Just back from Bonaire and Buddy Dive--LONG

[scubadobadoo]

PART 1:

Our last vacation was spent riding out Hurricane Wilma in Cozumel and we really needed this trip to go off without a hitch. We weren’t disappointed! I hope you enjoy this first timer’s report of the Buddy Dive resort and shore diving Bonaire.

Accommodations:
Buddy Dive http://www.buddydive.com/ really exceeded our expectations considering that we are somewhat budget minded travelers. We booked their Spring Saver Package. Cheaper places can be found on Bonaire but few that match the convenience of Buddy Dive. It was kind of like an all inclusive but without the hassle of one. In other words, they take care of everything for you without making you feel like your vacation relies totally on them. Eat at the on-site restaurants or not. Dive with them on the Buddy Dive boats or just use your rental truck to shore dive only. The rental car comes from them. No long lines at the airport to get a truck/car and return it. The tanks come from them. No going to a dive shop to get tanks once you check in. Store your gear with them in the gear lockers or keep it in your room. It’s up to you. Do what you want, when you want to, especially if you aren’t boat diving. No schedule!!

You wanna dive nitrox at 2am on the Buddy Reef or some other site? No problem! Walk down to the waterside dive shop, get a nitrox tank (63 or 80), analyze it (they have two analyzers waterside), kit up, and walk into the water all in about 5 minutes and without having to walk more than 50 yards from your room. Truly a great set up for diving at the Buddy Dive reef.

The room we had was a studio all though we only booked a hotel room. This was a pleasant and free upgrade. The studio adds a small kitchen to the hotel room and we found that to be a great place to dump gear mostly. We didn’t eat in but we did use the refrigerator for drinks and fruit snacks. The bedroom was a decent size and we never felt cramped. The AC worked well and the TV did too. The bed was pretty comfy but of course your mileage may vary here. The bathroom was large and the shower (no tub) was plenty big for couple showers. The water pressure was great and the water was always warm except for the one day we returned to our room to find the water of completely. No problem, we had lunch, returned and it was working again. The studio was always clean with daily maid service. Really nothing fancy on the rooms but more than divers generally want or need on a dive dedicated vacation.

We were staying on the old Lion’s Dive side and found the grounds to be charming and well kept. Fresh paint, a clean pool, and a well manicured facility but not so fancy that you feel out of place walking around with dripping gear or in a bathing suit. No complaints here. Oh, don’t forget to say hello to Puck (the Buddy Dive Dog) and all the Buddy Dive cats.






Dining:
A hearty breakfast was always had at Buddy Dive. It was included as part of our package and was very convenient to roll out of bead and walk to the dining area. It was buffet style and featured various fruits, cereal, pastries, eggs, bacon etc…and a person making omelet’s and waffles. The birds will help you eat your meal if you sit close to the water. I enjoyed this but the seagull does get loud if you ignore him! Becky really enjoyed the coffee machine with about 4 types if I recall.

Lunch was almost always eaten at Buddy Dive’s on-site pool bar/restaurant Bella Vista. http://www.buddydive.com/lunchbellavista.html Convenience and the fact that we received 50% off all lunch orders here as part of our package drove us to eat here frequently. Service was usually fast and friendly and the food could be described as hearty, typically American, plentiful, and usually pretty good. I liked the fish and shrimp skewers the best. (http://www.buddydive.com/poolbar.html) If you don’t get a discount here then consider exploring other lunch options a few times if you feel like driving to find food. You can charge lunch here to your room and pay for it at the end of your stay. One very good lunch we had was at a small place called El Fogon Latino. (insert picture and address)It’s a bit off the beaten track but well worth the hunt. The food is very reasonable and also yummy in a typical Columbian way. Info about El Fogon and other things Bonaire can be found here http://www.infobonaire.com/restaurant.html.

