Bonaire

Posted by anonymous author

Just back from my first trip to Bon Aire where I was: 1)blown away by the incredible quality of the reefs and 2)the easy access to the incredibly high quality reefs. Stayed at Capt Don's Habitat with a group of cool folks put together by Adventure Quest in Houston. It was great to see the care and attention which the Bon Aire community devotes to keeping the marine environment healthy, and marvelous to experience the payback. I don't know about other operations, but at Capt Don's, you're given the lowdown concerning what is and is not acceptable and then the repect to conduct your dives responsibly without everything being controlled-----nice and relaxed. Most of my previous trips have been to Cozumel and other places where drift diving is the norm, so it was wonderful to have plenty of time to explore a select area for as long as I chose. My roommate was a photographer for a Florida reef survey at one time, so I was able to learn more from him about how to take your time and enjoy liesurely looking at an area and watch changes rather than move around vaguely searching for something. I had as much fun hanging out at 35-40 feet in a narrow area as I did sliding down the slope to 80' or so, taking in the changes along the way. Seemed like most of the profiles offered 20-35' slightly sloping with soft coral and various fish populations, then a steady to sharp slope to 100' plus with hard coral and more variations in the fish. To be precise and detailed, I saw a lot of neat stuff. I'm trying to convince some of the photographers in our group to set up a site with their photos for you all to see. One of the youngest of our group managed to get in the water briefly with some dolphin in the area before they moved on. He was impressed. Anyway given the very reasonable cost and incredible quality of diving, I expect to be back to Bon Aire at sometime. I also think this is a great location for all levels of diving.