cstreu1026 once bubbled...
Thanks for the wonderful tips scubagrl, I am really looking forward to the trip. Actually both of us are ready to go right now. We both love to dive, but both have very little experience and no shore diving experience. IS it possible to hire a guide so to speak for athe first couple of dive? Well then may not be that much of an issue, because we might do our nitrox certifications while we are there.
As far as getting there we plan to fly American because here family has a very large number of award miles and free airfare is always nice. Anyone had experience with flying American to Bonaire?
The only bad thing about flying AA is that you arrive late... around 8pm, I think. And then you leave early (7am?) and need to be at the airport early... I've heard 5am, because AA was checking all luggage by hand (at least they were in March).... lots of people in march were missing flights because of overbooking. I've heard from several people that luggage was delayed a day or so because of weight restrictions on the smaller plane from Puerto Rico to Bonaire. So I would make sure to carry on regs, computers, masks... then if you end up waiting for luggage, you can still dive with most of your own stuff and rent fins, ect.
As far as a guide... you can probably do a ton of dives on the house reef at Buddy's.... gear up and jump in... the reefs are very close to shore. I can understand some aprehension if you've never shore dove before, but the reef system in Bonaire is very easy to navigate. The reefs run pretty much parallel to shore (with a double reef south of the airport), so you swim out to the reef... drop down to the depth you want and swim one way or the other (against the current to begin, if there is one). When you reach your turn, move shallower and swim the opposite direction. Some of the sites to the extreme south or north end of the island are more susceptible to currents... there is an excellent book on Bonaire shore dives... available locally. You can always hire a dm from buddy dive for a day and then you'll see that you'll probably be ok on your own.
You'll have to listen to a lecture before you can dive, and then do a 'checkout' dive at the house reef. They basically tell you to go dive and check your weighting. 10.00 for the tag, as mentioned.
No gloves allowed, except on the Hilma Hooker shipwreck.
As mentioned, don't lock your vehicles at the shore dive sites. The theft problem is blown way out of proportion. I think it's because everyone expects that they are in paradise, and there should be no problems. Let's face it... you don't leave valuables in your vehicle at home, so why do it on Bonaire? Use some common sense. This isn't a big city, but there can be crime anywhere. You will NOT find street vendors on Bonaire. It is safe to walk around at night. I've heard that they are starting to have some drug problems, but it is as safe as any small town in america.
Our favorite place to eat was the Swiss Chalet. It's a little hard to find, since it's not downtown... walk south thru town and take a left at the post office. It's a couple blocks on the right.
You can find internet service at the Cafe Detuin in town... couple bucks an hour. We found a deal on a car phone rental thru Hertz... free phone rental and just had to buy a calling card. Ended up to be around .40/minute to call the US vs. a couple bucks per minute from the hotel.
If you haven't found it already... try
www.bonairetalk.com for much more info.
Ken
