any bonaire trip reports?

[arcticcat]

Any info on bonaire would be most appreciated. The wife and I are going for 3 weeks at xmas.

Favorite beaches, healthy food places to eat, things to do and not to do.

thanks.

 

[herman]

Be prepared to fall in love. It's a small arrid island. First time I went I was kind of expecting a lush tropical is land, kind of like Gulligan's island. It is actually very dry with lots of cactus and thorn bushes but has a beauty of it's own. The people are very friendly and a joy be be around. There are donkeys, goats and lizzards wondering free all around the island.

There are lots of very good places on the island to eat. Travel around and try lots of the places, including the local quick food joints called snacks. A couple of the local snacks to try are Mikly Snack and Gibi's Terrace. Most of the restuarants accept major credit cards and cash Both Guilders and USD are accepted at most restaurnats but some of the smaller places will only accept Guilders. It is considered impolite to give a customer his check before he ask for it so don't get upset if you don't get your check quickly. To "ask" for the check, get your waiter's attention and act like you are writing on your hand, they will get it to you. By the way, the water is completely safe to drink. It is made on island from distilled sea water. It's hot on Bonaire and diving dehydrates you, drink plenty of it.

There are several ATM machines on the island that despence either Guilders or USD. Expect to get most of your change in Guilders and all of the coins will be in Guilders. By the way, they use 5 (about $3.85 US) and 2 ($1.54 US)Guilders coins, took me a little time to get use to coins of that value.

The diving is great and very easy. The shore dives start in a few feet of water and have a gentle slope out to a depth of about 35 ft where it does a sharp drop to about 100 ft. There are lots of fish. Stop by any of the dive shops and get a book titled "Bonaire Diving Made Easy". It is a paperback that sells for about $10 US and is a good source of info about the dive sites on the island. You will be required to go through a orientation at the dive operation you are diving with and do a checkout dive at their "house reef" to get your Marine park tag. It is your permit to dive on Bonaire, it cost $10 US. The shore is covered with coral rubble and ironstone and rough on the feet. If you don't own hard sole dive boots I would suggest you get some. They help a lot on shore dives, esp when carrying tanks.

Whlie the island is very safe, there is some problem with petty crime, mostly cars broke into at dive sites. Don't take anything to a dive site you don't need or take into the water with you (except for tanks, they are marked and almost worthless on island). Leave the windows down and the doors unlocked. In 4 yr we have not had any problems.

If you have not done so, drop by http://www.BonaireTalk.com/newsgroup/messages/board-topics.html and sign in. There are a lot of great people on that board as well and they can answer any question you may have. A search of the board can answer questions like favorite restaurants.

PM me if you have any specific questions, be happy to try and answer them.

 

[meca]

Any info on bonaire would be most appreciated. The wife and I are going for 3 weeks at xmas.

Favorite beaches, healthy food places to eat, things to do and not to do.

thanks.

My wife and I just returned from a two week stay in Bonaire. Are expectations were very hi before we arived. Our first dive was at Buddy's Dive Resort and there wasn't much to see except three Tarpen that follow us. The vis was fair and got worst as the week went by. It has been rainning and the runoff has murked the water up.
The correl was mostly shades of brown and the schools of fish were difficult to find.
Atlantis outer reef had more schools of fish than others. We both felt the Island's reefs have been strest from the storms and the many divers that visit the reefs day and night. We have visited several other islands in the Caribbean-Bonaire
wasn't the worst but close to it. Buddy's Dive where we stayed had little to no water
during the day. This got old afer the first week. There is several good resturants and
some of the local take-away was fair. I cannot recommend going to Bonaire when there are other islands to visit in the Caribbean that have much better diving.

 

[RICHinNC]

Hey....Herman is right on. Made my first visit with the "master" a couple weeks ago.

Try breakfast at MANGOs...just a short distance down the road from Buddy Dive. Also, eat at CASABLANCAs and order the grill teller for two.....you will have enough food for lunch for 3 days !!

