Back from Bonaire

[lizard0924]

Paul and I just got back yesterday from our 4th trip to sunny Bonaire. As usual, the diving was fantastic. We even had a chance to do some east coast/wild side dives. Now it's back to the more temperate waters of Puget Sound. Might take some getting used to again!

Here's a link to our trip photos (Paul took all the good underwater shots....I just spot stuff for him to shoot):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 ... 921e682226

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 ... f78fa4471f

Enjoy!

[Tom Nic]

Welcome back Liz!

And I enjoyed your pics.

But come on... a two line trip report? You can do better than that!

[coachrenz]

I'm with Tom on this one. Come on now. Give me some more reasons to be even more excited about our return trip on March 26th.

[lizard0924]

Well, Tom, that was sort of lame, I guess. So, lets see....

There were the excellent nitrox fills/steel tanks with din connections we received from Tropical Divers (across from the Plaza). With steel tanks and our BP/W combo, we needed no additional weight. Yay.

Buddy Dive is now offering a 3-tank, all day boat dive on their new 46' Yacht Cat dive boat. Excellent day on the water with diving, diving, lunch and more diving. They head up to the Slagbaii park, which is diveable by shore but requires a drive through the rough, rough roads. Take the dive boat, spend the day on the water, and avoid all the potholes. Well worth the $120/pp price.

Paul took a solo diver specialty course one day. Not sure if I should be concerned that I'm about to be fired as his primary dive buddy. (Good thing I know some locals on the island who are happy to dive with me.)

Saw several southern stingrays, a queen triggerfish, a spanish lobster and about a gajillion coral banded shrimp. I also found a lot of spotted eels, and we encountered a huge, free swimming green moray when we dove Cai (on the east side). There were also a number of spotted eagle rays on many dives. More than I've seen in the past. Lots of tarpon and barracuda, too. Paul saw a grey reef shark when he dove Baby Beach. I, sadly, was a victim of the heavy surf and never made it in for that particular dive. There is always next trip, though.

Surprisingly, viz was relatively low (for Bonaire). Less than 60 feet on several dives. In trips past, the viz has been crystal clear, but not so much so on this trip. Of course, I thought it was just fine, it just wasn't as crisp as I expected.

I also found myself getting much colder later in the week than in years past, and am switching to a 5 mil wetsuit for future trips. Of course, I saw lots of folks diving shorties and skins, so I must just be getting wimpy in my old age.

I was shooting to hit my 100th dive on the trip, but fell short by 5 dives. As it stands, I've done at least 65 of my 95 dives in lovely Bonairean waters. Not bad.

Spent a lot of time hanging out with residents/dive people we've met over the past few trips there. Found a great place for super-cheap Polars with a direct view of the ocean. 2.50/NAF (which is, like, 1.50ish USD) versus the $5.00 USD you pay at the resorts. Got to be there for the Netherland Antilles election (sort of meaningless since the NA are dissolving on 10/10/10), and it was interesting to see the "candidates" out campaigning. We ran into the blue party guy at Maiky Snack one day and got to watch him work the "room" - gold chains and all. Interesting, very interesting.

For anyone heading to Bonaire, some great casual restaurants to try include Bobbejans (only open on weekends), Mi Banana and Pasa Bon (best pizza outside of NYC). Finer dining includes Unbelievable and Richards. There are many more great restaurants, of course, and Maiky Snack (out in the kunuku) and the Rose Inn (up in Rincon) have authentic Bonairean fare (goat stew, salted fish, funchi, etc.).

So, there you go, my week in review. This was the best trip of the four we've taken to Bonaire. I'm trying to figure out a way to get back there again before our annual January trip in 2011. Darn work, keeps getting in the way.

Liz

[Metal man]

Great report and those were some very cool pics! I'm going to have to clean the drool off of my keyboard now

[psundquist]

More trip report details:

I lucked out with finding the instructor of instructors and divemasters in Bonaire to take my SDI Solo Diving class from. He works at Tropical Inn Divers and works through Toucan Divers as well. Chris had 3,700 dives under his belt. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that our favorite guide was taught by Chris which gave him a lot of credibility. The class was excellent and will make me a better buddy. I already have an excellent primary dive buddy (lizard0924) and diving with her is always more enjoyable and safer than diving alone.

Viz was the best on the north end with the 3 tank Buddy dive, somewhere over 100', but 60' - 70' viz most other places. I felt overwhelmed with the viz at first since you could see so much compared to our home waters. It took me a minute to adjust The first dive was at 18th Palm located inside of The Plaza Resort, and they had a visitor parking lot close to the site and they allowed vistors unrestricted access to their dive site.

Lizard0924 was a good samaritan to a couple who were brand new divers and showed them how to perform a shore entry correctly. They were trying to do a shore entry with their fins on, which might work at Cove 2 and would result in disaster in Bonaire. Following her help, we talked to a guy who liked our DSS wings - due to him wearing one as well. Any BP/Wing rigs and 7' hoses are very rare to see on the island and this sighting was a first. Speaking of fins, I missed my Apollos and will bring them on the next trip. I only needed them for a few dives on the east side, but wish I had them in the heavy surf & surge on the wild side.

January is rainy season. One morning I saw that it barely rained over night - I was glad the windows were rolled up on the Toyota Hilux. That is a typical week during rainy season.

I met the folks from Orca Scuba Center in Wenatchee after a underwater fluorescence night dive at Buddy's pier. I was very happy that the Sony WX-1 camera worked great in taking pictures without any external light source besides the blue LED light we were using. Thanks again cardiver for sharing your experience with this amazing low light camera.

Next time I will also have a 5mm wet suit. After 3-4 long dives in a day I was also getting chilled from the 79F water.

