Ten things I learned in Bonaire last week

[TEArrington]

1. Shore diving ranges from not too hard to manage to fairly challenging to get to the reef. It helps to know which sites you are going to before you choose your gear configuration when you are trying new things (e.g., first dives in double AL80s).

2. All of the posts about leaving nothing in your car but a half empty bottle of water were not an exageration. We followed that rule from the first day, but it was still shocking that in the course of one week we saw several groups of divers come back to their things stolen & the rest thrown on the ground. It kind of stinks because you can't bring optional equipment or save a dive stuff, so again it helps to know which sites you are going to, because you will be bringing all of that stuff on every dive unless you run back to the hotel.

3. I wish I had seen the postings about the lack of washclothes, handtowels, and bath towels at my resort before I went. I would have packed my own.

4. If you bag gets lost on the way there, you might as well rent stuff from the dive shop because your bags might take a while, but the shop may only have full foot fins and jacket style bcds. Bare feet on coral is just not the way to go, but they may or may not have open heeled fins for you to rent.

5. There are so many different types of diving in Bonaire (boat vs shore, drift/one directional/two directional, deep vs shallow) that most people won't be bored. However, I really only found one wreck within recreational dive limits, and the surface swim to the buoy was not fun for me.

6. Those dang bugs are eating you alive no matter how much DEET you have, and the sunscreen sweats back off your face as fast as you can put it on but you can't leave a hat, sunglasses, or anything like that in the car.

7. No gloves, no glow sticks allowed.

8. If you like fancy food, it is available at several really nice restaurants. If you like local cuisine, plan to eat goat & fish. Dressy clothes were not required even at the really nice restaurants.

9. Sunrise diving is much better for me than night diving.

10. Bonaire is beautiful, and has tons of marine life, even if the lion fish are eating everything that they can.

 

[tajkd]

Ten good lessons.

I could add one more - fill the truck bed with tanks in the morning and don't come back until late.

 

[deco_martini]

2. All of the posts about leaving nothing in your car but a half empty bottle of water were not an exageration.

You mean all those people saying "ive been 10 years in a row and never seen crime" are a vocal minority? That might explain why Bonaire has an established reputation for petty theft.

3. I wish I had seen the postings about the lack of washclothes, handtowels, and bath towels at my resort before I went. I would have packed my own.

Which resort? I'm going in September but still need to book a hotel.

4. If you bag gets lost on the way there, you might as well rent stuff from the dive shop because your bags might take a while, but the shop may only have full foot fins and jacket style bcds.

Ouch. Literally. Talk about missing your market.

5. There are so many different types of diving in Bonaire (boat vs shore, drift/one directional/two directional, deep vs shallow) that most people won't be bored. However, I really only found one wreck within recreational dive limits, and the surface swim to the buoy was not fun for me.


Wrecks in clear Caribbean locales never cease to bore me to death. Not a problem.

6. Those dang bugs are eating you alive no matter how much DEET you have, and the sunscreen sweats back off your face as fast as you can put it on but you can't leave a hat, sunglasses, or anything like that in the car.

I've been to Roatan. Nuff said.

7. No gloves, no glow sticks allowed.

I'm not a glow stick kind of guy. I generally don't wear gloves on reef dives where holding on for dear life to a rope at any point isn't required.

8. If you like fancy food, it is available at several really nice restaurants. If you like local cuisine, plan to eat goat & fish. Dressy clothes were not required even at the really nice restaurants.

Goat. The other, other, other gamy meat.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[drrich2]

However, I really only found one wreck within recreational dive limits, and the surface swim to the buoy was not fun for me.

I assume that was the Hilma Hooker. If you're okay with much smaller, the Our Confidence & Bakanal are options.

I've been at Eden Beach resort 3 times & we always had washclothes, handtowels, and bath towels. What resort did you stay at?

Richard.

 

[spectrum]

Buddy had bath towels, I don't remember about hand towels. They did not have washcloths, just one scrunchy for all. NBD for me, I use my hands and a few splashes of water after shaving.

Wrecks? What does Bonaire need with more artificial reefs? It's probably the most accessible fringing reef there is.

 

[drrich2]

Now that I think about it, maybe our hand towels did double duty as wash cloths.

Richard.

 

[diverrex]

Good List!
Here’s what we learned on our first trip to Bonaire last week.

