Sorry, this report is a little late, we've taken a couple of side trips to visit relatives since we returned and that delayed things. First, we would also like to thank all the "BTers" for all the info we gained before (and during - yes, we even logged on at the Chat & Browse while there to get specific info on the park?!)So, many thanks to everyone.
Second, a little background on us. We are a family of four with split interests and after MUCH research decided Bonaire would be the best place for the group. My husband and oldest daughter (19) dive and my youngest daughter (14) and I snorkel. Additionally, my oldest daughter has just completed her first year of college as a marine science major, so it was a very important trip for her. We had limited experience on both fronts. Diving previously in quarries (sp?) and several times in the FL Keys. Snorkeling in the Keys & Hawaii. This was our first trip to Bonaire and 1st out of the US for us.
Flew Atlanta/Montego Bay/Bonaire on Air Jamaica and was only 10 mins late going and 20 coming back - GREAT FLIGHTS - highly recommend it!
Oh, forgot to give praise for reservations. I'm a detailed person, so Sabah with Sanddollar reservations (in FL) had to answer questions on several different calls. If she didn't know the answer she would check and call RIGHT back. She was extremely helpful, professional and courteous. Sanddollar needs to keep her!!
I'll break the rest down into catagories:
Food - We ate all our dinners out, all but one lunch in, and all our breakfasts either at Mangos or in our condo. Food is not cheap in Bonaire. Yes, I do understand why (due to everything having to be shipped in). It doesn't matter whether you go out OR try to shop and eat in, everything is significantly more expensive than in the states. Hint, we grocery shopped at the Cultimara (sp?) grocery twice. The first time was a Sunday, I believe, second time was I think a Thursday. Sunday was awlful with very little produce, meat, etc. Thursday was much better with a lot more choices. We learned that the get shipments later in the week (might want to inquire when ?Wed.? Thurs?) Another hint, I ran into a couple of people on the trip that bring an entire suitcase of food with them due to the food prices. We brought a few "special" things to us (our choice of coffee, tea, etc) But next time I would take their suggestion. Example, cereals ran $3.75 to $5.00 a box, regular chips were almost unheard of unless you like pringles (trying to remember but like $2.00 for a reg. size can). The bakery was great at Cultimara, but nothing in the bakery was in English. So, breakfast was a hoot as we bit into a danish and tried to figure out what it was and sometimes we weren't sure - but that was a fun touch. I guess I saw some mentions of the food in the grocery being somewhat higher, but it is quite a bit - so, just budget accordingly. Oh, and if you don't like Gouda cheese you're out of luck. Literally didn't see any other kind (but we love it, so that was a good thing)
Food cont. (Restaurants):
Pasa Bon Pizza - good food, do try the fish pizza (which was weird sounding, yet VERY GOOD), worked well for us the 1st night as us weery travelers dragged in tired and hungry) Fell in love with AMSTELS there (many more drunk before the week was out)
Garden Cafe - Got to get the Argentian Grill which comes on an actual small hibatchi grill with steak, chicken, sausages (hope that's everything). Says it feeds 2, but would easily feed 3, possibly 4. Also the fruit punch drinks are fresh and very good. Good flan and turkish coffee. Raja (a/k/a Santa Clause)was very nice and accomodating. (The 2 bonde teenage girls didn't hurt our situation either. He's also a photographer and wanted to photograph them. We did get a group shot with "Santa" at the end of the evening.) GOOD FRESH FOOD, HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.
Gibi's Terrace - We did go to BT night (Tues.) That was fun and was great to meet Jake and many others. The best part was the people. The food was okay to be honest. Not very large portions. We all got something different and tried each others (Grilled grouper, goat stew, chicked, fish cakes) Personally, don't get the goat stew thing. It was okay, lots of bones. Gibi was very nice and accomodating, he just had his hands full with a large group to keep up with. But, it was worth it just to put a few faces with names and share a few stories. Extra thanks to Jake who came in the middle of a move with his family and helped Gibi move things along. OH, DO bring bug spray there, you will need it. Not on a main road, so ask for directions if you haven't been. We never would have found it with just an address & map. Many streets do not have street signs.
