography. Saw two HUGE yellow morays in the same crevice down about 37’- I think that means they were mating? They were both bigger around than my thigh, at least 6’ long. Lots of Pedersons shrimp, and graceful, tall purple vase sponges. Watched a couple of groupers have a battle over some territory. The smaller fish won! I stared intensely at some debris that I suspected were frogfish, but no. More tiny fry everywhere, including the pea-sized juvenile boxfish. Lots of big parrots, sergeant majors, hogfish, sharptail eel - etc..
Bari -
Our house reef. Unfortunately, we went only at dusk and it got dark too quick. We entered from the small beach to the left of the Sand Dollar. The grumpy guy from BDA yelled at me to stay away from their dock, don’t come near or swim under it! (You kids get off my lawn!) Wow, ok Mr. Grumpy. Big Vase sponges.
Later in the trip, we snorkeled it on our non-dive day and saw more eels than I’d seen on the entire trip combined. Walk down the steel staircase from Sanddollar, get in the water and look to the right. There are pipes that have been placed there which are a magnet for Morays. Saw some spotted ones and purple mouth and a yellow. We got to watch the big yellow moray free swim for a bit toward us. It was friendly - though with those teeth, I was backing up and keeping some distance from him. Saw a few peacock flounders (damn good camo!) and a giant school of Boga (baitfish) that was cool to swim with.
Hilma Hooker -
My first wreck dive - very cool. Can’t add much more to what’s been said about it. It’s big and imposing, especially as you come on it and figure out that what you thought was cloudy water is actually the side of a ship! Found some translucent banded blue shrimp near the bow that didn’t mind me sticking a camera on macro right up to them. A cleaning station maybe? Spooky and toothy big barracuda trying hard to look like part of the mast. A squad of tarpon flew by. Honeycombed cowfish with the horns. The reef was nice too, with lots of fish - saw a juvenile spotted drum here - they are so pretty it’s a wonder they don’t get eaten quickly. Maybe they just taste bad.
Invisibles
Double Reef system, saw big schools of schoolmasters and black Durgeons. Saw a couple of enormous groupers on the outer reef. Garden eels up shallow in only about 20’ of water. also a rare Sand Eel our divemaster Suus found for us. Lettuce slugs and a Flamenco tongue. Scorpionfish, well camouflaged. tilefish among the seafans, hiding like seahorses (but no seahorses spotted). Pretty little juvenile Queen Triggerfish.
Margate Bay
Interestingly, not that many Black Margates! But still a lot of life and schools of Snapper, Chromis and Schoolmasters. More trumpetfish here than any other place, probably because this site was full of sea fans and linguini coral (sponge?). Great variety of terrain and densely covered in coral and seafans and gorgonians. Gorgeous terrain-wise, big christmas trees of hard corals. A couple of turtles and peacock flounders in the sand and grass before the reef began. A big friendly puffer followed us for a bit.
Salt Pier -
Really interesting dive and unfortunately our worst vis at about 80’ (!). We lost track of which leg were exploring and had to go up and surface swim back. Enormous school of Boga (batifish) that was so dense it was like a silver shimmering living aluminum foil above and around you. Really neat. Piers had good life, of course. We saw the biggest Blue Parrot - it was at least 4 ft and maybe 80 pounds. Spotted drum, schools of bigger fish like schoolmasters and other snapper-types. Turtle. The single Biggest Barracuda I’ve ever seen. It must have been at least 5 ft. Many smaller ones too - lots of food here.
Klein - Knife to Sampler to No Name Beach
Did a nice drift dive from Knife to No Name. Wall dive. Lots of Spaghetti coral, hard and soft corals, orange sponges. Kind of blown out toward the end near the beach.
Klein - South Bay
Saw pedersons, lionfish. Nice terrain and mini wallish with many coves and nooks. Divemaster pointed out a frogfish but it was too crowded, so i didn’t see it. Saw lots of turtles.