We had dinner twice at Buddy Dive’s on-site restaurant, the Lion’s Den. http://www.buddydive.com/lionsden.html This may be the best dive resort restaurant we have ever eaten at. It is a bit pricey compared to other places on the island but the service was good and the food was always very yummy! The Bombay Duo was my favorite meal there. Bombay Duo ~ Black Tiger shrimps & scallops tossed in a light Thai Indian Madras Curry with pesto, sweetened with coconut & tropical fruits. http://www.bonairedining.com/guide/restaurants/lionsden.html

Buddy Dive also has themed dinners at the pool bar restaurant a few times a week and we ate at the barbeque night on our last night. It’s an all you can eat buffet style with the food cooked on a large grill outside. Lots of grilled meat (fish, chicken, beef) that was tasty and plentiful. If you are looking for a good place to meet other divers and drink and chat then you may want to consider coming over to one of these themed nights. The place was packed and featured a small live band with a popular local singer named Moogie. We ran into fellow board member TenHigh who told us about the large hammerhead everyone seemed to see but us.

Earlier in the week we tried the new place Cactus Blue, where we were recognized by fellow board member Mtnman who reported seeing a hammerhead and even posted a photo to prove it! Dinner was pretty good but not good enough for a second visit. I did like the coconut shrimp on a bed of sweet potato though! Becky liked the crab balls…hhhmm. http://www.cactusbluebonaire.com

We ate at Pasa Bon Pizza twice. It’s a charming pizza joint with a small menu. The pizza is good although not the best I have ever had but I do live in NYC. They are only opened Wednesday through Sunday from 5-11pm so they were always a good late night option and were also close to Buddy Dive. Cold pizza makes a great snack for a surface interval! Becky says to order the garlic bread. http://www.bonairedining.com/guide/restaurants/pasabonpizza.html

A special shout out to our favorite restaurant this trip, Casablancas! Traditional Argentinean fair. http://www.bonairedining.com/guide/restaurants/casablanca.html Very good filet mignon and we always had service with charm and chat from Pablo! A word of warning about the mixed grill! It is more food than you think! (See the photo below for comic effect) We ordered it the first night and it was good but too darn much! We actually went back a second night because we felt we had maybe missed out on something by just ordering large amounts of grilled meat. Maybe we are partial to Argentinean places as Especias is our favorite place to eat in Cozumel and is also Argentinean. We had the same personal service here at Casablancas. We felt like part of the family. Pablo’s 3 year old son even brought us our bill the first night. Casablancas also has an inside dining area for non-smokers or those wanting to escape the bugs or heat.



Dinner for two on Bonaire will typically cost about $50 per couple without alcohol. Lunch typically cost us about $25 without alcohol. I remember reading some reports of slow service but we never experienced this. Perhaps we weren’t traveling and dining during peak times. Service ranges from very basic to down right charming but in my opinion Bonaire has a way to go before it perfects customer service like Cozumel but this again is only one person’s opinion. This is a great dining guide online http://www.bonairedining.com/guide/.

PART 2 Coming in minutes...

 

[scubadobadoo]

PART 2

Diving:
Welcome to the confessions of a shore diving junky! We didn’t step foot on a boat once this entire trip. No schedules, no divers kicking me in the head, no crowded boats with smokers, no bottom time limits, and no dive guide harassing marine life. These are the things that bug me about boat diving and that I try to avoid.

After a quick 25 minute or so orientation video (9am and 2pm at Buddy Dive) and a check out dive that consists of a dive master overseeing a Buddy Reef shore dive from land to basically make sure you have the proper weight and don’t have any questions, you decide what comes next! For the whole week! Nap, dive, eat, nap, dive, dive, eat, nap, dive, dive, dive, dive…it only continues this way for the whole week. We found it actually helped to set a basic schedule for our shore dives otherwise we realized we could easily succumb to the nap, nap, and nap routine. We averaged three dives a day with one four dive day. Perfect! All from shore!! Heaven!!!