We had excellent food at Plazita Limena a Peruvian restaurant in downtown. I had the ceviche and lizard0924 had the paella with mixed seafood. It was reasonably priced and very tasty.

I am missing the Pasa Bon pizza and enjoyed the greek fish pizza we had always heard about. It was unique, never had a pizza like that, but very good!

Richards has a great location (on the water), good food, and a generous & friendly proprietor who loves the PCNW. We left it up to Richard to pick a bottle of wine for us and he gave it to us for free since we left it up to him to pick out. I was surprised by his kindness.

Caipirinha's were excellent next door at Sense, but the prices were similiar to Seattle.

Time to count down for our fifth trip back to Bonaire.

[Gdog]

Thanks for the report! Looks nice, on my list of places to dive someday. We leave for Cozumel Feb 8th, ready for a break from all this rain!

[psydiver]

My GF and I are looking for a vacation spot this year and were discussing Bonaire (which means I am trying to convince her yet again to go on a diving vacation instead of a "real" one).

Can yo give me some info about where you stayed, cost, other options,a nd ease of travel?

Thanks loads.

[ktb]

My GF and I are looking for a vacation spot this year and were discussing Bonaire (which means I am trying to convince her yet again to go on a diving vacation instead of a "real" one).

Can yo give me some info about where you stayed, cost, other options,a nd ease of travel?

Thanks loads.

Does she dive? Because if she doesn't, she will not be happy . . . I love Bonaire, but there is nothing to do BUT dive.

[psydiver]

she dives
we went to Mexico last sept and dove every day, it was very tiring, as we had to get up every day and drive from cancun.

I'm pretty sure that is what she was talking about when she said she wanted a real vacation
I just checked airfare for this September........$5K?

What the hell?

[ktb]

Keep checking. We went in October and it was ~$700 per person for the flight.

[Gooch]

Good report! I love Bonaire and can't wait to get back but it is alllll about the diving.

And great pix on FB.....the night diving shots...where you using a special light to make the fish fluorescence (like using a black light ?) or did they just turn out that way...

[lizard0924]

Paul has a special light and a lense filter for his camera to achieve the fluorescent night shots. We also have the lense filters for our masks, so you can just dive and see the flourescence, too. If you head to Bonaire and want to do the UV night dive, get in touch with Bas Noij @ http://www.vipdivers.com. He has all the equipment and will guide the dive and show you some really cool stuff. That is how we started with the UV light stuff, then we bought our own gear.

Airfare to Bonaire is hit or miss in terms of pricing. I usually pick a week that I want to travel and then follow the flight/fare on Yapta. When I get an alert of a pretty good price, I buy at that time. I've found fares for as low as $600 from Seattle, but usually it is more in the $700-800 range. As for ease of travel, it is fine if you don't mind a red-eye. The usual route from Seattle is via Houston. The HOU-BON flight leaves around 11:30 p.m. on Friday nights (Saturdays too during high season) and arrives on Bonaire at 5:30 a.m. or so. The flight is a turn, so it drops off new arrivals and picks up the folks heading back. You can also get there via Atlanta (Delta) which is not a red-eye but usually requires an overnight in Atlanta if you are coming from the west coast.

Bonaire is definitely about the diving. That is pretty much all we do, although you can kiteboard, windsurf, landsail, mountain bike, rent motorcycles or scooters (and tour the island), or just hang out by the sandy beach where the windsurfers play. I like driving through the kunuku and exploring the more remote areas of the island. I also like hanging out where the locals are...the beer is cheaper and you really get to learn about the culture better than if you are surrounded by other tourists. Of course, it took four trips to really get plugged in with the locals, but now it sort of feels like a second home. It helps to have friends on the island.

Lodging is across the board, too, in terms of amenities and pricing. For a first timer, I recommend Buddy Dive. While it is pricier than other options, they make it a package deal so all you have to do is walk out of the baggage area at the airport and they chauffeur you to your room and give you the keys to your truck. They have several pools and several decent outdoor restaurants on-site. They also have an awesome house reef to dive, and the dive shop staff is fantastic. Their rooms are slightly nicer than some of the other places we've stayed. Once you get your Bonaire legs, though, I recommend venturing beyond the Disneyland-environment of Buddy Dive and exploring other, more a la carte options.

Hope this info helps!

[psundquist]

Bonaire is very relaxing for a divers "real" vacation. Your schedule is your own, no need to schedule any boat dives. You are the captain of your pickup truck which you decide when to hit the sites.

The only time I saw a $5k airfare to Bonaire was a misrouting using KLM through the Netherlands or South America, the American airlines are in the range lizard0924 discussed.

Check out http://www.nightsea.com for information on the special light and filters to capture the fluorescence. I believe the quote I read on the site: "Our group was so blown away by the NightSea filters that they wanted to forego the local nightlife for the rest of the week and night dive instead." I had a custom filter made for my underwater camera housing. The other divers we came across during the night dive had a puzzelled look on their face - since they stumbled upon two divers in the darkness with one faint led blue light in the water. Not what you expect to come across on a night dive. I would not recommend the flourescence lights in Puget Sound, I tried it once in Cove 2 and barely saw anything.

[Gooch]

I can only imagine trying to do that up here. I'd be bumping into stuff cause I couldn't see. The pix you guys took in Bonaire are really nice and the night ones are great too. I can remember diving nights down there with the Tarpon trying to hunt by our lights. The guy I was with had been to Bonaire a ton and showed me how to "bounce" my light beam off the surface and have it reflect way out in front of you at a downward projection. It was pretty neat to light up stuff ahead of you and from the top.

I was wowed by the frogfish we found- he was about the size of your fist. I didn't think I would ever see another but in Maui at a Marty's Reef night dive with Ed Robinson's outfit, we saw one that was bigger than my head!