scuba e
Guest
Been home for a week now after our second trip to Bonaire. I think thats enough decompression.
Our first trip was in June of 08. We enjoyed it so much we decided to return.
For a few years now we have been threatening to do a trip from Christmas to Newyears (my employer shuts down at that time) but the air fare hikeup always scares us away. This year, though, we bit the bullet. We bought round trip tickets back in June (and still paid almost double the average rate) and tried to book at Belmar. They were booked! "This is a busy time of year for us" should have been the first indicator...
The flight was great. Left Christmas day at 2:30PM PST. We have had numerous problems with missed connections have slept in the Houston airport. I have learned to try to get flights with at least 3 hours layover. Best chance to make sure all the luggage and people get to the final destination.
After an uneventful flight and a nice dinner we boarded for Bonaire. We arrived from a pretty bumpy flight at 6:30am Bonaire time. Through customs and luggage quick. Rental car loaded and off to the hotel by 8:00am.
After doing some research we had decided to go with Den Laman. We have mixed feelings.
We were very happy to find our room was available and the staff was very helpfull checking us in. We were told we could leave our dive gear in the office until the dive staff arrived. This was nice as our room was on the 3rd floor. "I am so sorry we dont have an elevator".
Ok, not a huge deal but after the 5th or 6th dive of the day, that was alot of stairs!
So we are let into our room. Clean. Large enough (a studio for 2). AC for the whole place as it is a studio. And the view! We have had some very nice views in our travels but the view of that parking lot was breathtaking.....or maybe it was shlepping our luggage up to the room after going on 30hours.
This does bother me. I had called after we got our hotel comfomation for clearity on what a Oceanfront vs. Beachfront view was. I was told that Beachfront either faced north or south and Oceafront was facing west. I was not told that our room, same price as the other studios, was faceing the traffic circle north of town.
We are not there to sit in the room but it is nice to watch the sunset from your room at night.
The resort itself is modern/anticeptic. We starting calling it Casa Ikea. It looked somewhat novel but ws cheap to the touch.
At 9:30 we checked in at the dive shop downstairs. We gathered with a small group of new check ins for a good breifing, toured the dive op. Staff was informative and helpfull.
The storage area was large and clean with supplied wetsuit hangers lots of numbered pegs for gear storage. We were also informed that it will get crowded. They were right. By Sunday most everyone was checked in. Thats when I finally figured our that the dive op catered to both Den Lamen and Sandollar. That room got very full.
We had taken our own hangers and were glad we did. At times our things were displaced off of our own hangers! At times the dive dock was a mass of neoprene and lycra. We learned to plan our house reef dives for jsut after the boat left and then came back.
During the breifing we found out that our gear would be locked up from 9:30 pm until 8:30am. This allowed for early night dives but killed our normal dawn dives (our favorite). As Casa Ikea does not allow for wet dive gear in the rooms (the hallways a slick tile when dry) it was simply getting too much effort to make a fun dive.
After stowing the gear and getting weights it was straight to sleep... I know iknow. I would love to say we went straight to the water but i was done. My wife was nodding off on the orientation and the more i learned about our limitations and views I was getting grumpier. A nap did the trick!
Just a side note. For the last few years we have braved the redeyes to try to get another half day of diving. As it turns out we are usually so tired that the dives are like work. I think it may be better coming in later and not flying all night.
Up, geared up and on beri reef,,,for 5 minutes. My wife mask was leaking badly. Upon closer inspection I could see the frame was cracked. Abort dive.
We found a mask that fit well at the dive shop and got back too it. Bari reef really is great. This dive was really nice.
We got cleaned up and went to get some groceries. Ooops. The day after Christmas is Boxing day. Everything is closed. Then open late on Sunday and closed again Newyears day (just good to know in advance).
Back to the resort and the downstairs Restraunt Sunset bar and grill. Here is were the food saga begins.
We like the food on bonaire and were very surprised by the quality on our last trip.
We each ordered from a very tasty looking menu. it took a bit to get served (maybe 15 minutes) but the food was very good and another nice surprise. just down stairs, we could eat there all week.
It was lunch day 2 that service got erally weak. Waited 30 minutes for food and mine was wrong (salmon instead of checken). Quickly corrected and very very good. Enough to bring us back for lunch again. The food again was good but this time the sides were reversed and our waitress shortly after burst into tears and ran out. Again, 30 minutes to get the check and my wife is walking around filling peoples waters for them. The owner appears and apologises.
