Bonaire July 21 - July 28, 2007 Buddy Dive Resort

Air Jamaica to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a short lay-over, then to
Bonaire. Three hours plus to Montego Bay. Received breakfast. One
hour 45 minutes to Bonaire. Received snacks. On the trip home, had a
'snack flight' and a dinner flight. Free champagne all flights. Free
movie on long flights. Return trip was delayed by about one hour,
combining both flights. Over-all Air Jamaica was good.

A large truck took our luggage and we got a bus (unairconditioned) to
the resort. On the last day, we checked in our luggage early at the
airport, got our plane tickets, filled our free rental truck with gas
and came back to the resort. We squared up our bill and relaxed in the
pool for an hour before we caught a small hotel van back to the
airport. Kept our carry-on luggage with us so we could shower and
change. There was no one telling us to get out of our room by a
certain time. The check-in counter at Flamingo Airport opens at 10 am.
Departure tax was $32.00 pp cash or travelers check. Checking in early
at the airport was a good idea, cuts out the hassle and then you have
some time to relax. Since you're checked in and have your tickets
already, you don't need to be at the airport til 2 pm and the gas
station is one the way to the airport. Depending on which company
gives you the rental truck, you either return it to the airport or to
Buddy Dive. Your return trip may vary.

First day at Buddy Dive Resort was hectic. No diving. Our large group
(27 ppl) was one of many large groups checking in. Had to get room
assignment and rental truck. Had to watch a video of the dive
operation and listen to other hotel speakers about the activities and
rules, etc.

The four of us had two rooms which connected.Two bedrooms, two
bathrooms, two kitchens, two porches with table and chairs and a
common area with a table, chairs, couch, TV and phone. I think we had
a good location as far as being close to the dive dock and the
restaurants. In addition, we had the nicest pool of the three just
outside our door.

The next day, we did a required check-out dive off the dock and dove
Buddy's Reef. No one observed you... you just went along yourself. We
saw squids and the usual fish.
#2 - boat dive @ Knife - loggerhead turtle (tracking device on back of
shell), drum fish, trumpets, peacock flounders, lots of blennies and
wrasses.

7-23 - #3 Buddy's Reef - lots of eels today, lizardfish, scorpionfish.
#4 - Sharon's Serenity - beautiful reef, several orange phase
filefish.
#5 - South Bay - excellent reef, lots of banded coral shrimp, large
black grouper with a cleaner on him, 2 cowfish and one was biting the
other. Some did a night dive and saw an octopus.

7-24 - #6 Knife again
#7 Repel - excellent site !! Cool coral formations, barracuda, 2
turtles, drum fish, black spotted moray, baby filefish, squirrelfish,
basslet, parrotfish.
#8 Oil Slick - shore dive - Did the resort "drive thru" for tanks
which was very nice. Had to jump off a little cliff that was about 10
ft high to enter, ladder to exit. Saw a snake and squid.
The first stage of my reg blew towards the end of the dive, not far
from the ladder.

7-25 - #9 Karl's Wall - Nice wall formation, turtle, sergeants,
damsels.
#10 Andrea II - This site can be reached by a shore dive also but we
did the boat. Saw 10 squids !! Seahorse, snake eel eating a brittle
star, tiny post-larval trunkfish, cowfish. Lots of soft corals. Some
did a night dive.

7-26 - #11 - Hilma Hooker - did the shallows along the reef since I'd
already seen the Hooker last time I was in Bonaire. Huge slipper
lobster, tons of blue chromis, triggerfish.
#12 - Joanne's Kiss -Huge jewfish, lots of blueheads, reticulate
moray, lots of porcupine fish, redlip blenny, schoolmasters, a group
of porgy, chub.
#13 - Buddy's Reef - Went to 119 ft. The reef bottoms out here at
about 125 ft. Giant
porcupine fish at least 3 ft long under small wreck to the north !!
Eel out in the open sand for a long time, schools of porgy and black
durgon. Got a pederson shrimp to clean my finger.
#14 - Buddy's Reef - Night dive. Big grouper, tarpon, extra large
green moray.