Also....take some Stridex Pads or something to clean your hands and face after each dive. Myself and a lady from Norway we met there got rashes on our hands and her on her thighs as well. Red bumps that burn and itch like the devil. The good news is....they are almost gone((((arrgggg the urge to scratch))))

Not to dispute Meca....I found one of our best dives was to leave Buddy's pier and head left. Herman , what was the name of that resort we got out at????

Any way.....we saw loads of morals, a snake eel and all kinds of other things. But each dive can be different. We dove 1000 Steps and it was unbelievable what we saw. Then, after a good surface interval, redove the exact same spot....it was vastly different.

I think a lot will depend on how you dive. I have a tendency to go faster than most....but Herman slowed me down and I saw more.

Either way....you should enjoy yourself. I would also suggest a sunset cruise on the Mushi Mushi. Bob and his dad do a nice deal.

rich

 

[herman]

Rich, that was Eden Beach. It's where the UW and topside web cams are located. I will have to agree that vis was down a good bit but is was still in the 40-50 ft range. It is understandable however, with all the rain they have had over the last 3 or 4 weeks.

 

[diversteve]

Any info on bonaire would be most appreciated. The wife and I are going for 3 weeks at xmas.

Favorite beaches, healthy food places to eat, things to do and not to do.

thanks.

Beaches on Bonaire are few/far between. Pink Beach is mostly rock/coral since the last hurricane(not Ivan). Plaza Resort makes their own so it's pretty nice. They have watertoys and an outdoor bar there as well. You don't have to be staying there either. You might find some small stretches of beach south past Salt Pier, but it's pretty remote with no amenities. Even most of the sandy areas will have coral rubble or ironshore right off the beach so wear boots or surf shoes.

Mostly what everybody does is dive, there's not a lot of other stuff to do. You could go to Slagbaii park but should have a truck/4x4 for the remote areas.

Go to Lac Bay for windsurfing and see the Salt flats/flamingos one day. You can also kayak there in the mangroves, I don't have any details, we didn't have time to do it.

Most of the donkeys have been rounded up and are in the Sanctuary near the airport. I read there's still a few running around so watch for them at night, they hover near the road looking for handouts and one gets hit occasionally.(actually pretty often before they were rounded up)

There's a few small caves up past the Radio towers, and stop at Rincon on the drive back. Experience the locals, they're some of the friendliest people I've met.

Good places to eat: it rains fishes, Casablanca, ZeeZicht. ZeeZicht had some healthier items available.

Link to lot's of Bonaire trip reports on this forum:

http://www.scubaboard.com/search.php?searchid=951124

Also as mentioned previously, check out www.bonairetalk.com. Everything I read there was pretty accurate and we were able to easily find places described there.

I concur with everything herman said. His post is an accurate portrayal of Bonaire. Especially the part about getting your check, it took us about 3 days to figure that out. I think you could sit till they closed at most places.

PM me with any specific questions.

Steve

 

[herman]

Steve, the SB link you posted does not work

 

[diversteve]

Steve, the SB link you posted does not work

It did the first time I tried it. Oh well, just type bonaire trip report in the Search box for about 5 pages of links.

thx herman,

Steve

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It is considered impolite to give a customer his check before he ask for it so don't get upset if you don't get your check quickly. To "ask" for the check, get your waiter's attention and act like you are writing on your hand, they will get it to you.

Wow ... I wish someone had told me that before I went. We spent some long surface intervals waiting for our waiter/ress to bring our check, when we really just wanted to pay and get back in the water.

Bonaire is an awesome place to rack up a lot of dives in a few days ... but it's not a place to take a non-diver.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Jester]

Bonaire is an awesome place to rack up a lot of dives in a few days ... but it's not a place to take a non-diver.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

If the only way you can get away with going to Bonaire is to take a non-diver with you, then by all means, take the non-diver, plant them at the hotel pool and go diving! LOL!