Bonaire 2010 with the eyes of a holiday diver

We left home with -10 Celcius (and lots of snow) and arrived Bonaire early morning on Saturday 27.2. There it was about +30 Celcius. Ahh.

We had transportation to Golden Reef Inn and had a nice room ready at 5am. We slept few hours and then the vacation really started - first day was just getting familiar with the sun and warm air. Then 5 days with diving. For me that was not long enough. So many dive sites were left out. I wanted to dive more but my fiwe says it was just fine. She is not so into diving but she enjoyed windsurfing a lot. If we only would saw that sooner. Now we surfed on Lac Bay only last two afternoons.

Golden Reef Inn (GRI) was nice place with a small pool. It is a good place for some quiet time and privacy. We loved it. Thanks Liz.

Some warnings: There is broken glass everywhere you go to dive. From car windows in parking places to broken bottles on beaches. It was like watching all the steps when walking on the beach (Same in Sint Maarten). That was something we hadn't seen anywhere else. Otherwise we saw no problems what so ever. Not much people, very relazing athmosphere.

DIVING
Diving in Bonaire offers many different experiences. Hilma Hooker as a big wreck dive with some big fishes. Some danger with cliff jumping and navigating under water from La Dania's Leap to Karpata, Seahorses in Windsock, hundreds of big fishes in Lac Bay. etc. 1000 steps was only 64, very easy.

If you want to enjoy fully about the Bonaire wonders when diving you really need to contact a diving center and ask questions and look for diving tips. We recommend Wanna Dive. I really liked the system and the relaxing help they provided. It also gave a change to communicate with other divers. Whithout that we would have missed sea horses, jump to the sea and those were the two best things we had as diving experience.

WIND SURFING
The other great thing in Bonaire is wind surfing on Lac Bay. Amazing place. And no broken glass there. That was our first time surfing and if we only would have tried that before we would have been there every afternoon. Huge bay with sand bottom, strong wind from sea, water from knee to waist. You could get lessons on surfing, have an exellent chicken salad for lunch etc. Fun - fun - fun!!

OTHER STUFF
We also had a driving trip to national park in search of flamingos, iguanas and other stuff. We saw it all and enjoyed. But better change to see iguanas was in diving site Karpata, where the iguanas tryed to jump on my pants. And flamingos were better seen on a diving trip to Lac Bay, on the "other side" of the bay. Donkeys can be found in Donkey Sanctuary. Driving through national park was still worth it.

Bonaire -> Saba
Getting from Bonaire to Saba was not so easy. First we couldn't book the flights from home, but GRI did it for us. Then our cheap flights were cancelled because plane was broken?? We had to buy new tickets, much more expensive ones. When we were at the Bonaire airport the flight was late. But in Curacao our connective flight waited for us. Finally we got to Sint Maarten only half an hour late, spend one night on La Flemboyant (nice place), and when we got to the bay looking for the ferry to Saba they told us it is cancelled because no passengers. How would they know that?? No-one told us we should inform them before we come to the bay??

I am writing this now at airport (9am) where we wait for our flight to Saba. Price was 130$ per person there and back. That's ok price and not much more than a ferry price. Trip to Saba is an other story... edit: And we reached Saba finally by boat Dawn II at 7pm. The flight was cancelled.

Saba: Looks great even it is dark now. Strong wind may cause trouble on diving today. Let's see...

Nice trip report. Thanks! Hope you enjoy Saba.

Thanks for sharing, I hope things go a little smoother for you the rest of the trip!!

this is probably outdated info. However, at one time there were coupons available in the St Martin airport that gave "tourists" a 50% discount on airfair to SABA. They were contained in one of those local entertainment type books in racks at the airport. Luckily for us, a helpful airline worker gave us a heads up just before we purchased our tickets.

This was a number of years ago, so they may not be available any longer.

Don't forget to climb mount scenery.
Apart from being a nice walk, you'll be able to say that you climbed the highest peak of the Kingdom of the Netherlands :-)

Kiitoksia oikein paljon Toni

(Message edited by modjim on March 7, 2010)

It is soooooo cool landing on Saba. As I understand it, the airstrip is the shortest in the world. When you are landing, it looks like you may crash into the mountainside. When you take off, it looks like you will fall off the cliff before you get airborne.

I never had the pleasure of climbing Mount Scenery, but I would do it in a New York minute if I was staying there for a couple or three days. The drive from the airport on one side to the dive sites on the other was straight up one side of the mountain, and straight down the other.

The diving was awesome! It rivaled Little Cayman. Since I haven't kept a log book for years, the only sites I remember are Diamond Rock and Pinnacle. Dove with Saba Deep and there was a crusty old DM by the name of Mike who was a hoot. Great little restaurant above their shop as well.

Landing on Saba:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxClWskw75k


I believe only one plane has aver slipped from the airstrip.

Eustatia is a nice landing too. You approach over a volcano where you can expect a lot of turbulence.
I've seen people flying through the air, inside the plane. I don't know what part of "fasten your seatbelts" they did not understand :-)


@ Jim:
Toni would probably say:
Sina olet tervetullu
(there should be an umlaut on the first a)
(I just went an vacation to Finland last summer :-) )

Way cool Bob!!

I hadn't seen that video. I'm a pretty seasoned traveler, and have been on more than a few puddle jumpers that concerned me a little. But that one took the cake, and we landed in sunny weather.

Unfortunately we missed the landing to Saba because flights were cancelled. We hope to experience the take off from Saba on Wednesday...

Weather here in Saba is not so nice right now. Diving was nice even they told us yesterday that it may not be possible to dive at all today. Tomorrow it should be better.

Now it seems we will miss the take off too
To much wind today.

Diving here was very interesting and different than in Bonaire. But nothing that special.