Trip Report for June 18-26

[CTX_Diver]

We took three adults, four teenagers & an eleven year old to Bonaire in late June. Two of the adults have been to Bonaire diving before. One adult & the four teenagers were new divers & had never been in blue water. We rented a house (VRBO 468303) in the Sabadeco Court area which is on the north end of town. It was nice to have a house instead of just a few small rooms. We rented gear & tanks from Dive Friends. I really liked Dive Friends as we used the northern & southern most locations often. The staff were friendly & helpful. and it was convenient to have multiple locations. We rented trucks from AB car rental & they were great as well. The diving was excellent & of course the new divers were blown away. There are a lot of turtles at 1000 steps, however I don't enjoy diving any further north than Oil slick. The coral has a green plant growth on it, so it is not very pretty. We had many memorable dives, but one of the best was at Kite City. There was a MASSIVE bait ball around the inlet to the marina. It was one of the best things I have ever seen. Also the diving at Salt Pier was really good. We saw a school of Carribean Reef squid there as well as the usual beautiful fish. Angel City is another beautiful dive that is a good second dive after the Hilma Hooker. We had a wonderful trip. I wish I was still there.....

 

[drrich2]

Okay, my mind jammed at the start at the idea of what the airfare bill must have been.

Several years ago my wife, buddy & I hired a guy to shoot a video of us & we visited his home at Sabadeco, where we dove the pier. It's pretty up there.

North of Oil Slick Leap, I historically liked Tolo and Karpata a lot, but once you hit the one way section, driving back is a long haul (for Bonaire). I haven't been the past couple of years, though; wonder if things have changed?

I liked Angel City, too; the outer 'row' of the double reef is well-formed.

Interesting option, renting a house. If I get to go back & some people go with me, worth considering.

Anything about your trip you wish you'd done differently?

Richard.

 

[CTX_Diver]

The house worked out great because we ended up staying 8 days instead of 7. United flies direct out of Houston on Saturday, but doesn't fly direct back to Houston except on Sunday. We started out looking at Buddy Dive, but they wanted to move us on the last night. I saved at least $1,000-$1,500 by going with a house over Buddy Dive.

I wished I would've taken the kids over to Rincon & that part of the island. We drove around the southern tip & over to Lac Bay. We had planned to go to Lac Bay area & go kayaking, but never made it. (Wish we would have done that too) I was worn out most days as I had 5 new divers that needed a lot of help early in the week.

It was definitely an expensive trip (possibly one of those "once in a lifetime" trips) plus a lot of work for me. But, I had my whole family with me plus some AND I got to be with them all when they experienced blue water for the first time. I was blessed!

 

[Doctorfish]

Being in the water with your teens for their first ocean dive is fantastic experience. You truly were blessed.

Thanks for the report.

 

[Jersey]

Being able to share travel and diving with extended family is amazing. I helped my nephew certify for his HS grad. His father (my brother) certified at that time as well and we've since done 2 trips with them. Creating memories, watching them develop from newbies to confident divers to giving my nephew the GoPro to use this year is great. His first video made me violently ill. By the end he was doing selfies, photobombed by a turtle. Hoping to have the dive buddy's side of the family join us in the future.