Cha Cha Cha
Did a lot of the training here - DiveFriends has an underwater course and navigation setup. Also did our first night dive here. There is an ENORMOUS green moray living in the giant engine block. He was huge with big teeth, and flared his full height and stared at us sideways. He was showing off or threatening us. After staring at him for a while, we finned past, but I kept looking back to see if he was following us. Saw some big 6 inch seahorses. They are resident among some black wire sponge. Also saw a seahorse kind of out in the middle of nowhere in the sandy flat hanging on a tiny bit of coral. Our first encounter with nighttime Tarpon. They are big and graceful. They even seem to be having fun, hunting by our flashlights. This is where we saw all the bloodworms at night. eek.
*** Dining
Between Two Buns -
Terrific! We went there twice. Their regular menu sandwiches are made with quality ingredients, well prepared and presented and pretty darn tasty delicious goodness. In contrast, the two non-sandwich specials of the day (a fish jambalaya and pasta dish) were just OK and a bit more spendy. Awesome cold coffee drinks. We asked for ‘iced coffee’ and we were surprised with a cold revelation of what a frappucino is supposed to be. Worth re-ordering, so we did - nothing like a cold coffee apré dive. Yum! Four stars - must check out this place.
Bistro De Paris -
Really really good. Worth a splurge, nice atmosphere, impeccable service, great food.
We had to go here because they were advertising Lionfish ceviche, which was on my sister’s ‘must-eat’ list for Bonaire. When we got there, the bar adjoining was very lively (on a supposedly dead time on Bonaire). We didn’t see any tables open so were a bit concerned since we had reservations. No worries - our tables were off to the left, waterfront along the harbor. Nice!
My sister indeed had the Lionfish ceviche - which was very good, very much like good snapper. She also had some barracuda - which I usually would recommend against, but hers was magically good, not oily at all and not bland - it was a fish without being too fishy. I had the seven hour broasted Leg of Lamb.. Ahhhh! soooo tasty and tender OMG good.
Karel’s
A fun waterfront establishment with three distinct areas - on shore right on the frontage road, across at a waterfront bar, and connected via wide table-laden pier, an over-water bar. This was a really fun place to have a beer or snack, gossip on the people visiting on the live-aboard yachts and people watch. Live music on weekends. Touristy, with a smattering of Dutch locals. But who cares - you come here for the over-the-water bar experience and believe that this is paradise, at least for as long as your beer is cold.
The best Fish and Chips we had all trip. Really unexpectedly good fish. Crunchy outside and moist and flaky inside, as good as the English variety. Awesome Goat stew. Not so good sautéed fish - yuk, in fact. Cold cold Polar and Brights.
City Cafe -
Your typical waterfront tourist bar. We ate there when it was not busy at all. A live DJ was spinning some cool chill vibes Caribbean style. I had a big ass burger which was good. Service was spotty, but with only one waitress there and it being the caribbean, you let it slide and let the post-dive beer rearrange your priorities.
We also walked by there later in the week, and it was packed, loud and looked like a lot of fun.
Gio’s Gelateria -
Best Food Bang for the Buck. As good as it gets world class gelato. This is the place we visited the most often on our week in Bonaire. Pick any ice cream, it’s bound to be great. Some are greater than others depending on your tastebuds. My favorite were Cookie and Double Dark Chocolate. We had Coconut, Vanilla, Peanut Butter, Snickers, Pistachio, Caramel and probably more - all were good. Plus the AC inside was blissfully good, and hanging out inside or out was relaxed. Friendly staff. A little pricey for ice cream, but a great value given the quality ingredients. Yummmmeeeee!
Eddy’s
Pretty Good. We went there once for dinner. Through no fault of their own, it was a sparse night and the energy was a bit low. but service was Caribbean good (i.e. slow but friendly!) and atmosphere was good, with a pool to sit by and nice tropical theme surroundings. When we asked the waiter about the ‘slow season?” he replied “dead season!” and mentioned that a lot of tourist business tend to go on vacation in Sept. and even close over October.
