Bonaire, What did you wish you knew before you went?

[Jim Lapenta]

Don't expect good Chinese food in the Chinese restaurant there!

Do as many shore dives as you can on the house reef (we were at Divi). Easy entry, turn left or right and vary your depth on each dive and it's a new dive every time. Do not settle for once on the Hooker. I could have dived her and around her all week.

 

[rhwestfall]

How come?

probably the worst experience flying in my life. How it took 5 hours to get a flight and get to Bonaire is beyond me (and how my luggage made it on the same flight is a miracle).....

 

[drrich2]

1.) Most of the rental trucks are manual transmission. Some places can get automatics for an extra charge (like $154 - $200 for the week).

2.) Do not leave any sort of valuables in your trucks; divers' rental trucks are sitting ducks for petty theft.

3.) Hit Washington-Slagbaii Park up in the day when the lighting's good for photos.

4.) Wear thicker-soled boots like SeaSoft Sunrays, because that jagged ironshore can damage your feet through regular thin-soled scuba boots.

5.) Some favorite restaurants: Wil's Grill, City Cafe', Bon Appetit, Cactus Blue.

6.) Some favorite dive sites, roughly north to south: Kapata, Tolo, Oil Slick Leap, Andrea (I or II), The Cliff, Buddy Dive's house reef, Hilma Hooker, Angel City, Windsock.

7.) Get some apples at the store to feed wild donkeys you run across driving around the island. Also for iguanas and Bonaire whip-tail lizards (which in some places will eat out of your hand if you're patient and have some broken up apple in it).

8.) Since I'm pretty much limited to 80 cf aluminum tanks down there, I wish I'd known about this DiveRite Travel Stage Strap device, which along with an extra reg. & SPG should let me dive 2 tanks at a time next trip (hoping to try this).

9.) Food is expensive; plan to load up at the grocery store (Warehouse Bonaire may be your best bet on price, Van Den Tweel for selection, but a lot of VDT's isn't in English) on soda & food so you can eat in for breakfast & lunch & keep costs down. Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, cereal, that sort of thing.

10.) Windsock is a good site for night diving, as are some others. The Buddy Dive house reef is also good.

Richard.

 

[mheaster]

I wish i knew I could get by with only two pairs of Shorts and buy a T shirt or two!

 

[Reef Tank]

Basically the title says it all. What did you wish you knew before...

Curacao Westpunt, All West Apartments, and Go West

 

[RJP]

What did you wish you knew before you got there that you discovered?

• How small the island is, therefore how close the dive sites really are to one another.
• Forget planning what sites you want to dive in what order, on what days. Just "drive and dive."
• That "please, only two nitrox tanks per diver at a time" is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules
• Related to above, that if you put 6 tanks per diver in your truck you can drive around the island all day
• If you dive the park, put at least 3 tanks per diver in the truck, get there when the park opens, make a 1/2 day of it
• Do dive the park
• At many resorts with 24 hour tank access, nitrox tanks are only available 8am-5pm
• Did you know you can fit 2-3 Nitrox tanks in a dive locker?
• The ocean road is "One Way" northbound at one point; plan accordingly.
• PB&J sandwiches and powdered iced tea for lunch puts an extra $10 or so in your pocket each day
• An extra $10 or so in your pocket buys a few extra beers each night

 

[lmorin]

A few of mine might sound negative but here goes.

I wish I had known in advance about the visibility and coral bleaching. A group of 8 of us went down. First dive (compared to 6yrs ago) was like - bummer It's hard for me to write that because my first trip everything just seemed like paradise. I still really enjoyed it, but many of the group were underwhelmed. Now it's a year later. I hope the viz has improved but I haven't read much otherwise - I really, really hope I am wrong. Viz does not have to be 100+ feet to enjoy dives - but the bar had been set pretty high. The same goes for the beautiful reef colors that were gone, night diving under the town pier, etc..........

Sorry you had a negative experience. My wife and I have been to Bonaire about 9 times in the last 3 yrs and never had less than 75 ft vis with wonderful color, if the sun was out. Moreover, we have never seen systematic coral bleaching. There has been hit or miss damage, but nothing wide spread. There are some sites which suffered significant loss of corals and sponges because of a major storm. Others lost nothing.

 

[Scott from LongIsland]

Definitely dive the wild side if you have the opportunity. The guys at ViP diving will take you there and they are fantastic. La danias leap drift dive to Karpata is one of my favorites. Taylor made after Karpata makes a nice double header.

Try a UV night dive...one of the few places where you can do that right now. A unique experience to say the least.

One small item that may or may not come into use is the little tire fill adapter that you can buy for a few bucks either at your lds or down there. I have had a few tires run low or slowly leak. Kinda sucks to have a flat tire after a dive and that little contraption can come in handy (or hopefully won't be needed)

 

[deco_martini]

Knowing which dive sites are on declining parts of reef is good. Climbing Thousand Steps to dive an algae covered reef is anti-climactic.

 

[Craig66]

Knowing that the red eye out of Newark on United leaves at 11:58 and has to be searched for on the day prior to arrival!!!

---------- Post added May 2nd, 2012 at 11:20 PM ----------

Knowing which dive sites are on declining parts of reef is good. Climbing Thousand Steps to dive an algae covered reef is anti-climactic.

Besides Thousand Steps are there any others that are best avoided? - Thanks