7-27 - #15 Thousand Steps - Really only has 72 steps. Barracuda,
tarpon, squid, Queen
and French angel, large green moray that some were petting the back
end of, bristle worm, nudibranchs, snappers, grunts. Walk down steps
and walk south on the beach a bit to a clear spot. Difficult getting
out because of waves.
#16 - Old Blue - Tons of fish !! Cuda, squid, grunts, chormis, porgy,
nudibranchs. Got a manta shrimp to come out !! Small stone pathway to
beach then south on the beach to walk in. VERY difficult to exit again
due to waves. Had a south wind that made the exits so difficult.

When going to these shore sites, just north of Karpata the road
changes to one way just a bit before Old Blue. Good thing it does
since it's so narrow. Going back to the resort, there is a short cut
about one mile before Karpata that is a dirt road. It's marked with a
stone that has a picture of glasses or a bicycle on it. The short cut
leads off to the right. It's bumpy and hilly but you will cut about 30
minutes off of your return trip because if you don't take the short
cut, you have to go thru Rincon. The short cut is also fun since you
will probably see wild donkeys
and goats and parrots.

Restaurants - all we went to are "open air".

Lion's Den - Even though it is at Buddy Dive Resort, it's not part of
them so you can't charge your meal to your room. I had a fish dinner
here and it was just average in taste for the price. I would not go
back.

Buddy Dive's Patio Bar - You can charge your meal and drinks to your
room here and if you have the $75 food credit, they will deduct 50%
from your bill up to $150 spent. They separate out the tips of course.
We all had decent meals here. I had the vegie quesadeas (spelling?)
for dinner one night and a salad with grilled chicken for lunch one
day. Pretty good. Some agreed the bacon cheeseburgers were good but
tasted different from those at home. One had
a crab salad sandwich and liked it. They are only open for dinner
during the "theme nites" they have a few times a week. You can partake
in the theme or order from the menu. Friday's theme night is an all
you can eat buffet that seems to draw a large crowd but we didn't eat
there. I would go back and since it's at the resort, it's convenient
when you are tired.

Cactus Blue - in the town of Kralendijik, Caribbean food. Excellent
fish soup and grilled lime and ginger shrimp. We all enjoyed the food
here very much. Highly recommend it !!

Casablanca - in town next to Cactus Blue, Argentine food. We all had
steaks here that we enjoyed. For $17.50, I got a huge rib-eye that was
melt in your mouth tender, rice, vegies and a salad. The night we
tried to go there, they had an all you can eat buffet. We don't care
for these so we went to Cactus Blue instead and went to Casablanca
another nite. I would go back.

LaGuernica - in town tucked behind other restaurants facing the water,
mixed menu. We went here for the "tapas", which are Spanish dishes
that are small portions, like appetizers. Each person orders 3 or 4
different ones. Interesting concept. Food was good and we would
probably go back. They gave us a 10% discount to try their other
restaurant, Bambu.

Bambu - in town on the water, mixed menu. Very nicely decorated,
upscale but not overly expensive. I had the grilled shrimp in coconut
and mango with rice. Excellent food per everyone and we would go back.
A special treat is that right next door to the restaurant is an ice
cream place you can visit for dessert.

City Cafe Restaurant - in town, mixed menu, kinda like a TGIF. I
ordered a Caesar salad which was good. I also had the pasta of the day
which was spaghetti with fish in a red sauce. It came with a little
salad and if I knew that, I wouldn't have ordered the Caesar. Both the
pasta and the fish were way overcooked. One person was the only one
happy with his meal here. He ordered a cheesesteak and fries. I
wouldn't go back.

Buddy Dive Resort can be very inexpensive and it's a nice resort.
There's a large supermarket in town (and a smaller higher priced one
near to the resort) so if you don't want to dine out, you can shop for
food and have your meals in your room because the kitchens are fully
stocked, even with dish towels, cloths and dish soap. We brought many
snack items like crackers, pepperoni, nuts, etc with us. We bought
cheese at the supermarket and along with the crackers, etc had our
lunch in our room one day.

The hotel provides shampoo, body gel and body lotion. They also
provide beach towels. If you loose it however, you are charged $25. I
didn't take my beach towel on the boat, just took it for shore dives.
There is a nice breeze all the time but the island is still hot so
there was no need for a towel on the boat but some ppl brought theirs.
Bring something for bugs because they bite at nite. Also, one day we
had a small scorpion in our room !!

