This trip to Bonaire has become an annual thing for my father and I. It is a wonderful experience traveling as 2 adults now and I will remember these trips for my entire life. Our trip started out with a direct flight from JFK (NYC) to Aruba. From Aruba we took the 6:30pm DAE flight to Bonaire with a short stop in Curacao. We did the same route last year with no problems and this year went smooth as well. Not sure what all the complaints are about DAE. I have never had a problem with them. The 4 hour layover is not that great, but not so terrible either. A couple of beers at the airport and we were on our way.

After picking up our rental car at Hertz, we arrived at our hotel Den Leman at around 8:30pm. The front desk office was closed but they left our room key with the nice folks at the restaraunt...very easy. Our room was a 2BR condo on the second floor; the room name was Grouper. The room itself was massive and the balcony was a room in itself. What a wonderful place. The trip was a combination of snorkeling and diving. I received my open water certification with the fantastic staff at Wanna Dive. The operation at Wanna Dive could not have been better and the folks there went above and beyond to make sure everyone was safe and also had fun.

The first full day we had breakfast at the hotel which was very good. There is an option for a cold or a hot buffet. After breakfast we went to snorkel Oil Slick Leap. This had been one of my favorite spots in the past. However, it was a little choppy this day and the visibility was lessened as a result. It was still great though. From there we went to Andrea II. I love both the Andrea sites. When we were there we spotted a small green turtle who seemed just as curious about us as we were about him. This was a great way to start off. Upon exiting the water, there was a couple taking their gear off and they were very excited about just seeing a large, free swimming octopus. They asked if we saw it, which we did not. Oh well. However, the man who was diving took fantastic video and stills of the octopus and showed it to us. It changed colors as it swam...simply beautiful. As we were leaving the site, my father and I commented on some of the reasons we love Bonaire. This couple made it a point to share their photos with us and their excitement was very contagious. It was so nice and generous of them and just not a thing that I am used to (we are from New York and the people here are not as friendly as in Bonaire, haha). I just find it so spectacular how everyone on the island (that i have met at least) seems to just love the sea, the reef and everything that comes with it. Dinner that night was on the pier at Karel's with food from Zee Zicht. I had the grilled Fish Filet with garlic. It was very good. My father had some sort of asian chicken stir fry, which was not that great actually.

The next day I began my open water certification. Lo and behold...it turns out that my instructor was the man from yesterday with the footage of the Octopus. That made me feel comfortable right away. TW was his name and he was a fantastic instructor (I know, i said it before, but I want to reiterate). I think it is great that he was diving on his free time as well and gets so excited about the sealife still.

Day 3 we did a 2 stop snorkel trip with Renee. This has become an annual tradition for us as Renee's enthusiasm is also very catchy. I just can't wait to hop in the water and hear Renee say "yoo hoo" and point out something that I would have most likely missed or not known what it was that I was looking at. It is always a treat to snorkel with Renee. We were snorkeling in about 15 ft of water and there were a bunch of divers that seemed to be looking for the resident seahorses. Well, Renee spotted Mr. Seahorse within seconds...she has eyes like a hawk. She said it must have been pufferfish day as we saw so many of them. We even saw a small puffer that she said was a rare variety. I cannot remember the name. In all we saw 3 different kinds of puffers. We also saw many many large and small angelfish, which are some of my favorite fish to see.

That night we ate at the Den Leman restaurant. We both had the Dorado Criollo which was fantastic. I think Den Leman is one of the better restaurants on the island.

More to follow...

Scott, great report so far. How wonderful you can travel with your father, and have those lasting memories, cherish them all Can't wait to hear more, and congratulations on your OW

thanks Cynde. I am very excited to be certified. I can't wait to get back in the water.

Good read so far, Scott. Sounds like you had a good time - unless the story changes dramatically towards the end...

Scott, how great is it that you get to spend time with your dad in such a wonderful place! Congratulations on your certification and thanks for sharing your experiences!

