From: jlb13@po.CWRU.Edu (Julianne L. Babel)
Newsgroups: rec.scuba
Subject: Bonaire Trip
Date: 13 Aug 92 15:10:19 GMT
Reply-To: jlb13@po.CWRU.Edu (Julianne L. Babel)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)


  I just wanted to let everyone in on how great the trip to Bonaire was.
I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Down to the details.

  Air fares are very expensive into Bonaire and the airlines which fly
in and out blow--they are never on time and luggage almost always arives
on the next plane, which could be the morning after!  However, if you can
get past this slight inconvience you will have a great trip.

  Hotels very greatly.  We stayed at the Sunset Hotel.  Getting there was
pretty easy from the airport, we just showed someone our voucher and they 
got a gentleman to drive us to the hotel and the hotel covered it.
Definately get a first floor room--they were going to put us on the second
and I asked to change and they did.  So all we had to do was walk out our
door and within 50ft was the open air resturant and then the beach.  (Sunset
is one of the two hotels which have a beach on Bonaire.)  The hotel was 
all you could ask for, AC, room service, towels, comfortable beds, refrig,
safe, etc. However, the resturant left something to be desired.  The food
was okay...but they were out of fish 3 of the 4 nights we checked, out
of fish on an island--they forgot to send someone to the fish market!  If
you get a package be sure the breakfast buffet is included, it costs too 
much otherwise, but it is a great convience before those early morning 
dives.  Don't get dinner included becuase there are two other resturants 
within walking distance, a sefood resturant called Den Lemans(?) and the
Green Parrot at the Sand Dollar Hotel, which everyone just loves for lunch
and happy hour.  If possible rent a car, it cost us $50 for three days-
2 days plus one free.  If they say they don't have a car keep bugging them
the cars somehow appear.  Once you have a car the places to eat are at the
Chibi Chibi at the Divi Divi Hotel, it was the best food I had on the 
Island, try the local dish which is called Kesha Yena.  Richards was also
good.  The seafood resturant next to Sunset was okay.  The Mentor Bar had
delicious Nasi Goreng.  The Divi Divi resturant, not the Divi Divi hotel,
was so local that we had to have one of the customers help in the 
communication--it was an interesting experience.  Unfortunately thanks 
to the Dive Bonaire book the Capricorn Resturant got so popular that they 
were expanding while we were there so we didn't get a chance to eat there.
Driving the island is fun but driving around the park with two full tanks
in the back of your van is scary, especially becuase of the bumpy lanes
they call roads up there.

  Now to the diving, it was wonderful.  Many guests at the Sunset said 
the best diving was right in front of the hotel at the dive site called 
Front Porch--walk in the water and there it is.  (Many people loved to 
night dive there because of these huge Tarpoon named Tommy who would
follow the divers around hoping to be feed--you shine your light in front
of him and he eats the small fish caught in the beam.  The men got their
kicks by not telling their wives or girlfriends about Tommy and watching
their reactions when they saw him.  The dive store at Sunset was exceptional.
The rules were:  sign in the morning after you get there, do a orientation
dive off the beach(Front Porch)to check your weight etc. and they hit 
the afternoon boat dive.  (Since we had a package which included 6 boat
dives and one night dive they ask that you one boat dive a day and then
the Tues night scheduled night boat dive.)  The instructors/dive masters 
who ran the boats were wonderful.  The rules for boat dives were 1 hour
max, 100 ft max, don't bring anything but you buddy up--because all of 
Bonaire is a marine park, speaking of that you have to pay $10 to dive on
Bonaire and $10 to get off the island when you leave the airport.  Every day
they had two boats leave in the morning, 9:00 and 9:30 and two boats in the
afternoon, 1:30 and 2:00.  We went on the 1:30 dive our first day there
and dove Carl's Hill off of Klein Bonaire, the unihabited island on Bonaires
leaward side.  Unfortunately for many this was an unpleasent dive becuase
of the currents which are rarely noticable but they were that day.  The
dive almost became a rescue dive becuase there were students on board 
who failed to listen to their instructor and drop as soon as they hit the
water, therefore they got caught in the current.  Other than that one dive
we had no problems.  We also dove Sharon's Serenity, Small Wall, Oil Slick,
and a few others from the boat.  We also went on the boat which traveled to
the Hilma Hooker which is the wreck dive on the island.  It is a 100ft dive 
and has different rules, only 20 min max--I was down 13 mins and that was 
enough for me, considereing I had only been recently certified--it was 
interesting but I don't think I like wrecks all that much...maybe I just
need to get used to them.  Also you could not do penitration diving unless
you had the proper equipment because they did not gut the boat they just
sank it as was.  (It was taken by the government because of drugs.)
The fish life is just incredible, as is the sponge and coral.  I won't
bore you with all the different kinds but the neatest fish I saw was a frog
fish.  I turned my head and there it was!  It was so funny--it looks like
Jaba the Hut and it doen't swim, it walks and camoflages itself with the coral
it is on--this one was brownish.  I could have spent the whole dive watching
this fish.  It made me wish I had a camera!

  I think I have rambled on long enough if anyone has any questions just 
send me e-mail!

			--Juli
-- 
Meet me incognito		Meet me incognito
Wear your disguise		Like you always do
Meet me incognito		Meet me incognito
Cover up your eyes		I won't know you   --LadyIce
From: peterson@hpl.hp.com (Chris Peterson)
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 22:44:09 GMT
Subject: Re: Need Diving Industry Stats (# divers/etc)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, California