Bonaire dive sites ??
- Thread starter scubajsm
- Start date
Yes I'm advanced, I've just completed my DIVECON course. I have dove in Mexico numerous times, and we went to Grand Cayman last July. I have a map of the sites and I've heard good things about the Salt Pier and 1000 steps. When you went did you see any sharks,whales, or anything large? We are going with about 30-40 people, over half have been there before atleast once. Thank you, we are so excited....
How long are you going for? 10 days?
The largest thing you are MOST likely to see is going to be Tarpon or an occasional Sting Ray. Anything is possible as you know...but don't expect to see many large things. You are lucky if you see a dolphin...extremely lucky for any kind of shark...
If you are into Pelagics look into doing a dive on the East Side...you have a greater chance in seeing nurse sharks, schools of Rays or maybe even a reef shark.
As far as dive sites go, you really cant go wrong anywhere. However, Karpata has a more dramatic rolling hills of reefs than any other site there. It is quite spectacular. Personally I like to dive at the southern dive sites...you can exit the water pretty much anywhere..so I do dives in one direction some times.
The largest thing you are MOST likely to see is going to be Tarpon or an occasional Sting Ray. Anything is possible as you know...but don't expect to see many large things. You are lucky if you see a dolphin...extremely lucky for any kind of shark...
If you are into Pelagics look into doing a dive on the East Side...you have a greater chance in seeing nurse sharks, schools of Rays or maybe even a reef shark.
As far as dive sites go, you really cant go wrong anywhere. However, Karpata has a more dramatic rolling hills of reefs than any other site there. It is quite spectacular. Personally I like to dive at the southern dive sites...you can exit the water pretty much anywhere..so I do dives in one direction some times.
I will be there 9 days. I heard that you have to have a dive master with you to do 1000 steps, or maybe the salt plains I can't remember. We also have 6 boats dives we can do too, but I'm not sure if the boat diving is worth missing the shore dives. We may do a couple just to see something different. Has anyone taken the marine identification class with Jerry? Everyone I've talked to says it's a must, and well worth it.
Hey,
You need a DM to do Salt Pier and Town Pier. A thousand steps is easier to do by boat, but certainly doable by shore.
When I go I dont bother with the boat dives. If you want to check out Klein Bonaire than obviously you have to go by boat, but IMHO its a waste of time...but some enjoy. I guess it all comes down to what you think of the shore entries/exits.
I like loading up the truck with tanks and driving around doing my own thing...some dont like that.
J
You need a DM to do Salt Pier and Town Pier. A thousand steps is easier to do by boat, but certainly doable by shore.
When I go I dont bother with the boat dives. If you want to check out Klein Bonaire than obviously you have to go by boat, but IMHO its a waste of time...but some enjoy. I guess it all comes down to what you think of the shore entries/exits.
I like loading up the truck with tanks and driving around doing my own thing...some dont like that.
J
I didn't see any sharks. I'm not advance cert. I did see a tarpon, large moray eels, and sea turtles. Don't forget to bring insect repellant or else you will regret it in the airport waiting for your luggage. Your best bet is going to all of them. If I remember correctly Oil slick is nice too.
Back from Bonaire. Wow what a trip. I have almost 700 pics, haven't loaded them yet, still a bunch I have to delete. Thanks k3v1n the bug spray came in handy!! Departure tax is up to $32 each now, it used to be $15 a couple years ago when we were looking to go. The scenery was assume. We got to take the ID class, very cool, and do a dive with the marine biologist, which was cool in itself. We only did 22 dives. We lost out on 2 days of diving due to someone breaking into our condo while we were sleeping and stealing my husbands D9 (Suunto) dive watch. Which really sucked being it was only the 2nd day we were there. Thank goodness it's just a backup. We had to file police reports and all that, there were a total of 9 condo's broken into 5 of which stole something, 4 of the five were in our group, sounds fishy. That's another story in itself. We weren't hurt atleast and were able to dive still. Our resort has the #1 dive site in the Carribeann, it has (documented) over 360 species of life just on that reef, pretty amazing. Week before last they just discovered a new species of octopi, about the size of a thumbnail. Really amazing reef life, not as many corals as you would think, but tons of little inverts and fish. Will get pics in photobucket when I have time.