Great report Scott! Can't wait to read more. Congratulations on your certification from me as well. I speak from experience when I say that your appreciation of these trips with your dad will increase many fold as the years go by. I've watched many sunsets from Bonaire's shores and thought how my Dad would have loved to have been there and how I would have loved to have had him with me. You are indeed fortunate.

Hey thanks all...yes, it is a very nice thing to be able to visit Bonaire with my father. I feel very fortunate to be able to do that and also the fact that him and I want to go on such a trip.

I am so excited to finally be certified. I had ear problems in the past and I was very nervous about descending. Thankfully, all went well and I can't wait to dive again.

We had a great time while down there, the only turn of events that was not fun was the return trip home. More on that later when I have some more time to post in detail...

Scott, you sure know how to build up a story, the tension is killing me now...

haha, sorry Anonymous, but I am glad that you enjoy the story so far. Here is the next part...

On Monday we went to Captain Don's happy hour to see the legend himself. It was a treat to be able to meet Capt. Don. I find it absolutely amazing how he had the foresight to do all of the things that he did for Bonaire. What a genius he is to know that this treasure of an island must be preserved. Did environmentalists even exist back then when the island was growing? I wish that some other areas in the world felt the same way. It is such a terrible thing to see a dead reef and wonder "what if...".

The next day we snorkeled in the morning at the site by the airport. This is a great place to snorkel. We entered at the parking area beach, swam to the pier, went around the pier and drifted back. It was great. After snorkeling there, I met up with the my training group (3 of us) at Wanna Dive and we went out for dive #2. We dive right in town, and I was surprised at how nice it was. While diving there we saw a very larger puffer, an octopus and on the ascend I spotted a seahorse. Since I am new to diving, I found it thrilling to be able to just hover next to the seahorse and get a good look at the little fella. I love snorkeling, but there is quite a difference. When we exited the water the instructor TM said to the crew at the dive shop, "the seahorse is back!". It seems that he takes residence in the area...too funny. I love the resident fish, seahorse, birds, etc. There was a bird off our balcony that stood on the same rock every morning looking for his/her breakfast buffet from the sea. I have yet to run into Charlie the Tarpon but I look forward to meeting him. I have run into a rather large barracuda a few times near the Sandollar/Den Leman pier.

We ate at "It Rains Fishes" this night and it was good, but not as good as I had remembered. I had the garlic shrimp there which I have had before...but the shrimp were not as good as in the past. We still enjoyed the meal though. My father had a special that they had that night which was a teriyaki tuna stir fry. I tried it and it was very good, better than the shrimp, imho.

We grabbed an early breakfast at City Cafe the next day. I like their breakfast a lot there and it is rather reasonable with a good variety of choices.

After breakfast I met up with the Wanna Dive crew again for my last 2 dives for my certification. I would like to just add that I had no idea how much diving knocks you out. Is it the nitrogen build up? I felt like a ton of bricks hit me in the head after these 2 dives. The second of the 2 dives was the first one where we got to kind of go around an explore a little. I found the feeling of going down there so amazing. The sounds of your exhaled bubbles is very peaceful and the fish swimming around you or above you is quite comforting. To me, that is the major difference between snorkeling and diving. The first time I looked up and saw the fish swimming above me...I knew that I was hooked right away. I felt like I was more one with their environment as opposed to being an onlooker from above, just peering into their world.

We had a quick lunch back at Den Leman, then went off to snorkel 1000 steps. As soon as we entered 1000 steps we ran into a very large parrotfish. I guess it might have been an alpha male or something. I have a picture of him, that I will try to upload when I am home. We then ran into a school of squid which is always nice. It seemed to be a good time to see squid as we saw them almost every time we went into the water.

Later that night we did a night snorkel with Renee at the Divi. The town pier was occupied by a coast guard ship. As usual, this was a very fruitful experience. She pointed out these tiny tiny squid that were following us around. They were about 1 inch long and very cool to watch. Saw the many usual suspects of sleeping parrotfish, an octopus, many lobster, shrimp...a wonderful snorkel.

