BHB ScubaTroll
Contributor
I know why I love to dive there... Now, I would love to hear why others keep returning to the island! :cool2:
Why Do You Keep Returning To Bonaire?
- Thread starter BHB ScubaTroll
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Simply put, Bonaire has some of the easiest diving and healthiest reefs I've encountered. Haven't encountered much trouble heading to the island (except maybe finding a convenient flight)......Actually am planning another visit there later this year.
ScubaSteve
Wow.....what a DB
I love Bonaire for the freedom it offers. Bonaire diving offers you almost everything at your schedule. On top of that it is GREAT diving and a great island.
I like the people. On my last trip, I only made 5 dives total because J broke her ankle. What could have been a terrible trip for both of us ended up not so bad for her (besides the pain) and still pretty fun for me. Why? The people. I can't imagine driving around a wheelchair and a wheelchair bound S/O around any other island and having so much fun interacting with the locals and expats (well, mainly the expats). We met Ned DeLoach when I spotted him at Cactus Blue (overheard him and his dinner guests chatting about an Indonesian liveaboard that I had just been on the previous summer), ran into Sylvia who used to run the Den Laman office when she was out celebrating her BF's birthday and we had a great chat, had an excellent time playing volleyball with the staff at Capt. Don's and Moogie (we had relocated there from Den Laman since J couldn't reasonably do the DL stairs on crutches), and later having Moogie refer to J's broken ankle in a song during his performance at Capt. Don's and having a drink with him on his birthday (lots of birthdays that trip).
Then there's Michael at Chat & Browse, always a good source of the latest news, smiling Sonja and Eddie, Patrice at Bistro, Corinna and Hagen at Cactus Blue, and a practically endless list of other shopowners, waitstaff & restaurant owners, hotel employees, etc., whose names I've forgotten, but who go beyond normal courteous service and will actually sit down at your table to chat and get to know you. I've only experienced that in a few other dive locales, and never as promiscuously as in Bonaire. Half the time we go out to eat, we end up closing the restaurant chatting with the owner or a waiter/waitress, making yet another friend that we hope will remember us when we return on a future visit.
Oh, yeah, and the diving isn't half-bad either
Free nitrox, no schedule, sleep in late or dive at sunrise, and if I want to go out in the afternoon and sit for 90 minutes in the sand right off the BDA dock on a single coral head practicing on gobies and itty-bitty juveniles, my only worry is getting back too late for happy hour.
Remind me again why I'm choosing to try Wakatobi in May rather than return to Bonaire? Oh, yeah, the fish and coral diversity, a bit better there than anywhere in the Caribbean to be sure. And they should have food rivaling Bonaire's restaurants (haven't tried Bonairean Indonesian food yet, but I'm guessing it's better at the source), and a shore dive that's supposedly even more amazing than Bonaire shore diving. And we get to overnight in Bangkok on the way back and spend a couple days in Bali. But for the price of 3 or 4 lavish Bonaire trips, it had better be worth it. I'd hate to be sitting stuck in Indonesia and wishing I were back in Bonaire!
Then there's Michael at Chat & Browse, always a good source of the latest news, smiling Sonja and Eddie, Patrice at Bistro, Corinna and Hagen at Cactus Blue, and a practically endless list of other shopowners, waitstaff & restaurant owners, hotel employees, etc., whose names I've forgotten, but who go beyond normal courteous service and will actually sit down at your table to chat and get to know you. I've only experienced that in a few other dive locales, and never as promiscuously as in Bonaire. Half the time we go out to eat, we end up closing the restaurant chatting with the owner or a waiter/waitress, making yet another friend that we hope will remember us when we return on a future visit.
Oh, yeah, and the diving isn't half-bad either
Free nitrox, no schedule, sleep in late or dive at sunrise, and if I want to go out in the afternoon and sit for 90 minutes in the sand right off the BDA dock on a single coral head practicing on gobies and itty-bitty juveniles, my only worry is getting back too late for happy hour.