Yes did see donkeys. The cactus fences were bazarr, no worries on breaking in if you had a cactus fence. We stayed at Sand Dollar, which is where the Bari Reef dive site is located. Our rooms were absolutely beautiful, but I feel violated and I never want to go back. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth. We didn't sleep at night cause we worried about them coming back. We did get a new room, but the management was not very forthcoming about what was going on and lied to all of us about the entire situation. It's a HUGE mess now that we are back in the states. We are waiting on our police report to be translated into English, we contacted DiveAssure today, and still have much to do yet to get this taken care of. What blows my mind is that we have traveled to far more poverty sticken places (such as Jamaica) and we were more vulnerable then and yet we were never robbed. Hum!! All the places we have ever been to actually cater to the divers and PROTECT them as well, since we are the bread and butter of their tourist industry.
Wow, didn't realize how much stuff you have to go through to file a claim. It's taken us 3 phone calls, and an email just to get a claim form. Crazy! I definitely don't want to have to go through this ever again. No more Bonaire for me!! I'm done. It's been fun, it's been real, but it hasn't been real fun!! Ha
squiddly
Premium Member
Crime is still rather rare on Bonaire, and much lower than many other places in the Caribbean. Sorry that this crap happened to you. The locals get VERY upset to hear about thefts, since they realize that they hurt tourism. We used to go to Bonaire up to 4x per year, but haven't gone yet this year (work and more work) but we're going in October.
Re: Jamaica, I was robbed there. Every once in awhile there are tourist murders there during robberies.
Re: Jamaica, I was robbed there. Every once in awhile there are tourist murders there during robberies.
Oh I know all about Jamiaca (from a tourist view), and I have no want to go back there again. I have been doing a lot of research on Bonaire crime and there is a lot and it seems like it's mainly kids that are doing it. Kinda strange to me. I hope you have a safe trip in Bonaire, please take extra precautions, especially since the crime rates are so high this year. I would put money on it that the hotel staff had something to do with what happened to us. We still haven't received our (English) police report that we were promised to have on Monday. Whatever I guess. We had 35 divers with us in our group and several of them had been there several times and one was going to buy a condo there. Our dive shop has already put money up for another trip, things are changing now since this has happened.
I've always heard the crime rate in Bonaire was/is high. When I was there several years ago we were warned about the crime rate, mostly car theft and items left obvious and unattended at the time. Personally the Caymans are my favorite destination, both from a diving standpoint and a lack of crime.
fvandijk
Premium Member
Sorry to hear about your troubles- I'm not aware that they have a particularly high crime rate, but that's irrelevant after you're a victim of it. And dealing with cops in the Caribbean can be frustrating- I had a fender-bender in another island a while back and it took nearly 2 hours just for them to show up.
I was in Bonaire a few months back. Didn't get to dive as much as I would have liked (GF doesn't dive), but did love the the abundance of marine life, and the easiest dives I have ever made (great viz, no current, perfect water temp). We stayed at the Divi Flamingo and never had a problem with safety (or lack thereof)- we were told not to leave anything visible in the car when out diving though and took that advice to heart. Given a chance, I'd go back in a heartbeat.
I was in Bonaire a few months back. Didn't get to dive as much as I would have liked (GF doesn't dive), but did love the the abundance of marine life, and the easiest dives I have ever made (great viz, no current, perfect water temp). We stayed at the Divi Flamingo and never had a problem with safety (or lack thereof)- we were told not to leave anything visible in the car when out diving though and took that advice to heart. Given a chance, I'd go back in a heartbeat.
The police never even came to the hotel. We had to go to the PD to fill out the report. FUN! We were told the same thing about not leaving anything out in the open as well and same thing, took it to heart. We had a pretty strong current at the Red Slave, others were like you said (Karpata was a little challenging) very easy to dive. Wonderful dive sites indead, but this has left a bad taste in our mouth. By no means am I boycotting Bonaire, just right now I have no plans to return. And I hope by my experience with the robbery that others will take extra precautions and be safe. It is a wonderful place to dive by all means, just be safe, and know that bad things can happen to good people.
