1st trip in the books - 11/16-23

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thatericguy

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First off thank you all who replied to the newb thread a few weeks ago. It was invaluable as a first timer.
Now that I've been there for a week I've got my own thoughts to add..

My buddy and I ended up renting a small villa across the street from Sand Dollar and it worked out great. Pros: Ended up cheaper, bigger/private rooms, private rinse tank and lockers Cons: less opps to meet fellow divers since most of our dives are shore.

Used Dive Friends as they were all around (10% discount voucher with villa) if we ever needed to swap tanks, I'm sure other shops are just as good as we didn't really leverage all the different shops except a couple times since everything is really so close.

Despite warnings about theft,etc. - we didn't experience any issue and even ended up bringing along a cooler filled with food/drinks/a couple dry tshirts. Made sure to not leave anything of value in the cab; everything was kept in the truck trailer bed.

Recommendations:
Do buy or borrow the $39 new spiral bound guide instead of the older BSDME. It's much more illustrative for newbs to the dive sites and with new dive sites on the north. Plus its got some interesting historical info about the sites.
On the days the ham sandwiches don't cut it, try these great places out:
Cactus Blue Food truck - Spicy Kite Burger, coming from TX I was skeptical, but it really is a good burger.
Between 2 buns - this sandwich/breakfast place is really good. It's probably the best restaurant we went to.
Bobbejeans - it's actually just ok if you are used to good BBQ ribs, but its decent and $3 cheaper if you get it to go.
Amir's mediterranean food truck - pretty decent gyro type sandwiches open on Fri-Sat nights only.
Make your own sandwiches to save money on food. Easily 2-3 dinners can equate to a boat dive trip. Use said money to book a trip to East Coast.
Book your East Coast trip early in your trip if everything is good. My dive buddy got a bad head cold later in the trip and we had to cancel. Will need to do that one on another trip
Pizza shop on main road with a stop light - get the lionfish pizza, its actually pretty decent.

Not recommended:
Ingridients restaurant and mixed drinks from main bar @ Buddy Dive - total waste of money IMO. Ingridients looks and priced higher end, but it's not at all. Main bar was supposed to be decent, but whoever was manning the bar was horrible at making the simplest cocktails.

Happy to answer any questions as its still fresh on mind...
 
Thanks for the input, very useful.
 
Glad you had a great time.... What sites did you hit ???

Jim
 
"Do buy or borrow the $39 new spiral bound guide instead of the older BSDME. It's much more illustrative for newbs to the dive sites and with new dive sites on the north. Plus its got some interesting historical info about the sites."

Can you elaborate? On Susan's website she is still on the old 6th edition.
Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy, BSDME, Author Susan Porter
Thanks,
Kees
 
I believe he's referring to this new dive guide. I looked through it on my last visit. It certainly is more colorful, descriptive, and detailed than BSDME, but I had some issues with accuracy of site descriptions and illustrations for a few of the sites I'm extra familiar with. So I've made an assumption (acknowledging the limitations that come with assumptions) that there might be similar discrepancies for some of the sites I don't know so well.

It's been getting some good press and reviews in forums like this though. I'll probably take another look at it over Polars at happy hour when we're there in a couple of weeks.
 
Recommendations:
Do buy or borrow the $39 new spiral bound guide instead of the older BSDME. It's much more illustrative for newbs to the dive sites and with new dive sites on the north. Plus its got some interesting historical info about the sites.

I completely agree with this...we bought BSDME before our first visit to Bonaire and found it helpful, but found the guide you are suggesting (we looked at it before our dives while diving through Dive Friends, who has a copy available) and found it quite useful as well. I guess the guide that DF has available has only the marked sites, while BSDME also has the unmarked sites, so I would think it would be useful to have both guides!! So happy to hear you enjoyed your first trip, we will be on our way in just a couple of days!
 
Does anyone know where this grill truck is located and what they gave on menu?
Amir's Mediterranean grill truck
thank you
 
I had a great time there. Hope to be able to come back. First time shore diving so that was a bit nerve wracking during the night dive entries. Note to self is to get a better torch! It makes all the difference in your night dives.

wwguy, that's the guide! And yes I'm sure the BSDME guide works as well, it was just comforting to know where to go spatially with the site map. The Hilma Hooker map was very helpful. Dive Friends sells it but so does the grocery store Van Den Tweel. For$39, I do wish the pages were waterproof.

Dive sites I did were:
Bari Reef (day/night)
Front Porch
1000 Steps
Oil Slick
Kari's Reef
Rappel
Salt Pier (day/night)
Hilma Hooker (day/night)
La Machaca
Tolo
Wanted to check out X3 and X4 on the guide - unmarked sites on the north side near BOPEC, but weather changed on us.

As for the grill truck, I can't remember the menu, but its basically like lamb, chicken, beef or mixed? Amir recently passed but his brother Farid? is running it. One last thing, make sure you drink the normal classic cokes there available at convenience store or Van Den Tweel. I had a flashback when drinking it since they tasted exactly like how they did in the 80s. I know there are "mexican cokes" in the states but this was so much better.
 
Thanks about the info on the grill truck. Do you remember where it was located?
 
It's on Kaya Gob. N. Debrot. heading south from Marina, its on the right side. It's next to some sort of open seating area in a fenced in patio.
 

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