I highly recommend you purchase a shore diving guide called Bonaire Diving Made Easy by Jessie Armacost. It can be purchased online http://www.bonairestuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=BK-BSDME or you can get it at any dive shop in Bonaire. It will give you detailed, up to date (latest version is the 4th edition) info on both the dives marked with yellow stones and some other unmarked sites as well. Because this book is all the info you need to shore dive Bonaire, (get a free map of Bonaire online or when you get there http://www.geographia.com/bonaire/bondiv03.htm) I will keep my dive site descriptions basic. That said, the little yellow stones that mark each site need a little painting at a few sites but are generally easy to find and see. Some of the dive sites are off the main road and aren’t easy to see or may be inside various dive resorts like the one at Buddy Dive. This is frequently the case in Kralendijk due to the fact that construction pretty much covers the shore access in the center of town. As always, when shore diving, get out of your car and walk your path to the water because some sites are trickier than others. Twisting an ankle or falling is always a possibility even at the really easy dive sites and I would list most of them as being easy compared to a weekend spent shore diving in Cape Ann, Ma. None of them were just a quick walk over a sandy beach. We always had to plan a path through small rocks and coral or had to step down a coral shelf a foot or so to get into the water. Don’t worry though, this is pretty basic stuff to deal with after a glance. A pair of thick soled diving boots is a must and a full 3mil wetsuit or skin is my recommendation to help avoid scrapes and scratches! Gloves are banned in the marine park. We rarely had current and visibility was always around 75 feet. (photos of entries)

Buddy dive has a great system for getting tanks for shore diving. It’s a drive through tank station. Drive your rental truck up, get tanks, air or nitrox (32 or 36), analyze, put them in the back of your truck and drive off. Return them the same way. Becky loves to use the 63 tanks for shore diving and they were almost always available. They also always had plenty of nitrox with the exception of one day when we used air tanks as the nitrox tanks were not available for some odd reason. My guess is they got backed up and didn’t fill them the night before, who knows. No big deal. Nitrox was included as a free upgrade with our package. They also have a fill station down on the waterfront where the gear storage and dive shop is located.



Part 3 Coming in minutes...

 

[scubadobadoo]

PART 3

The Dives:
1. 5/13/06, Buddy Reef, 10:36am, 43min, 38fsw, 82f, 32%:
Check out dive after orientation can be done whenever you feel like it. Pay for marine park tags ($25 each for the year) entry down steps, follow rope to drop off in about 25fsw, head north, saw lots of the usual and one small hawksbill, visibility about 75ft, slope at the drop off is steeper than I thought it would be, eyes burning from the stupid pound of Bull Frog on my face! Nice dive. Current? What current!

2. 5/13/06, Oil Slick Leap, 3:12pm, 55min, 62fsw, 82f, 32%:
4 foot leap off rocks and exit up a new ladder after dive. Park right at entrance, very healthy reef, 3 spotted drum, 2 eel, and lots of the usual, slight current, one of my favs all week.

3. 5/13/06, Buddy Reef, 10:27pm, 27min, 35fsw, 81f, 32%:
First night dive of many at Buddy, greeted by two huge tarpon that were very friendly and hunting by dive light, assumed one of them was the infamous house tarpon Charlie.

4. 5/14/06, 1000 Steps, 11:27am, 48fsw, 62min, 82f, 32%:
Lovely view, 72 steps not so bad, healthy site, lots of shallow life before the drop off, busy with locals having picnics on a stunning Sunday afternoon!

5. 5/14/06, Ol Blue, 1:35pm, 58fsw, 43min, 82f, 32%:
Quick swim over sand to the drop off, park close to water, entry pretty easy down sand and coral beach, busy beach with divers, lots of usuals spotted with many barracuda and 2 spotted drum.

6. 5/14/06, Buddy Reef, 7:05pm, 32fsw, 55min, 81f, 32%:
Lots of divers heading out, Charlie the tarpon again, octopus, 2 eel free swimming, and more.

7. 5/15/06, The Lake, 10:25am, 79fsw, 45min, 82f, 32%:
Headed south for the first time, breezy topside, easy entry over coral rubble, across sand to drop off, garden eels in the sand channel between double reef system at 80fsw, lots of usual.

