Just got home from my second trip to Bonaire and thought I would share our experiences with all of you, after all, I have been visiting Bonaire talk for the past couple of years getting ideas from all of you.

Our flights went smooth, NWA from Minneapolis to Chicago O’Hare. Spent the night in Chicago and caught an early morning flight via Air Jamaica to Montego Bay with a short lay over and then on to Bonaire. We were delayed 20-30 minutes both legs in Montego Bay while we waited for late arriving flights but seemed to make up the time in the air.

We picked up a car from Budget rental and were off to Captain Don’s. We shared a 2 bedroom/ 2 bathroom cottage with some friends of ours. This is my second time at Captain Don’s, the accommodations are nice and I find the dive staff to be very friendly and quite knowledgeable about the marine life.

For our fist night we chose an old favorite for dinner which I am not going to name, Our wives had a wonderful dinner, however, the Wahoo did not agree with me and our friend. To keep it simple we had a long night recovering from dinner. Good thing that we took their advice and did not have the Dorado.

Diving

When asked, which was my favorite dive, it is hard to answer, some of the sites I did not expect much and I was quite surprised. Swam with a sea turtle at North Belnam where we spotted a sea horse. Did a surface swim to the Hilma Hooker(just don’t forget your weights, it’s a long swim back) where we were joined with a few Tarpon as we swam around the wreck. For a night dive we went off the dock at Captain Don’s, immediately we were joined by a couple of grouper looking for dinner, soon we had a tarpon join us for the remainder of our dive.

In the mornings, we tended to head north for deeper dives. We went to Karpata, Rappel and La Dania’s Leap. All had beautiful coral life and an abundance of sea life. In the afternoons we would dive Klein Bonaire, Captain Don’s Reef, Bonaventure and the Rock pile. At Bonaventure we were treated to the presence of a frog fish. Throughout our dives we were treated to the sights of spotted drum fish, scorpion fish, eels, angel fish, grouper, blue tang and the list goes on….

Non-diving

This was my wife’s first trip and she does not dive. She was very happy to lay out in the sun and read while I was out diving. She managed to get out shopping a few times. We drove around the island a couple of times getting a feel for the local culture.

Dining

In the mornings we ate at the breakfast buffet where we could get our fill of carbs for the day before diving.

We ate at Richards twice, as in the past we found the meals to be excellent. Here I was able to enjoy some excellent Wahoo. To get way from seafood one night we chose the Casablanca, excellent steaks. We also ate at the Lions Den and Mona Lisa’s for dinner both also were great. We never went home hungry, after all, Lovers Ice Cream is just down the street from Captain Don’s.

Communicating with home

Next to Lover’s Ice Cream is a gift shop with cell phones and internet access. The people there were quite helpful and friendly. I don’t know if you can beat there rates anywhere else on the island. I had to make a couple calls home to the states which ended up costing a dollar per call.

Photo Ops
I recently purchase an Olympus C-5060 wide zoom digital camera along with the underwater housing for the camera and flash. I still have some learning to do when it comes to taking underwater pictures but I did manage to get some nice shots which I hope to post soon, I just need to figure out how to do a web site.

Thanks for the report Russ. It brought back memories of my second trip when I brought my wife to Bonaire for the first time also. She doesn't dive but like your wife enjoys the sun and snorkeling. My next trip will be a guy thing because she say's I spend to much time underwater. Imagine that. If your wife has an interest in diving encourage her because the waiting for the Husband to get back can get old.
Best wishes. We use A. J. so thanks for the latest.

anxiously waiting for pics :-) thanks for sharing

Nice report and great pics Russ, thanks for posting!