Bonaire Version 2.0

[choiahoy]

Hi SB,
My wife and I were in Bonaire and Curacao for 16 days last year and we just booked our next trip to Bonaire for November.
I feel pretty familiar with the island, but I’d love for our second trip to be even better than our first, so I’m focusing in on the details. I was hoping some ScubaBoarders would chime in.

- Last year, we didn’t dive any sites north of Karpata or south of Salt Pier (probably our favorite two sites). This time around, I have my eye on Vista Blue, Tori’s Reef, and Margate Bay. Are there any other southern sites that I shouldn’t miss? And after reading some of the threads here, I don’t think we’ll try the northern sites in the park, unless someone here convinces me otherwise. And we’re definitely going to do some East Coast dives.

- Does anyone know of any ops that do night dives at Salt Pier?

- I loved At Sea and Between Two Buns, but found a lot of the other restaurants to range from OK to pretty good. Towards the end of the trip, we grilled most of our dinners at our apartment, which was nice. This trip, we’re hoping to try some more local food. I think we’re going to hit Mi Banana and Joe’s Grill. Anyone know of any other local spots they would recommend?

- In terms of non-diving activities, we enjoyed visiting the Donkey Sanctuary and the kayak/snorkel in the mangroves and will probably do both again. Has anyone tried the cave snorkeling or visited the cave paintings?

Thanks in advance, and I’ll post a full report when we’re back in November!

 

[gbf]

As far as diving:

I always go north to Candyland/taylormade/nukove, but not into the park. Take a picnic and make a day of it.

If you're going to dive Vista Blue/Atlantis/Red Beryl, go early (like 0700-0800) - the kite boarders are generally not early risers. Be in and out before they start. Or go when it is not windy. If they are flying, just move on and try again
another time.

I really enjoy Margate Bay and Tori's. Seems like there are always schools of pogey hanging around Margate and White Slave.

We went to look at the cave paintings on a return from Nukove. If you're in to that kind of thing (I am) it is really cool. If not, like my kids, well... "can we go now?"

One day try to time your return from the north to arrive at Seru Largu right before sunset. Have food and libations. Stay until it is black black dark. Be sure to have bug spray.

In the same vein, take a few beers and head south toward the lighthouse or east side after dark, out of the lights - The sky is pretty amazing.

We toured the park one time, no diving. Took the short route and it took all day. Make sure you have plenty of water and food. We stopped as frequently as possible for the kids to get in the water/snorkel. Once was enough for us - too much drive-time. But it was well worth it that one time.

---------- Post added July 25th, 2014 at 07:54 PM ----------

edit: I dove salt pier 4 times, day and night, without a guide. ymmv.

 

[drrich2]

The 2 lushest reefs in my experience, of named west coast sites I've dove, were Karpata up north, and Sweet Dreams way down south.

For east coast dives, I highly recommend Bas Tol with BasDiving.com; I did Cai with him and it was far and away a better experience than when a friend and I tried it alone before.

It might help to tell us what resort you're staying at, so we'll know what you're close to, and what sites you dove before, so we can see what you haven't hit yet. For example, on my last Bonaire trip I went in at Angel City and swam out to the 2nd reef, and mainly dove it. For me, that was different.

Have you drove through Washington-Slagbaai Park via the long route and gotten out and take photos? There are some scenic places and even old building ruins that can be quite nice.

Richard.

 

[choiahoy]

Thanks for the info. And I just thought of another question – Does anyone know of a dive op that goes to Rappel?

drrich2, we'll be staying at Bridanda Apartments, so right by Eden Beach. We haven’t driven through the park via the long road, but I’m interested in doing so. How long did it take you?