8. 5/15/06, Angel City, 12:08pm, 38fsw, 57min, 82f, 32%:
Very nice shallow location, dense and healthy, covered in lettuce leaf sea slugs, spotted drums AGAIN, and more, short walk over sand to the water, accidentally left car keys and dry box in the car…ooopsie! Who’s in charge here?

9. 5/15/06, Buddy Reef to Reef Scientifico to La Machaca Wreck, 4:11pm, 51fsw, 57min, 82f, 32%:
Swam north towards Captain Don’s and two other dive sites, La Machaca a small wreck in 30-40fsw, large grouper inside, Charlie again, porcupine fish, scorpion fish, and more, very busy with life at this hour, cleaning stations active, the most fish life out and about yet.

10. 5/16/06, Karpata, 10:06am, 67fsw, 59min, 82f, 32%:
Entry and exit not too bad, enter on right side of washed out dock, busy with divers, nice shallow area, not any better than any other site but a little more rolling topography, research divers counting fish in shallows.

11. 5/16/06, Pink Beach, 12:27pm, 47fsw, 50min, 81f, 32%:
Long drive back south from Karpata, very breezy, across from salt ponds, easy entry, spotted eagle ray, lots of usual, 2 free swimming eel.

12. 5/16/06, Town Pier, 6:52pm, 34fsw, 61min, 81f, 32%:
Make sure you do this dive, 5 spotted drum, 2 sea horses, 6 free swimming eel, decorator crabs, a maze of pier pilings, tires of all sizes, macro life galore, trash and rubble pile filled with life, coral and sponge in every color and on all over the place and on the pier pilings, Becky said it was like being in a bad hood in Queens with the best and most colorful graffiti you have ever seen! I think we have been living in NYC too long. This dive reminded me of Fat Albert’s neighborhood or one of those paintings JJ used to paint on Good Times. Colorful, cartoonish, and fancy in a run down way. 4 divers per dive guide, $25 per diver fee, worth every penny and then some!

13. 5/17/06, Windsock, 11:55am, 43fsw, 65min, 82f, 32%:
Our theme today was easy and slow, easy entry, spent lots of time in one small area, lots of the usual.

14. 5/17/06, Bachelor’s Beach, 1:37pm, 48fsw, 53min, 82f, 32%:
Entry down a few steps built over iron shore a tiny bit tricky but easy once you walk it for yourself, lots of the usual, navigated back to the beach from the drop off with mask off for practice, slight surf at exit, lovely houses on shore line.

15. 5/17/06/, Buddy Reef, 8:03pm, 50fsw, 68min, 81f, 32%:
Busy with divers and marine life tonight, Charlie the tarpon again, free swimming eel, orange cup coral under the dock, always a lovely night dive.

16. 5/18/06, Oil Slick Leap, 10:03am, 50fsw, 68min, 81f, 32%:
Eels, spotted drums, spent some time in the shallows along the cliff wall, filled with life.

17: 5/18/06, Andrea I, 12:21pm, 44fsw, 50min, 82f, 32%:
Fed iguanas during surface interval here, spotted drum, grouper, chub and more, entry through a newly constructed neighborhood, just follow yellow rocks, stumbled and bruised my tail on a large rock, shore entry a little tricky but not too bad, just look for sand channel.

18. 5/18/06, Buddy Reef, 3:02pm, 51fsw, 46min, 82f, 32%:
Only 4 dive day, out to the Machaca again, always a lovely and convenient dive.

19. 5/18/06, Buddy Reef, 9:40pm, 25fsw, 42min, 81f, Air:
2 eels right under Buddy dock, Charlie as usual, nice and quite later at night without all the divers around.

20. 5/19/06, Buddy Reef, 9:03am, 51fsw, 71min, 82f, 32%:
Swam south for the first time to the pirate ship, jawfish galore, very protective damselfish kept us busy for a while, Charlie said bye bye, strange solo diver tugged on my fin and scared the hell out of me then asked us if we saw any frog fish by writing in the sand. Lovely morning dive before cruising around the island to take photos on our last full day!