My sister got some fish dish which was a teeny bit overcooked but the trappings were good. I got the goat stew (again!). Yum. I like goat. You just cant find goat in the States outside of the south, and i grew up with it. It was good - the meat was better than at Karel’s, but the sauce wasn’t as good as Karel’s. Nice tropical drinks, replete with fold up umbrellas.
It Rains Fishes
My sister really wanted to go to this place. We read trip reports which raved about this place and it was the top of her list. She was right. It was the best seafood place hands down. The ceviche three ways was outstanding. We were thinking about having the two-person portion to order, but the skinny dutch waitress said that a single order would be enough to share for two. I was skeptical, but she was spot-on. It was a large platter - could easily be a taster size for four people, or even a entree for two. As delicious as it was, we ended up taking some home for Wilhelmina, the resident Sand Dollar cat. Sister also had some fish which was very good. I had a papiamento dish of shredded chicken with cheese on top - meh- I can’t say I’m a fan.
Rumba Cafe -
Three weeks out from our trip, I’m having trouble remembering what we had. I remember it was good, brunchy-breakfasty type fare and that it was the really well priced, good value food. Oddly, when we were there, it was all locals except us, which seemed unusual for a waterfront cafe. Very nice waitress! Big smiles and huge laughs.
Rumrunners at Don’s
This was a great Experience. The food was OK. We chose a couple of entrees - Fish and Goat stew which were good, but not spectacular. What WAS spectacular was our table, right on the edge of the first lower level, overlooking the water. There was a thunder and lightning storm that night to the West and South, providing a natural lightshow over Klein and the Salt Flats down south that was totally dramatic. Luckily, the clouds stayed away and it was clear over our heads the whole night.
It was neat looking into the water where some folks were night diving. It’s entertaining to see the torches go to and fro underwater. You can guess that when something interesting was spotted, as all the lights snapped onto one area to focus on it. Good boozy drinks.
Buddy’s
We go there too late for the Friday night free Rum Punch party. Dang! There was a BBQ steamtable and a luscious looking spit-roasted pig. We got drinks and checked out the BBQ. Looked Way Dry. Service was so slow (it was surprisingly busy) that we managed to talk ourselves out of staying and left. Besides all the good bits (the ears!) of the pig were gone. We consoled ourselves with a trip to Gios.
Pasa Bon Pizza
Damn good pizza. Surprisingly so and a good find. Tasty and good value. And as a bonus, the manager and cashier were having a uhhh ‘tense’ discussion about vacation time while we were waiting for our pizza. Just like New York, for that authentic feel. Bartender is a sweetheart and really friendly. Pick a table under a fan or make sure to wear a lot of mosquito repellant. We would have hung out longer in the nice outdoor patio in back expect that the mossies were out in force. I think only open Wednesday through Sunday.
Bobbejan’s
I’m a fan! Totally local feel with counter and local kids running around. Make sure to have their chicken and ribs. Yummmy!.. good value too. It’s only four tables and a counter, so you may need to do take away. Only open a few days a week, great place to people watch the locals. Shoo fly!
*** Dozing
We stayed at the Sand Dollar. These are timeshare condos, so it's luck of the draw on how good the unit is. Our two bedroom unit (B5) was pretty good from what we could tell (peeking into other units). Screened porch, AC in bedrooms and in the Living room - which we were glad to pay the extra $ for. Nicely equipped kitchen with everything you need and a full sized refrigerator. Sat TV on flatscreens - watch the Bonaire channel - it was interesting. Good Free Wifi! The screen in porch is setup to help you dry your stuff with pegs. Water heater on-demand on timer system that sometimes you had to reset. grounds are OK, with big resident iguanas and friendly, lovely resident cat - Wilhelmina.
Super easy access to dive off the front, and there is even a freshwater shower by DiveFriends that you could use.