So the service has been consistantly bad but the food is great. We book a resevation for their special Newyears eve dinner. A three course meal. When we arrive it is somewhat busy but we are seated on the lower deck on the water. We order couple of drink (mine comes out Vodka instead of bouron). We order dinner and wait......and wait.......and wait. 1 hour later our second course comes out! We never got the first. Now this is our last day of diving and we are really hungry. They take away the 2nd course before we can touch it and drop in a cold and rubbery starter. After getting up and searching the place I find a waiter and get our main dishes back out. Now nicely dried from heatlamp eternity.
We complained and took our deserts to go. We were charged full price without so much as an apology.
As it turned out, we estimated we spent over 12 hours of our vacation waiting for the bill after dinner or for service once seated. I understand "islandtime" but this was bad! Sunset bar and grill as noted. Patagonia ( I really liked the first time) took 2 hours for a well done ribeye ordered rare to medium/rare. Pirates steakhouse was a bit quicker but food was mediocre.
Things are very busy during the holidays here and at more than one place heard people say " we have been here 10 times, I have never needed reservations" or this is the 4th place weve gone and noone can seat us."
on the good side. City Cafe, though haveing the appearance of a earthy sportsbar still puts out very good food and great service. Our saving grace for dinner.
And then our big surprise. A new strip mall on the North east "corner" houses Eli's Deli. Wow! Some of the freshest, most tasty, best ingredients, freshest bread sandwiches anywhere, period. After being home for a few days my wifes called and asked if I could go to Eli's and get her a sandwich. You have to go there. We even bought 4 on newyears eve so we would have a good lunch Newyears day.
Enough about food... The diving. Its still very good. We got lucky, the water had dropped to 78f before we left. When we got there it was 80-82f the whole week. We did experience more current than i remember. Pretty strong at times. Maybe due to full moon.
When we were here last it had been some time since a storm had hit. The reefs were unbelievable! There were eels and Nudi's everywhere. Alot has changed. The last big storm did alot of damage. Angle city, our favorite on the last trip is pretty tattered by comparison. Still a great dive but beat up a bit.
Appearantly some virus or something killed alot of eels last year. They are coming back but not nearly the numbers we saw before. Good to see alot of little ones though.
Pink beach to the south of the gate and windsock are in great condition and very lively. The gorgonians at Margate bay are unbeleivable. And bari reef got about 10 dives. Mostly because it was the house reef but there is jsut that mutch to see. The only thing I saw at another site that i did not see at Bari was a yellow Coney.
Quite a few turtle (green and hauksbill) that were untagged and very healthy. Only one spotted eagleray but he was very freindly and hung out with me for about 10 minutes on a solo dive. Also, alot of sharptail eels. Most at Bari reef. Up to 8 on one dusk dive with 2 hunting around the same small braincoral. I noticed that if you saw a spanish hogfish, a blue runner and a coney bunched up there was probably a sharptail below them. Fun to watch. No frog fish or seahorses but great signs of life.
Some bit of concern. In the 20-30' zone at Angle City the Gorgonians are being picked clean by 1000's of flamingo tounges. I saw 20 on one Gorgonian. They are all about an inch long. Great time to get a shot of one but looks like an imbalance to me.
I am happy to report that the house photo center (Fisheye photo) is about as helpfull and freindly as it gets. But unhappy to report i met them due to camera failure on the first dive. I have a Sea and Sea DX8000G. It is just a point and shoot but I have always been impressed with the images it gives up. It is no longer.
I rented the DX1G. It is similar and uses my strobes alright but had some faults. The new camera housing does not accept my wide angle so that was out. Also, no matter what I did I could not get the same color and clearity when shooting macro that I could get with my DX8000g. One of the guys in the shop did mention he felt the older glass was better. I must agree.
I know it is whining but the camera issue was devistation for me. It is more or less why i dive. This issue may hae tainted the whole trip for me. That is why i waited to post.
In hind site there were many issues that lead to the negative overtone of this report;
>Limited access to stores due to holiday hours
>Rules (hours of operation/wet gear storage) that limit the freedome associated with Bonaire shorediving.
>Huge crowds over the holidays.
>Rediculous amounts of time waiting for food service.
>3 flights of stairs to a parking lot view
>camera failure
>airfare double priced.
But the diving is still very good. If we go back it will be to Belmar. Not over the holidays. For now, we are starting to search the South Pacific....
