DiverAmy
Prism2 CCR Diver
Transit:
I booked Insel Air 4 months in advance for non-stop round trip transit from MIA BON on 3/23. My son checked the booking about a week before and noticed that there was a discrepancy about the departure time, his partner checked also and each came to the conclusion that the flight left at a different time. They called me, I checked, and sure enough, the non-stop flight was cancelled. I called Insel and they told me the flight had been rerouted through Curacao and we were now scheduled to arrive at 1 am, Sunday. I never received any notice of this, and if my son hadnt checked we would have arrived at the airport for our afternoon flight, only to discover that we were on a 9 PM flight instead. Kevin took over dealing with the issue and changed our flights to Sun-Sun rather than the Sat-Sat that we originally booked. Insel air did this free of charge, although it took until 4 days prior to our departure to get it all set up. Buddy dive accommodated the change 4 days prior to our arrival, with the condition that we agree to switch from our two one-bedroom efficiencies to a three-bedroom efficiency on the last night to accommodate other guests. Our transfers to and from the airport went off without a hitch. The flights were on time and smooth. The short lay-over in Curacao was without incident.
Accommodations:
We bought the dive and drive package and stayed for a week. The rooms were sufficient. Between the two rooms we had enough dishes, pots, and pans. The air-conditioners worked fine. The cleaning staff was a bit stingy with the bath and dish towels but we got by. The two pick-up trucks worked well enough. We used one for dinner/shopping and one for shore diving. The tank drive-through has a 2 tank per person limit, which made the day we did 3 dives in the National Park a bit tricky. We fooled the staff by taking 4 tanks the evening before, hiding them in truck 1, claiming our 8 tanks the following morning, and stacking them all up in one truck. Certain members of the dive staff were a bit hostile. We had one problem with someone, but it was resolved to our satisfaction after some arguing. Mostly, the staff was friendly.
Food:
We cooked and ate all of our lunches and dinners, with the exception of three, in our rooms. The breakfasts included in the package were decent. The 2 dinners out were to Capriccios and At Sea. At At Sea we were seated outside, although the setting was lovely, the table was overrun with small insects and mosquitoes and many other diners smoked liberally throughout the meal. Two of us are vegetarians and they accommodated us with very nice meals. Both of the non-vegetarians chose coq-a-vin for dinner and found it exceptionally dry and tough. I would say; overall, this place was way overpriced. At Capriccios, we ate indoors; however, the restaurant was also filled with mosquitoes. The food was excellent, though also pricy. We had Gelato a few times at GIOs. It was excellent. I hate to be a hater, but I would SKIP La Ma Se. Two of us had uninspired milk shakes there, that Norman wanted $6 a piece for! Lunches and dinners and snacks from the supermarket averaged about $20/day per person. We ate most lunch as picnics at dive sights.
Diving:
We did 19 dives in 5 ½ days, three by boat. We were entitled to six boat dives with the package. I think next time, I wouldnt bother with that many. Those three were to the Hilma Hooker, and to Klein. Both Klein dives were on the S or SW side of Klein (Hands Off and SW corner). We loved SW corner, Hands Off was nothing special, although we did spot only 1 of 2 green morays of the trip there, as well as a large eagle ray. The other was on the Hilma Hooker. For that boat dive, we wandered over to the second reef line for a bit, as well.
In the National Park, we dove Playa Funchi, Wayaka, and Boka Slagbaai. Wayaka was by far my favorite dive in Bonaire. We saw turtles, squid, a roughtail stingray (?) and the reef was lush and the animal life abundant. This was my favorite day of diving.
We dove Tolo and Karpata, once each. We dove 1000 Steps 3 times, once as a night dive. We dove Andrea 1 and 2, Buddy reef twice (once as the check out dive, once out of laziness), Bari twice, Windsock, The Lake (where Kevins hidden camera was stolen, along with both boys flip flops, one pair of sunglasses, two dry bags, 4 Buddy Dive towels, one old beat up dive bag (for the bootie, I would imagine), some dive tools (our beloved crescent wrench), and a bag of good-n-plenty style candy. Nothing of mine was taken (I think it sometimes pays to be a girl), and finally Alice in Wonderland. My general impression was that there was more animal life to the south and lusher reef life to the north. I still have never seen either a sea horse or a frog fish. We have crowned the brown chromis the official fish of Bonaire.
Extras:
We took a picnic down to 1000 steps and fought off the aggressive iguanas the whole time. People, stop feeding the iguanas! We saw 100s of donkeys and goats. We drove as far south as the lighthouse and as far north as Playa Funchi. It was an exhausting and wonderful week. This was Kevin and my second trip to Bonaire. I hope to return next year.
