Well, I read a recent report in Divers Chap Book about Bonaire and it hit a note with me from the start. It said "I had an arrogant attitude about Bonaire" and went on from there to praise Bonaire!
Here are my feelings: I too felt with over 4000 dives and extensive travel in and around the Caribbean, South Pacific, California, Baja, Central America, and Mexico! That what in the world could be so special about Bonaire? Even when friends went it was the same descriptions you get for a new diver going anywhere special! It was this and it was that and always we had such a great time!
Well I got talked into a low key trip with one of my dive buddies who had already booked and told me I should "Come along". With not much else cooking I said okay on a whim and was off on Continental Airlines and there "Sports Vacation fare" If your a diver your first Gear Bag up to 70lbs flies for free and you pay $25.00 for your second bag up to 50lbs!
So dive gear and camera equipment packed and a backpack of cloths and off to Houston and then Bonaire at 11:30pm. We landed at 5:05am on Bonaire and were meet at the front of the airport and off to Buddy Dive and our Toyota Pickup with tank rack and 3/4 tank of gas. We checked in and where shown to our room over looking the water and the resort.
You enter through the Bedroom and have a small kitchenette and dining area and a nice sized sitting area. I set up my camera gear and we got ready for or Checkout dive. Required by the Marine Park that every diver have a checkout dive before they are allowed to dive the park!
At 10:30am we were at the meeting place for the orientation and got a half hour tour showing us what, when and where! So we decided to go ahead and get the dive out of the way a suited up.
We asked and we did hear right "You do the dive with your buddy and check your own buoyancy and gear"! But you have to do it before you can dive the park the next morning on the boat.
They have perfected the mass dive operation with the tanks, Nitrox, Shore air system, and Boats. You don't do surface intervals on the boats because Klein Bonaire is so close to the resort, they just come back to the dock and reload. So you sign up on a blackboard for the boats and times you want.
So we did the 8:30am boat and then carried our gear to the top of the stairs where we one of us watched the gear while the other got the Truck and a couple tanks a piece for shore diving!
You have a full Breakfast Buffet and then you are on your own to cook or eat out for Lunch and dinner! We shopped the first day for snacks, lunch stuff, and some dinner stuff. We even found a place close to buy Vanilla Rum and Diet Coke! Life was good!
We did 20 dives in 5 days including a couple night dives including the "Cargill Salt Pier" that were great!
Back to my opening point: We got on our first boat to Klein Bonaire to a dive site called "Forest" and as soon as I stepped off the back of the boat I know this place was something special! The DM found a Sea Horse and I found a second one just before our turn around point and the corals were so healthy and the variety of reef dwellers was numerous! We saw all the usual suspects, but what made it different they were in mass number!
One hour and 100ft is the rule and you have to follow the DM at this operation! But if that is not your stile they have SHORE DIVING! Unlimited anytime and a lot of sites just as good as Klein Bonaire and many had no one else there but us!
I had always thought with all my travel that I had seen just about everything you can see in the Caribbean and what I didn't know it is all here in mass!
A down note here as they tell you not to take anything you don't want stolen with you and it does happen. Don't lock and if you do put the windows down enough to let them in! Try to park in the open!
You can find a lot of pictures at our web site under travel and Bonaire 2009 and as a note we are on our way back the 12th of December with a larger group for more fun!
One hour and 100ft is the rule and you have to follow the DM at this operation! But if that is not your stile they have SHORE DIVING! Unlimited anytime and a lot of sites just as good as Klein Bonaire and many had no one else there but us!