When doing shore dives, leave your valuables in your room safe box
leave the vehicle unlocked with the windows down. I brought my reg
(both my personal one and the one I had to rent after my first stage
blew) along with my BC and my shortie up to the room after dives. I
only left my mask, fins and weights in the gear room. The gear room
isn't locked. Many ppl left all their gear in the gear room after
dives and overnight. I didn't hear of anyone who had anything stolen.

They charge you a $70 deposit on your bill for your lock box key which
they refund when you give the key back. One wore our lock box key
around his neck on the chain provided, even during dives. We kept our
passports, etc in there. We asked for an extra room key, which was
helpful with the four of us. The third key we inserted into the door
to lock it and you need to leave the key in the door to keep it
locked. Our rooms only had one main door but each room had a sliding
glass door that could be locked from the inside.

The hotel has a dog (Puck) and a cat or two. The hotel doesn't mind if
you feed them so we took leftovers put them into ziplock baggies that
we brought with us so that we could give the cat and the dog treats.
They charge you $7 per room for a wild donkey assistance program. The
fee is voluntary and we decided to pay it. We also took rolls from the
breakfast buffet and put them in the ziplock baggies to take with us
on dives and feed the fish.

All in all, this was a wonderful trip, so good that we're thinking of
going back next year. The ability to have a free truck for shore dives
and going into town or just driving around the island is wonderful. I
recommend doing some research online about the shore dives or buying a
book on the shore dives. I also recommend asking your boat captain
which dives he intends to do because if he is doing some of the shore
dives you had planned, then you might just go on the boat because it's
easier.

Did you happen to pick up the book "Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy" by Susan
Porter? This book is invaluable when going to Bonaire. It lists not only
all the dive locations, but also rates each location as far as difficulty,
exactly where and how to enter and exit, anything you need to be on the
lookout for, what kind of corals and fish you will probably see, how deep it
is, etc. We got a chance to meet Susan when we were in Bonaire this June.
Great lady! I asked her if she was going to do a similar book for Klein
Bonaire, the little island just a couple hundred yards off Bonaire. She
said it is possible. She continually updates the book. Sells for $10.

Check out the bulletin board at
http://www.bonaire-travelguide.com/index.shtml and you'll see why so many
people love to dive there. Can't wait to go back. We stayed at Divi
Flamingo when we were there but didn't eat there--bought groceries in town
and ate at local restaurants. Did one two tank boat dive and the rest of
our dives were boat dives. Just rent a truck, throw your tanks in the bank
and go for the day. Gorgeous diving! Next year we'll go for two weeks!
Jane





