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Date:         Mon, 27 Jul 1992 14:32:33 -0400
From:         geary%cfa3.DECNET@CFA.HARVARD.EDU
Subject:      Holiday trip to Bonaire

Is anyone interested in a dynamite 15-day (or so) trip to Bonaire
this Holiday season???  Have I got a deal for you!!!  Due to an
unexpected pregnancy, some friends have pooped out on our planned
vacation, leaving us with a reserved but empty 2-bedroom apartment
with full kitchen at Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn.  Just pay me back
the deposit I put down and it is yours at the regular rate, $119
per day.  Split between two couples or among a family, this is a
rock bottom price for a great dive location during the high season.
The reservation is presently booked from Saturday, 19 Decenber, to
Sunday, 3 January, but you could probably negotiate a day or two
flexibility in this.

I recently took 3 novice divers with me to Bonaire and introduced
them to the marvellous shore diving.  We got in 3 dives a day for
six days, at a total cost of $79 !!  It doesn't get any better or
cheaper than this!

If you are interested in this vacation opportunity, or just want to
rap on Bonaire diving (or Roatan, Grand Turk, Belize, Cozumel, or
Cayman diving), please drop me a line at: geary@cfa.harvard.edu .

                                       John C. Geary
                                       PADI DM-52283


The following is a short piece I wrote for a fledgling scuba mag
which may or may not ever be published:

Review: Bonaire Beach Bungalows & Carib Inn diving  (Dec. 1991)


     There comes a point when the divemaster's briefing aboard your
typical cattle boat becomes much more a source of irritation than
information.  "I will lead this dive to 80 feet for 30 minutes" (he
really means for 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes in the shallows
while he checks on the remaining air, if any, of the newly-certified).
"Be back on this boat in exactly one hour" (there is only 30 feet of
water to be found, so it will be back on board with 1400 psi).
"Computer profiles are not allowed".  Nuts!  Enough already!  Get
the damn lawyers off my back!
     If you are tired of paying ever higher prices for this sort of
stuff, there is at least one good and inexpensive alternative -
shore diving.  You get into and out of the water when you want to,
not subject to the dictates of any divemaster, boat jockey, resort
owner, or insurance company.  The big problem is finding someplace
nice to do it.  There are not many warm-water islands that have
their fringing reefs both close enough to shore to reach easily and
that have no barrier reef to cut you up on the way.  One of them is
Bonaire, in the Netherlands Antilles off the north coast of Venezuela.

Here, we have a nice sloping reef 50 - 100 yards from shore, starting
just 25 feet deep and going down to about 150 feet in many places.
You might have to navigate around some elkhorn stands in the shallows,
but basically it is a straight shot out from shore at any of the two
dozen or so marked and unmarked shore entry points.  In addition,
Bonaire has a 15-mile long leeward side, so that even the waves are
negligible most days.
     We made the inexpensive Bonaire Beach Bungalows our home this
time, as we have done on several previous occasions.  There are two
large detached 2-bedroom apartments and a 2-story block containing
four slightly smaller 2-bedroom units.  All units have full kitchens,
which saves you a bundle over eating out all the time.  Contrary to
its name, there is no beach at all here, just an 8-foot drop of
ironshore into the water.  There are however two nice big docks,
with ladders down into the 4-foot deep water, so entries are about
as easy as it gets.  We always do a few checkout dives right out
front to get limbered up, and the reef here, while more gently
sloping than some of the more spectacular sites, is healthy and
entertaining.  Night dives right off your front porch are indeed
enjoyable.
     All that is needed to get set up for some serious shore diving
is a rental car and air fills.  There are a variety of rental outfits
that will rent you the preferred vehicle, a Japanese minivan of
decimal horsepower, slow but roomy enough for up to five divers
plus all their gear.  Tanks, weights, and air fills are available
from any of a half dozen dive shops.  We use Bruce Bowker's Carib
Inn, as it is the closest to the Bungalows.  The price is about $5
per tank fill.  If you opt to join one of the boat trips to dive a
location inaccessible from shore, you just sign up and pay an extra
$10.  Bruce also has assembled an excellent instructor staff for
those needing certification, and the Inn also features 1 and 2-
bedroom units with kitchens at rates only a bit higher than the
Bonaire Beach Bungalows.
     The shore divers bible is the Guide to the Bonaire Marine
Park, available in any dive shop on the island at about $20.  It is
unsurpassed in the detail of description and should be a model for
how other islands should strive to present their dive sites.  There
are a few additional shore dives that have been marked since publica-
tion which one can annotate on the excellent map provided in the
back of the book.  With book and maps in hand, it is time to get
ready to get wet.  Because Bowker's operation is small, you are
usually restricted to taking out one tank at a time unless you have
made special arrangements.  Also, he only runs his noisy compressor
at certain times (8:00 - 8:30 AM, 11:00 - 11:15 AM, 1:00 -1:30 PM,
and 4:00 - 4:30 PM), so you must plan your diving with these times
in mind.  We usually do a morning tank and an afternoon tank, getting
the latter back for refill by 4:30 so that we can pick it up later
for our night dive.  I often ask Bruce for an extra tank over night
(there are plenty then because most of his guests don't make a
night dive every night) so that I can get in a dawn dive, one of my
favorite times.  Also, if we are planning an all-day excursion to
dive the excellent sites in Washington Park (northwest coast), we
will arrange for a double load of tanks, but this should be done so
as not to conflict with the same trip done by boat from the Carib
Inn once a week.  Thus, three dives a day is an easy goal, with a
fourth or even fifth possible if you are willing to get up early or
skip lunch, enough for all but the most rabid.
     Although my opening paragraph may have emphasized a reason why
experienced divers may want to try the great shore diving of Bonaire,
I have also found this environment to be a great way for beginners
to rapidly learn to relax and have fun.  This is especially true if
they can accompany an experienced team for the first few dives, to
build up their confidence and skills in entries, buoyancy control,
navigation out and back, and exits.

Bonaire Beach Bungalows:
contact Rene Hakkenberg (owner), (717) 586-9230.

Best airfares to Bonaire:
contact Petra at Bonaire Tours, (800) 526-2370 ; make sure you
specify a "prepaid ground package", for which ALM gives a significant
discount.

                                       John C. Geary
                                       PADI DM-52283
                                       geary@cfa.harvard.edu
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