darook
Contributor
The best part of every dive trip is making new friends. This one was no exception. I was lucky to meet up with a couple of folks from the board as well as meet some new friends that reside on Bonaire. This is the first time I was on island for New Years Eve and that was a blast. Literally. I mean there were fireworks going off EVERYWHERE.
This was my 11th trip to Bonaire and one of my favorites. My wife and I enjoyed our third stay at Bamboo Bali and it is still wonderful. For couples it is the best place I have found. My wife enjoys diving but loses enthusiasm after two or three dives in a day. BB is such a nice place to hangout I don't feel too deprived that I am not in the water. I can grill food, take pics of parrots and count Buddhas. There has to be in excess of 100 of them on the property. The parrots always arrived noisily in the morning to chomp on banana trees. The other guests I met were from the US, Germany, Switzerland. I also met a lady from Indonesia but don't think that is where she currently resides.
Bamboo Bali recently from the Dutch family that built it to a pair of guys from California, Pat is an electrician by trade and Larry a mechanic. Those skills are great to have when operating this type of a property. The staff otherwise stayed the same. Debbie, who is awesome and who I have always worked on reservations with is still there and runs the show. Larry and Pat, while owning the joint, really work for Debbie and they will tell you that too. The duo of owners is excited to enhance the operation by having a really nice one night a week meal prepared by one of the local high end chefs in the residence of the former owners. This will be guests only and starts next month. Along with smoothing off any leftover rough edges from the construction they plan to bring all of the units up to the same level of amenities. Things like all of them having a private outdoor area with shower etc. Our unit had that and it was scrumtrillescent. The front part of the resort will always cater to couples who are looking for a really nice place to stay but want to dive too. Rinse tanks and dive kit storage are offered at a couple places around the property. They are also planning on the back part of the property to do a more backpacker experience offering for dive focused folks. The plan is to build it out of shipping containers. I'm interested to see how that comes together. There is plenty of room back there and I don't think those in the front would even know it is there.
We ate most meals in but did get out for a few. Quick recap:
Rum Runners: decent food, great view, okay service and a little expensive
Den Laman: decent food, good service great view and a priced in line with Rum Runners
Salitiga: Tasty food, priced okay, no view and horribly understaffed
El Bigote: Very tasty, great service (it was quiet the evening we were there)and reasonably priced
The first margarita we so good I decided to see if they could pull it off again. Success.
Buddy Dive Breakfast Buffet: Food was tasty, view was great, price was great as we were surprised with a voucher for it from BB. As it is self service, you get what you are for service.
Between2Buns: They were closed for most of our stay but opened for a couple of days before we departed. People don't go there anymore, it's too crowded. (thanks Yogi) It is always our best meal and was again. It is breakfast and lunch only. I had the Hot Chicken Burger and it was amazing. It is not some chicken patty mystery meat. It is a well crafted sandwich with attention paid to flavor and texture. The service was great too particularly considering the place's popularity.
As this purportedly a diving oriented board I suppose I should discuss it. It was windy and a bit choppy even on many of the west side sites. The chop definitely made a few sites less enjoyable to enter and put a damper on the visibility on the terrace but even with that, our leisurely pace and taking the last day off I got in 19 dives. Some sites that we enjoy were not really conducive due to either waves or kite surfers like at Red Beryl. No worry though our favorites such as Salt Pier, Invisibles and Something Special still always delivered. This trip I discovered a reason to get on a boat! It is called the East Side. I will not visit the island again without doing this trip unless the wind is completely quiet and you can shore dive it safely. I have never been there for those conditions. You will see more turtles in a single dive than you will the rest of the week. I hit the lottery on one dive and a pod of dolphin swam right past us! They say that happens like once a year. The operation is run with military like precision which in big waves it needs to be. That said, back rolling off of the boat and getting on were trivial. The staff is very passionate about protecting their sites which is great to see.
In terms of general reef health conditions the coral looked good as it really didn't experience any thermal stress this past fall. I thought I spotted some bleaching on some coral heads but under closer examination those proved to be parrot fish bites. I reported the parrot fish to STINAPA and expect their tags to be revoked forthwith. The sponges looked a bit overgrown with algae to me but I must confess I don't focus much on sponges outside of the kitchen. Animal life was abundant and diverse. Lots of eels, turtles, flounder, lizard fish, squid and the like. I didn't see any octopus, froggies or sea horses but probably swam past several obliviously.
Speaking of STINAPA, I did not have to buy a new tag as my one from February carried me through our stay. I never saw a STINAPA ranger the whole 8 days. I know that is a frustration of the dive operators. You take the money, do SOMETHING! Don't even get them started on the cruise shippers!
Topside, the island is really looking good. DFB has a Saturday debris cleanup on the east side and man does it look better. It is occurring as I write this I believe. The only messy places I found were ones that were frequented by the locals who support recycling by smashing their beer bottles on the ground. I guess they are just trying to turn them back into sand or something. The roads are of course variable between okay and horrific but mostly okay. There are some longer stretches that are actually pretty good. Just don't get too comfortable that it will last. It won't. Getting fuel on the island is always as pleasant as waiting in line at the DMV. You know guys, CC card readers are pretty cheap nowadays. You could dispense with the pay first process and speed things up a bit.
Animal life overall looked great, lots of parrots, flamingos, other seabirds and lizards. Other than a few brief rain showers our weather was wonderful. Skeeters weren't too bad either.
If you are interested in pictures you can see them here.
My external hard drive that contained ALL of my underwater video bit the dust so don't have any diving video so now I have to go back to Bonaire. No worries though, my new 2TB flash drive arrived on Thursday. I am done with spinning media! I do have a good deal of topside video and if I fashion it into something interesting I will share.