<hierophantfish@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1185865903.987267.61650@22g2000hsm.googlegrou ps.com...
> Bonaire July 21 - July 28, 2007 Buddy Dive Resort
>
> Air Jamaica to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a short lay-over, then to
> Bonaire. Three hours plus to Montego Bay. Received breakfast. One
> hour 45 minutes to Bonaire. Received snacks. On the trip home, had a
> 'snack flight' and a dinner flight. Free champagne all flights. Free
> movie on long flights. Return trip was delayed by about one hour,
> combining both flights. Over-all Air Jamaica was good.
>
> A large truck took our luggage and we got a bus (unairconditioned) to
> the resort. On the last day, we checked in our luggage early at the
> airport, got our plane tickets, filled our free rental truck with gas
> and came back to the resort. We squared up our bill and relaxed in the
> pool for an hour before we caught a small hotel van back to the
> airport. Kept our carry-on luggage with us so we could shower and
> change. There was no one telling us to get out of our room by a
> certain time. The check-in counter at Flamingo Airport opens at 10 am.
> Departure tax was $32.00 pp cash or travelers check. Checking in early
> at the airport was a good idea, cuts out the hassle and then you have
> some time to relax. Since you're checked in and have your tickets
> already, you don't need to be at the airport til 2 pm and the gas
> station is one the way to the airport. Depending on which company
> gives you the rental truck, you either return it to the airport or to
> Buddy Dive. Your return trip may vary.
>
> First day at Buddy Dive Resort was hectic. No diving. Our large group
> (27 ppl) was one of many large groups checking in. Had to get room
> assignment and rental truck. Had to watch a video of the dive
> operation and listen to other hotel speakers about the activities and
> rules, etc.
>
> The four of us had two rooms which connected.Two bedrooms, two
> bathrooms, two kitchens, two porches with table and chairs and a
> common area with a table, chairs, couch, TV and phone. I think we had
> a good location as far as being close to the dive dock and the
> restaurants. In addition, we had the nicest pool of the three just
> outside our door.
>
> The next day, we did a required check-out dive off the dock and dove
> Buddy's Reef. No one observed you... you just went along yourself. We
> saw squids and the usual fish.
> #2 - boat dive @ Knife - loggerhead turtle (tracking device on back of
> shell), drum fish, trumpets, peacock flounders, lots of blennies and
> wrasses.
>
> 7-23 - #3 Buddy's Reef - lots of eels today, lizardfish, scorpionfish.
> #4 - Sharon's Serenity - beautiful reef, several orange phase
> filefish.
> #5 - South Bay - excellent reef, lots of banded coral shrimp, large
> black grouper with a cleaner on him, 2 cowfish and one was biting the
> other. Some did a night dive and saw an octopus.
>
> 7-24 - #6 Knife again
> #7 Repel - excellent site !! Cool coral formations, barracuda, 2
> turtles, drum fish, black spotted moray, baby filefish, squirrelfish,
> basslet, parrotfish.
> #8 Oil Slick - shore dive - Did the resort "drive thru" for tanks
> which was very nice. Had to jump off a little cliff that was about 10
> ft high to enter, ladder to exit. Saw a snake and squid.
> The first stage of my reg blew towards the end of the dive, not far
> from the ladder.
>
> 7-25 - #9 Karl's Wall - Nice wall formation, turtle, sergeants,
> damsels.
> #10 Andrea II - This site can be reached by a shore dive also but we
> did the boat. Saw 10 squids !! Seahorse, snake eel eating a brittle
> star, tiny post-larval trunkfish, cowfish. Lots of soft corals. Some
> did a night dive.
>
> 7-26 - #11 - Hilma Hooker - did the shallows along the reef since I'd
> already seen the Hooker last time I was in Bonaire. Huge slipper
> lobster, tons of blue chromis, triggerfish.
> #12 - Joanne's Kiss -Huge jewfish, lots of blueheads, reticulate
> moray, lots of porcupine fish, redlip blenny, schoolmasters, a group
> of porgy, chub.
> #13 - Buddy's Reef - Went to 119 ft. The reef bottoms out here at
> about 125 ft. Giant
> porcupine fish at least 3 ft long under small wreck to the north !!
> Eel out in the open sand for a long time, schools of porgy and black
> durgon. Got a pederson shrimp to clean my finger.
> #14 - Buddy's Reef - Night dive. Big grouper, tarpon, extra large
> green moray.
>
> 7-27 - #15 Thousand Steps - Really only has 72 steps. Barracuda,
> tarpon, squid, Queen
> and French angel, large green moray that some were petting the back
> end of, bristle worm, nudibranchs, snappers, grunts. Walk down steps
> and walk south on the beach a bit to a clear spot. Difficult getting
> out because of waves.
> #16 - Old Blue - Tons of fish !! Cuda, squid, grunts, chormis, porgy,
> nudibranchs. Got a manta shrimp to come out !! Small stone pathway to
> beach then south on the beach to walk in. VERY difficult to exit again
> due to waves. Had a south wind that made the exits so difficult.
>
> When going to these shore sites, just north of Karpata the road
> changes to one way just a bit before Old Blue. Good thing it does
> since it's so narrow. Going back to the resort, there is a short cut
> about one mile before Karpata that is a dirt road. It's marked with a
> stone that has a picture of glasses or a bicycle on it. The short cut
> leads off to the right. It's bumpy and hilly but you will cut about 30
> minutes off of your return trip because if you don't take the short
> cut, you have to go thru Rincon. The short cut is also fun since you
> will probably see wild donkeys
> and goats and parrots.
>
> Restaurants - all we went to are "open air".
>
