Bonaire Trip Report & Intro.

[drrich2]

Hi:

2 Years ago, my wife, friend and I spent a week in Bonaire 3/07 with the Parrot Island Divers group out of Nashville, TN (we live in KY). This year we got to go back for a second trip, 3-21-09 - 3-28-09. It was a lot of fun; my friend & I got our AOW certification on this trip. I thought I'd make a simple trip report, and since people post on this forum asking about going to Bonaire, maybe lay out a little of what it's like. These photos are a mix from me, my wife Jami and our friend Wallob Hebel.

Bonaire is an island near Aruba, larger but much less densely populated (although cruise ships are bringing in big crowds some days; a big Royal Caribbean ship came while we were there; I saw street vendors with outdoor tables this trip, unlike our '07 trip), where coral reefs are close to shore and you can shore dive - walk in & swim out to the reef - rather than hire a dive boat to take you out, unlike much of the Caribbean diving sites. People often get a package deal that includes a resort stay, rental truck and unlimited scuba tank usage (pick'em up full, drop'em off empty, grab some more).

We had a 4 hour non-stop flight on Delta from Atlanta to Bonaire's Flamingo International Airport, one of the littlest airports (& the only pink one) I've ever seen. Flamingos occur wild on Bonaire and they feature strongly in local marketing.

We stayed at Eden Beach Resort in a 2 story apartment designed to accomodate 4 people.

Gas stove; the oven dial doesn't have #'s for temp.s, so you have to guess.

Upstairs is where the bedrooms were.

A southern dive site. At the southern sites you can often part fairly close to the Ocean, and walk in. Entry at some sites (i.e.: Hilma Hooker) is challenging, because rough, irregular rocky formations along shore are obscured by incoming waves. Some sites have better entry, like Aquarius and Windsock.

The dark near shore is rocky bottom, the light turquiose our further is sandy bottom, and the dark beyond that is deeper water.

 

[drrich2]

As you swim out the shallows often look like this.

Then you hit the reef edge.

Then the reef.

Which often has a 'hillside' shape, sloping downward.

There are a few wrecks. The Hilma Hooker is so large I can't take a photo of it alone, but right off our resort site was the dive site Eden's Rubble, and there's a sunken boat called the Bakanal in around 60 - 80 feet of water.

Not much 'coral reef' at Eden's Rubble, but a nice rock ledge along the shallows where you can find animals in the shallows, a nice night dive (we did 2, accompanied by 2 large tarpon), and we've found scorpion fish in the shallows on both trips.

Tarpon like hanging out with night divers, hoping the lights to show them prey.

At night these things were out; they can yank themselves into the sand very fast.

Eden's Rubble has a wooden pier; you can giant stride in (Wallob took this shot of me).

I'm not going to try to show you all the animals. A few representative shots.

Wallob's sweet French Angel fish photo.

Sand Darter.

One of the many, beautiful parrotfish, which are very common here.

A big grouper, around 3 or 4 feet long; I don't know the species, and haven't seen a grouper this size in Bonaire otherwise.

 

[drrich2]

Watching a Flounder is just plain weird.

Some of the northern sites have interesting entries; here's Wallob's shot of Oil Slick Leap; I'm the guy on the right in turquoise swim trunks, around 6'1" tall, for scale. It's perhaps an 8' drop via giant stride to get in, if you don't want to use the ladder.

Don't neglect the top side pleasures. The Donkey Sanctuary is always good for a trip.

Coming back from that, we saw one of those rare Bonaire parrots - a type of Amazon parrot.

 

[drrich2]

Spend a few hours at Washington-Slagbaii Park and see some natural splendor of rock formations, and enjoy the arid tropical island vegetation (which of which has torns, and there are many cacti). Goats are common; they've been trying to round up the wild donkeys, but some are still loose.

Don't miss the inland salty water bodies with flamingos (& what look like fiddler crabs with small burrows along the shore in places).

The north shore has some nice scenery.

Take an apple and feed some of the whip-tail lizards.

But if you feed an iquana, be careful; this chap accidentally bit Wallob (looked like about 3 parallel paper cuts).

Some still wild donkeys, with my wife and friend.

I hired Roger with Blennylips to film us & make a DVD of one of our dives at Sabadeco Pier (not public access, but he has access), so we could show the folks back home a little of what it's like.

It rained part of a day while we were there.

And don't forget to make new friends (I don't know if we're ever going to get the smile off Wallob's face).

There's more to tell, of course, but we had a great time and highly recommend it.

Richard.

P.S.: As noted in some other posts, yes, mosquitos were really bad for some reason. The near constant wind that blows over Bonaire keeps them at bay most of the time, but when we ate evenings in restaurants with structures that were outdoors yet blocked the wind, it was quite annoying. It wasn't nearly like that back in '07, and hopefully was a fluke this time.

 

[Jersey]

Richard - great report and photos! We (the Curmudgeon and Jersey) were there the same time. Great week, except for the rain and mosquitoes. But the island and Wash Slag were very green. Also saw many large grouper and horse eye jacks around, and the tiniest Nassau grouper maybe 2 inches hiding in a coral head. ...I'm already planning our return...
Jersey

 

[DiveMaven]

Thanks for the trip report and pictures, they're just enough to make my Pre-Bonaire depression worse (depressed because I still have to wait almost 3 months until we leave)! <LOL>

 

[rad21]

Great report and photos, thanks for taking the time to post it here.

 

[billmosel]

Nice report Richard. I saw you guys around the Island with the flags on the trucks. You'all look like you were having a good time. But in Bonaire that is all you can do.

 

[stortecky]

Thanks for the post with photos. It sounds like you had a great time.

 

[drrich2]

Oh, it was a great time. I know folks often come to this forum section asking about Bonaire, or what the apartments are like, etc..., and I thought it might be nice to see some photos of one. Eden Beach had a couple of different setups; the apartments we stayed in aiming for 4 people apiece, and the studios made for 2 people each, from what I understand. Since there were 3 of us, we did an apartment.

Couple of more points for people interested in Bonaire; a full tank of gas will roughly do you for a week, and that's good because gas is really expensive. Plan to hit a supermarket like Warehouse Bonaire or Cultimara Supermarket early, because if you try eating out 3 meals per day, the cost can get you pretty fast. On the other hand, dining out for supper was really nice. I like to take in some island fare, like seafood soup.

Richard.