Bonaire trip report

I travelled to Bonaire July 26-August 3, with dive buddies James and Eduardo. James was our tour guide and resident expert on Bonaire, as this was his 7th trip.

It's an easy journey from Vancouver through Houston with a 1 hour layover ( just enough time to get to the gate as the second leg was boarding. Total travel time was about 12 hours.

I've posted three Bonaire trip videos. 

We stayed at the Sand Dollar condo complex. It's a 1970-80's vintage just North of the town centre of Kralendijk, the main commercial tourist centre.  Everything worked or was fixed upon demand, except for the promised in-suite internet. The suite was in original, unrenovated condition, and for $60/night each it was very good value for the money.

We rented a truck from Budget, and ended up with surprise extra charges totalling almost $200 when we dropped off the truck. 

We sourced tanks, storage lockers and rinsing facilities from Dive Friends, which has five locations around the island, including at the Sand Dollar resort. The dive centre manager was Ilsa, and she provided us with all the info, advice and support that we needed. First rate.

We had six days of diving, 18 dives in total. There are over 60 marked shore dive sites, along with many more unmarked and boat diving sites on the leeward side of the island. There is a small island, known as Klein Bonaire, on the leeward side, located more or less half way between the North and South. There was usually some surface chop to be concerned with at entry and exit. It was a minor issue at the beachy South end of the strip but a much bigger factor at the North end of the Island, where entry and exit are mostly through iron shore.

Here are two links to maps at shorediving.com: Bonaire North dive sites and Bonaire South dive sites

Diving conditions were significantly different between the North and South dive sites. The South was flat and sandy, with a double reef system. The topography was more gently sloping in the South, while the North had steeper slopes and conditions approaching wall diving in some locations.

While the features and topography were varied from location to location, the number and variety of species were pretty much the same. In all locations, the swim out from shore was across a flat sandy bottom. The drop off began at a depth of about 20 feet.

Highlight dives included the Hilma Hooker wreck and the Salt Pier, both at the South end. Karpata and Nukove, along with 1000 Steps, were my favourites at the North end. We did a night dive on the house dive site, Bari Reef, which was excellent, and a dusk dive at the Salt Pier, which was a disappointment.

Water temperature was 81-82 F. Visibility was usually at least 50 feet, and often 100 feet.

The town centre has several restaurants, but not much night life.

It's definitely worth passing a day exploring the wild side of the island, especially Jibe City for windsurfing and the road along the South coast. There were hundreds of flamingoes in a lagoon. And the history of slavery is visibly apparent at the Red Slave and White Slave sites, as well as at the Salt Pier.