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Trip Reports: Dec 25th to Jan 8th Trip Report
Bonaire Talk: Trip Reports: Dec 25th to Jan 8th Trip Report
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jennifer Gray (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #4) on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 8:21 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

This was our 5th trip to Bonaire and as always, absolutely Wonderful! I can't think of a better way to spend the holidays than in the warmth of the sun and under the water with the fishies!

We flew the midnight Continental flight out of Houston Christmas morning. I am not sure I like that flight. It was hard to sleep on the plane and then we found ourselves tired the rest of the day.

We have always stayed at SandDollar Condominiums. They were gracious and accommodating as usual. We requested a screened in porch, so had no troubles with mosquitoes at all.

Truck rental was with Total. No troubles. Had some brake issues and they took care of it quickly and gave us a loaner while they were fixing the truck.

There were 2 days of lots of rain and clouds and then the rest of the time more sunshine than rain. No complaints here. Even the short rain bursts were better than the cold weather at home!

Our family of divers consisted of myself, my husband and our 15 year old son and my husbands 73 year old parents. Three generations of divers. Our son got certified at 10, but we hadn’t been able to schedule a trip with the grandparents until now. It was a high point for Grandma to finally get to dive with her grandson! Due to some health problems (hip replacement and heart & back surgery) we had to pick and choose the easier entry sites and the swells made some of them a little tricky. Water was a little cloudy as well, but again, better than being at home in the cold. Mainly dove Ol’ Blue, Oil Slick Leap, Bari Reef, Something Special and Tori’s Reef. We dove the Hilma Hooker by ourselves because of the swim and depth. The murky water added to the spookiness of the sunken ship. My husband finally has a night dive buddy. We rented lights from Yellow Submarine (very nice staff) and off they went. My son loved it! Thank goodness they saw lots of good stuff. I now never have to make myself get through another night dive, hooray!

We joke about it being easier to list what we didn’t see: dolphins, whales or sharks. We saw the rest! Unfortunately marked 7 lionfish.

We didn’t eat out much. Had awesome burgers at Sunset Bar & Grill (next to SandDollar), excellent pizza twice at Pasa Bon Pizza and wonderful breakfast twice with Sonja at Eddys (at SandDollar). We shopped at the Cultimara and at Warehouse, always an adventure.

We thought the fireworks were noisy the week between Christmas and New Years. An earlier post said New Years eve fireworks weren’t what they have been in the past. Yikes!

We saved shopping for the last day and unfortunately shared the town with 5,000 people off 2 cruise ships. Yuck!

We flew Continental back to Houston only to spend 1 and ½ hours in line going through Customs and Immigration. We initially were a little irritated with Continental for changing our flight home to KC which left a 4 hour layover, but the added time gave us time to find lunch and not worry about missing our flight. There were quite a few upset travelers that did.

Our first trip to Bonaire was 20 years ago. Some things have changed and others haven’t. The ease of shore diving at your own pace will always be the best thing about the island to us. Along with the friendliness of the locals. It is just a wonderful place.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By elaine sculley (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1879) on Thursday, January 13, 2011 - 1:34 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

so glad u had a great time. wonderful that grandparents are still so active

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Vince DePietro-www.bonairebeachcondo.com (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3391) on Thursday, January 13, 2011 - 7:44 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Wow...3 generations of divers..unique to say the least. Glad you all enjoyed your trip. And I think you'd agree, the quality & selection of cuisine in the restaurants today vs 20 years ago is much better!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jennifer Gray (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #5) on Thursday, January 13, 2011 - 9:28 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

It is amazing the number of choices of cuisine and restaurants on the island today. It makes it difficult to choose which one to eat at when most of them get such high marks from this site.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Eric author of "Why is the Grass Green?" (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1535) on Thursday, January 13, 2011 - 4:44 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Nice report. Thanks.

e.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By R J (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #193) on Thursday, January 13, 2011 - 10:15 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks for sharing your report with us.
It sounds like your family made some great memories.

 


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