ScubaInChicago
Contributor
Prize: 8 Day/7 Night all inclusive stay at the Utopia Village in Utila, Honduras with 2 tank boat diving and unlimited shore diving plus a night dive.
My wife and I have had the pleasure of visiting the Bonne Terre Mine on a couple of occasions previous to the June 6, 2009 Treasure Hunt. This was by far one of the most fun and enjoyable for both of us, there was so much going on that our day from 7:00 AM till 8:00 PM flew past. With a total attendance of nearly 200 people including divers, staff, and vendors it had to be a great feat to coordinate all the dives, activities, food, tours, and of course the auction.
The treasure hunt event couldn’t have been planned better; the entire event seemed to flow as one long day of fun. Our day started at 7:00 AM with a check in and a bit of the usual paperwork. Shortly after our arrival the rules and dive briefing were announced, then back to the car to put the knives away as this was claimed to be an unfair advantage. Everyone from our group split up to suit up for dive one and meet back by the mule entrance with gear in hand for the journey into deep earth.
Down and down we went, 68 steps, and I counted, to a graded trail that leads back a 1/8th mile trough dark carved rock with the sounds of dripping water surrounding you. Past a underground garden which survives on the cool, damp and humid 62 degree air. At the dock the wife and I are gearing up with a last minute huddle to go over strategies, then into the toasty 58 degree water.
It was then a short surface swim to the area just above the arena of fun where we descended. Our eyes lit up when we saw the various poker chips sprawled across the rocky mine floor and into action we went. I had a slight problem at first trying to fit fistfuls of chips into my goodie bag and lost about a minute of precious search and recovery time, moments later the signal to surface came.
We ascended and surface swam to arena #2 where the wife and I modified our efforts slightly and when the signal came we shot to the bottom again to claim more chips. This time you could tell the heat was on, people reaching for the same chip at the same time. I’m sure that the referees found it comical to watch as a group of 12+ divers clamored over the remaining chips.
Back on land, but still in the mine, it was time to tally the winnings. Of course the wife outdid me, and by a substantial margin of about $3,000.00. I asked if she had been turning of people’s tanks or what the proprietary secret was.
Topside the wife and I enjoyed a game of tossing washers, reading scuba magazines, and visiting the vendors who had donated prized to the events. These people were a wealth of knowledge regarding the products they represented. We left each booth daydreaming what life would be like winning various trips, an underwater camera, or a new undergarment for my drysuit.
Before we knew it, our surface interval was up and it was time to enter into the mine again to find more of the elusive black chips which had the highest value. Same as the last time, we spent two rounds of 10 minutes underwater collecting every chip in sight. And again, after we were done the wife was a magnet to the high value chips and beat me out again by a couple of thousand points. At the tally table we learned she had scavenged up nearly $9,000.00 worth of chips which put her in the running for a future dive trip.
Topside again, we compared notes with the other divers, feeling out the competition. The food was set out and the lines followed, we sat down and continued talking to others making friends along the way. We both agreed that regardless of the prizes, the price of admission was well worth the amount of fun we had.
After dinner the comedy show began, also known as the auction. Steve did a great job keeping the crowd in stitches. There were so many great prizes to bid on and I would guess that around 40 percent of the people attending won something of substantial value. The wife ended up winning an 8 day/7 night trip to Utopia Utila which looks like a diving paradise from their website.
Since we had driven 6 hours from Chicago, we decided to take advantage of the diving the following day and filled in the blanks on a couple of the lower trails we missed on our previous visits. There is no shortage of amazing things to see on each dive. We both had heard about the train and finally got to see it, a miniature steam locomotive laying on its side looked almost surreal and out of place. These were just another great sets of dives at Bonne Terre to add to the logbook.
My wife and I would like to thank Doug and his wife for hosting this great event and also the staff who made everything down to the smallest details a blast. We would also like to thank the vendors who we had the pleasure of speaking with who had all donated prizes. We wish more of the vendors who donated prizes had attended as we both enjoy travel and attaining new gear along the way. We will definitely be there again next year.
We would also like to specifically thank the owners of the Utopia Village for donating such a wonderful prize. We were so thrilled to have won it and are very much looking forward to booking our stay as soon as possible. If anyone is interested in visiting their website at Utopia Dive Village :: Scuba Skin Diving Utila, Bay Islands :: Honduras I’m sure you would see why we are so excited.
Thank you again to all who helped make this event possible.
Dan & Melissa Tapia
To Sum it all up;
Cost of gas there and back: $110.00
Cost of admission: $99.00
Value of Prize Won: $1,500.00
Seeing NetDoc in his new flooded drysuit: Priceless
P.S. Let us know if an Easter Egg hunt is in the works.
My wife and I have had the pleasure of visiting the Bonne Terre Mine on a couple of occasions previous to the June 6, 2009 Treasure Hunt. This was by far one of the most fun and enjoyable for both of us, there was so much going on that our day from 7:00 AM till 8:00 PM flew past. With a total attendance of nearly 200 people including divers, staff, and vendors it had to be a great feat to coordinate all the dives, activities, food, tours, and of course the auction.