Part 4 Coming...

 

[scubadobadoo]

PART 4

On land attractions:
Visit the charming Donkey Sanctuary http://www.bonairenature.com/donkey/ located out by the airport 2.2 Km along a dirt/rock road. They don’t take cards so bring $6 per person. At first we were a little shy with the donkeys and would only feed them from the car. (insert donkey in car shot) It’s a driving tour by the way. After twenty minutes we were out of the car and surrounded by literally 100+ donkeys all looking for a little love and especially for some snacks that can be purchased ($2 per bag) at the gift shop. The donkeys are very cute but aren’t shy at all but don’t worry. They will follow you like giant dogs. I remarked that I felt like some strange religious leader of a cult that only allowed donkeys as followers. They are pretty gentle though and a small pamphlet will instruct you on how to feed them if this kind of thing is new to you. Dinner time is around 3:30pm if you want to watch all 300 or so donkeys eat at the same time in one area. The Donkey Sanctuary is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00am until 4:00pm daily. I believe the last car tour is allowed at 4pm and has to be finished by 5pm but don’t quote me on this. (insert donkey group shots and out of car shots)

At some of the dive sites lizards and iguanas abound. Bring some fruit (like oranges and bananas) and spend a surface interval feeding the gang. One great spot for this is Andrea 1. We saw one iguana and decided to feed it when it begged at our feet and the next thing you know we were surrounded by about 25 lizards and iguanas looking for snacks. They are obviously hand fed a lot as they were about as shy as the donkeys. This experience started as an impromptu moment that ranks as a favorite for us. After a few minutes Becky was feeding them like she was a lunch room lady and did it for a living. By the way, she used her dive knife to cut the oranges all week. First time in years we needed it! (insert iguana shots)

Visit the old slave huts while on a surface interval near one of the southern dive sites. Red Slave is the name of the dive site that contains some of the slave huts shown in many tourist photos of Bonaire. The experience speaks for itself. (insert slave hut photos)

Drive to Lac Bay (about 25 minutes from Buddy Dive) to watch the wind surfers and have a drink at the tiki hut style bar at Jibe City. We didn’t leave enough time to take a lesson but plan on doing it next time.(photos)

Drive to the southern part of the Island and see the strange trash art along the windswept and rocky coast. Major surf dude! (insert photo) While you are in the area visit the dive site known as Atlantis where you will find kite boarders flying through the air! Just think windsurfing but with a giant kite instead of a sail. This was amazing to watch! Lessons can also be arranged. I see a broken leg in my future! (insert photos)

While driving along the southern tip, look for the flamingos. They aren’t close to the road so bring some binoculars. We saw them around Willemstoren Lighthouse, also a dive site. All of the above southern attractions and the donkey sanctuary were easily visited on our last day. Part 5 coming...

 

[scubadobadoo]

PART 5

Random Thoughts:
Bring mosquito repellent and use it all day long. All of our meals were eaten outside in open-air restaurants. Everything in Bonaire seems to be open-air. Mosquito’s were in our room, the rental car, and everywhere else that had a door. Just think Florida in the summer but don’t worry about this minor issue. We used a product called Cactus Juice that was recommended in other trip reports and it worked well when we remembered to use it. The Cactus Juice miracle gel also soothed my burned forehead. http://www.cactusjuicetm.com/

Restaurants and stores don’t have normal American business hours and may be closed even if they advertise that they are open for lunch (no names). Be flexible when it comes to eating out and shopping. One of the local grocery stores (The Cultimara) was fun to shop in for fruit and water but they were running low on many items. That’s island life. Just go with the flow.

