Any tips for diving Bonaire in the north park?

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there are 2 routes around the park.
1 long and 1 short.
to dive the north sites take the long route.-well worth it.
the only site that was average when i was there was the one by the restuarant and bar.
take 3 tanks and make a day of it.

very few divers.

nice
better than being with a crowd from a boat.
 
Was there recently and did the park on gas off day. The site right off the restaurant looked real good. Easy entry and probably good snorkling too. The food was quite good but you need to check on your order in case they forget. Lots of flamingos in the lagoon there too. Dove Playa Funchi a few years back and loved it.
 
Check out the Latinadivers.com webpage, they have a great boat that doesn't take too many people. They do two dives in the park (drift dives!!!) and one dive on Klein Bonaire. I went with them once and had Susan Porter (writer of Bonaire Shore Diving made Easy) as our divemaster.

So the woman who wrote "Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy" was DM'ing on a boat?

Where's an "irony emoticon" when you need one!

??
 
I've only done 1 dive north of the oil storage, at Nukove. Moderately difficult entry, excellent site. Taylormaid and Candyland are up there too but more difficult to find. Didn't do any dives in the park but checked the entries for the future. Most a bit difficult as well as long swims to the mooring buoys. Easy entries to the sites by the restaurant. Like they said above, take 3 tanks, get there early, and make a day of it.
 
RJP sorry to hear your so narrow minded... She is just a freaking good DM no matter if you go from shore or by boat...
 
I'm interested in doing the park as shore dives, not by boat.
We did it once. Was a great day trip. Take a good amount of snacks and a lunch. Plenty of cold drinks, because it is a longer drive than it looks on the map, roads are not great.
The scenery and the dirt roads, though, really made the trip worthwhile. We saw so much of the island that I had no idea existed. It was a great day and the diving is suite different from the south.
We used the information from the shore diving guide to make our entries and that worked out well.
I remember seeing huge lobsters and rays. It's been several years but still remember those dives. There was some storm damage to the reefs but it was still womderful. Felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.
I didn't find the currents, entries or exits that difficult and I was a shore diving novice at the time. I was being led by my husband, who is an instructor and very experienced in CA shore diving. But, compared to Red Slave and White Slave, I'd say Slaagbai was about the same.
The sites just north of the oil facility are some of my favorite. We tend to divide our time between the far southern sites and the ones north of the oil facility. Then, for night diving, it's usually Oil Slick, my favorite night dive anywhere. ( although Catalina Dive Park is running a close second and might end up in first, we'll see after next week)
 
RJP sorry to hear your so narrow minded... She is just a freaking good DM no matter if you go from shore or by boat...

You're sorry to hear my "so narrow minded..." what?

:)

Dude - it was a joke. I guess the internet needs a "sarcasm font" to go along with the aforementioned "irony emoticon"!
 
Last time I went to Bonaire we did one dive on the park, the site was Bisé Morto... nothing special about it, only that Lion Fish was more present, probably because this sites are not that much popular, so nobody is spearing them, the entry was a bit challenging though.

Here's a few pics of the site

1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg6.jpg7.jpg8.jpg
 
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First use hard sole boots the north is very rocky. Second you are going to need a lot of time. We spent most of the time checking each site trying to figure out how to get down to the water. There were a lot that seemed like on slip and your trip was over. I'm not a big fan of trying to get down a cliff with gear on. But there are a several where the getting isn't to bad. Plus lots of other places to stop and check out the scenery and take some pics.
 

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