Bonaire
August 18-25, 2007
Betsy, Robyn, Troy, and Scott

Betsy and Fran planned this trip months ago and had asked Troy and I to join them. Sorry to say, as you all know, Fran passed away and we were not sure if we should continue to go or not. Betsy felt even a stronger need to go so we went ahead with our plans. Betsy invited Robyn to join us and as it worked out, Robyn was able to come. I do believe Miss Fran was with us...

Betsy arranged for the house, diving, and truck for us, cool, no work for us. Betsy did it all. OK, so the girls are flying out on Friday to Puerto Rico and we were going to fly out from Atlanta on Saturday. Now, here comes along Hurricane Dean. We felt for sure the girls would be OK but were not sure about us making the connections and even thought about canceling our trip. Got a call from the girls and they got stuck in PR and hope to meet us in Bonaire on the evening we were supposed to arrive.

OK, plan B--Well I must say that this was one of my most nerve racking airplane trips. We were leaving Atlanta the day before Hurricane Dean was suppose to hit Jamaica. My biggest fear was that we would make it to Mobay and then they would cancel our flight to Bonaire. I asked in Atlanta and a young man from the flight crew must have overheard me because during the flight to MoBay, he came back and told Troy and myself, that they were going to be our flight crew to Bonaire and that we would be using the same aircraft. Wow, that made us feel a whole lot better. In Montego Bay we met fellow D2D'er Actor212, nice guy. Talked for a few and then it was time to board.

Betsy had called ahead and informed Francie the caretaker for the Condo at LBR that they were delayed and to expect a call from us when we landed. Arrived in Bonaire and made a quick call to Francie. She met us at the truck rental and patiently waited for us while we stood in line waiting for the truck. Francie then had us follow her to the Condo at LBR and showed us where everything was, how it worked, etc. She had even done some light shopping for us for coffee and breakfast in the morning and had a nice welcome basket for Betsy.

Guess what, now the girls are stuck again and won?t be coming until Sunday late afternoon. Gezzzz...

Our first night in the condo, the storms from Dean came in and the power went off and it poured and more lighting then I've seen... Wow, what a storm. No power was OK, but the house got really hot--oh well, we were in Bonaire! Sunday morning, Troy and I looked out the window and the waves were still quite large but the sky's were blue and we were excited to be there.

Decided to gather our gear up and do a dive at the Divi. We went and signed up to do some shore dives, our reef badges were still good from Jan, so no check out dive was required. Note, even though we had the tag on our BC, they wanted the white paper. We didn't have it but then they remembered us, so it was OK. Keep the paper, your tag is good for one year.

The seas were nice in front of the Divi but one of the stairways into the ocean was missing and one was half way connected from the pounding waves the night before. Troy decided he wanted to have some lunch first so we had a great fish sandwich and then did a nice leisurely shore dive. Oh, so nice to be back in the ocean on Bonaire.

I remembered to bring a padlock so we put all of our gear into our assigned locker and then decided to go shopping for the girls. I had asked them about wine and beer so we thought, no problem, we'll run to the store before their 4 something flight and troy would still be able to take a nap. Not, on Sunday's most of the stores are either closed or close up early. We ran all over the island but were able to find some wine, cheese, and some ice cold Amstel for Robyn. We were just putting the groceries away when Betsy called and said they were at the airport. Lucky, the airport was only 5 minutes away so I went to go get them. Boy the two of them looked beat from their two day ordeal just trying to get to Bonaire. The good news is, they are finally here. Loaded up their bags and away we went to the condo.

Couple of showers and some quick drinks and it was off to pick up some pizzas to take home, boy were they good. Pasa Bon Pizza. We had two, one pepperoni and one sausage, I think the sausage was the best. Everyone was tired and off to bed.

Monday morning we had some coffee and gathered up all of the girls gear so we could go to Photo Tours, located directly across from the airport. We signed all of our forms and while the girls were doing the pre-dive Bonaire briefing, Troy and I went to Divi to get our gear. We were back in 15 minutes and Betsy was already in the water! We geared up and the girls finally got to do their first dive. This would not be a dive that I would do again, but Port Bonaire did offer lots of fish and was an OK dive. Heck, at least we were diving.

We did a shore dive after lunch at the lake and it was very nice. Very easy shore entry with Tarpon, really big groupers, and lot of angel fish.

OK, so I won't bore you with all the details. We did 15 dives in total this trip. Divi, Port Bonaire, The Lake, Forrest, Carl's Hill, Oil Slick Leap, Monte's Divi Tree, Jerry's Reef, Yellow Submarine shore dive, Night dive at Buddy's, Divi, "Calabas", Divi, Rappel, Country Reef, and Tori's Reef. All in all, perfect days of diving...

Our boat diving was done with Photo Tours along with all of our air tanks except for the few we did at the Divi. Photo Tours gave a good dive briefing, O2 was on board, etc. Great fills, psi was usually between 3200?-3400. Very easy access to tanks for getting and retuning. "G" was our DM and he was very nice and let us dive at our own pace and also let us dive 60 minutes, a couple of times we did 70. The boat was small for around 8-?10 people and no room for cameras. Plenty of drinking water but no fruit or snacks during the surface interval. As much as I liked them, I would probably use another outfit only because they dove Klein Bonaire 6 days a week for the 2 tanker and only one day a week other places.