I booked Insel Air 4 months in advance for non-stop round trip transit from MIA BON on 3/23. My son checked the booking about a week before and noticed that there was a discrepancy about the departure time, his partner checked also and each came to the conclusion that the flight left at a different time. They called me, I checked, and sure enough, the non-stop flight was cancelled. I called Insel and they told me the flight had been rerouted through Curacao and we were now scheduled to arrive at 1 am, Sunday. I never received any notice of this, and if my son hadnt checked we would have arrived at the airport for our afternoon flight, only to discover that we were on a 9 PM flight instead. Kevin took over dealing with the issue and changed our flights to Sun-Sun rather than the Sat-Sat that we originally booked. Insel air did this free of charge, although it took until 4 days prior to our departure to get it all set up. Buddy dive accommodated the change 4 days prior to our arrival, with the condition that we agree to switch from our two one-bedroom efficiencies to a three-bedroom efficiency on the last night to accommodate other guests. Our transfers to and from the airport went off without a hitch. The flights were on time and smooth. The short lay-over in Curacao was without incident.
Accommodations:
We bought the dive and drive package and stayed for a week. The rooms were sufficient. Between the two rooms we had enough dishes, pots, and pans. The air-conditioners worked fine. The cleaning staff was a bit stingy with the bath and dish towels but we got by. The two pick-up trucks worked well enough. We used one for dinner/shopping and one for shore diving. The tank drive-through has a 2 tank per person limit, which made the day we did 3 dives in the National Park a bit tricky. We fooled the staff by taking 4 tanks the evening before, hiding them in truck 1, claiming our 8 tanks the following morning, and stacking them all up in one truck. Certain members of the dive staff were a bit hostile. We had one problem with someone, but it was resolved to our satisfaction after some arguing. Mostly, the staff was friendly.
Food:
We cooked and ate all of our lunches and dinners, with the exception of three, in our rooms. The breakfasts included in the package were decent. The 2 dinners out were to Capriccios and At Sea. At At Sea we were seated outside, although the setting was lovely, the table was overrun with small insects and mosquitoes and many other diners smoked liberally throughout the meal. Two of us are vegetarians and they accommodated us with very nice meals. Both of the non-vegetarians chose coq-a-vin for dinner and found it exceptionally dry and tough. I would say; overall, this place was way overpriced. At Capriccios, we ate indoors; however, the restaurant was also filled with mosquitoes. The food was excellent, though also pricy. We had Gelato a few times at GIOs. It was excellent. I hate to be a hater, but I would SKIP La Ma Se. Two of us had uninspired milk shakes there, that Norman wanted $6 a piece for! Lunches and dinners and snacks from the supermarket averaged about $20/day per person. We ate most lunch as picnics at dive sights.
Diving:
We did 19 dives in 5 ½ days, three by boat. We were entitled to six boat dives with the package. I think next time, I wouldnt bother with that many. Those three were to the Hilma Hooker, and to Klein. Both Klein dives were on the S or SW side of Klein (Hands Off and SW corner). We loved SW corner, Hands Off was nothing special, although we did spot only 1 of 2 green morays of the trip there, as well as a large eagle ray. The other was on the Hilma Hooker. For that boat dive, we wandered over to the second reef line for a bit, as well.
In the National Park, we dove Playa Funchi, Wayaka, and Boka Slagbaai. Wayaka was by far my favorite dive in Bonaire. We saw turtles, squid, a roughtail stingray (?) and the reef was lush and the animal life abundant. This was my favorite day of diving.
We dove Tolo and Karpata, once each. We dove 1000 Steps 3 times, once as a night dive. We dove Andrea 1 and 2, Buddy reef twice (once as the check out dive, once out of laziness), Bari twice, Windsock, The Lake (where Kevins hidden camera was stolen, along with both boys flip flops, one pair of sunglasses, two dry bags, 4 Buddy Dive towels, one old beat up dive bag (for the bootie, I would imagine), some dive tools (our beloved crescent wrench), and a bag of good-n-plenty style candy. Nothing of mine was taken (I think it sometimes pays to be a girl), and finally Alice in Wonderland. My general impression was that there was more animal life to the south and lusher reef life to the north. I still have never seen either a sea horse or a frog fish. We have crowned the brown chromis the official fish of Bonaire.
Extras:
We took a picnic down to 1000 steps and fought off the aggressive iguanas the whole time. People, stop feeding the iguanas! We saw 100s of donkeys and goats. We drove as far south as the lighthouse and as far north as Playa Funchi. It was an exhausting and wonderful week. This was Kevin and my second trip to Bonaire. I hope to return next year.
Attachments
Last edited:
