Bonaire Part2: Arrival
Passing by Klein Bonaire on final approach into Kralendijk
Bonaire is my favorite place in the whole world to go scuba diving.
It has all the basics of course. The island is surrounded by a fringing reef, as is the small, uninhabited island of Klein Bonaire, which is only a half mile away. The reefs are healthy (mostly - more on that in the next post) with lots of hard corals, soft corals and sponges. The sponges are my favorite. They come in a variety of delicate shapes and beautiful colors. Many of them are transluscent, which makes them appear even more otherworldly. The reefs support an abundance of marine life: shrimp, lobster, cuttlefish, octupus, turtles, and fish. Lots and lots of different kinds of fish. Over three hundred and fifty different species of fish have been identified in the waters surrounding Bonaire, from brilliantly colored reef fish smaller than the tip of your little finger to large tarpon, barracuda, moray eels and eagle rays.
Our condo at Sand Dollar - lots of space
Conditions for diving are very mild. The water temperature is around 80 degrees Fahrenheit so a shorty wet suit is all that's required. Most dive sites are on the west side of the island or on nearby Klein Bonaire, nestled within the curved shape of the island which protects them from the prevailing winds out of the east. That means there is very little current, surf or surge. The island's fringing reef is close to shore, often only a hundred feet or so from the water's edge, which is why Bonaire is world famous for shore diving. Visibility is excellent and can exceed a hundred feet.
While the diving is fantastic, there isn't much else to do on the island. There aren't many beaches and the island is quite dry, almost desert-like. In fact, fences are often made by stringing up wires and attaching cactus stalks to them instead of wooden pickets. There are no rugged mountains or tropical rainforests like there are in Hawaii or French Polynesia. Scuba diving is really the only reason to visit. I actually think that is a good thing. There hasn't been much commercial development. The only lodging is at small dive resorts, usually right on the water and with dive shops right onsite. There are no high rise hotels. Bonaire has a low key, off the beaten path feel. Because dive tourism is important to the island's economy, all of the waters around Bonaire are in a marine park. The people of the island are committed to protecting the reefs and keeping divers coming back.
The water certainly looks inviting
But what I like most about Bonaire is the shore diving. It allows the maximum amount of flexibility. While boat diving is fun, the circumstances are out of your control. You go when the boat is scheduled to go. Dives are guided by a divemaster who determines the dive profile. How deep you go. How long the dive is. How fast or slow you swim. When you turn around to return to the boat. Since I'm a notorious air hog when I'm diving, I'm always nervous about all of those things. When I'm worrying about that I'm not enjoying the dive as much. It's just the opposite when you go shore diving. You and your buddy (or buddies) are in complete control. You can go where you want, when you want, for as long or as short as you want. Tim, Mickey and I are all experienced enough that we know our limits and stay well within them, so we can have fun and dive safely.
And that's why Bonaire is my favorite place to go diving. It's where all of us had been on our last dive trip. Tim in 2018. Mickey in 2021. Me in 2018 and 2021 both. And we had all been to Bonaire before that. It would be Tim's third, Mickey's fourth and my eighth visit to the island.
Tim and Mickey check out the dive dock
When I arranged this trip, I have to admit that I was the one who wanted to go back to Bonaire again. Tim suggested going somewhere else for a change, but since I was footing the majority of the bill, I got to pick where we were going. It is a fantastic place to dive though so I didn't have to do a lot of arm twisting to convince both of them. As the time for the trip approached we were all getting pretty psyched about it. Finally the time came. As our plane came in on final approach, I could see various landmarks and recognize places that we had been on previous visits.
As we got off the plane we were raring to go. We got through immigration quickly. I had even paid the arrival tax (which replaced the old departure tax) online so all we had to do was wave our receipt and walk by while most other passengers had to get in a long line to make their payment. I didn't get to feel smug for too long though. We had to wait a long time for our luggage, and I mean a LONG time. I shouldn't have been surprised. It's been that way every time that I have been to Bonaire. The cynic in me is beginning to suspect that they do it on purpose. When you finally get out of the airport, you have really internalized that you are now on island time.