DiveFriends is on-site, and an ATM and Between Two Buns, an Ice Cream and Malaysian food place and a convenience store are all within easy walking distance - 2 minute walk. Tennis courts. Pool.
I would stay here again, it's a good value for families and people who don't mind a bit of DIY with their vacation.
(more in next post)
Diving
Overall - wow! great diving. Shore diving is a breeze, though some ironshore entries can be a teeny bit tricky. Vis was very very good for the most part - 80’ visibility was a bad day. You get spoiled real quick. I’m a little concerned that other easy to get to dive vacation sites won’t measure up - We ran into many repeat visitors from around the world that you begin to wonder.. Abundant fish life everywhere during all dives, except for some blown out areas near shore. Just walking around on the seawall, you can look into the water and see some enormous parrots and puffers. Huge Urchins too.
We did the AOW course while there, so the first two days were repeat dives at Cliff and Cha cha cha.
Night dives are awesome. Holy crap those Tarpon are HUGE. There were a couple that were as long as our divemaster, who was 6’. I got a clear view as it would swim alongside her waiting to gulp a fish. BUT there were also many of these ‘bloodworms’ that would come spiraling up from the bottom in a corkscrew swim, attracted to the light. They were extremely creepy and freaked us out. I would hit them with the light and they’d break up like a nightmare into tiny wiggly bits. Yeech.
We used Dive Friends, who are aptly named. Everyone we dealt with were super friendly and great. Some are characters. Prices were really reasonable, and they have five locations were you can pickup tanks so you don;t have to go far from any west coast or southern site. Small boat, no more than 10 divers per plus captain, DM and assistant. Special shout outs to Suus and Tim. There was just my sister and I for many dives with them, and they are cool to hang out with afterwards.
Here are some highlights of specific sites:
Rappel and Bloodlet
Northern trips were definitely a highlight, don’t miss. Super clear and and shelf-and-reef wall system that meant you could do the deep stuff on the way out, and the upper shelf on the way back, so you see something new the whole dive. Very interesting terrain with big Fans, hard staghorn, plate, christmas tree corals and linguini and black corals, and crevices and wallish nooks and crannies all along the mini-wall. Turtles, Eels, Lionfish, Spotted Drum, Cleaner shrimp, beautiful schools of Chromis and the usual cast of reef fish everywhere. Bloodlet was especially pristine-looking. Great visibility.
Cliff
Dove it a few times during the day and did our night UV dive here. Good variety of life, saw the remains of the statue and my first moray of the trip in it. Big puffers with their permanent smiles (love them!). My sister got stung here by some jellies. This site was a good intro into Bonaire. Lots of usual reef fish - parrots, schoolmasters, trunkfish and the like. My favorites are the tiny pea-sized juvenile boxfish - they are so cute! Spotted my only arrow crab of the trip here. Big brain boulder corals.
Night UV dive was psychedelic. They have special issue Blue lights with Orange filters that fit over your mask. Really really cool to see the neon glow of sealife. The brain and star coral was really awesome, and scorpionfish and sanddivers light up like cheap shirts at a disco. Noticed that there were more worms crawling around on the coral than I ever suspected during day dives. Brittlestars unfold at night, looking really beautiful. Glowing lettuce slugs. Some coral were fluorescing bright yellow, red and orange and blue - colors unexpected underwater, so vivid!
But for me, the squadron of Huge Tarpon that accompanied us stole the show. I swear some were 5-6 ft long and thicker around than my fat thighs. They glide around you effortlessly and I watched the biggest one often glide just over a diver’s shoulder, looking for something interesting to eat. When they did, you could hear a “THOMP” sound as they sucked in a fish. I experimented and shined a light on a small fish and followed it around - sure enough, a Tarpon quickly “THOMP”ed it right up.