A quick list of sites we hit on the last trip - Karpata, Tolo, Jeff Davis, Oil Slick, Cliff, Buddy's, Bari, Front Porch, Calabas, The Lake, Hilma, Angel City, Alice in Wonderland, Salt Pier, Knife, and Keepsake. Our favorite sites were Karpata and Salt Pier. Our favorite night dive spot was at Eden Beach--an underrated night dive spot, I think; we'd park to the far right of Spice and enter there, turning right to hit the reef. After our tank was down to 1500, we'd turn around and hit the oil tank at about 30’ where there were always interesting things to see. But our favorite part of the dive was looking around the ledge near the ladder at about 8’, where there were all kinds of critters out and about.

But our favorite dive was the bioluminescent dive that Tama at Wannadive runs (not to be mistaken with the UV dives). We drove out to the site on a full moon and sat on the sand, watching the most remarkable light show I’d ever seen (imagine swarms of fireflies that leave trails of light). According to Tama, it’s caused by the breeding of a particular microorganism, and there are only two or three times a year it happens, and only at this specific place (I won’t say which site, as she asked us not to). I'd totally recommend it if you happen to be there at the right time.

 

[drrich2]

I'm thinking it took about a half-day. Go early enough that the sun will be up so you get good lighting for photos.

You've hit a lot of good places; some I haven't done. I like Andrea I & II. I've stayed at Eden Beach in the past, under prior management, and yeah, good night diving out to the wreck of the Bakanal and back was cool. Those long tentacled anemones comes out at night, and jerk back into the sand when you pass. Also, walking around the beach there at night with an LED flashlight, look for chain moray eels working by the rock ridges were the waves wash over them; I'm taking in maybe an inch or two of water. Neat!

Richard.

 

[diversteve]

Although I thought just about everybody dives Rappel we did it with Toucan Divers at the Plaza. Since they do I have to believe any of the north of town ops do also.

Buddy Dive lists it:

The most often asked for dive site, Rappel is reached only by boat. Due to the close proximity to the rocky ledge, an intermediate skill level is required.

Good dives not on your done list:

Weber's Joy/Witches Hut
Invisibles
Forest off Klein Bonaire

Vista Blue was ripping the afternoon we dove there. Fans bent over flat. We kicked for 15 mins. north and wound up south of the entry point so called it.

 

[Chasin' Tales]

Margate Bay is one of our favorite dives. We usually do Red Slave each trip. Watch that one though - the current can whoop up on you. Still worth it though. Andrea I & II...we have seen turtles there every time we dived that site.

Check out Diving Bonaire on the wildside, Dive bonaire eastcoast and see the big 5.. We did east coast dives with them last trip. It was freaking amazing. We lost count of the number of turtles we saw. The blue hole was spectacular. No joke, there was 100 tarpon if there was one. We did the two boat dive package. It is nice to do in the middle of the trip after all the west coast dives kinda start blending together. Not sure if Bas can do the blue hole or not. The boat dives on the east side were a piece of cake. They have a good setup.

We are headed back to Bonaire 8/1-8/9 for our fourth trip to the island. Very much looking forward to it! The missus will be shooting underwater with the 5D mk iii for the first time. Hope to have some good pics!

 

[staggsSevin]

Vista Blue was ripping the afternoon we dove there. Fans bent over flat. We kicked for 15 mins. north and wound up south of the entry point so called it.

I had a similar experience at sweet dreams.... Every since then I can't get my wife to dive that far south on Bonaire. Margate Bay is about the farthest South she will dive.

Going back next month and I'm hoping to break that tradition. I've never gone in august/september but I was told it's a bit flatter.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

[shrkdive]

My family will be back again Aug 9-16th. We always rent a private home but get unlimited tanks and do some boat dives wth Buddy's. They run night dives to the Salt Pier if you would rather have a guide. They also run cave snorkeling trips each afternoon. We did this last trip on our last day when we couldn't dive prior to our flight. They take you to two different sites.

 

[hroark2112]

Weber's Joy/Witches Hut was one of my favorite dives last trip, along with Vista Blue. Oil Slick is tons of fun and Red Slave was where we saw several Spotted Eagle Rays.

That being said, I won't be taking another trip without scheduling a few dives with Bas. He was awesome to dive with!