Bonaire, March 22-29, 1997
Author: Daniel Crawford

Our vacation began with an early morning drive to Baltimore Washington International Airport. Our Air Aruba flight was scheduled to leave at 1:15pm. We wanted to check in at the airport 2 hours before the flight so we left the house at around 7AM to ensure getting to the airport early. All went well with the drive up and we had our luggage checked with Air Aruba around 11AM. We were told the flight was delayed a bit and would not leave until 2:30PM. We boarded the plane at 4PM and left Baltimore behind around 4:15 for a short flight to Newark. Our layover in Newark was shortened because of the delay and we waited on the plane while luggage was loaded and additional passengers boarded. We were finally on the way to Aruba at 5:30pm. Dinner was served, the drinks flowed freely for those who cared to imbibe and we landed in Aruba around 11pm. After a short wait we then boarded our MD28 jet once again for Bonaire. We arrived on at the Flamingo Airport on Bonaire at 12:15AM, just one hour fifteen minutes later than our originally scheduled arrival. There were thirty people traveling in our group. Everyone's luggage arrived intact, we checked through customs and picked up our four 9-passenger vans from the Budget office which was still open and awaiting our arrival.

We checked into the Sunset Beach Hotel, got our room key, turned on the A/C and took a stroll down to the beach. By now it was 1:30AM but we had to take a look at the ocean and the starlit sky before retiring.

After a short but good nights sleep Lindemarie and I awoke at 7AM and went to the breakfast buffet being served at the restaurant on the beach. Fresh fruit, fresh fruit juice, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, bacon, sausage, hard boiled eggs, French toast, toast, pancakes, and other assorted goodies awaited our choosing. The breakfasts were consistently good every morning with omlettes made to order on the last day. Breakfast was included in our trip.

At 9AM on Sunday morning (March 23) the group met at the dive shop, paid the marine park fee, signed the obligatory wavers, were issued a peg to hang gear on in the dive shop, and given weights. Linde and I entered the water for our orientation dive on the Front Porch at 9:30 and exited the water 48 minutes later after a dive to 88FSW. We visited the small tug at 75ft, took a peek at the garden eels, attaining our deepest depth, and slowly worked our way up and across the reef to a depth of 40ft. The second half of the dive was done coming back, working our way slowly up to 15ft, where we spent the last 15 minutes of the dive. We dove the Front Porch again on Sunday night and there was Morayna, an 8ft. green moray eel in the tug. She was there again there on Monday afternoon also but the rest of the week we didn't we didn't see her again.

One of the best parts about diving Bonaire is that you can spend a long time in fifteen feet of water right on a reef without having to do a safety stop midwater. All of our dives were multilevel with slow ascents and at least ten to fifteen minutes in twenty feet of water or less at the end of the dive.

THE DIVES:

I did sixteen dives in five days of diving including a night dive every night. Dive sites included Front Porch (6 dives there), Ebos Special, 1000 Steps, Oil Slick Leap, Webers Joy, Sampler, The Rock Pile, Hilma Hooker, Angel City, Alice In Wonderland, and Rappel.

It's hard to say which dive was the best of the week because all of the dives were great. There is no bad diving on Bonaire. I got into the middle of a school of horse eyed jacks on the Hilma Hooker and lost count of how many pictures I shot. The school was spiraling but staying in one place. They allowed me to get into the middle of the school without leaving or even noticing me at all for that matter.

DINING

One word of advice about Bonaire dining, especially dinner. Go to dinner before you are really hungry. You are on island time and dinner can take a couple of hours. Don't be in a hurry or you'll just hassle yourself. Know ahead of time that things are slower here than at home and enjoy the experience!

We had dinner at Richards twice that week and enjoyed a fine dining experience both times. It's best to make reservations ahead of time at Richards unless you like to wait a long time for a table. We had reservations both evenings and had no wait to be seated at our waterside table. Try their conch! Be sure to wear some skin so soft or insect repellent to avoid becoming a meal yourself. Like anywhere else on the island there are a few mosquitoes around in the evening hours.

The Green Parrot was our choice of places for dinner one night. The prices are reasonable for Bonaire dining, the food good, and the portions large enough to make dessert overkill. Their exotic mixed drinks include little wooden figurines to take home. We went there on the last afternoon before departure just to collect some of them. We brought home an eel, a flamingo, a parrot, a turtle, and a seahorse. Collect the whole series, it's fun! :^)

On Barbecue night at the Sunset Beach Hotel we enjoyed grilled steak, chicken, fish, ribs, pork chops, salads, veggies, corn on the cob, and dessert for $19. It's a buffet and you can choose what you want and eat as much as you want. We found this meal very good and a bargain to boot.

We brought food with us on the trip and after a trip to the Cultimara market for bread, potato chips, Amstel, and other items we were set to each lunch in our room every day. We did eat lunch out one day for a change, but have found eating lunch in our room one way of keeping the expenses for the trip down.

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