> Lion's Den - Even though it is at Buddy Dive Resort, it's not part of
> them so you can't charge your meal to your room. I had a fish dinner
> here and it was just average in taste for the price. I would not go
> back.
>
> Buddy Dive's Patio Bar - You can charge your meal and drinks to your
> room here and if you have the $75 food credit, they will deduct 50%
> from your bill up to $150 spent. They separate out the tips of course.
> We all had decent meals here. I had the vegie quesadeas (spelling?)
> for dinner one night and a salad with grilled chicken for lunch one
> day. Pretty good. Some agreed the bacon cheeseburgers were good but
> tasted different from those at home. One had
> a crab salad sandwich and liked it. They are only open for dinner
> during the "theme nites" they have a few times a week. You can partake
> in the theme or order from the menu. Friday's theme night is an all
> you can eat buffet that seems to draw a large crowd but we didn't eat
> there. I would go back and since it's at the resort, it's convenient
> when you are tired.
>
> Cactus Blue - in the town of Kralendijik, Caribbean food. Excellent
> fish soup and grilled lime and ginger shrimp. We all enjoyed the food
> here very much. Highly recommend it !!
>
> Casablanca - in town next to Cactus Blue, Argentine food. We all had
> steaks here that we enjoyed. For $17.50, I got a huge rib-eye that was
> melt in your mouth tender, rice, vegies and a salad. The night we
> tried to go there, they had an all you can eat buffet. We don't care
> for these so we went to Cactus Blue instead and went to Casablanca
> another nite. I would go back.
>
> LaGuernica - in town tucked behind other restaurants facing the water,
> mixed menu. We went here for the "tapas", which are Spanish dishes
> that are small portions, like appetizers. Each person orders 3 or 4
> different ones. Interesting concept. Food was good and we would
> probably go back. They gave us a 10% discount to try their other
> restaurant, Bambu.
>
> Bambu - in town on the water, mixed menu. Very nicely decorated,
> upscale but not overly expensive. I had the grilled shrimp in coconut
> and mango with rice. Excellent food per everyone and we would go back.
> A special treat is that right next door to the restaurant is an ice
> cream place you can visit for dessert.
>
> City Cafe Restaurant - in town, mixed menu, kinda like a TGIF. I
> ordered a Caesar salad which was good. I also had the pasta of the day
> which was spaghetti with fish in a red sauce. It came with a little
> salad and if I knew that, I wouldn't have ordered the Caesar. Both the
> pasta and the fish were way overcooked. One person was the only one
> happy with his meal here. He ordered a cheesesteak and fries. I
> wouldn't go back.
>
> Buddy Dive Resort can be very inexpensive and it's a nice resort.
> There's a large supermarket in town (and a smaller higher priced one
> near to the resort) so if you don't want to dine out, you can shop for
> food and have your meals in your room because the kitchens are fully
> stocked, even with dish towels, cloths and dish soap. We brought many
> snack items like crackers, pepperoni, nuts, etc with us. We bought
> cheese at the supermarket and along with the crackers, etc had our
> lunch in our room one day.
>
> The hotel provides shampoo, body gel and body lotion. They also
> provide beach towels. If you loose it however, you are charged $25. I
> didn't take my beach towel on the boat, just took it for shore dives.
> There is a nice breeze all the time but the island is still hot so
> there was no need for a towel on the boat but some ppl brought theirs.
> Bring something for bugs because they bite at nite. Also, one day we
> had a small scorpion in our room !!
>
> When doing shore dives, leave your valuables in your room safe box
> leave the vehicle unlocked with the windows down. I brought my reg
> (both my personal one and the one I had to rent after my first stage
> blew) along with my BC and my shortie up to the room after dives. I
> only left my mask, fins and weights in the gear room. The gear room
> isn't locked. Many ppl left all their gear in the gear room after
> dives and overnight. I didn't hear of anyone who had anything stolen.
>
> They charge you a $70 deposit on your bill for your lock box key which
> they refund when you give the key back. One wore our lock box key
> around his neck on the chain provided, even during dives. We kept our
> passports, etc in there. We asked for an extra room key, which was
> helpful with the four of us. The third key we inserted into the door
> to lock it and you need to leave the key in the door to keep it
> locked. Our rooms only had one main door but each room had a sliding
> glass door that could be locked from the inside.
>
> The hotel has a dog (Puck) and a cat or two. The hotel doesn't mind if
> you feed them so we took leftovers put them into ziplock baggies that
> we brought with us so that we could give the cat and the dog treats.
> They charge you $7 per room for a wild donkey assistance program. The
> fee is voluntary and we decided to pay it. We also took rolls from the
> breakfast buffet and put them in the ziplock baggies to take with us
> on dives and feed the fish.
>
> All in all, this was a wonderful trip, so good that we're thinking of
> going back next year. The ability to have a free truck for shore dives
> and going into town or just driving around the island is wonderful. I
> recommend doing some research online about the shore dives or buying a
> book on the shore dives. I also recommend asking your boat captain
> which dives he intends to do because if he is doing some of the shore
> dives you had planned, then you might just go on the boat because it's
> easier.
>

