Bonaire, A Diver’s Paradise

Our recent scuba diving trip to Bonaire was wonderful even though it got off to an inauspicious start.

This was our second trip to the small island (population 20,104) located off the coast of Venezuela. Bonaire is a “special municipality” of the Netherlands, so you see a lot of Dutch influence mixed in with Caribbean architecture, culture and tourism. Most of all, Bonaire is known for scuba diving because of its many shore diving sites and easy access to the island’s fringing reefs.

For our latest trip, we awoke early on January 4, 2020 to catch a 5:30 a.m. Delta flight from Green Bay with a layover in Atlanta. The weather report for Green Bay said freezing drizzle but we had no problems until after we boarded the airplane. As our pilot attempted to turn from the taxiway onto the runway, the front and left landing gear slid off the tarmac and into the muddy grass. The plane came to a sudden stop with a gentle thud. About an hour later a coach bus made two trips to transport us and the other 99 passengers back to the terminal. (We made the national news!) Delta summoned another airplane, and by noon we were finally on our way to Atlanta. Because we missed the only connection to Bonaire that day, we stayed overnight at an Atlanta hotel (courtesy Delta) and flew to Bonaire on Sunday.

Even though we missed our first day of diving with friends from Underwater Connection, the remainder of our week was a great experience! We enjoyed breakfasts at the resort (Captain Don’s Habitat), dinners at several restaurants in Bonaire’s capital city Kralendijk, kayaking at the mangrove forest of Lac Bay, and of course the great diving that Bonaire is famous for. This video summarizes highlights of our week. I included dreamy underwater-like music. You’re welcome.

ABOUT THE RESORT

Captain Don’s is a full-service scuba resort founded in 1976 by renowned underwater environmentalist Captain Don Stewart, who died in 2014. The staff is very friendly and helpful, rooms are comfortable and clean, the food is good, and there’s a nice swimming pool, although Mary and I didn’t use it this trip. Divers can either dive right from the dock or sign up for boat dives. The dive operation is PADI certified and an SDI 5 Star Professional Development Center. They offer one-tank boat departures daily at 8.30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to more than 50 moored sights on custom-built dive boats. Our group chose to dive at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. with lunch at Captain Don’s each day. On other dive trips our first dive usually left the dock by 8 or 8:30 a.m., so this time it felt less hurried to start each morning with a leisurely breakfast followed by a two-hour hike before our first dive at 11 a.m.

OUR DIVES

We made one shore dive and eight boat dives during the week. Fish were colorful and abundant and the coral reefs were in beautiful shape. Bonaire is outside the hurricane zone so storms that can affect the quality of diving elsewhere in the Caribbean haven’t happened here in recent years.

My favorite moment of diving happened Wednesday when, at a dive site called Kalli’s Reef, we were engulfed by a HUGE school of bigeye scad jacks. It was amazing to be surrounded inside the pulsating organism.

Later that same day I spotted a large octopus curled up inside an opening in the coral. Most octopus sightings occur during night dives, so it was a rare treat to see one of these peculiar, intelligent creatures in the daylight.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

On Friday, our final full day on the island, we drove with friends Eric and Lori to the Bonaire Wild Bird Rehab and Mangrove Info Center. This newest nature protection organization on Bonaire provides a home for the island’s sick or injured birds, including Bonaire’s national bird, the American Flamingo.

While at the sanctuary, we paddled a guided kayak tour of the mangrove forest of Lac Bay, part of the Bonaire National Marine Park and one of the best preserved mangrove forests in the Caribbean. Despite a brief downpour with high winds, we enjoyed this fun, educational tour with our guide Christopher.

After our kayak tour we drove to nearby Jibe City, a windsurf hangout just across Lac Bay. Here you can rent windsurf equipment, stand-up-paddle boards, take lessons or do what we did — enjoy lunch and a beer and watch windsurfers do their thing. Once again we were interrupted by a heavy downpour, but like most rainfall on Bonaire, it only lasted a few minutes.

Saturday came too soon. Our group of 13 boarded a small bus for the short ride from Captain Don’s to the Bonaire airport. It was a fantastic week of diving, dining, kayaking, hiking, reuniting with old friends, and getting know new ones.

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