Crime isn’t an issue but for the very few unlucky. Before I came here I was admittedly put off by reports of crime on Bonaire. While some have unfortunately experienced thefts, we didn’t and always felt safe. We even accidentally left our truck keys and dry box in the car during a shore dive and the dry box was filled with personal items and cash. No takers! We did bring some cheap clothes, dive bag, hats, sunglasses and flip flops and always left those in the truck with the windows rolled down. By the end of the week it became a game to see if we could get something stolen from our car while shore diving. We even left our neoprene gear outside our studio at Buddy dive overnight. Moreover, the guy next door (who won his trip in a photo contest) lost his backpack and it was returned to him the next day. I left my sunglasses on the dock at Buddy Dive and when I returned, someone had placed them in the “glasses” box for me. Other guests also left gear outside overnight to dry. We feel robbed that nobody cared enough to steal our stuff. Really! Nobody loves us! Let me point out that in no way am I making light of others negative experiences. I’m just have a silly sense of humor and also want to report a positive experience from a first timer that was honestly a little reluctant to book this trip due to crime reports. Buddy Dive has a few security guards and at night they check cars in and out of the resort and walk the grounds. Our favorite security guard always wore a red members only jacket and looked a little like one of the guys from the Thriller video but he was very pleasant and always greeted us with a smile so we never asked him for his autograph.

One of the best things about shore diving Bonaire is the driving around and exploring. Cactus, birds, flowers, wild donkey, wild goats, donkey pooh everywhere (I hope), rocky outcrops, tiny roads along cliffs, amazing ocean views, cool houses, flamingos, beaches galore that range in style and variety, bare asses peeling out of wet suits at dive sites, and more! By the way, the island is small and you won’t use as much time or gas as you thought you might getting around. We only used one tank and filled it up for about $55 US at the end of the week. Also, our Toyota double cab truck (manual) didn’t have power steering for the record and this made parking at some cliff like sites a fun task. For some reason we named the truck “Bevalaqua” because that was the word that kept popping into my head during a few dives for some strange reason! (photos of driving around)

On your first day, stop by the grocery store and buy some large water bottles for shore diving. Fill them up in the sink and freeze them the night before and then take them with you. We brought some crystal light packets and added it to the water. It’s hot although the constant Bonaire breeze will help. We also used the water to rinse our camera after dives.

Bring some old towels along with some junky clothes to use after a shore dive. Buddy dive will give you nice beach towels but if you don’t return them you have to pay $20 each.

If you need to make phone calls or use the internet, the easiest place we found was Chat and Browse located about a 30 second drive from Buddy Dive. http://www.chatnbrowse.com/index.html A ten minute call to the US and one hour of internet service cost about $11. If you have a laptop you can drive up 24 hrs. a day and get wireless service.

Travel:
We flew American Airlines from JFK to San Juan to Bonaire using sky miles without any issues. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to make connections after reading some horror stories about people not having enough time or being bumped. We ended up with a six hour layover in San Juan and took a cab into town to have lunch and visit one of the forts in Old San Juan. This was a great side trip! We had a delicious lunch at a local joint called Cafeteria Mallorca then walked 3-4 blocks to Fuerte San Cristobal. Cab fair was about $20 each way from the airport and the fort only charges about $6 per person.(photos)



Overbooking can be an issue on flights. As I type this paragraph at the Bonaire airport some people are being told they can’t get on the flight because there is not enough room. They will be staying another day I guess. Get to the airport early and leave plenty of time to make connections. The airlines may let you book with only 30 minutes to make a connection but it doesn’t mean they will wait for you. Remember that you have to get through customs when you return and this can be a lengthy process on a busy travel day. Buddy dive arranged and paid for our trips to and from the airport as part of our package.


THE END

 

[timetraveler]

Thanks for the great trip report, scubadobadoo. We've gone to Buddy Dive the past two years and will be there again for two weeks in October. Maybe that qualifies me as a "shore diving junkie" too

 

[lenexadiver]

Wow, great report. We're heading to Bonaire & staying at Buddies in two weeks. Your trip report has got me more excited then I already was.

 

[TSandM]

Wonderful, thorough report -- thanks!

 

[Martha]

Wonderful trip report! We made our first trip to Bonaire last Dec. and it sounds like you loved it as much as we did. We're going back again this Dec.

 

[herman]

Nice report. You did set off a really bad case of PBD...I need an Amstel.