Remind me again why I'm choosing to try Wakatobi in May rather than return to Bonaire? Oh, yeah, the fish and coral diversity, a bit better there than anywhere in the Caribbean to be sure. And they should have food rivaling Bonaire's restaurants (haven't tried Bonairean Indonesian food yet, but I'm guessing it's better at the source), and a shore dive that's supposedly even more amazing than Bonaire shore diving. And we get to overnight in Bangkok on the way back and spend a couple days in Bali. But for the price of 3 or 4 lavish Bonaire trips, it had better be worth it. I'd hate to be sitting stuck in Indonesia and wishing I were back in Bonaire!
Boat Chick
Contributor
When I get off that plane and smell that air I have to soak it all in. It's like greeting a long lost friend and saying hello. It's my "happy place" (besides being on our boat and diving Catalina Island, my other "happy place").
Besides the obvious (shorediving freedom):
- getting in the truck, rolling the windows down and smelling that air (again) lol
- no traffic lights
- slow pace (it is getting more fast pace with more cars and traffic)
- the locals - friendly people
- friends who live on the island
- Marina at the Donkey Sanctuary
- the flamingos
- hanging out at the Windsurf Place digging my feet in the sand watching the windsurfers
- tarpons...i love tarpons
- loading and unloading tanks from the back of the truck
- As Mossman mentioned, over time you become friends with business owners and it makes things even more fun and enjoyable.
My husband no longer goes with me because he's not the dive freak I am (he's bored to tears after 45 minutes and I like 70-90 minutes dives; and he really only likes to dive once a day); so I get to go all by myself and meet up with friends on island to dive with, or hook up with friends who are going at the same time. It's my "me time." LOL!
Next year I'm taking my daughter (her second trip to Bonaire) for a "mother daughter trip." I can't wait!
Besides the obvious (shorediving freedom):
- getting in the truck, rolling the windows down and smelling that air (again) lol
- no traffic lights
- slow pace (it is getting more fast pace with more cars and traffic)
- the locals - friendly people
- friends who live on the island
- Marina at the Donkey Sanctuary
- the flamingos
- hanging out at the Windsurf Place digging my feet in the sand watching the windsurfers
- tarpons...i love tarpons
- loading and unloading tanks from the back of the truck
- As Mossman mentioned, over time you become friends with business owners and it makes things even more fun and enjoyable.
My husband no longer goes with me because he's not the dive freak I am (he's bored to tears after 45 minutes and I like 70-90 minutes dives; and he really only likes to dive once a day); so I get to go all by myself and meet up with friends on island to dive with, or hook up with friends who are going at the same time. It's my "me time." LOL!
Next year I'm taking my daughter (her second trip to Bonaire) for a "mother daughter trip." I can't wait!
OP
BHB ScubaTroll
Contributor
You all just don't understand...
Papa_Bear
Contributor
Because I do get it! All of the above and my camera too! It is Camera Paradise with no DM to heard you along! And this:
vladimir
The Voice of Reason
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For me, it is the epitome of what a vacation should be--no schedules, no hassles, and direct flights from Newark. There is better diving in the Caribbean, in my opinion, but Bonaire diving is certainly among the best there. And it is the ideal place to travel with my snorkeler of a girlfriend. We always stay at the Harbour Village Beach Club. The suites are nice, as is the beach, and La Balandra is one of the best restaurants on the island. I usually do a couple of boat dives in the morning and shore dives in the afternoon, but if I feel llike sleeping in, I do. If you miss the boat, just jump in the truck. Even though the reef out front is one of the worst dives on the island, there's some good macro-photography when you're feeling particularly lazy--lots of juvenile eels, octopuses, and juvenile fish. We have been treated to quite a few close passes by schools of dolphins, the tarpon are always there, and the (very) occasional shark sighting are nice bonuses to a pretty healthy reef population.
OP
BHB ScubaTroll
Contributor
Everything said so far rings vacation for me...! ahhhhhh....
OP
BHB ScubaTroll
Contributor
Ya know... I am almost topside phobic... I can setup an underwater photo like nobody's business... But, I always forget the above-the-water-line-shots... This time in Bonaire I will attempt to catch the above and below shots...
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