Something Special
Very nice reef with great variety of life and opportunities for macro photography. Saw two HUGE yellow morays in the same crevice down about 37’- I think that means they were mating? They were both bigger around than my thigh, at least 6’ long. Lots of Pedersons shrimp, and graceful, tall purple vase sponges. Watched a couple of groupers have a battle over some territory. The smaller fish won! I stared intensely at some debris that I suspected were frogfish, but no. More tiny fry everywhere, including the pea-sized juvenile boxfish. Lots of big parrots, sergeant majors, hogfish, sharptail eel - etc..
Bari -
Our house reef. Unfortunately, we went only at dusk and it got dark too quick. We entered from the small beach to the left of the Sand Dollar. The grumpy guy from BDA yelled at me to stay away from their dock, don’t come near or swim under it! (You kids get off my lawn!) Wow, ok Mr. Grumpy. Big Vase sponges.
Later in the trip, we snorkeled it on our non-dive day and saw more eels than I’d seen on the entire trip combined. Walk down the steel staircase from Sanddollar, get in the water and look to the right. There are pipes that have been placed there which are a magnet for Morays. Saw some spotted ones and purple mouth and a yellow. We got to watch the big yellow moray free swim for a bit toward us. It was friendly - though with those teeth, I was backing up and keeping some distance from him. Saw a few peacock flounders (damn good camo!) and a giant school of Boga (baitfish) that was cool to swim with.
Hilma Hooker -
My first wreck dive - very cool. Can’t add much more to what’s been said about it. It’s big and imposing, especially as you come on it and figure out that what you thought was cloudy water is actually the side of a ship! Found some translucent banded blue shrimp near the bow that didn’t mind me sticking a camera on macro right up to them. A cleaning station maybe? Spooky and toothy big barracuda trying hard to look like part of the mast. A squad of tarpon flew by. Honeycombed cowfish with the horns. The reef was nice too, with lots of fish - saw a juvenile spotted drum here - they are so pretty it’s a wonder they don’t get eaten quickly. Maybe they just taste bad.
Invisibles
Double Reef system, saw big schools of schoolmasters and black Durgeons. Saw a couple of enormous groupers on the outer reef. Garden eels up shallow in only about 20’ of water. also a rare Sand Eel our divemaster Suus found for us. Lettuce slugs and a Flamenco tongue. Scorpionfish, well camouflaged. tilefish among the seafans, hiding like seahorses (but no seahorses spotted). Pretty little juvenile Queen Triggerfish.
Margate Bay
Interestingly, not that many Black Margates! But still a lot of life and schools of Snapper, Chromis and Schoolmasters. More trumpetfish here than any other place, probably because this site was full of sea fans and linguini coral (sponge?). Great variety of terrain and densely covered in coral and seafans and gorgonians. Gorgeous terrain-wise, big christmas trees of hard corals. A couple of turtles and peacock flounders in the sand and grass before the reef began. A big friendly puffer followed us for a bit.
Salt Pier -
Really interesting dive and unfortunately our worst vis at about 80’ (!). We lost track of which leg were exploring and had to go up and surface swim back. Enormous school of Boga (batifish) that was so dense it was like a silver shimmering living aluminum foil above and around you. Really neat. Piers had good life, of course. We saw the biggest Blue Parrot - it was at least 4 ft and maybe 80 pounds. Spotted drum, schools of bigger fish like schoolmasters and other snapper-types. Turtle. The single Biggest Barracuda I’ve ever seen. It must have been at least 5 ft. Many smaller ones too - lots of food here.
Klein - Knife to Sampler to No Name Beach
Did a nice drift dive from Knife to No Name. Wall dive. Lots of Spaghetti coral, hard and soft corals, orange sponges. Kind of blown out toward the end near the beach.
Klein - South Bay
Saw pedersons, lionfish. Nice terrain and mini wallish with many coves and nooks. Divemaster pointed out a frogfish but it was too crowded, so i didn’t see it. Saw lots of turtles.
