Day 1: We drove to Houston and flew the Continental red-eye, arriving in Bonaire 40 minutes early. Wow, what a quick flight! The slowness of the baggage handlers negated the early arrival, but we’re in Bonaire, so who cares. We rented our vehicle through Telerin and it wasn’t ready when we arrived because one of the outgoing flights was departing a few hours later than scheduled. Anyway, Poppy dropped the vehicle off for us around 9:00 AM, so it really wasn’t an inconvenience. She paid for a cab to take us to Belmar. Belmar check in was quick and painless. Our room (unit #14) was ready about 30 minutes after we arrived. We just unpacked and rested for a bit until the orientation. When I booked our reservation, I had requested a 1 bedroom with a nice sunset view and they didn’t disappoint, that’s for sure. We had a perfect view, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Once our orientation was done, we made a trip to the Warehouse for groceries (we ate lunches in and went out to dinner every night). Belmar House Reef was our first dive. We saw three flounders, three sharp tail eels, and the usual multitude of fish. It was a very nice & relaxing first dive. It’s sure great to be back!!! We ate at Pasa Bon Pizza. I had the veggie pizza with a salad and my husband had the lasagna with a salad. Yum!!! I ordered a large pizza so I’d have leftovers for lunch for a good chunk of the week. I love their pizza!
The only downside to our first day was my husband left the lights on in the truck while we were eating and it wouldn’t start. We tried pushing it and getting it started, which, by the way, is really fun when you’re exhausted, but that didn’t work. Anyway, it ended up that a super nice local guy stopped and helped us get it started.

Day2: Went on the “BT” Woodwind Snorkel Cruise. Met a great group of people and had a nice time snorkeling. We saw a nurse shark at Ebo’s Reef, which was the first time I’ve seen a shark on Bonaire. Very cool! I’m fascinated by sharks. The second snorkel spot was between Andrea I and II, but my husband and I didn’t snorkel for long because I was getting really cold. Did a late afternoon dive at Margate Bay. It was a very nice dive with lots of soft corals. Ate at Casablanca. I had the Wahoo w/green onion sauce and my husband had the filet. Both were OK, but nothing to write home about. The sides were terrific though, especially one that I hadn’t had before. We asked what it was and we were told that it was pumpkin. Our waiter offered to bring more, but we were too full to take him up on the offer.

Day 3: Our first dive of the day was at Yellow Submarine. Woohoo, I finally found my very first Bonaire seahorse! I was soooo excited. I watched him for a long time and actually got to see him swimming. It made my day. Also saw three sharptail eels & a spotted moray. Our second dive of the day was Andrea I. We saw two squid, barracuda, a turtle, and a lot of soft coral. Very nice dive! Ate at Will’s Tropical Grill. I had the Wahoo and my husband had the filet. Neither one of us were too impressed with our entrée. We did enjoy our appetizer and breadsticks, but I doubt we’ll go back again.

Day 4: Our first dive was Oil Slick. Very enjoyable dive. All the usual fish with a lot of hard corals. Next we scooted over to Witches Hut. Another very nice dive! Our third dive was a night dive at the Belmar House Reef. It was a great dive! Two tarpon joined us for the dive. I noticed some translucent critters that seemed to be attracted to the light. They looked as if they had LEDs inside. I’m not sure what they were, but I had fun watching them. We ate at It Rains Fishes, which is one of our favorites. I had the Wahoo w/creamy mustard sauce and my husband had the filet w/green peppercorn sauce. Both were fantastic, as were the sides and appetizer.

Day 5: First dive of the day was Invisibles. This was my 100th dive. It was a nice relaxing dive with a lot of juvenile fish. Our second dive was Angel City. We saw a free swimming spotted moray and a tiny juvenile spotted drum, which was just toooooo cute. Third dive was Oil Slick Leap. I actually did a giant stride entry, which I was a little nervous about at first, but after I did it, I thought it was very fun. We saw three spotted morays, a large sharptail eel, two peacock flounders, a fireworm, and tons of juvenile fish. We ate at Cactus Blue. We started off with ceviche for an appetizer, which wasn’t that great. For the entrée, I had the Caesar salad with grilled shrimp and my husband had the babyback ribs. Both were very good, but I thought it was a bit pricey.