Mangos - (at Sanddollar Resort) We stayed at Sanddollar, so we were bound to eat there. They have a breakfast buffet for guests. The made-to-order omletes were great & their banana/carrott bread at breakfast was great. Everything else for breakfast was so/so. Only ate one dinner there. Kids were dying for a hamburger by then and they said it was good, I got an okay fish sandwich. Don't remember anything else. Dinner prices were high, but we asked and ordered most of ours off the lunch menu. Nothing to brag about at Mangos.
Lost Penguin - stopped for lunch during our day of shopping downtown. SOOOOO GOOD! This was on one of our last days, if not, we would have come back again. Great Nachos, great fish sandwich (grilled mahi-mahi, which they call something else. Oh, well, it's dolphin anyway you look at it.)Wonderful tund salad sandwich (made with fresh tuna!) Very nice owners which were very accomodating.
Casablanca - Very crowded - we waited over an hour, BUT well worth it. Wonderful argentina beef, good seafood - the best calamari we've ever tasted. (Girls loved the adorable efficient young argentinean server who also doted on them) Very nice evening with a very nice bottle of chilian merlot that went with the steaks.
Kon Tiki (at Lac Bay)- hate to say, don't go there, BUT - here's our story. We had saved it as a special last night. Heard on here that the food was good. Got there and decided to eat inside since the winds were expecially bad. Wondered why no one was eating when we arrived. (inside or outside). They had the doors and windows open to let the breeze in. Well, that's not all that came in. We were greeted very nicely, the server came with bread came immediately. Then we all started getting attacked by mosquitos at once! It was unbelievable. I had my trusty bug spray with me (didn't think I'd need it inside a restaurant). As we started applying it (a rub on) I looked over and my daughter had 2 on her face (mosquitos), then after applying bug repellant we started slapping at our clothes. They were biting through our clothes. We're actually a pretty hard-core family, but this was unbelievable. The server came over and apologized and said the mosquitos had been very bad recently and they had extra bug spray behind the bar. By this time we were scratching bites that happened while we were putting on repellant. We left a "tip" for the bread, apologized and left. As we were leaving, we walked past the one table of people that had come in while we were being seated. They were swotting and asked us if we were leaving because of the bugs? So, Kon Tiki I doubt it's worth going bankrupt over to shut the doors & windows & get some fans or whatever. We hated leaving, but had no choice. Server didn't seem surprised.
Chibi Chibi's (at Divi Flamingo) - food was pretty good, but I think we missed the best part. We had to have an early dinner before a town pier night dive. Would be best at sunset or after when I hear they turn the lights on over the water and you can see the fish coming up for food.
Snorkeling/Diving - great snorkeling & diving. DO get the book, Bonaire Diving Made Easy by Jessie Armacost. (can find it around island, ours was bought at Sanddollar's dive shop)
1000 Steps - we all snorkeled here. (divers didn't want to trudge up & down the steps with tanks & we wanted to all stay together for once) Looked a little daunting at 1st since the winds were up and it looked pretty choppy to snorkel. Wasn't as bad as it looked and turned out to be a great snorkel. Stayed out for awhile, but realized you could see just a much closer in to shore. Hint, divers, after we came in a shore diving group was coming up. They didn't seem to know about find a break in the 12" ledge that's along most of the shore. (we had read about the easy entry in the above-mentioned book) We had to literally rescue several ladies who were tired from their dive (& had every type of equipment, including large cameras, hanging from them)who were trying to climb over this ledge along the shore, but failing and getting slammed by the waves into the ledge. On top of this, there are urchins all along which they were accidently grabbing at trying to get over. It took 3 of us to pull each one over with their tanks on. When we mentioned the breaks in the ledge to use for entry they weren't happy since their dive master didn't point this out. Then, after all that, they had to climb the 72 steps up. They were very thankful we were there. The girls found the shoreline just as interesting. They found bristle stars, urchins, too many kinds of algae to name, etc. all along this tide-pool kind of area by the shore. They really enjoyed investigating along there. A GOOD SNORKEL. Would recommend diving it by boat!