Cha Cha Cha
Did a lot of the training here - DiveFriends has an underwater course and navigation setup. Also did our first night dive here. There is an ENORMOUS green moray living in the giant engine block. He was huge with big teeth, and flared his full height and stared at us sideways. He was showing off or threatening us. After staring at him for a while, we finned past, but I kept looking back to see if he was following us. Saw some big 6 inch seahorses. They are resident among some black wire sponge. Also saw a seahorse kind of out in the middle of nowhere in the sandy flat hanging on a tiny bit of coral. Our first encounter with nighttime Tarpon. They are big and graceful. They even seem to be having fun, hunting by our flashlights. This is where we saw all the bloodworms at night. eek.
*** Dining
Between Two Buns -
Terrific! We went there twice. Their regular menu sandwiches are made with quality ingredients, well prepared and presented and pretty darn tasty delicious goodness. In contrast, the two non-sandwich specials of the day (a fish jambalaya and pasta dish) were just OK and a bit more spendy. Awesome cold coffee drinks. We asked for ‘iced coffee’ and we were surprised with a cold revelation of what a frappucino is supposed to be. Worth re-ordering, so we did - nothing like a cold coffee apré dive. Yum! Four stars - must check out this place.
Bistro De Paris -
Really really good. Worth a splurge, nice atmosphere, impeccable service, great food.
We had to go here because they were advertising Lionfish ceviche, which was on my sister’s ‘must-eat’ list for Bonaire. When we got there, the bar adjoining was very lively (on a supposedly dead time on Bonaire). We didn’t see any tables open so were a bit concerned since we had reservations. No worries - our tables were off to the left, waterfront along the harbor. Nice!
My sister indeed had the Lionfish ceviche - which was very good, very much like good snapper. She also had some barracuda - which I usually would recommend against, but hers was magically good, not oily at all and not bland - it was a fish without being too fishy. I had the seven hour broasted Leg of Lamb.. Ahhhh! soooo tasty and tender OMG good.
Karel’s
A fun waterfront establishment with three distinct areas - on shore right on the frontage road, across at a waterfront bar, and connected via wide table-laden pier, an over-water bar. This was a really fun place to have a beer or snack, gossip on the people visiting on the live-aboard yachts and people watch. Live music on weekends. Touristy, with a smattering of Dutch locals. But who cares - you come here for the over-the-water bar experience and believe that this is paradise, at least for as long as your beer is cold.
The best Fish and Chips we had all trip. Really unexpectedly good fish. Crunchy outside and moist and flaky inside, as good as the English variety. Awesome Goat stew. Not so good sautéed fish - yuk, in fact. Cold cold Polar and Brights.
City Cafe -
Your typical waterfront tourist bar. We ate there when it was not busy at all. A live DJ was spinning some cool chill vibes Caribbean style. I had a big ass burger which was good. Service was spotty, but with only one waitress there and it being the caribbean, you let it slide and let the post-dive beer rearrange your priorities.
We also walked by there later in the week, and it was packed, loud and looked like a lot of fun.
Gio’s Gelateria -
Best Food Bang for the Buck. As good as it gets world class gelato. This is the place we visited the most often on our week in Bonaire. Pick any ice cream, it’s bound to be great. Some are greater than others depending on your tastebuds. My favorite were Cookie and Double Dark Chocolate. We had Coconut, Vanilla, Peanut Butter, Snickers, Pistachio, Caramel and probably more - all were good. Plus the AC inside was blissfully good, and hanging out inside or out was relaxed. Friendly staff. A little pricey for ice cream, but a great value given the quality ingredients. Yummmmeeeee!
Eddy’s
Pretty Good. We went there once for dinner. Through no fault of their own, it was a sparse night and the energy was a bit low. but service was Caribbean good (i.e. slow but friendly!) and atmosphere was good, with a pool to sit by and nice tropical theme surroundings. When we asked the waiter about the ‘slow season?” he replied “dead season!” and mentioned that a lot of tourist business tend to go on vacation in Sept. and even close over October.
My sister got some fish dish which was a teeny bit overcooked but the trappings were good. I got the goat stew (again!). Yum. I like goat. You just cant find goat in the States outside of the south, and i grew up with it. It was good - the meat was better than at Karel’s, but the sauce wasn’t as good as Karel’s. Nice tropical drinks, replete with fold up umbrellas.
