We were lucky enough to be able to visit Bonaire during the Christmas and New Year holidays this year. We flew out from the UK via Amsterdam with KLM, arriving at Flamingo Airport at about 4:00am – unfortunately none of our checked luggage made it on the same flight. It all turned up a couple of days later thank goodness, but KLM were less than efficient at handling the situation. We did escalate the issue and received some compensation. We were also informed that the KLM staff at Flamingo Airport will be putting an improvement plan in place in order to ensure passengers whose luggage goes astray are treated appropriately and kept up-to-date with information regarding the location of their bags.

As always we stayed at Habitat, and had a wonderful time. Our accommodation (a deluxe Junior Suite) suited our needs brilliantly, and had a fantastic view over the ocean and Klein Bonaire. We really feel at home at Habitat, Jack and his team look after us very well and really add to the whole Bonaire experience.


We did lots of boat dives, as well as several dives on the Habitat House reef, and saw a fantastic variety of marine life which we did our best to photograph! (We haven’t finished sorting out the photos yet and will just include some now – we’ll post more once we’ve gone through what we’ve taken.)


Diving highlights included several turtles, including a few small ones that were untagged (both Greens and Hawksbills), lots of morays of all types, including viper, chain, honeycomb and green, and also many juvenile fish, particularly French and Queen Angels – We actually saw one Queen Angel that was no bigger than Brian’s thumb nail. We also encountered a large octopus and two frog fish at Something Special, and saw a lot of large jacks and tuna on many of our dives. Seahorses are always a favourite and we were lucky enough to see three at Witch’s Hut (also known as Weber’s Joy). We both thought that there were many more fish generally than we’d noticed during our previous visit in September – and the water was a lot colder too; we were very thankful we’d brought hoods with us! There has been some discussion regarding coral bleaching due to the water temperatures being so high a couple of months ago, but we noticed very little and what we did see seemed to be improving. We also enjoyed a memorable excursion to Salt Pier with a very happy group of divers including Dave and Pat, Jason, and Jack Chalk.




We were both lucky enough to win a couple of monthly prizes in the Habitat Photo Competition – follow this link to check out the pictures:

http://www.habitatdiveresorts.com/bonaire/photo_monthly_winners.html

Habitat has a really good day spa, and we both enjoyed a couple of deep tissue massages which are a fantastic way to unwind after a few day’s of diving. There is a nice cabana with room for two people to have a massage simultaneously, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

As far as dining goes, we ate most of our meals at Rum Runners at Habitat – we absolutely love view over the ocean and Klein Bonaire – and the food was fantastic as usual, with special meals during the Christmas holidays and on New Year’s eve which we really enjoyed. In fact the New Year’s eve lobster dinner was our favourite meal of the whole trip. We think that the new owners Floris and Nannie have made tremendous improvements and highly recommend Rum Runners. The fish is really fresh


We also ate at Salsa (good food but the service could have been better), Lion’s Den, Café de Paris, and thought that La Flamboyant (where we enjoyed a really nice evening with Seb and Mare following a twilight dive on the Habitat house reef) was very nice. We also had lunch at City Café which was very tasty.

Brian had the pleasure of drinking one of the last bottles of Amstel Bright brewed in the Caribbean (we saved the label – sad or what?!?). Since the closure of the brewery in Curacao Brights are now brewed in Amsterdam and shipped out to the Antilles. It’s not quite the same but at least they’re still available.

Habitat threw a great New Year’s party, the fireworks were fantastic and the champagne flowed…



Every time we go to Bonaire we say ‘we must go and visit the donkey sanctuary’, and this time we actually made it. The donkeys are very friendly and cute, and made very short work of the large bag of carrots we’d taken for them!



We had a very good flight back to Europe, and all our luggage made it with us this time!! We’ve also noticed a couple of comments on the board regarding KLM’s apparent reluctance to serve alcohol, but we didn’t experience any problems at all apart from Brian having to show one flight attendant his tongue (bizarre or what!) before she’d let him have a small bottle of red wine!

All in all we had a really good time, seeing old friends Chip & Cookie (who received their Bonaire Ambassador Gold Award during the trip), and Dan & Dot, and meeting new friends Sandy & Frank, Dave & Pat and Seb & Mare; and are trying to alleviate our PBD by looking forward to returning to Bonaire for the coral spawning in September.


Till next time.

Great Photos! No wonder you won.

Brian, seriously, no blowing smoke up your arse. They are some of the most creative and wonderful pictures I have ever seen graced on this forum. OUTSTANDING!!!! You should seriously think about working for National Geographic!!!

When I get down and out, missing Bonaire, and warm weather, I shall go to David Frank's post and your post. Thank you.

Great review!! I'm with you on Rum Runners.
I just love their pizza & burgers together with the ambiance there..

WOW,
Great report, I just finished mine, it's just after yours, it's not nearly as photogenic as yours, I don't have my pics back yet, but I don't consider myself a photographer either. I loved your picture with Capt Don, he is so awesome... what a character and Nannie is just so sweet! Truly a great place!

Great report! Love the pictures and you just made my PBD go a little nuts!

Wonderful photos and report as usual Brian and Sue... Wish we could have been there with you!!

Great pictures!! Gets us very excited. Glad you had a great trip!

Brian and Sue, great report and pics as usual...although, not quite as "exciting" as Brian's 50th b-day pics LOL! And I have to wonder what the KLM flight attendant was looking for when she made Brian show her his tounge??? Have to ask Martini's wife Angela about that one, she works for KLM! LOL!

Great report and amazing photos!!! I love the one with the Iguana, the one with the fireworks, and the sunset... ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Thanks for sharing!

Great report Brian, sounds like you and Sue had a good time. I hope to be lucky enough to meet you some day.. Bon Bini... Ron

Great pictures. I rec'd an u/w camera for my birthday over a year ago and have had no luck (New England doesn't boast favorable water conditions). I hope to catch an image even 1/2 as good as yours....WOW!
Only 11 more days!

Great shots Brian...I bought an external strobe and wide angle so I may, after 10,000 shots, may get one picture like yours

Great report and pictures! Congratulations on winning the prizes in the photo contest but we always new you were talented! I just love the iguana's view!

Thanks for the comments, my best recommendation would be to do the PADI Photo speciality course we did it at Cap'n Don's Habitat with Wilco and Ernst and it made one heck of a difference.

The other thing if you are in least worried about your bouyancy do the PADI Peak Performance bouyancy course. I have seen many divers who normally have great bouyancy so focussed on the shot that they are nearly laying on the reef. It is good to drag them (up) and back to reality!!!

By the way the second picture is my wife Sue with Jack the General Manager at Habitat, I am the rather mellow guy in the New Years hat next to the Fireworks picture.

Cam a really good shot per 100 is an excellent return rate - thank god for digital and big memory cards!!

Thanks for the report and I love your pics!