Bonaire trip review from the perspective of a newbie

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snydes

Registered
Messages
5
Reaction score
10
Location
Pennsylvania, USA
# of dives
25 - 49
We recently returned from a week in Bonaire and I wanted to post my thoughts on the trip here for anyone who is thinking of going there for the first time. If you are a seasoned diver or have been to Bonaire before this is probably a lot of what you already know.

Prior to this trip my wife and I had but only 18 logged dives, and most of those were check out dives from the certifications, so not a lot of experience in the water on our own. Most of our check out dives were off a boat in Key Largo, and we were just plain burnt out with boat dives. The idea of having a truck with the freedom to go where you wanted when you wanted was extremely appealing and when the dive shop we got our certifications through announced they were booking a trip to Bonaire, we were in. Flight wasn't bad, just under 4 hours from Atlanta, the contrast between the monster Atlanta airport and Bonaire's one and only was pretty drastic, and I welcomed the much less hectic little airport. We got rentals from Hertz, little stick shift 4 door Isuzu diesels, most had tank racks bolted to the beds. Perfect trucks for the purpose of diving. So off we went, we stayed at the Divi Flamingo resort, which was just minutes from the airport. Decent place, rooms were good, beds were comfortable and the AC's worked fantastic. The following morning you have to do a orientation before you dive, just common sense stuff, did a dive from the house reef (Calabas Reef) and we were set free to go where we pleased. Now I want to mention that shore diving isn't for everyone, and we had several members of our group sign up for boat packages. A few of these were older individuals who preferred the ease of entry from the back of a boat rather than walking across the sometimes tricky terrain and entering the water, and I can appreciate that. It was also very convenient to handle your gear as there were lockers that everyone was assigned right on the dock where the boats picked you up, so no lugging your gear back and forth to the truck. The boats took them to all the same sites we were driving to, except they could also go to the island of Klein Bonaire (little Bonaire) which has some lesser traveled dive sites. Having said that, we loved shore diving. The navigation was very easy, there were buoy markers in the water at all the marked sites, we just dropped down there, followed the reef into the current (what little there was), turned around at half tank and head back at a shallower depth till we reached the buoy and then headed back to the shore. I would also highly recommend buying the "Dive Guide Bonaire", it was very helpful for selecting dive sites and had tips for entries, and was well worth the money IMO. We only were able to dive a fraction of the sites during our week, the standouts for us were Salt Pier, Karpata, and Angel City, I would make a point to visit all of those if you can. We had hoped to see an eagle ray and a turtle, and we did at Salt Pier, in fact we seen a LOT of turtle at salt pier. We liked Salt Pier was so much we dove it twice. As far as the truck break-in/theft issues, most of your popular sites were so well traveled during the day it seemed unlikely, but follow everyone's advice and leave nothing of value behind, and leave the windows down and the doors unlocked. We also enjoyed just driving around, if you follow the road going north along the west side it loops around through Rincon and back to Kralendijk. There is also a little off shoot to the left before you drive down to Rincon which has a great view, there is a sign for it, its a good photo opportunity. I also want to note that the people were all very nice, and no one ever approached us trying to sell things, which for anyone who is used to the tourist traps like Jamaica, where they can sense you as soon as you leave your room, it's a refreshing change. The week passed by quickly, I would have liked to do a few more things out of water but there just wasn't enough time. Many of the divers we spoke to were repeat visitors, and I can see why. We did have one incident I must mention, not to us but to two people in our group. Friday night was a busy night at the resort, lots of music, double happy hour and everyone was celebrating their last night before leaving Saturday morning, and very few people were in their rooms. Now in all the rooms there were notices on the sliding patio doors reminding you to keep them locked and use the wooden lock bars that wedge in to prevent them from being opened. Those lock bars were inconvenient, but we followed that advice all them time because we figured there was a good reason for that notice. Well the rooms that were right along the water were the most at risk, and that night around sunset when everyone was out apparently someone walked along the backside where the patio doors were and checked to see which ones they could enter. As I said two from our group were victims, the one admitted he didn't have his lock bar in and the other wasn't sure, and they both lost iPads and cell phones, an unfortunate way to end their vacations. It should also be noted that these thieves walked right past several pieces of high dollar dive gear, full face masks, dive computers and cameras, and only went for the electronics. Well, there it is, we had a great time diving in Bonaire and all in all it was a wonderful trip and I would go back in a heartbeat, so thats my review FWIW.