It Rains Fishes
My sister really wanted to go to this place. We read trip reports which raved about this place and it was the top of her list. She was right. It was the best seafood place hands down. The ceviche three ways was outstanding. We were thinking about having the two-person portion to order, but the skinny dutch waitress said that a single order would be enough to share for two. I was skeptical, but she was spot-on. It was a large platter - could easily be a taster size for four people, or even a entree for two. As delicious as it was, we ended up taking some home for Wilhelmina, the resident Sand Dollar cat. Sister also had some fish which was very good. I had a papiamento dish of shredded chicken with cheese on top - meh- I can’t say I’m a fan.
Rumba Cafe -
Three weeks out from our trip, I’m having trouble remembering what we had. I remember it was good, brunchy-breakfasty type fare and that it was the really well priced, good value food. Oddly, when we were there, it was all locals except us, which seemed unusual for a waterfront cafe. Very nice waitress! Big smiles and huge laughs.
Rumrunners at Don’s
This was a great Experience. The food was OK. We chose a couple of entrees - Fish and Goat stew which were good, but not spectacular. What WAS spectacular was our table, right on the edge of the first lower level, overlooking the water. There was a thunder and lightning storm that night to the West and South, providing a natural lightshow over Klein and the Salt Flats down south that was totally dramatic. Luckily, the clouds stayed away and it was clear over our heads the whole night.
It was neat looking into the water where some folks were night diving. It’s entertaining to see the torches go to and fro underwater. You can guess that when something interesting was spotted, as all the lights snapped onto one area to focus on it. Good boozy drinks.
Buddy’s
We go there too late for the Friday night free Rum Punch party. Dang! There was a BBQ steamtable and a luscious looking spit-roasted pig. We got drinks and checked out the BBQ. Looked Way Dry. Service was so slow (it was surprisingly busy) that we managed to talk ourselves out of staying and left. Besides all the good bits (the ears!) of the pig were gone. We consoled ourselves with a trip to Gios.
Pasa Bon Pizza
Damn good pizza. Surprisingly so and a good find. Tasty and good value. And as a bonus, the manager and cashier were having a uhhh ‘tense’ discussion about vacation time while we were waiting for our pizza. Just like New York, for that authentic feel. Bartender is a sweetheart and really friendly. Pick a table under a fan or make sure to wear a lot of mosquito repellant. We would have hung out longer in the nice outdoor patio in back expect that the mossies were out in force. I think only open Wednesday through Sunday.
Bobbejan’s
I’m a fan! Totally local feel with counter and local kids running around. Make sure to have their chicken and ribs. Yummmy!.. good value too. It’s only four tables and a counter, so you may need to do take away. Only open a few days a week, great place to people watch the locals. Shoo fly!
*** Dozing
We stayed at the Sand Dollar. These are timeshare condos, so it's luck of the draw on how good the unit is. Our two bedroom unit (B5) was pretty good from what we could tell (peeking into other units). Screened porch, AC in bedrooms and in the Living room - which we were glad to pay the extra $ for. Nicely equipped kitchen with everything you need and a full sized refrigerator. Sat TV on flatscreens - watch the Bonaire channel - it was interesting. Good Free Wifi! The screen in porch is setup to help you dry your stuff with pegs. Water heater on-demand on timer system that sometimes you had to reset. grounds are OK, with big resident iguanas and friendly, lovely resident cat - Wilhelmina.
Super easy access to dive off the front, and there is even a freshwater shower by DiveFriends that you could use.
DiveFriends is on-site, and an ATM and Between Two Buns, an Ice Cream and Malaysian food place and a convenience store are all within easy walking distance - 2 minute walk. Tennis courts. Pool.
I would stay here again, it's a good value for families and people who don't mind a bit of DIY with their vacation.
(more in next post)
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