The Diving

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In 6 days we got in 16 dives. Of those 16 dives, we only did 1 boat dive. The freedom of shore diving was just too great! I will do my best to describe the dives but I’ll warn you know – I’m not good at this! Plus we haven’t even developed our film yet, so please keep that in mind!

Bonaire is not known for BIG fish or sharks but for little things. I’ll have to say, I saw some of the coolest things I’d ever want to see. My goals were simple. I wanted to see a seahorse (well, I would have liked to have seen many, but I’d settle with one) and a Flamingo’s Tongue. Not only did we see these but we DID see a Green Turtle, a multitude of scorpionfish, and coral spawning. I’m not going to detail everything we saw on each dive. Every dive you saw a variety of parrotfish, squirrelfish, yellowtail goatfish, scrawled cowfish, angelfish etc… I will highlight the coolest things we saw on the dives, because there was something totally cool on each dive.

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Visibility was probably only about 75-80 feet as the coral was spawning. But coming from a place where 30 ft vis is good, I was happy! The water temps were between 82F-86F. I wore a .5MM skin with my 2MM hood (plan B because my brandy new 3MM was just a bear to get over my calves.. )

Calabras

This is the house reef of Divi Flamingo. The dock has a shack at the end where you can store your gear. Its opened from about 8am –10pm. There are rinse tanks and a fresh water shower as well. All you have to do is grab a fresh tank, gear up and giant stride into the water. The reef is on a gently rolling wall (as are most of the dive sites we went to). And that it was right at the hotel was another bonus. We dove here twice. The second time we dove here I was at about 30 feet when I saw an antenna stick out of an overhang. There was a spiny lobster! Now I dive up here in NJ SPECIFICALLY looking for a lobster, never see them. I’m in a no take zone and there he is! He was a bit camera shy as he dug himself deeper into his hole to hide.

Hilma Hooker

This was a pretty cool wreck! We dove this site twice as well. Entry here is a little rocky and may not have been the best choice for our first shore dive ever! But somehow, we managed! The surface swim here is probably the longest we did. But we were out there in no time and down we went. We dropped down to 90 feet. Started at the stern and worked our way to the bow, came up to about 60 feet and worked our way back. Both times doing this dive, we saw two HUGE tarpon here. Very cool. After the dive we worked our way back to shore underwater on the reef.

Invisibles

This site was probably my least favorite. I felt it was just average. I tell you if my worst dive is going to be average, I’ll take that any day of the week! We got in the water pretty late so it was almost dark by the time we got back to shore. I really put my navigation skills (or lack thereof) to the test. I usually got us back pretty close to the entry spot. It was here where we managed to get our truck stuck in the rocks. Within minutes of discovering this I saw headlights coming down the road. I waved them down with a flashlight and they helped us out. It seems they were in a similar situation earlier that afternoon and were more than happy to help! A big thanks if you are reading this report!!!

Karpata

This was by far the BEST dive on the island! Entry was REALLY easy. There was a concrete “dock” that you could slip into the water from. We dove this twice as well. One time to the left, one time to the right. Left was much better! There was LOTS of coral here, lots of places for eels to hide and fish to play. You can get pretty deep here too. After the first dive here coming back to the shore, we saw two reef squid “flying” by. By the way, when diving the North side by car, after Ol Blue, the road is one way. So start with the dive sites there and work your way up to Karpata.

1000 Steps

What is it really, 72 steps? After a 45 minute dive and climbing up in full gear, it felt like 1000 steps.

Town Pier

We got the dive master Orlando to take us to Town Pier on Friday night. It was an awesome dive! It is also, unfortunately the only night dive we did. The orange cup coral is beautiful. We saw our first scorpionfish hanging out by an old tire. There were a lot of eels in the tires under the pier. Saw a fire worm or two, some arrow crabs and little shrimp. At one point we saw a reef squid and its baby swimming by, but my boyfriend was set up for macro so no photo opportunity there! We saw a couple of other divers on this dive but not many.

Ol Blue

A site similar to 1000 steps but a MUCH easier entry!!!! Here is where I found my first Flamingo Tongue!

Andrea I

We were originally planning on diving Karpata again but the wind was kicking and there were some waves up that way. Serge at Dive Bonaire told us Andrea I would be a good site since its protected. Turned out to be a great dive. At the end of the dive we saw a TURTLE!!! My boyfriend was swimming after him to get his picture. I was going to try and swim around and get the turtle to swim back towards him. Well, the turtle never knew I was there and he swam right towards me then under me! It was amazing!!! Too bad I didn’t have my camera on that dive!

MargateBay

We dropped down in about 15 feet of water and immediately saw a snake eel (OK, that’s not its official name, but I’m at work, I don’t have my ID book with me!). Very cool. Saw some eyes sticking out of the sand… A Peacock Flounder! What a great dive!!!

Now when shore diving, remember ONE important thing… If you don’t remember anything else in this report, remember this. DO NOT leave anything of value in your truck. We left a land camera in a bag with our food on the back seat and sure enough, when we got back , it was gone. Luckily, nothing else was missing and they must have jimmied the lock, because the window was not broken.

PinkBeach

We decided to go to Pink Beach after seeing the Pink Bus there. We had heard about the bus, so we decided to go check it out. There were more people at the site than we were used to but we ended up seeing a group of 3 divers while under water. This site was most definitely like diving in an aquarium. The fish here were abundant! Here is where we saw the coral spawning. It was wild!

The Lake

At some point we were talking to another couple who said that this was a great dive. It was two reef systems diving by sand that was about 100ft wide. Down at the sand at about 104ft, we saw garden eels! I never saw that before! Very cool! At the end of this dive we saw a puffer. I had thought about making it puff for a picture but then I felt sorry for it… So I left him alone.

Cliff

Our one and only boat dive! Too many other divers! We got used to it being just us! The good thing about it… Pepe called us over…. A SEAHORSE!!!! We took many photos (I finally brought my camera!)

Alice in Wonderland

Our last dive… this dive about summed up everything we saw, because with the exception of the seahorse and turtle, we saw just about everything else. You want to see a Flamingo’s Tongue? There were hundreds! Saw yet another peacock flounder and snake eel. There were garden eels at depth. After an hour of watching the fish eat and play and as we were working our way back to shore... the cutest burrfish you’ll EVER want to see!!!

Diving in Bonaire is easy and great! After I make my way through my wish lists of trips, I’d go back. The things I would do differently would be NOT leaving anything in the truck and I’d bring a cooler to pack a lunch in… and I’d probably go a little longer than a week.