Bonaire - Suitable for long-term remote work?

[shopguy]

I love shore diving, and I hear Bonaire is the best place to do it, if you want warm clear water with plenty of pretty fish to look at. I'm looking for a place to spend 2 months each winter, for the next 10 years or so. Maybe not always the same place, although would make it easy if I found a place with enough options I wouldn't get bored going back several times. My first attempt was this past winter, went to Puerto Rico. It was nice, but the shore diving was too limited to keep me coming back (other than maybe to try one of the smaller islands to the east). The Internet also went out fairly often, and we were staying in the largest city, San Juan, so I'm thinking it will only be worse in the smaller towns/islands where the better diving is.

Does anyone have experience trying to work full time from Bonaire? I don't need a lot of bandwidth for my job, I get by with 3mbps at home, but I need it to be working when I need it for online meetings.

If not Bonaire, any other ideas? Keeping in mind that I really am set on shore diving. I find while I'm working and just trying to dive whenever I can, it is really great. I guess if there was a place I could just hop on a boat at 7am without a reservation, and be back a few hours later, that might be okay... but when trying to do that daily for 60 days, it also gets really expensive, compared to just tank rentals for shore dives (bring my own gear).

 

[shopguy]

Also, time zone matters. My meetings are scheduled in Pacific Time, usually between 8am-5pm, so ideally wherever I go it will end up that I can dive in the morning, and work in the evening. This was the case in Puerto Rico (and probably all of the Caribbean). I could dive until around 2pm most days, and be home before anyone missed me, and even if I had to work 8 hours (most days are shorter), it isn't horrible getting to sleep by 10pm-11pm and dive the next day.

 

[Jcp2]

Sounds like you might like Fort Lauderdale.

 

[Superlyte27]

The internet in Bonaire pretty much sucks everywhere. That may have just been my experience in the resorts I stayed. Maybe it’s better in a house or apartment though.

 

[Martijn]

My reason for reliable fast internet is different then yours (i'm a massive gamer, lol), but you can get MiFi (mobile internet). Same company as my wired connection at home, which is horrible, but the MiFi is fast enough for video calls and never failed me so far.

Edit: Also, a friend of mine lived on the island here and used https://fi.google.com/ and could always do here video conferences without any problems

 

[shopguy]

I may go back to Florida next summer. I’ve only done snorkeling in Fort Lauderdale, but the visibility wasn’t good at all any of the places I tried, but that was just one week in September, so could have been bad luck. Had a great time on a boat off Key West, but wish I had scuba instead of snorkel, and that was a boat.

MiFi - I have mobile hotspot on my phone, so if a signal exists that is an option. In Puerto Rico the AirBnb hosts have us a MiFi device also when the cable Internet went out, but all they said was that it was 5G and super fast. Wish they had explained the data caps or something to us because after 30 minutes of Netflix I think it was capped out and worked horrible after that. If I had know would have saved it for work.

Bummer about Bonaire though, but I was expecting that.

Maybe by 2023 Starlink will change the game and have real Internet options in these places.

 

[Martijn]

My post was based on Bonaire... We have plenty of people from the states working from this island. You should ofcourse take a local data package.. or the mentioned google fi

 

[drrich2]

Maybe not always the same place, although would make it easy if I found a place with enough options I wouldn't get bored going back several times.

I love Bonaire, but that sounds more like Curacao.
Curacao Trip Research Notes
Curacao Trip Report with SB Surge Jan. 2019
My Research Notes for Bonaire - My Research Note For Bonaire

2 Straight months in Bonaire with a focus on diving, one trip, I might love. Curacao's got more going on topside.

 

[Trucha]

I did this for a few years between 2008 and 2015. My wife also worked remotely but occasionally had to be in ft L or Miami so the place had to be convenient and cheap to get back there. I had my heart set on Bonaire but we ended up in Curacao due to overall costs especially flights. we spent time in Bonaire and Aruba as well. We ended up liking Curacao better due to the more top side attractions, better and cheaper food, and the undeveloped beaches. We found the internet to be really great especially in Curacao. We are both had internet heavy work and it was really fast and reliable. It sounds like that may have changed? It's been awhile. The one aspect I didn't like is that you needed a reliable dive buddy which was hard to find in both places. Bonaire was easier as every one there is a diver. Curacao was harder because diving is not as popular and visitors there were not there to solely dive. I got a little frustrated when I had time to go but no partner. We had a baby so we couldn't go together. That is how I found scuba board trying to fast an internet-based duve buddy! We did meet many locals but many of them didn't dive for some reason. Iwould visit first before making any decisions.

 

[tursiops]

The internet in Bonaire pretty much sucks everywhere. That may have just been my experience in the resorts I stayed. Maybe it’s better in a house or apartment though.

My experience has been quite different, especially recently. When were you there last?