SOrry for being such a downer.....
Our first trip was in June of 08. We enjoyed it so much we decided to return.
For a few years now we have been threatening to do a trip from Christmas to Newyears (my employer shuts down at that time) but the air fare hikeup always scares us away. This year, though, we bit the bullet. We bought round trip tickets back in June (and still paid almost double the average rate) and tried to book at Belmar. They were booked! "This is a busy time of year for us" should have been the first indicator...
The flight was great. Left Christmas day at 2:30PM PST. We have had numerous problems with missed connections have slept in the Houston airport. I have learned to try to get flights with at least 3 hours layover. Best chance to make sure all the luggage and people get to the final destination.
After an uneventful flight and a nice dinner we boarded for Bonaire. We arrived from a pretty bumpy flight at 6:30am Bonaire time. Through customs and luggage quick. Rental car loaded and off to the hotel by 8:00am.
After doing some research we had decided to go with Den Laman. We have mixed feelings.
We were very happy to find our room was available and the staff was very helpfull checking us in. We were told we could leave our dive gear in the office until the dive staff arrived. This was nice as our room was on the 3rd floor. "I am so sorry we dont have an elevator".
Ok, not a huge deal but after the 5th or 6th dive of the day, that was alot of stairs!
So we are let into our room. Clean. Large enough (a studio for 2). AC for the whole place as it is a studio. And the view! We have had some very nice views in our travels but the view of that parking lot was breathtaking.....or maybe it was shlepping our luggage up to the room after going on 30hours.
This does bother me. I had called after we got our hotel comfomation for clearity on what a Oceanfront vs. Beachfront view was. I was told that Beachfront either faced north or south and Oceafront was facing west. I was not told that our room, same price as the other studios, was faceing the traffic circle north of town.
We are not there to sit in the room but it is nice to watch the sunset from your room at night.
The resort itself is modern/anticeptic. We starting calling it Casa Ikea. It looked somewhat novel but ws cheap to the touch.
At 9:30 we checked in at the dive shop downstairs. We gathered with a small group of new check ins for a good breifing, toured the dive op. Staff was informative and helpfull.
The storage area was large and clean with supplied wetsuit hangers lots of numbered pegs for gear storage. We were also informed that it will get crowded. They were right. By Sunday most everyone was checked in. Thats when I finally figured our that the dive op catered to both Den Lamen and Sandollar. That room got very full.
We had taken our own hangers and were glad we did. At times our things were displaced off of our own hangers! At times the dive dock was a mass of neoprene and lycra. We learned to plan our house reef dives for jsut after the boat left and then came back.
During the breifing we found out that our gear would be locked up from 9:30 pm until 8:30am. This allowed for early night dives but killed our normal dawn dives (our favorite). As Casa Ikea does not allow for wet dive gear in the rooms (the hallways a slick tile when dry) it was simply getting too much effort to make a fun dive.
After stowing the gear and getting weights it was straight to sleep... I know iknow. I would love to say we went straight to the water but i was done. My wife was nodding off on the orientation and the more i learned about our limitations and views I was getting grumpier. A nap did the trick!
Just a side note. For the last few years we have braved the redeyes to try to get another half day of diving. As it turns out we are usually so tired that the dives are like work. I think it may be better coming in later and not flying all night.
Up, geared up and on beri reef,,,for 5 minutes. My wife mask was leaking badly. Upon closer inspection I could see the frame was cracked. Abort dive.
We found a mask that fit well at the dive shop and got back too it. Bari reef really is great. This dive was really nice.
We got cleaned up and went to get some groceries. Ooops. The day after Christmas is Boxing day. Everything is closed. Then open late on Sunday and closed again Newyears day (just good to know in advance).
Back to the resort and the downstairs Restraunt Sunset bar and grill. Here is were the food saga begins.
We like the food on bonaire and were very surprised by the quality on our last trip.
We each ordered from a very tasty looking menu. it took a bit to get served (maybe 15 minutes) but the food was very good and another nice surprise. just down stairs, we could eat there all week.
It was lunch day 2 that service got erally weak. Waited 30 minutes for food and mine was wrong (salmon instead of checken). Quickly corrected and very very good. Enough to bring us back for lunch again. The food again was good but this time the sides were reversed and our waitress shortly after burst into tears and ran out. Again, 30 minutes to get the check and my wife is walking around filling peoples waters for them. The owner appears and apologises.