Day 6: First dive, Witches Hut. We saw another tiny spotted drum and a Spanish lobster, which was very cool. It looks like a large beetle. Second dive was Ol’ Blue. This is one of my favorite dive sites. We saw lots of fireworms, anemones (purple and white), juvenile fish and a large scorpion fish. We’re doing the Town Pier night dive, so we ate a late lunch at City Grill. I had the fish fajitas and my husband had a cheeseburger. Both were good, but service was very, very slow (I think it was just the waitress we had). We’ve been wanting to do the Town Pier, but until this trip, we were unable to because of ships being in port. We saw two frog fish, a red and white striped seahorse, a decorator crab, tons of fireworms, brittle stars, and arrow crabs. I just loved the orange cup coral. It’s so beautiful! We both thoroughly enjoyed the dive.

Day 7: Our last dive of the trip was the Belmar House Reef. We got a really early start so our wet suits could get completely dry before packing. We saw two spotted morays, peacock flounder, scorpion fish. It was a very relaxing dive. We drove to Gotomeer Lake and took pictures of the Flamingos. We ate at Pasa Bon Pizza. I had the veggie calzone with a salad and my husband had a supreme pizza (I think) with a salad.

This was our first trip to Bonaire without our kids. We thought we’d get a lot more dives in than before, but we both found we were getting cold on our dives, so we actually ended up doing one less. The last two trips I was fine with only a 3mm wetsuit, so I didn’t bother bringing my 5mm this time. Boy, did I wish I had it after a few days. Oh well, live and learn. All in all, it was a wonderful trip and I can’t wait to go back!

My husband took a lot of beautiful pictures. I’ll have him post some later on today.

Martha..Great report! We stayed at Belmar in Feb & enjoyed it very much.
Suggestion regarding getting cold...Are you wearing a hood? If not, before going from 3 mm to 5mm, try it. Amazing how much heat you lose through your head. It may be all you need.

Martha - thanks for the trip report. I noted that several reporters noted the water was colder than they were expecting. How cold was the water?

I posted some pictures from our trip at www.danandmartha.com/bonaire07

James - the temps ranged from 79-80 (according to my computer), which was about the same as when we were there before, so I'm not sure why I was getting colder this time (maybe because I wasn't sleeping that good for a lot of the trip???).

Vince - I didn't have my hooded vest, it somehow got left at home I did have my beanie, which I wore on one dive, but it didn't make that much difference and I had problems with my mask leaking, so I didn't wear it anymore.

nice macros...so what is the"scary" looking one - a grouper? hogfish? hard to tell;)

I looked under a coral shelf and got one shot of it before it took of, never got a good look at it. It was a fairly large fish, maybe a dog tooth snapper?

Very nice pictures!
By the way, your "juvenile something" is a full-grown slender filefish.

Gee John It appears that the coral behind the filefish is too big for it's type and that the filefish may indeed be miniature.. I have seen them looking just like that only about 2-3 inches long right here on Long Island, they come up in the Gulf Stream.. This of course is just my humble opinion as I was not behind the camera.. Martha how big was that fish??

Freddie, the "juvenile something" was very small, probably ~ 2 inches. My husband (Lt Dan) was the one taking the pictures, but a lot of the time (not always), I was the spotter. We make a pretty good team!

The scary looking guy was most likely a Cubera Snapper. They do love to show their teeth!

Nice report. Glad you found your seahorse.

Martha - great report & macro shots! That's teamwork for ya

Thanks Susan! It's nice to be able to know the identification.

very nice report and congrats on the 100th dive. I agree, Oil Slick Leap seems extremely high, every time I talk about it, it seems to get even higher. Thanks, Scott

Very, very nice pictures. What kind of camera set-up did you use?

Great picks! What camera setup were you using? Was it digital? Thanks, Dave

Thanks, Martha, great trip report and incredible pictures! I'm hoping to do my 100th dive in about 3 1/2 weeks on Bonaire....

Cheers, honeymoon2
http://honeymoon2.smugmug.com/

Thanks. I used a Canon Rebel Xti (Digital SLR) with the Ikelite housing and Ikelite DS-125 Strobe. Those pictures were taken with the Canon 100mm macro lens. This was actually my first time using a DSLR, I just recently upgraded after my point and shoot died.

What is the vis on a scale of 1-10?

It was about the same as my previous Bonaire trips, maybe a little better. Compared to other places in the world I have been, I would give it a 7-8.