choiahoy
Contributor
It was a fantastic trip, our third and best. Enjoy the video and happy diving.
TRAVEL
We flew Delta from NYC via Atlanta, and all flights went smoothly. It was nice to have three departure options (Tuesday, Sat, Sun), which is how we ended up with the odd number of 18 nights for this trip.
Car rental was from Avis. Decent truck, no real complaints besides a tiny, ill-fitting tank rack that only held three tanks properly.
ACCOMODATIONS
We stayed at Den Laman for five nights in a one bedroom and thirteen in a studio; the one bedroom (ocean front) was great, and the studio was more than sufficient, only it didn’t have an oven which limited our cooking options, but we found ways to work with it. The staff was really nice and helpful, and overall, we had a very pleasant stay. We found that the newly opened Coco Beach wasn’t a noise issue at all.
In our previous two trips, we had stayed at other accommodations, and the main reason we chose Den Laman was for its dock and access to the house reef, as my wife and I love to night dive. In terms of diving the house reef…well, keep reading down to the diving section.
DINING
We probably ate half of our meals in and half out.
Van den Tweel has gotten better with each of our visits and we were able to find most everything we need there. On this trip we discovered Krusada, an addiction recovery facility on Bonaire that operates organic greenhouses. You can buy delicious greens directly from them or find them at Warehouse and Van den Tweel.
We also found Philip’s Cooking—a private chef, who made us a remarkable four-course meal, the best we’ve had on the island. Make sure to get his mushroom truffle soup—you won’t be the same after.
Between 2 buns was consistently excellent. In addition to the sandwiches (my wife is obsessed with the Fight Club), try the chicken soup—large, fresh, delicious, and perfect to warm up after two morning dives.
We ate wonderful sushi at Osaka. They even had fresh wasabi root they hand grind. The salmon bonbons (wrapped in avocado) and local sashimi were definitely the highlights.
The seafood was also excellent at Mona Lisa.
We were happy to see the Kip Tukkie smoked chicken truck was still around outside Van den Tweel. He makes a killer bird. Check his facebook page for his exact hours and location.
And a new wine bar and store just opened while we were there south of town called Barrel. Excellent selection and decent prices.
DIVING
The biggest highlights were a huge bait ball near Red Slave, a frogfish, a feeding eagle ray, an octopus, and a freaking BATFISH! No seahorses, though we tried…
Otherwise, most reefs looked healthy. Lots of free large swimming morays, tarpon, squid, and your usual suspects. Altogether did 42 dives across 17 days. Some of the best dives on this trip were at –
Willemstoren Lighthouse – we’ve been to Bonaire twice before, and the conditions have never been right to dive the lighthouse as they rarely are. But we were lucky on this trip and were finally able to dive here. Lots of different, huge, healthy coral. It’s the only place on the island where we saw healthy purple fan coral.
Red Slave – such a great site. We entered our dives here a little further north of the huts—it’s a much easier entrance and more to see in the shallows. The current was light and ran N to S one dive, and the reverse the other. The bait ball was there one day but had dispersed into smaller schools on the next dive.
La Dania’s Leap to Karpata drift – first time doing this and it was a lot of fun. Very different, one of the only true ‘wall’ dives on the island.
Candyland to Tailormade drift – an old favorite. Lots and lots of fish.
Nukove and Playa Frans – the topography and sea life are much like Candyland. Well worth the effort to dive the northern sites. We would pack a cooler with sandwiches from Between 2 Buns and hit the above three sites as a single trip.
Salt Pier – always fun to do. The ship was in a lot though, so we only dove there twice, and never at night.
Something Special – what a fun dive. There was always something to see, whether on the reef, the garden eels on the sand, or in the rubble in the shallows. The best night dive we had on the island.
Ostracod dive – there are several dive ops offering this dive; we had done it with Wannadive back in 2013, but this time, we tried by ourselves. And it was successful! We went to the Lake five days after the full moon, but also heard that Andrea, or any site without ambient light would be worth trying. The dive ops had a helpful chart listing the exact times the ostracods put on their show.
Night Diving – as I said above, we chose our accommodations for the access to the house reef, particularly for night diving. We dove with BDA, and found their staff to be friendly and helpful, and their tanks generally filled to 3K.
But in terms of night diving, it was less than convenient. To explain, in order to do a night dive, I needed to open a lock to get a key to unlock another lock to get into the gear room. Then at the pier, you have to, again, open a lock to get a key to unlock another lock to the gate. Then to get a tank, you repeat the whole double lock process again. To analyze your air, well, you get it. We still did about three night dives there, but less than we had in previous trips without a house reef. It’s not a nightmare, but just not as convenient as we had hoped. But for those looking to dive the house reef during the day and do boat dives, it wouldn’t be an issue.
SHOPPING
There’s a fantastic jewelry designer named Vera who uses sand in her work. You can gather sand from your favorite sites, and she’ll custom make jewelry for you. Her work is excellent and she was super sweet.
Vera - Home
Altogether, it was an amazing 18 days. We’re off to Indonesia next, but at this point, Bonaire has leaked into our blood and we’ll keep coming back again and again.