The treasure hunt event couldn’t have been planned better; the entire event seemed to flow as one long day of fun. Our day started at 7:00 AM with a check in and a bit of the usual paperwork. Shortly after our arrival the rules and dive briefing were announced, then back to the car to put the knives away as this was claimed to be an unfair advantage. Everyone from our group split up to suit up for dive one and meet back by the mule entrance with gear in hand for the journey into deep earth.
Down and down we went, 68 steps, and I counted, to a graded trail that leads back a 1/8th mile trough dark carved rock with the sounds of dripping water surrounding you. Past a underground garden which survives on the cool, damp and humid 62 degree air. At the dock the wife and I are gearing up with a last minute huddle to go over strategies, then into the toasty 58 degree water.
It was then a short surface swim to the area just above the arena of fun where we descended. Our eyes lit up when we saw the various poker chips sprawled across the rocky mine floor and into action we went. I had a slight problem at first trying to fit fistfuls of chips into my goodie bag and lost about a minute of precious search and recovery time, moments later the signal to surface came.
We ascended and surface swam to arena #2 where the wife and I modified our efforts slightly and when the signal came we shot to the bottom again to claim more chips. This time you could tell the heat was on, people reaching for the same chip at the same time. I’m sure that the referees found it comical to watch as a group of 12+ divers clamored over the remaining chips.
Back on land, but still in the mine, it was time to tally the winnings. Of course the wife outdid me, and by a substantial margin of about $3,000.00. I asked if she had been turning of people’s tanks or what the proprietary secret was.
Topside the wife and I enjoyed a game of tossing washers, reading scuba magazines, and visiting the vendors who had donated prized to the events. These people were a wealth of knowledge regarding the products they represented. We left each booth daydreaming what life would be like winning various trips, an underwater camera, or a new undergarment for my drysuit.
Before we knew it, our surface interval was up and it was time to enter into the mine again to find more of the elusive black chips which had the highest value. Same as the last time, we spent two rounds of 10 minutes underwater collecting every chip in sight. And again, after we were done the wife was a magnet to the high value chips and beat me out again by a couple of thousand points. At the tally table we learned she had scavenged up nearly $9,000.00 worth of chips which put her in the running for a future dive trip.
Topside again, we compared notes with the other divers, feeling out the competition. The food was set out and the lines followed, we sat down and continued talking to others making friends along the way. We both agreed that regardless of the prizes, the price of admission was well worth the amount of fun we had.
After dinner the comedy show began, also known as the auction. Steve did a great job keeping the crowd in stitches. There were so many great prizes to bid on and I would guess that around 40 percent of the people attending won something of substantial value. The wife ended up winning an 8 day/7 night trip to Utopia Utila which looks like a diving paradise from their website.
Since we had driven 6 hours from Chicago, we decided to take advantage of the diving the following day and filled in the blanks on a couple of the lower trails we missed on our previous visits. There is no shortage of amazing things to see on each dive. We both had heard about the train and finally got to see it, a miniature steam locomotive laying on its side looked almost surreal and out of place. These were just another great sets of dives at Bonne Terre to add to the logbook.
My wife and I would like to thank Doug and his wife for hosting this great event and also the staff who made everything down to the smallest details a blast. We would also like to thank the vendors who we had the pleasure of speaking with who had all donated prizes. We wish more of the vendors who donated prizes had attended as we both enjoy travel and attaining new gear along the way. We will definitely be there again next year.
We would also like to specifically thank the owners of the Utopia Village for donating such a wonderful prize. We were so thrilled to have won it and are very much looking forward to booking our stay as soon as possible. If anyone is interested in visiting their website at Utopia Dive Village :: Scuba Skin Diving Utila, Bay Islands :: Honduras I’m sure you would see why we are so excited.
Thank you again to all who helped make this event possible.
Dan & Melissa Tapia
To Sum it all up;
Cost of gas there and back: $110.00
Cost of admission: $99.00
Value of Prize Won: $1,500.00
Seeing NetDoc in his new flooded drysuit: Priceless
P.S. Let us know if an Easter Egg hunt is in the works.
I've never participated in the annual treasure hunt before, but as a divemaster, I've been both a participant and staff member in more than 30 scuba events over the years, although I've only once been on of the head organizers. When I heard how many people where going to be there, I have to admit, I resigned myself well in advance to the usual semi-chaos that results - and instead was incredibly impressed with how well organized and run things where. That's incredibly difficult to pull off in events like this, and I have to applaud the Bonne Terre staff on how impressivly well manned, organized, and dedicated they had to be to pull this off. It was the smoothest event I've ever attended, bar none. My hat's off to the Bonne Terre staff, and I had a great time and will be comming back next year, and for many years after that! 
