Bonaire Trip Report

[BLT]

Hi All,

A small group of us just returned from a trip to Bonaire (just shy of two weeks). It was a awesome trip and an excellent vacation. We used Toucan Diving for all boat dives and all shore dive air fills.

Weather:
Weather was great most days, usually partly cloudy and quite warm when the sun popped out. It rained on about 3 different days, two of which were heavy rain overnight and one day it rained while we geared up for shore dive but cleared up when we surfaced. Many people commented that it had been unusually wet/rainy this winter. I won't forget that great wind that never stopped blowing keeping it cool out in the hot sun.

Visibility:
Viz was probably down a good deal from past reviews. I would estimate most dives in the 50'-70' range and a few dives with less than 50'. Visibility seemed worse in the sandy areas between the double reef system. Clearly the recent rain and possibly the past hurricane season have impacted visibility.

Temperatures:
Water temperatures seemed consistently in the 77F-80F range. My Vytek showed 81F on the warmer daytime dives and 79F or 80F on the cooler day dives and night dive. But our awesome photographer was using a console and consistently showed 1 or 2 degrees cooler (probably most correct). For the ladies, a 3/2mm fullsuit was typically not enough especially after the first few days. I'm a polar bear and I was getting cold from the 8th day onward (3/2mm fullsuit). Air temps were perfect (mid-upper 80's, even warmer in the direct sun).

Wildlife:
We think we saw just about everything smaller than 5' long (excepting sharks of course). The really big Tarpon's were my favorite, especially when they are your dive buddy on the night dive! Right off the Plaza's public beach we saw several Tarpon, squid, a very nice Spotted Eagle Ray and all the other small stuff. On a rebreather dive we spotted a very large fish near the bottom and our photographer spotted something else even bigger but too far away to photograph or identify. We saw so many Eels that the photo opportunity started to become mundane. Several very large Green Morays, countless Serpent Eels, many of the green & gold spotted eeels, garden eels (on our last shore dive), a Chain Eel and so many black spotted Eels we wouldn't be able to count them all. Other larger critters included a very nice sized stingray, a gigantic Parot Fish and this monster Jew Fish which we saw on two different days of diving on Klein Bonaire. Smaller turtles were spotted on two day dives and one night dive. We didn't bother the turtle on the night dive. The ones on the day dive were not shy at all and some of the photos are close enough to read the numbers on their tags. A few seahorses where found along with a few frog fish. There were countless, relatively friendly, Barracuda in the small to medium range.  Smaller grouper were seen on every dive and were fun to watch, especially in the cleaning stations. All the coral was impressive and incredibly diverse. There were so many small things, a macro photographer's heaven.

Diving:
We managed to do between 30-34 dives each. About 2/3 of these were 2-tank boat dives. Over half of the boat dives were to Klein Bonaire. The shore dives were very enjoyable. A word to anyone going there, it is not all smooth sandy beach access. Please write me if you'd like a better description of the shore diving. We did a dive on the Helma Hooker and the Tarpon came to visit at the end. Going early from shore or first boat on the wreck might be the best way to see it. Oil Slick Leap was great as well as Ol'Blue. My favorite dive of the trip was the last dive (shore). We went to 'Invisibles' and everything was out. We swam out to the second reef for a bit which left us wanting to come back again! All dives were done with EAN32. Average dive time was in excess of 60 minutes. Many of my dives were in the 65-70 minute range. Depths were usually 40'-80' on the way out and gradually going shallower on the way back.  Very little current was ever detected. Nothing, you couldn't swim your way back through. When I go back I would like to try more sites farther to the south and farther to the north.

Town:
We went to several great restaurants/locations. Richards, Casablanca, Croccantino, Cite Cafe, Coco's, Lion's Den, Rum Runners, etc. We were surprised to see many restaurants closed on certain days. And we missed several restaurants which will be first on the list next time (ie Mona Lisa). There were very few Cruise ships (maybe about 4) and none were the mega sized ones.

Island:
We did tour the park up north. I took an extremely long time to drive through (several hours). Make sure you bring plenty of water and drive carefully. It isn't a trip you can rush unless you like changing tires! There was a fairly big power shortage on the island, but we were fortunate to only lose power a few times. Several donkeys were seen as well as the Flamingos. Stanley said 'Hello' to me at Captain Don's, I wonder if he'll still be there the next time we go back?

Travel:
Our trip was Delta from MSP to Aruba and Bonaire Excel from Aruba to Bonaire. The only hiccup on the way there was a delayed flight from Aruba to Bonaire. We got in a few hours later than normal. All luggage made it. On the way back, the Bonaire to Aruba flight left two hours later than stated on the ticket. Thankfully the person setting up the trip planned a 4 hour layover. In Aruba, the airline ticketing computers were down so some long lines and a big delay leaving. We made our connection in Atlanta with just 15 minutes to spare. So we actually made it home on time, but not without a lot of hassle. One of us lost a bag which was returned the next day. If using Bonaire excel, make sure you have a decent layover time. Several people recommended Jamaica Air since they fly a jet directly to Bonaire from Jamaica.

[javelindan]

You each logged 30-34 dives?!  Wow.  How long were you there?  How many dives would you go on each day?  Shore dives vs. boat dives?

Unfortunately, my diving has been pretty limited when hitting warm destinations with the family in tow...  I'm just back from spending the last week in Cancun and I was thrilled to log 8 dives.

[BLT]

A few of us were there for 10 dive days. We did 2 boat dives each morning and then at least 1 shore dive each afternoon which put us at 30 dives. Each of us did a few other fun dives (discover rebreather, a set of unique speciality dives, etc) that were later in the afternoon or evening. Plus we did a night dive.  So I think I logged 32 and another person logged either 34 or 35.

The diving there is very easy, no extreme depth and fairly long dive times made it relaxing and easy to find stuff.