Trip Report
We were scheduled to fly from Philadelphia on the 12th of September, we got out on the 19th. Air Jamaica to Montego Bay to Bonaire the flight was uneventful and rather empty our luggage was intact and waiting. We picked up our rental truck and headed for Divi Flamingo, checked into our rooms and log books in hand headed for the dive shop. We were greeted with the words ‘thank god the Americans are back’. Marine Park tags attached to our BCDs we were giant striding off of Divi’s pier about three hours after landing. Life is good.
This is my first time to Bonaire and my wife’s first time in salt water after some minor weight adjustments and buoyancy checks we are off. Calabas Reef is a nice site we would dive it at least once a day for the rest of the week amazed by the different residents to be seen according to the time of day. My favorite were the octopi hunting about a half hour after sunset I can watch them for hours they remind me of a herd of five year olds with chocolate smeared on their hands. Nothing the octopi passed was left untouched. Calabas Reef had Frog fish, mating Sharptail eels, a Hawks Bill turtle (yes I filled out the sheet), Goldspotted eels, a huge Green Moray we named Bubba, lobster, Tarpon and vast quantities of life to long to list. There was some coral damage but it looked a lot nicer than Molasses Reef in Key Largo but not as pristine as Northwest Provincials in Turks and Cacios.
Our package included a daily one tank boat dive, it was an afternoon dive so I only made it out to Klein Bon for one dive at Mi Dushi we enjoyed the Seahorses but the coral damage was depressing I will not go back to that site. That left Repel as the only site I couldn’t easily get to from shore and it is a great dive. This brings me to a point, I went equipped with a copy of Jessie Armacost’s ‘Bonaire Diving Made Easy’ which I had been reading for about two months before the trip. Buy it. My goal is to dive every site in the book I got a decent start but yearly pilgrimages back to Bonaire will be required. The freedom of diving in Bonaire is addictive. I could rant and rave about the diving for pages attempting to describe each dive site and my favorite critter spotted there I won’t. Suffice to say the day I decided we could not leave before seeing Reef Squid I opened Jessie’s book to Lighthouse Reef because another diver I had spoken to told me they had seen some at Windsock and had heard a report that they were at Lighthouse Reef. That morning I spent and hour observing eight Reef Squid before my dive buddies drug me off. Tales of a Spotted Eagle Ray led us to Big Blue and lo and behold didn’t we see the little guy. My favorite dive site of the trip was Margate Bay one of my dive buddies described it best as an Octopus’s garden (yea he’s a die hard Beatles fan).
Divi Flamingo was clean and comfortable I’m an old sailor so a bathroom fan qualifies a hotel room as classy there wasn’t a fan but a louvered window with a constant breeze is nothing to sneeze at. I have read some trip reports busting on Divi for their dive locker having nails to hang your gear on, yes this is true email me and I can send you a picture. My BCD dried in this rustic locker in a few hours to me (see old sailor disclaimer above) this was great. I always soak my regulators and other stuff in my room so carrying them about is no big deal. Divi always had full tanks for us, and the omelet Nazi smiled at me everyday when I said good morning.
Food, dining is a waste of good bottom time. Our next trip to Bonaire we will rent a condo or such and prepare our own food it is quicker. Dining on Bonaire can be frustrating to me it takes too long. Sit me down for more than twenty minutes and I will fall asleep, their custom of a relaxing evening meal takes two hours the food was good just that I would lose dive buddies between the salad and entrée. Night dives are tough to organize when everyone is sleepy.
People were relaxed and helpful the biggest conflict I was presented with was at Bruce Bowker’s Carib Inn when we stopped in to have a Scuba Pro hose replaced. I sighted some Bonaire license plates and had to choose whom to make the donation to the Klein Bon Park or the Bonaire SPCA. The puppies running about really had no influence on me even though the one looked exactly like a miniature version of one of my mutts I picked up at the local pound. Bruce explained it was a Bonaire Brown so now my dog even has a breed to call itself. Every animal I encountered on Bonaire looked well fed most expected handouts from Lizards to Donkeys my only advice on this is Donkeys prefer Red Delicious to Granny Smith every time. Stopping at the inscriptions reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds with a cast of lizards, bring treats it is entertaining.
Return trip on the 26th was a bit inconvenient as our flight on Air Jamaica was diverted to Kingston for security reasons. Upon landing the security reasons were made quite clear when the pilot announced that a bomb threat had been called in on our flight please leave the aircraft at once. Air Jamaica did a superb job of rebooking everyone I was impressed. They claimed it was the first bomb threat they had had and they handled it well. We chose to fly into Ft. Lauderdale that night they put us up in the Sheraton (no fan) and booked us on an US Air flight first thing in the morning. US Air sucked we had a 7:15 AM flight they opened the ticket counter at 6:30 AM for two weeks the media had been telling everyone they needed to show up three hours early for flights due to the increased security. Three hundred people were in line at 5:00 AM. US Air pulled us out of line at 6:50 AM the skycaps that searched our bags didn’t finish till 7:05 AM we bailed down to the gate only to be greeted by the sight of one hundred people waiting to have their carry on bags inspected detected and otherwise neglected. Once again a reprehensive of US Air pulled us out of line rushed us to the front only to start arguing with the X-Ray operator that the cleaning staff should wait until all passengers were though before getting their buckets and cleaning supplies securityitzed. Ten minutes later after much pleading on his radio with the planes crew to wait we were at the terminal we threw our carry on bags onto the X-Ray belt of course nobody in Florida has ever seen a regulator we have to be hand searched. The US Air reprehensive starts to berate the four of us that we can’t put items like these in our carry on bags these are check bag items and we should know better meanwhile the security person hand checking my bag decides it would be a good idea to stand it upright to open it. She screams at me ‘its not my fault your camera fell on the floor’ it is at this point that I realize that all the stress that melted away when I jumped of the dock at Divi’s is back with a vengeance. We eventually made it home that day.
My wife who has always been terrified of flying upon dropping her bags in our living room turn to me and asks, “ When we going back to Bonaire?” God I love her.
Andy |
By Andrew Clark on Sunday, November 4, 2001 - 9:49 pm: 