TRAVEL
We flew Delta from NYC via Atlanta, and all flights went smoothly. It was nice to have three departure options (Tuesday, Sat, Sun), which is how we ended up with the odd number of 18 nights for this trip.
Car rental was from Avis. Decent truck, no real complaints besides a tiny, ill-fitting tank rack that only held three tanks properly.
ACCOMODATIONS
We stayed at Den Laman for five nights in a one bedroom and thirteen in a studio; the one bedroom (ocean front) was great, and the studio was more than sufficient, only it didn’t have an oven which limited our cooking options, but we found ways to work with it. The staff was really nice and helpful, and overall, we had a very pleasant stay. We found that the newly opened Coco Beach wasn’t a noise issue at all.
In our previous two trips, we had stayed at other accommodations, and the main reason we chose Den Laman was for its dock and access to the house reef, as my wife and I love to night dive. In terms of diving the house reef…well, keep reading down to the diving section.
DINING
We probably ate half of our meals in and half out.
Van den Tweel has gotten better with each of our visits and we were able to find most everything we need there. On this trip we discovered Krusada, an addiction recovery facility on Bonaire that operates organic greenhouses. You can buy delicious greens directly from them or find them at Warehouse and Van den Tweel.
We also found Philip’s Cooking—a private chef, who made us a remarkable four-course meal, the best we’ve had on the island. Make sure to get his mushroom truffle soup—you won’t be the same after.
Between 2 buns was consistently excellent. In addition to the sandwiches (my wife is obsessed with the Fight Club), try the chicken soup—large, fresh, delicious, and perfect to warm up after two morning dives.
We ate wonderful sushi at Osaka. They even had fresh wasabi root they hand grind. The salmon bonbons (wrapped in avocado) and local sashimi were definitely the highlights.
The seafood was also excellent at Mona Lisa.
We were happy to see the Kip Tukkie smoked chicken truck was still around outside Van den Tweel. He makes a killer bird. Check his facebook page for his exact hours and location.
And a new wine bar and store just opened while we were there south of town called Barrel. Excellent selection and decent prices.
DIVING
The biggest highlights were a huge bait ball near Red Slave, a frogfish, a feeding eagle ray, an octopus, and a freaking BATFISH! No seahorses, though we tried…
Otherwise, most reefs looked healthy. Lots of free large swimming morays, tarpon, squid, and your usual suspects. Altogether did 42 dives across 17 days. Some of the best dives on this trip were at –
Willemstoren Lighthouse – we’ve been to Bonaire twice before, and the conditions have never been right to dive the lighthouse as they rarely are. But we were lucky on this trip and were finally able to dive here. Lots of different, huge, healthy coral. It’s the only place on the island where we saw healthy purple fan coral.
Red Slave – such a great site. We entered our dives here a little further north of the huts—it’s a much easier entrance and more to see in the shallows. The current was light and ran N to S one dive, and the reverse the other. The bait ball was there one day but had dispersed into smaller schools on the next dive.
La Dania’s Leap to Karpata drift – first time doing this and it was a lot of fun. Very different, one of the only true ‘wall’ dives on the island.
Candyland to Tailormade drift – an old favorite. Lots and lots of fish.
Nukove and Playa Frans – the topography and sea life are much like Candyland. Well worth the effort to dive the northern sites. We would pack a cooler with sandwiches from Between 2 Buns and hit the above three sites as a single trip.
Salt Pier – always fun to do. The ship was in a lot though, so we only dove there twice, and never at night.
Something Special – what a fun dive. There was always something to see, whether on the reef, the garden eels on the sand, or in the rubble in the shallows. The best night dive we had on the island.
Ostracod dive – there are several dive ops offering this dive; we had done it with Wannadive back in 2013, but this time, we tried by ourselves. And it was successful! We went to the Lake five days after the full moon, but also heard that Andrea, or any site without ambient light would be worth trying. The dive ops had a helpful chart listing the exact times the ostracods put on their show.
Night Diving – as I said above, we chose our accommodations for the access to the house reef, particularly for night diving. We dove with BDA, and found their staff to be friendly and helpful, and their tanks generally filled to 3K.
But in terms of night diving, it was less than convenient. To explain, in order to do a night dive, I needed to open a lock to get a key to unlock another lock to get into the gear room. Then at the pier, you have to, again, open a lock to get a key to unlock another lock to the gate. Then to get a tank, you repeat the whole double lock process again. To analyze your air, well, you get it. We still did about three night dives there, but less than we had in previous trips without a house reef. It’s not a nightmare, but just not as convenient as we had hoped. But for those looking to dive the house reef during the day and do boat dives, it wouldn’t be an issue.
SHOPPING
There’s a fantastic jewelry designer named Vera who uses sand in her work. You can gather sand from your favorite sites, and she’ll custom make jewelry for you. Her work is excellent and she was super sweet.
Vera - Home
Altogether, it was an amazing 18 days. We’re off to Indonesia next, but at this point, Bonaire has leaked into our blood and we’ll keep coming back again and again.