So the service has been consistantly bad but the food is great. We book a resevation for their special Newyears eve dinner. A three course meal. When we arrive it is somewhat busy but we are seated on the lower deck on the water. We order couple of drink (mine comes out Vodka instead of bouron). We order dinner and wait......and wait.......and wait. 1 hour later our second course comes out! We never got the first. Now this is our last day of diving and we are really hungry. They take away the 2nd course before we can touch it and drop in a cold and rubbery starter. After getting up and searching the place I find a waiter and get our main dishes back out. Now nicely dried from heatlamp eternity.
We complained and took our deserts to go. We were charged full price without so much as an apology.
As it turned out, we estimated we spent over 12 hours of our vacation waiting for the bill after dinner or for service once seated. I understand "islandtime" but this was bad! Sunset bar and grill as noted. Patagonia ( I really liked the first time) took 2 hours for a well done ribeye ordered rare to medium/rare. Pirates steakhouse was a bit quicker but food was mediocre.
Things are very busy during the holidays here and at more than one place heard people say " we have been here 10 times, I have never needed reservations" or this is the 4th place weve gone and noone can seat us."
on the good side. City Cafe, though haveing the appearance of a earthy sportsbar still puts out very good food and great service. Our saving grace for dinner.
And then our big surprise. A new strip mall on the North east "corner" houses Eli's Deli. Wow! Some of the freshest, most tasty, best ingredients, freshest bread sandwiches anywhere, period. After being home for a few days my wifes called and asked if I could go to Eli's and get her a sandwich. You have to go there. We even bought 4 on newyears eve so we would have a good lunch Newyears day.
Enough about food... The diving. Its still very good. We got lucky, the water had dropped to 78f before we left. When we got there it was 80-82f the whole week. We did experience more current than i remember. Pretty strong at times. Maybe due to full moon.
When we were here last it had been some time since a storm had hit. The reefs were unbelievable! There were eels and Nudi's everywhere. Alot has changed. The last big storm did alot of damage. Angle city, our favorite on the last trip is pretty tattered by comparison. Still a great dive but beat up a bit.
Appearantly some virus or something killed alot of eels last year. They are coming back but not nearly the numbers we saw before. Good to see alot of little ones though.
Pink beach to the south of the gate and windsock are in great condition and very lively. The gorgonians at Margate bay are unbeleivable. And bari reef got about 10 dives. Mostly because it was the house reef but there is jsut that mutch to see. The only thing I saw at another site that i did not see at Bari was a yellow Coney.
Quite a few turtle (green and hauksbill) that were untagged and very healthy. Only one spotted eagleray but he was very freindly and hung out with me for about 10 minutes on a solo dive. Also, alot of sharptail eels. Most at Bari reef. Up to 8 on one dusk dive with 2 hunting around the same small braincoral. I noticed that if you saw a spanish hogfish, a blue runner and a coney bunched up there was probably a sharptail below them. Fun to watch. No frog fish or seahorses but great signs of life.
Some bit of concern. In the 20-30' zone at Angle City the Gorgonians are being picked clean by 1000's of flamingo tounges. I saw 20 on one Gorgonian. They are all about an inch long. Great time to get a shot of one but looks like an imbalance to me.
I am happy to report that the house photo center (Fisheye photo) is about as helpfull and freindly as it gets. But unhappy to report i met them due to camera failure on the first dive. I have a Sea and Sea DX8000G. It is just a point and shoot but I have always been impressed with the images it gives up. It is no longer.
I rented the DX1G. It is similar and uses my strobes alright but had some faults. The new camera housing does not accept my wide angle so that was out. Also, no matter what I did I could not get the same color and clearity when shooting macro that I could get with my DX8000g. One of the guys in the shop did mention he felt the older glass was better. I must agree.
I know it is whining but the camera issue was devistation for me. It is more or less why i dive. This issue may hae tainted the whole trip for me. That is why i waited to post.
In hind site there were many issues that lead to the negative overtone of this report;
>Limited access to stores due to holiday hours
>Rules (hours of operation/wet gear storage) that limit the freedome associated with Bonaire shorediving.
>Huge crowds over the holidays.
>Rediculous amounts of time waiting for food service.
>3 flights of stairs to a parking lot view
>camera failure
>airfare double priced.
But the diving is still very good. If we go back it will be to Belmar. Not over the holidays. For now, we are starting to search the South Pacific....
SOrry for being such a downer.....
