Bonaire

We had been looking forward to visiting Bonaire and ended staying there about 6 weeks. Being avid divers that was no hardship. Bonaire is easy to visit but recent fee increases has made it very expensive. In the good old days cruisers would sail back and forth between Puerta La Cruz and Bonaire, the former for cheap provisions, the latter for the laid-back lifestyle and peaceful and safe environment. People would hang out here for years. However, it now costs $10 day for a mooring, which is not optional, and you now you only get a 2 week immigration stay before having to return for further permission. I believe the limit is now 90 days. The dive tags have been jacked up and they even require a permit for snorkeling. So, the diving's still great but you pay for the privilege of visiting.

Here are some shots from our mooring. The one on the left shows Kralendyk; the right is a sunset over Klein Bonaire, which can be barely seen as it is very low and flat.

As a novice photographer's we promise that we will use a strobe in future photos but nothing can take away from the astounding ballet and fluidity of this magnificent Ray.

Actually this is teaming with vibrant hues of purple. note the current.

There is nothing like a post dive high where translucent waters stretch for miles. Shore dives are fabulous on Bonaire. You just rent one of these little trucks, load your gear and off you go!

We had to swim a few hundred yards off Klein Bonaire to get to 80 feet of water. what a spectacular dive! Vera: I hope that everyone remembers to bring a strobe! This stained glass menagerie was no disappointment. I can tell you that every dive in Bonaire is terrific. The first time I ever experienced the thrill of a mask and regulator was when I was eleven years old. my father and his friends took me to Lake Travis where I was just eased over the shallow banks of Wendy Point and allowed to gently peer into the mysteries of this other planet. I have never ceased to be awed and honored at being able to visit this surreal environment John and I are privileged guests.

This is a shot of the salt pans and mounds on the southern end of the island. Prior to tourism & diving, the only real industry on Bonaire were the evaporative salt works. As a real desert island, it had ideal conditions for obtaining salt from the ocean. This is why the Dutch took the island over from the Spanish in the 17th century. The Dutch needed salt as a fish preservative.

Like sugar, the salt business depended upon slaves. The admiral crouches next to the entrance to a slave hut.

Bonaire has some cash & carry groceries as well as a small Budget Marine chandlery. There are also have good Internet cafes and about 5,000 dive shops. Renting a pickup designed for tanks is not too expensive; almost all dives on Bonaire are shore dives. We used the dingy to visit Klein Bonaire, which has some nice dive sites, many with mooring buoys. Some sailboats would motor over there and moor for the day. We decided that Amante was too big to do that, not to mention not wanting to lose our mooring.

For those who really want a marina, there is a fairly nice one, though it's pricey at $0.70/ft/day.

Besides the expense of staying here, be advised that the wind often blows at 25+ kts, which causes everything to become coated with reddish dirt. We found the rigging & canvas ended up being blast coated with dirt, which we could not easily remove.

If the wind wasn't bad enough, Bonaire has the meanest mosquitoes on the planet. If you don't have screens you will be bitten to the point of madness. The abundance seems to be caused by the many uncovered cisterns, which has caused occasional outbreaks of dengue fever.

We spent 6 weeks here waiting on parts. In some cases, stuff was shipped to the wrong country because FedEx staff in the US refused to believe there was a place called Bonaire; all they had to do was visit their own website.

We enjoyed or stay here, diving twice a day and rarely repeating a dive. But, we were running late, such that we had to skip nice places like the San Blas Islands and go straight to negotiating the "Big Ditch" in Panama

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