Bari Reef (Sanddollar house reef)- only snorkeled down in front of condos, not by the pier/dive shop. As a snorkel it was ok, but the one day we snorkeled we had to fight a pretty good current. The divers in our group dived it several times and even did a night dive here. Our oldest daughter (marine science major) & her Dad did a dive with Sanddollar's naturalist, Jerry, as part of the Dive Festival. That was so worth it (especially since there's usually a fee, but during the festival it was free)He was able to show them many things they wouldn't have seen on their own (including the famous, yet rare batfish!) Do recommend getting with Jerry. The night dive was their first ever. Ok experience, but were dissappointed that most of the reef seemed to be "asleep" at night, everything except the tarpon which followed their light (and scarred the ** out of my daughter when he first came up from the deep)Evidently they follow you around like little dogs ?waiting for a tasty morsel to be attracted to your light? Anyway, she just said that about the time you think this has got to be the darkest place on Earth, up right in your face is a 4 to 5 ft. tarpon and thank God they don't bite! This was a "trial night dive" before Town Pier.....
Town Pier - only by the divers in our group. The scheduled and went with a group from Sanddollar (Dive & Adventure of Sanddollar) To them it was a nightmare! Way too many people of many groups at town pier. They tried to listen and follow their dive master and stay with the group, but there were so many people all over each other going in every direction that the worst happened....they got seperated. Ended up on the other side of the pier, came up and my daughter saw that a fisherman above them was about to hook her father coming up below her. They ended getting back with the group near the end of the dive and seeing a few "neat" things, but would not - definitely would not recommend it to anyone else. Tim that works the Fish Eye Photo shop at Sanddollar warned them at the last minute that it wasn't a good idea, and, that he was taking a group out that afternoon for a photo session,but I had read on here that it was a "must do" and talked them into going. (By the way, Tim is great and a big help with the photography & equipment) They said that even if they hadn't gotten seperated, it was just too many people there at one time to enjoy.
Playa Benge (in Washington Park)- best snorkel of the trip! Great day in the park, capped off by a great family snorkel. As a snorkeler, this has got to be the closest thing to diving that exists! The coral (so many different corals & sponges) came so close to the surface that the sealife was right in front of you. You didn't find yourself pointing down at something or diving down to shoot a picture. So many times it was right under you or around you. Large schools of blue tangs and parrotfish, along with a large peacock flounder, huge black urchins, just too much to mention. Even the divers in our group were amazed. Nice small sandy beach to picnic on too. VERY NICE SNORKEL
Klein Bonaire - Boat dive/snorkel with Dive & Adventure. Terrible snorkel (on south side with divers) We (snorkelers) made the mistake of going with the divers. Snorkeling we saw a few fish, little coral. Reef dropped off suddenly where we were so all we could do was snorkel along the edge up and back. Not much to see. Was rough. Wouldn't do with dive boat. From what we hear now, we should have taken a seperate snorel trip on the Windwood. We hear that's great for snorkelers and on the other side of the island as a drift snorkel. The divers had a great dive. They said the coral formations were much thicker and abundant and they spotted a large octupus which was cool. Just a good over-all dive.
Tori's Reef - snorkeled onlyl by 3 of our group. Entrance and exit a cinch. Larger variety of fish are closer to the shoreline, including scorpion fish, lizard fish, sharptail eel, chain moray, puddingwife, etc. Awesome snorkel, would recommend.
18th Palm (at Playa Resort)- we dived & snorkeled this. Divers were a little disappointed - not much to see. Plus it was a long walk to entrance. This was a great snorkel with lots of French Angel fish, parrotfish, a barracuda, trunk fish, etc. & lots of corals with very easy access off the resorts sandy beach. Resort will let you pay a small fee (?$2.00 a day?)to just use their beach/chairs/beach bar access, etc. for the day. A nice breather for a day of flopping on the beach & snorkeling.
....end of part 1 of our report. Part 2 to come soon will include accomodations, general Bonaire info & more tips & hints I wish we knew before our trip. Thanks for reading all of this!
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By Gina O. Kent (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #6) on Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 9:32 pm: 
