Bonaire Snorkel/Scuba Excursion

We were in Bonaire just a week ago and enjoyed our short stay very much. I'm a scuba diver but my wife is not, although she very much enjoys snorkeling.

We had arranged for her and two friends to do a snorkeling excursion with Renee, but due to surgery, Renee could not make it. The three of them approached a gate guard and asked if he knew where they could snorkel and he said he heard the "Airport Beach" was good. It was a $10 one-way cab ride to the beach where they had some of the best snorkeling of our 14 day cruise. They saw two Octopus, eels, and a variety of fish. My wife came back with some excellent photos of the octopus. The original excursion was going to cost them $25 each, for $75 total. The cab rides totalled $20 and the snorkeling was great. If you want to save some money, I would recommend that you explore this option.

For scuba divers, Divi Flamingo resort is literally the first building to the right of the cruise ship. It's about a 200 yard walk and easy to do even if you are carrying all of your own dive gear, which I was. Their "house reef" is Calabas Reef, which provided for two excellent dives. We actually could have gotten in a third dive but some in our group wanted to go souvenier shopping.

A one-day dive pass to the Underwater Marine Park is $10. Divi's charge for unlimited shore diving is about $21, and they will supply the tanks and weights. Other dive gear can be rented as needed. The tanks are at the end of their dock and you just take what you need, while placing the empty tanks in an adjacent area. All of the tanks are AL80.

Calabas Reef is about 30 yards off the end of their dock. It starts at about 30' and drops down to about 100'. The start point is marked by a small row boat that is attached to a large anchor and the edge of the reef. Below, the anchor provides for an effective marker as to where to start your trip back to the dock. You don't have to go far to see a lot of things. In 2 dives I don't think we ventured more than 40-50 yards either way of our point of entry. We did go up and down the reef though, venturing down to 92' at one point.

We were informed that recent weather had stirred up the water so visibility was down but we still had 50'-60'. There wasn't any current and the water was calm.

We were literally diving about 300 yards off the bow of our ship, it's that close to the pier.

It will probably be a couple of weeks before I can get my photos enhanced and uploaded to the Internet, but when I do I'll post the info here for you to reference.

We are always glad to here of good diving in Bonaire. First started going there 17 years ago. Last year to a new empyment was the first we missed. Diving and snorkeling has always been great there. Next time, you can dive and snrkel off any hotel peir. seems odd but there is some rule that everyone lets you(whether you stay there or not).

Bob

Just last night I told my wife that it wouldn't be too hard for me to go to Bonaire and dive for a week. However, since she doesn't dive, this presents a problem, since I'm not inclined to leave her alone for a week. Fortunately, on this cruise, we had friends who snorkeled and others who dived, so we were able to split up and both enjoy what we like.