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**freedivernd** · 03-22-2006, 11:38 AM,

My wife and I just returned from Bonaire.. talk about a divers paradise.. in fact.. how minnesota has "land of 10,000 lakes" on the car plates.. Bonaire has "Divers Paradise". and it is!! everything is shore dives and despite what people say about being difficult entries I never found one..(course, I wasn't donning any scuba gear Wink

). For snorkeling/freediving/scuba I don't think it could be beat. My wife was able to snorkel the shallows ~0 to 25' and I was able to hit the deep water.. usually it dropped off right at about the 25' or 30' depth to around 100' or more.. all usually within 100' of the shore. The corals were great although the very shallow corals did show some damage from a surge some years ago they are coming back nicely.. many sites had good corals in less than 10' of water and every site had great corals in 15-20'.. and then on down the wall to the bottom.. where ever that was. So many fish!! We saw octopus, scorpion fish, nurse shark, tarpon, barracuda, drums, angels, hogfish, hinds, filefish, porcupine fish, etc. etc. etc... UNBELIEVABLE!!! Vis varied from 60' to 90' the day we did the Hilma Hooker. Even freedove with the first bait ball we've ever seen the day we did the hooker. It was being attacked by the largest bar jacks I've seen. they looked like tuna... maybe... Anyway.. any questions on Bonaire.. maybe I can help.
Later.

AandA · 03-22-2006, 08:35 PM,

What airline did you fly and how were the rates?Â We'd love to go to Bonaire, but with the connection in Jamaica the roundtrip fares are pretty steep.Â Also, where did you stay and for how long?Â Any tips for those of us who are wanting to go??

**freedivernd** · 03-22-2006, 09:47 PM,

we flew American Airlines.. minneapolis-chicago-san juan-bonaire... bonaire-san juan-dallas-minneapolis return.. best tickets I found were minneapolis to new jersey (I think), then somehow to bonaire.. 24hr. travel time, several months ago for $750ea. or so round trip. ... we went for around $900ea. and only about 12 or 14 hrs travel time there, arriving early evening. Continental has a flight into Bon now.. don't know what they're charging or their route. I saw big KLM planes at the airport but don't know where they came from, Amsterdam I think. Rooms on Bonaire can be had pretty reasonable.. it's not unusual to find something nice enough for us at $50+ or so night. We stayed at Tropicana, well, actually the new part of Tropicana, Bonaire Fun for 9 days- very safe and nice..just a block or so from the water, across the street from WannaDive Hut, a little lacking for hot water though, but had kitchen facilities so we saved a bit by eating brkfst in and making a lunch.

AandA · 03-23-2006, 08:05 PM,

I know ya were lookin for a camera before ya left. Did you get any photos you could share while you were down there???

**freedivernd** · (This post was last modified: 03-25-2006, 10:07 AM by freedivernd.)

**freedivernd** · 03-25-2006, 10:08 AM,

AandA · 03-31-2006, 07:01 AM,

;D ;D
WAY COOL. Great photos!
Was that octopus out during the day??

**freedivernd** · 03-31-2006, 08:37 AM,

octopus was out and moving during the day.. we didn't take any night pics, but did do a night snorkel and got to swim with a large tarpon, that was fun. a beautiful fish that's for sure. I've uploaded a bunch of bonaire pics to if you want to see more. Just mislabeled the napoleon wrasse... it's a Rainbow Parrot. the rest I think I did good on.