1. A good house reef with easy access and nearby gear storage and rinse tanks is easier than hauling your gear back and forth to other sites. Most reefs are just 45 degree slopes anyhow and fish do swim around so by going north one time and south another and also changing depths I could dive a good house reef 1 or 2 times every day for a week and not get bored.

2. Take a bottle of frozen water; it will still be cold after the first dive and after getting out of the water in 90 degree bright sun it will taste really good. Keep two frozen at all times and if you drive by your lodging after dive 1 pick up the second bottle for after dive 2, you’ll be glad you did. Take 2 or 3 other bottles for washing off your face, camera, gear, booties etc. You can’t have too much water for cleaning. If someone wants to steal my bottled tap water oh well.

3. Bring a pair of $5 sunglasses that you won’t care if they get stolen. Driving around in that sun without any is a pain. I don’t have any pockets on my BP/W and don’t really want to carry $100+ sunglasses into the water anyhow. Those inexpensive small cases work just fine for keeping keys and money dry.

4. When we shore dive locally most of us use some kind of mat or tarp to gear on/off on. Next time I’d take something simple and disposable, maybe even just a couple heavy duty garbage bags.

5. Boat diving can be worthwhile and as cheap as shore diving is, boat diving on Bonaire is also relatively inexpensive. We did 6 dives with Toucan, for 5 of those they took us to Klein. On one dive the DM showed us 4 frogfish and a seahorse. On another it was one frogfish and a chain moray. I don’t think we would have found those on our own.

6. Diving the east side is different. We did two dives with Bonaire East Coast Diving and it was worthwhile even though very pricy ($105 per two tanks). We saw an eagle ray and multiple turtles but mostly what I liked was seeing 5 foot morays lying where you could see them tail to head and the whole body in between.

7. You barely even need a compass to navigate in Bonaire. As easy as navigation is I did appreciate sites with a clear marker to find on the way back.

8. A truck makes things really simple to throw in tanks and gear in the bed, and the tailgate is convenient for gearing up. The Toyota Helix has the nicest style, the Mitsubishi is next and last is what we had, the Mazda.

9. There are plenty of good restaurants in Bonaire, more than enough for a week.

10. Did I mention having a good house reef is really nice? On ours we saw an eagle ray, turtle, spotted drum, sharptail eel and juvi anglefish. On each single dive we saw more anglefish than we did in a week of diving on Grand Cayman last October. Seriously.

 

[gypsyjim]

Plaza had towels, no problem there. Good breakfasts too! Buddy Dive had plenty too, the last time we stayed there. this is not true of every place we have stayed at though.

No crime problems experienced by our group, except for one missing pair of sunglasses, left in a truck with a few more valuable items (my gf never listens to warnings very well ). 7 or 8 trips now, in @6 years, and we have yet to be victimized, but most of us take the recommended precautions.

Found one shore dive that I would avoid; the Blue Hole on the eastern, or Wild Side, is the only shore dive I have ever done on Bonaire that really beat us up. Surf into fire coral and spiny sea urchins! NOTE: do this site by boat! Less scars!

The new 3 tank dive to Washington slagbii Park, by buddy dive, was more of a "been there, done that" for us, as we saw nothing all that special, that we wouldn't see doing the shore dives we love. We also felt the same way about the Larry's Wild Side boat dive we did a few years back, on the rougher eastern side, but still, both these dives do have higher chances for encountering larger marine life forms than are usually encountered on the gentler west side. And if you do want to do these site, the boat IS a better option (and I have the scars to prove it!) .:depressed:

 

[DiverVince]

GypsyJim..I've done my share of diving on Bonaire, but personally would never chose to dive the "White Hole" from shore. Ouch (big time)...You would have done better at Cai with a local guide like Bas if you wanted to try something different. Live & learn as they say. Jeepers another year before you get back?

 

[gypsyjim]

GypsyJim..I've done my share of diving on Bonaire, but personally would never chose to dive the "White Hole" from shore. Ouch (big time)...You would have done better at Cai with a local guide like Bas if you wanted to try something different. Live & learn as they say. Jeepers another year before you get back?

One diver in our party had done the site years before, with a local guide (might have been Bas). She chose to skip that dive with the rest of us, as she felt it was too rough, even with a guide, but we figured it had been done, so it could be done again. It was a dam good dive, the portion under the water, it's just the exit that got rough, but I might try it again someday, and see if we could improve our exit, with experience and planning.

Might make it back to Bonaire in Feb. No actual plans right now though.