The diving on Klein was great but would have loved to seen a seahorse or frog fish, boy did we look. They did take us to Rappel and Country Reef and they were both beautiful, loved Rappel. We did several shore dives together and I have to admit, I love Oil Slick Leap. This was my second time doing it so this time the "Leap" only seemed like 50' instead of 100'. We did a ninety minute dive here and got some awesome shots. Make sure you go up into the shallows, you see some awesome stuff that a lot of folks miss.

We kept our truck windows down and didn't leave anything of value in the truck and we had no problems with crime. Lots of good eats, Cactus Blue, $$$$, Pasa Bon Pizza, very good, Casablanca, It was good but Betsy said it used to be better, Richards, the pier table is to die for, good luck for service however... City Cafe' for lunch, and of course we did some of our own cooking. The grocery store in Bonaire is very nice, do remember that everything is imported so a bit more than here at home. Great Gouda cheese... We also hit a great bakery on the last day when Betsy was playing tour guide for Troy and myself, it was on the right heading north right out of town. Great stuff.

Do you believe in Karma? The day that we did Yellow Submarine shore dive, I put all of our camera equipment on the dock and entered the water. I put my fins on, and then went to reach the heavy equipment and just then a wave made me loose my balance. I felt a bit of a small sting but really didn't think too much about it. We did our dive, quite awesome I must say, more trumpet fish of every color than I have ever seen. When I was taking my booties off, I looked where I felt the sting and and saw three small black spots on the side of my heel. I went to the dive shop there and the young lady was great, she got out her tweezers and tried to get them out. She got one, but it broke off and suggested I go see the doc. Growing up in the keys, I've seen this happen before and most folks, that had like one, would just wait it out. But , the girls, Betsy and Robyn, felt I should go to the Doc... I didn't want to because we were going to do a night dive in about two hours at buddy's.

Oh well, off we go. The hospital sent me across the street to a doc and I had to wait about one hour... Sorry girls and troy... While we were there, I saw a lady sitting there with a turtle conservation shirt on and me being the "interested type", I asked her what she did... Mabel told us about the Bonaire Turtle research and invited us to a lecture that night and then to a hatching the next evening at 6pm. We had reservations at Richards for the pier table the next night at 6:30 pm.

The Doc said he did not want to do any cutting and sent me on my way with some stuff that looks like tar and we went on our night dive. It was fantastic, We did it at Buddy's and we saw sooooo much. Coral shrimp, sharp tailed eels, scorpion fish, dwelling anemones, a giant Cubera Snapper, Tarpon, Octopus, etc. Robyn and Bet's did their thing and Troy and I did our first solo night dive, cool, we even managed to come right back to the dock. On the way back to the house, Betsy stopped at Richards and I changed the reservation to around 8 pm, they said not to worry, once you book the table, it's yours for the night.

The next day was Robyn's last so she could not dive in the afternoon and troy wanted to nap so Bets and I did a shore dive at Divi, what fun. Betsy is now the reigning queen of Nudibranches, she must have found 10 under the pier.

Anyway, on the way to the house with only 1.5 hours to the turtle hatching, our truck broke down. Thank goodness it was right near a place that had a phone and not at the other end of the island. I don't know how but Betsy remembered the phone number of the house and the truck rental was on the keys. I went and found a phone and called troy and Robyn and told them we would be there as fast as we could... The truck company came within 10 minutes, said it was either water in the gas or a fuel pump. They quickly drove us to the airport and upgraded us to a fancy new truck within 5 minutes and we made it to the turtles on time. Wow, here in the states, you would be waiting at least one hour for AAA.

So then we made it to the Turtle Encounter and then had a beautiful dinner... the Turtles were amazing... so I do believe in Karma... things happen for a reason.

Betsy drove us up to the lake where we saw in the distance, lots of flamingos, probably 200 or more. She spent the entire morning and early afternoon driving us around, sightseeing, this was very nice.

Well all to soon it was time to say good bye and off to the airport. Upon saying goodbye and double checking I realized that I had left my pelican case at the house, Miss Betsy to the rescue and brought the camera back to me at the airport. Both flights going home were uneventful and all luggage arrived, thanks, AJ. Delta airlines is starting a non stop service to Bonaire in Feb from Atlanta so we are thinking about next June. Not sure where we will be staying but can't wait for our return.

We had a heck of a trip, learned more about my camera, like duh, don't forget to turn the strobe on. Don't forget to change the lens, etc. Lots of laughs and lots of good food. I know you have all told us for years that we would love Bonaire and you were right, it is the easiest diving that I have ever done. Love the diversity of fish, landscapes, and weather. Looking forward to our return trip. Thanks Betsy for setting it all up and Miss Robyn, we're so glad you could join us. See you in Feb.

Scott and Troy

Diving - Photo Tours
Truck - Total Truck Rental
Condo - Lighthouse Beach Resort # 6