Steve
 
Awesome trip review! It looks like you had an amazing time. While I have yet to make it there in my years of diving, many of my friend have and its one of my "bucket list" destinations.
 
Glad to hear your report, given that Bonaire is often recommended as a destination to seek early in your dive career (and later, too). Of course, it's mainly pushed as a shore diving destination, for good reason, and it's not a densely populated island, but you will most likely to driving through the capitol city, Kralendijk, and probably won't understand some of the road signs. It can be done, but for that reason, and finding your way around in a place you've never been, can be a bit off-putting at 1st. Flamingo International Airport is indeed small; just one baggage conveyor to get your bags off of.

Pretty much all rental trucks are manual (stick) unless you advance reserve an automatic. That can be done; can run you over $200 extra. I only drive automatic.

There are a few main island dive sites usually accessed by boat; Rappel & Small Wall come to find (you can hit S.M. if you stay at Black Durgeon; if anyone's curious, I thought Small Wall was very much like diving The Cliff, except maybe a bit bigger).

I found the drive through Washington-Slagbaai Park up north worthwhile for landscape photo op.s, including waves pounding the island with serious power. Mountainous, nice rock formations here and there, quite nice.

There's a road that rings the island and for the most part hugs the coast, making driving along the sea finding dive sites pretty easy. Most dives are done along the west coast; waves pound the east coast and north, but the island takes the brunt, so the west coast waters are mostly quite calm. If you take the road heading north up far enough, you reach a point where it becomes one way. This commits you to a long drive around home, but there are some sites up there worth hitting. I recommend Tolo and Karpata as a good pair to hit while you're there.

Some of the southern sites have a double reef system; you swim out from shore, the reef starts at maybe 25 feet or so (give or take?) deep, it looks like a hillside sloping down at somewhere near a 45 degree angle with hard corals, gorgonians & such, and eventually hits the sand. That's a description of most west coast sites to my mind. But where there's a double reef system down south, if you swim out over that sand, you hit another reef - sort of like a long ridge/hill that's got coral on it. I found Angel City a good site to dive that 2nd reef.

What did you think of Calabas Reef? I've never dove that site.

Richard.
 
Calabas was good, we dove it four times, three were at night because it was just so darn convenient. The cruise ship port is to the right and as long as there are no ships in you can dive in that direction, and on that side there is this old submerged concrete structure/monument that an octopus has claimed his home. We also seen a very, very large lobster there at night. Other than that, there wasn't any other features that really set it apart for me, which is why I think it's important to spread your dive site choices out to see the differences in the reef from one end to the other.
 
I always like reading trip reports. Glad you had some great diving. Any pictures?

Traveling divers need to have realistic expectations when selecting their trips but need frank trip reports. Thanks for sharing, the good, the bad and the ugly.
 
Quite a few actually, I'll try and link a slideshow of some highlights with short descriptions. All the under water shots were taken with a GoPro Hero3+ with a red filter. Some came out real good, others not so much, but for the money I think it works real well.

Bonaire 2014 Slideshow by howisthisforausername | Photobucket

Steve
 
Thanks very much for the report. I've been there 4 times now & 'am leaving in a few weeks with my wife & another couple - all of which are fairly new divers & have not been there. I've directed my friends to read your report, which they will relate to being newer divers, & it nicely supports everything I've shared with them so far.
 

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