Here's Part 3 of our trip report:

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES: The island was far more quiet and devoid of tourists than I have ever seen, even at this time of year. Buddy's was less than half full, which is quite unusual. Restaurants were empty; we were often literally the only ones there for dinner at 7 or 7:30, except for BobbeJan's which was hopping. I personally love it when the island is like this, as I am definitely one who likes to get away from crowds on vacation -- not that Bonaire is ever crowded, but it's real nice when you get all the attention at a restaurant, you usually see no one underwater during shore dives, and the dive boats are not (moo) cattle cars.

The motorcycle rally was going on the last few days of our trip, but other than once seeing about two hundred bikes heading north out of town in a "parade" and seeing the impressive display of rides in Capt. Don's parking lot, there was very little evidence that anything was going on. I understand that some of the locals experienced quite a bit of loud, late nite cruising through their neighborhoods, but we saw none of this where we were hanging out.

The residents of Bonaire, both natives and "immigrants" from the states and Europe where, as always, overwhelmingly friendly, fun, pleasant, informative and interesting. We said hello to lots of past aquaintances and met lots of nice, new folks too. We also struck up brief friendships with lots of guests from the US, Holland, Switzerland and South America. The people we always meet on this friendly island were, as usual, a huge part of the joy of the trip.

We witnessed nothing in the way of crime, and with well over a hundred Bonaire shore dives under our belts we still have NEVER had anything pilfered from our truck. We did notice broken car-window glass at more than a few dive sites, so please follow all the usual advice that's always posted here on BT.

Highlights of the trip? Definitely the squid/tarpon/turtle/eagle ray last dive of the trip, the boat dive with Ned and Anna Deloach, watching an osprey fish down by the lighthouse, body surfing while holding onto the floating rope behind the dive boat while trying to board after a drift dive at Klein and finding that the boat had drifted into VERY shallow water and had to quickly accelerate outta there, numerous sunsets, the conch stew at Antriole and the ribs at BobbeJans.....and, of course, the five hours a day we spent underwater with the fishies.

Suffering a bit from PBD, recovering from post-dive-trip-my god the boat's still rocking-I'm exhausted and a little wobbly-think I need to go diving and absorb some nitrogen-ears and balance just aren't quite right-syndrome, and trying to decide when we can return to our favorite little slice of island paradise......

Great report....what happened in San Juan? We are going in November and are worried the same will happen to us. The same thing happened to friends of ours last year. Does American reimburse you for expenses when this happens?

Meredith,
You can read the details of our San Juan/American Airlines experience under the topic of Getting There in the thread titled "Stuck inside of San Juan with the Bonaire Blues again." Basically, since the delay was AA's fault, not weather, they put us up at their expense in the not overly desirable San Juan Airport Best Western hotel and gave us paltry dinner and lunch vouchers for $20 (for two). I have sent a letter of complaint to AA's customer service with a demand for compensation and will let everyone here know the results of that. One other thing to be aware of is that apparently AA does not hold the AE flight to Bonaire at all for delayed arrivals. Let me know if you'd like any further details.