Bonaire 2003 Trip and Dive Report

[Natasha]

Paul:
Yes, of course you should report this back to me. That is why I said I will report it to my " friends". They need to know if their resort is going down and people are unhappy. Didn't I say that?

 

[steffi]

All the points, both good and bad made by everyone about the Plaza are valid. Many thought it was great and many, including people from outside of our group thought otherwise. If you are looking for a “luxury” hotel, Plaza Resort is probably not what you want. However, if you are booking a “dive” trip and do not expect to do too much pampering in your room, then these rooms are adequate and spacious. The prices at Toucan Diving are quite reasonable--$30 for a 2-tank boat dive, $18 for a night dive, and $5 for a Nitrox tank. Generally, the boat rides to dive sites are short, so after a 2-tank dive in the morning, there is still plenty of time for a afternoon shore and/or night dive(s). A truck is needed to go around the island for shore dives. If you have access to shore diving, you may want to request the boat to take you to sites which are accessible by boat only. (Which either we didn’t ask or the dive shop didn’t comply.)

The water temperature was about 83 degrees. Just about every dive, we saw at least one eel. The last dive I did there at Town Pier at night was fantastic. We saw seahorses, frogfish, huge tarpons, octopus, etc. The Salt Pier and Karpata were also very nice dives.

I would have appreciated it if the dive masters were to show us more hidden creatures that only they knew where to find. I also thought we went into the water too early for the night dive…the fish was not quite out yet!

It was a dynamic group we had…full of personality and helpful individuals. Great diving with you all!

 

[Bob]

Beth and I are back from Bonaire and we are about to get over our vacation. The diving was great. The visibility was better this year than last year. The highlights of the diving were two dives at Karpata, the night dive at the town pier and the night dive at Klein Bonaire. At the town pier we saw an octopus, a seahorse, many large Tarpons and, of course the orange cup coral on the pilings. I was bumped on the shoulder by a large Tarpon. This was a neat encounter with a very large fish. The night dive at Klein Bonaire found me viewing my first spanish lobster and another bug that would have weighed eight pounds easy. I want to thank Natasha for donating $100 towards the night dive on Klein. This brought the total cost per diver to $6.40 - that's cheap entertainment in my book. She didn't have to do this but she did. Thank you Natasha. The rest of the diving week has been detailed by Dave and I won't go into a day by day report. Dave did a good job on that already. The diving was great , the water was warm and I'm already counting days until next year.

There have been many opinions posted here about the Plaza and Toucan Diving. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I respect each person's opinion. However, I respectfully disagree with some of the opinions posted here. The Plaza was first rate as usual. Our rooms were cleaned every day and they were cleaned well. We had no problem with housekeeping. We did have some light bulbs out and one call to the front desk fixed that problem promptly. As a matter of fact, the night manager came to our room himself and brought the light bulbs. What more can you ask?

As for Toucan Diving, my thoughts are: They did everything possible to insure that we had a good week diving. One day we did have 16 divers. I went to Ramon as soon as we returned and told him that was too many divers. He agreed and said that it wouldn't happen again. The next day there were only eight divers on the boat and the day after only five. He kept his word and that's all I can ask him to do. My thanks to Erika and Luis for a great week's diving. I plan to ask for them next year. Ramon took full responsibility for the lack of party. Ramon was going to buy meals and drinks for our group but most of the group had left by the time we realized the food he though was going to be there wasn't. He tried to make things right and apologized. Ramon and Steve have promised a nice going away party at the Dive shop next year.

We had a great week on Bonaire at the Plaza and plan to be back next year. You might even see Beth on the boat!:tree:Bob:

 

[Bob]

Here's a somewhat humorous addition to my trip report. Dave, Dmitry and I were sitting at the bar at Flamingo Intl last Saturday afternoon disussing the weeks dives. A man next to us struck up a conversation and asked where we had stayed and who we dove with. Dave told him. This guy then went into a long drawn out horror story(s) about the resort where he had stayed that week, the dive shop he used was crap and on and on. You get the story. This was one of the major resorts on Bonaire. A resort and dive shop I have heard many people here on the board recommend as "first rate". Before leaving he said, "I wish we had stayed at the Plaza and used Toucan Diving, I will never use those blankety blanks over there again". I guess it just goes to show that one man's junk is another man's treasure. :tree: Bob

 

[socaldiver]

from Chicago.

Bob, Beth on the boat next year? Now I know I have to go!! :wacko:


Leaving tonight on the red eye to go back to work so I won't get a chance to post for awhile. But when I get back home the end of October I will have my pics transferred to a CD (since my scanner is scrap now) and then post the better ones.

 

[Bob]

Stay in touch and give Kath another hug for me will ya? :tease: Be safe my friend. :tree: Bob

 

[SharkOfBonaire]

domino22 once bubbled...
13 days was to long and the diving got a little boring for that long of time. It did not seem to me to have a very diverse reef system,it was very similar at most of the sites. I also think the dive shops there should work together and start sinking ships for artifical reefs like a lot of dive locations are doing.

No thank you, 3 is enough. Bonaire has a Marine Park, not an underwater Amusement Park. Let's not spoil that.