Time to start getting ready for Fiji in March!
This was my 11th trip to Bonaire and one of my favorites. My wife and I enjoyed our third stay at Bamboo Bali and it is still wonderful. For couples it is the best place I have found. My wife enjoys diving but loses enthusiasm after two or three dives in a day. BB is such a nice place to hangout I don't feel too deprived that I am not in the water. I can grill food, take pics of parrots and count Buddhas. There has to be in excess of 100 of them on the property. The parrots always arrived noisily in the morning to chomp on banana trees. The other guests I met were from the US, Germany, Switzerland. I also met a lady from Indonesia but don't think that is where she currently resides.
Bamboo Bali recently from the Dutch family that built it to a pair of guys from California, Pat is an electrician by trade and Larry a mechanic. Those skills are great to have when operating this type of a property. The staff otherwise stayed the same. Debbie, who is awesome and who I have always worked on reservations with is still there and runs the show. Larry and Pat, while owning the joint, really work for Debbie and they will tell you that too. The duo of owners is excited to enhance the operation by having a really nice one night a week meal prepared by one of the local high end chefs in the residence of the former owners. This will be guests only and starts next month. Along with smoothing off any leftover rough edges from the construction they plan to bring all of the units up to the same level of amenities. Things like all of them having a private outdoor area with shower etc. Our unit had that and it was scrumtrillescent. The front part of the resort will always cater to couples who are looking for a really nice place to stay but want to dive too. Rinse tanks and dive kit storage are offered at a couple places around the property. They are also planning on the back part of the property to do a more backpacker experience offering for dive focused folks. The plan is to build it out of shipping containers. I'm interested to see how that comes together. There is plenty of room back there and I don't think those in the front would even know it is there.
We ate most meals in but did get out for a few. Quick recap:
Rum Runners: decent food, great view, okay service and a little expensive
Den Laman: decent food, good service great view and a priced in line with Rum Runners
Salitiga: Tasty food, priced okay, no view and horribly understaffed
El Bigote: Very tasty, great service (it was quiet the evening we were there)and reasonably priced
The first margarita we so good I decided to see if they could pull it off again. Success.
Buddy Dive Breakfast Buffet: Food was tasty, view was great, price was great as we were surprised with a voucher for it from BB. As it is self service, you get what you are for service.
Between2Buns: They were closed for most of our stay but opened for a couple of days before we departed. People don't go there anymore, it's too crowded. (thanks Yogi) It is always our best meal and was again. It is breakfast and lunch only. I had the Hot Chicken Burger and it was amazing. It is not some chicken patty mystery meat. It is a well crafted sandwich with attention paid to flavor and texture. The service was great too particularly considering the place's popularity.
As this purportedly a diving oriented board I suppose I should discuss it. It was windy and a bit choppy even on many of the west side sites. The chop definitely made a few sites less enjoyable to enter and put a damper on the visibility on the terrace but even with that, our leisurely pace and taking the last day off I got in 19 dives. Some sites that we enjoy were not really conducive due to either waves or kite surfers like at Red Beryl. No worry though our favorites such as Salt Pier, Invisibles and Something Special still always delivered. This trip I discovered a reason to get on a boat! It is called the East Side. I will not visit the island again without doing this trip unless the wind is completely quiet and you can shore dive it safely. I have never been there for those conditions. You will see more turtles in a single dive than you will the rest of the week. I hit the lottery on one dive and a pod of dolphin swam right past us! They say that happens like once a year. The operation is run with military like precision which in big waves it needs to be. That said, back rolling off of the boat and getting on were trivial. The staff is very passionate about protecting their sites which is great to see.
In terms of general reef health conditions the coral looked good as it really didn't experience any thermal stress this past fall. I thought I spotted some bleaching on some coral heads but under closer examination those proved to be parrot fish bites. I reported the parrot fish to STINAPA and expect their tags to be revoked forthwith. The sponges looked a bit overgrown with algae to me but I must confess I don't focus much on sponges outside of the kitchen. Animal life was abundant and diverse. Lots of eels, turtles, flounder, lizard fish, squid and the like. I didn't see any octopus, froggies or sea horses but probably swam past several obliviously.
Speaking of STINAPA, I did not have to buy a new tag as my one from February carried me through our stay. I never saw a STINAPA ranger the whole 8 days. I know that is a frustration of the dive operators. You take the money, do SOMETHING! Don't even get them started on the cruise shippers!
Topside, the island is really looking good. DFB has a Saturday debris cleanup on the east side and man does it look better. It is occurring as I write this I believe. The only messy places I found were ones that were frequented by the locals who support recycling by smashing their beer bottles on the ground. I guess they are just trying to turn them back into sand or something. The roads are of course variable between okay and horrific but mostly okay. There are some longer stretches that are actually pretty good. Just don't get too comfortable that it will last. It won't. Getting fuel on the island is always as pleasant as waiting in line at the DMV. You know guys, CC card readers are pretty cheap nowadays. You could dispense with the pay first process and speed things up a bit.
Animal life overall looked great, lots of parrots, flamingos, other seabirds and lizards. Other than a few brief rain showers our weather was wonderful. Skeeters weren't too bad either.
If you are interested in pictures you can see them here.
My external hard drive that contained ALL of my underwater video bit the dust so don't have any diving video so now I have to go back to Bonaire. No worries though, my new 2TB flash drive arrived on Thursday. I am done with spinning media! I do have a good deal of topside video and if I fashion it into something interesting I will share.
Time to start getting ready for Fiji in March!