Evening at Sand Dollar
On previous trips, we've also needed to wait a long time for a hotel shuttle. Fortunately not this time since we were staying in a condo. We could just grab a taxi and be off. Except that when we came out, there were no taxis. WTF? There are only one or two international flights a day that land in Bonaire, and there were no taxis at the airport when one came in? Great! We were just about to put our heads together to figure out what we were going to do when we spotted a taxi turning into the airport. We were not taking any chances that someone else would get it before us. We grabbed all our luggage and raced down the street. An advantage of traveling with your strapping young sons is that they take all the heavy stuff and you can still move fast. We flagged the guy down in the middle of the road and hopped in long before he reached the terminal.
The taxi took us to Sand Dollar Condominiums. Sandy and I had stayed there once before with Shannon and Mickey on a trip to Bonaire way back in 2004. For this trip, I thought a condo would be better than separate hotel rooms. Even though our main objective was diving, we still wanted to spend time together. Since we live in different cities we don't get to see each other very often. A condo would give us space to hang out when we weren't in the water. I actually got a good deal and a two bedroom condo turned out to be cheaper than three hotel rooms would have been. Besides getting extra space, the price even included a dive package with Dive Friends, which was right next to Sand Dollar.
Mickey can't wait and dives into the ocean
The condo turned out to be quite nice. There were two bedrooms and two baths. Tim and Mickey had to share - as the patriarch I got my own bedroom and bathroom. There was also a spacious living room, and a kitchen and a dining area where we could make meals instead of always going out. (Yes, we did have Polish Spaghetti a couple of times.) There was a screened in patio which came in handy because there were a few mosquitoes around, something I hadn't encountered before on Bonaire. We could also hang our wet gear on the patio, which was very convenient. There was a sign saying "Plese don't hang gear on patio" but we got around that by making sure that we always hung something over the sign so that it was covered up. That kept our consciences from nagging us while we were sitting out there. Our unit was conveniently located near the southern end of the resort, so it was just a few steps to the the dive shop, to the pier that we used for shore diving, and to the Breeze and Bites restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed two days a week and today was the first of them. While it was closed, we went to eat at Buddy Dive, which was the next resort over.
Mickey and his friend Djasz Man
When we got to Sand Dollar it was already late afternoon. We got settled in quickly and headed to the dive shop before they closed. We were able to get checked in and get all our paper work out of the way so we would be ready to dive first thing in the morning. The water looked enticing and we didn't want to wait any longer than we had to.
By the time we finished at the dive shop we were all hungry. After a three and a half hour flight, plus time in both the Miami and Bonaire airports as well as the dive shop, we were ready to eat. Especially Tim. With all his workouts, he says that he eats about four thousand calories a day. He has a runner's metabolism and usually can't go more than an hour before he starts looking for something to eat. We walked (briskly) over to Blennie's, the restaurant at Buddy Dive Resort. We got quite a surprise there. Last year when we had been to Bonaire, Mickey and his girlfriend Allie had gotten to know one of the bartenders at the Plaza Resort really well. They even stayed in pretty close contact with him on Facebook after returning home. Ten minutes after we sat down, he walks into the restaurant. Mickey has been on the island for less than two hours and he bumps into the only person that he knows who lives there. He joined us for a while and he and Mickey caught up on the past year. Turns out that he works as a maintenance guy at Buddy Dive now. Running into him was quite a coincidence.
The sun sets behind Klein Bonaire
After we finished, we walked about half a mile down the road to the Zhung Kong market to get supplies. Since Tim has been working out a lot (he recently dead lifted five hundred pounds) he volunteered to carry the case of beer home. There were still several bags of groceries left for Mickey and me. The walk back seemed a bit longer with everything that we were carrying but we eventually made it. Now with stuff for breakfast, snacks, diet cokes and beer, we were all set.
Back at the condo Mickey was anxious to get in the water, so he took a dip in the ocean from the tiny beach next to the dock. Although I was anxious too, I was content to wait until the next morning. After Mickey's swim we settled down with a beer and a view of the ocean to watch a beautiful sunset over Klein Bonaire.
We were ready to go scuba diving.