The trip home was when things took a turn for the worst. We had been following the news about the upcoming storm that was about to hit the Northeast US, but what can you do? We took DAE back to Aruba and the airport there was chaos. Our flight had already been cancelled. Word around the airport was that we would be stuck in Aruba until Tuesday (this was on Friday). Well, we initially had a direct flight from Aruba to JFK, but we ended up taking the following route. Aruba > San Juan, 3 hour layover > Miami, spent the night in Miami. Miami was more of a mess than Aruba. They had 188 people on standby (for about 5 open seats on 3 flights) and we were #s 58/59...not good. Then there was 400 people on standby and we dropped to 89/90...it was craziness. At the time, my mother happened to be in West Palm Beach visiting my grandmother in the hospital. She was scheduled to fly Southwest from West Palm Beach at 7pm that night. It was quite clear that we were not getting on a flight in Miami for quite some time. So, we ended up buying the last 2 seats on the Southwest flight from West Palm Beach to Islip, NY. We got lucky with that. My mother then drove down to Miami to pick us up and we drove north to West Palm Beach. Once there, we were fortunate enough to have some time to stop by the hospital to visit my grandmother...a nice positive outcome for all of the headache. Our surprise visit lifted her spirits. We then went to check in with Southwest airlines. We had been calling them all day and the flight was still scheduled to go...but then they told us of a 45 minute delay (no biggie), then an hour and a half (still okay), then 2.5 hours. 2.5 hours was a problem b/c Islip does not allow incoming flights past 11pm. Anyway, we found some comfortable seats in the terminal and started to settle in. Then an amazing turn of events...we were watching the screen and it flipped from a 2.5 hour delay to, get this, ON TIME!!!??? I have never witnessed such a thing and had to rub my eyes to make sure I was reading it correctly. Lo and behold the flight left on time and we travelled back to New York with my mother. What a relief...finally on our way back home. The worst part was just not knowing when you would be going anywhere. The lack of information was painful.

So, my bag with all of my dive gear was somehow in transit to JFK on the flight that we did not get on. I was worried that it was lost, but what can you do. The day after I returned home, I took the ride to JFK and I spotted my bag right way through the window. Amazed, I gave my ticket to the baggage services people and merrily went on my way. It was quite a journey but all things went well in the end and I was able to visit my ailing grandmother. I guess it was meant to be that way...



(Message edited by Scott Knobler on March 23, 2007)

Very nice report Scott. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Great story, Scott, thought the ending could have been better (ha ha). If the place by the airport where you snorkeled is Windsock, I guess we saw the same big puffer, huge animal, great big eyes, a beauty. And compliments for finding a seahorse. There is also a huge resident barracuda there, near the pier. The bird off your balcony, was that an osprey? I noticed it several times in that area, and it was sitting on top of a big house on the water to the right (seen from the sea) of Bobbejans almost every night, not bothered by all the noise and people - amazing!

(Message edited by Anonymous__danielle on March 23, 2007)

Thanks for your trip report Scott! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Congratulations on your OW certification.

Quote from Scott Knobler on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 11:45 am: "I would like to just add that I had no idea how much diving knocks you out. Is it the nitrogen build up? I felt like a ton of bricks hit me in the head after these 2 dives."

Scott;
Take a Nitrox course when you get a chance. My bet is that you'll feel much better after diving when you're breathing EAN32 (32% oxygen as opposed to 21%) for your dives.

Hopefully, this comment will not initiate a hi-jacking of the thread.

--Dan

Dan...I plan on taking the Nitrox course for my next dive trip. I think I now understand...

Also, Anonymous, yes, the bird was an osprey...albeit I believe it was in a different place than where you mentioned.

Glad you kind folks liked my trip report. The PBD has already settled in...

Scott,

thanks for all of the helpful info! We'll be at Den Lamen on the 3rd floor, OF, in a little over 3 weeks, can't wait! Cheers, honeymoon2
http://honeymoon2.smugmug.com/