Did you happen to pick up the book "Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy" by Susan
Porter? This book is invaluable when going to Bonaire. It lists not only
all the dive locations, but also rates each location as far as difficulty,
exactly where and how to enter and exit, anything you need to be on the
lookout for, what kind of corals and fish you will probably see, how deep it
is, etc. We got a chance to meet Susan when we were in Bonaire this June.
Great lady! I asked her if she was going to do a similar book for Klein
Bonaire, the little island just a couple hundred yards off Bonaire. She
said it is possible. She continually updates the book. Sells for $10.

Check out the bulletin board at
http://www.bonaire-travelguide.com/index.shtml and you'll see why so many
people love to dive there. Can't wait to go back. We stayed at Divi
Flamingo when we were there but didn't eat there--bought groceries in town
and ate at local restaurants. Did one two tank boat dive and the rest of
our dives were boat dives. Just rent a truck, throw your tanks in the bank
and go for the day. Gorgeous diving! Next year we'll go for two weeks!
Jane





<hierophantfish@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1185865903.987267.61650@22g2000hsm.googlegrou ps.com...
> Bonaire July 21 - July 28, 2007 Buddy Dive Resort
>
> Air Jamaica to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a short lay-over, then to
> Bonaire. Three hours plus to Montego Bay. Received breakfast. One
> hour 45 minutes to Bonaire. Received snacks. On the trip home, had a
> 'snack flight' and a dinner flight. Free champagne all flights. Free
> movie on long flights. Return trip was delayed by about one hour,
> combining both flights. Over-all Air Jamaica was good.
>
> A large truck took our luggage and we got a bus (unairconditioned) to
> the resort. On the last day, we checked in our luggage early at the
> airport, got our plane tickets, filled our free rental truck with gas
> and came back to the resort. We squared up our bill and relaxed in the
> pool for an hour before we caught a small hotel van back to the
> airport. Kept our carry-on luggage with us so we could shower and
> change. There was no one telling us to get out of our room by a
> certain time. The check-in counter at Flamingo Airport opens at 10 am.
> Departure tax was $32.00 pp cash or travelers check. Checking in early
> at the airport was a good idea, cuts out the hassle and then you have
> some time to relax. Since you're checked in and have your tickets
> already, you don't need to be at the airport til 2 pm and the gas
> station is one the way to the airport. Depending on which company
> gives you the rental truck, you either return it to the airport or to
> Buddy Dive. Your return trip may vary.
>
> First day at Buddy Dive Resort was hectic. No diving. Our large group
> (27 ppl) was one of many large groups checking in. Had to get room
> assignment and rental truck. Had to watch a video of the dive
> operation and listen to other hotel speakers about the activities and
> rules, etc.
>
> The four of us had two rooms which connected.Two bedrooms, two
> bathrooms, two kitchens, two porches with table and chairs and a
> common area with a table, chairs, couch, TV and phone. I think we had
> a good location as far as being close to the dive dock and the
> restaurants. In addition, we had the nicest pool of the three just
> outside our door.
>
> The next day, we did a required check-out dive off the dock and dove
> Buddy's Reef. No one observed you... you just went along yourself. We
> saw squids and the usual fish.
> #2 - boat dive @ Knife - loggerhead turtle (tracking device on back of
> shell), drum fish, trumpets, peacock flounders, lots of blennies and
> wrasses.
>
> 7-23 - #3 Buddy's Reef - lots of eels today, lizardfish, scorpionfish.
> #4 - Sharon's Serenity - beautiful reef, several orange phase
> filefish.
> #5 - South Bay - excellent reef, lots of banded coral shrimp, large
> black grouper with a cleaner on him, 2 cowfish and one was biting the
> other. Some did a night dive and saw an octopus.
>
> 7-24 - #6 Knife again
> #7 Repel - excellent site !! Cool coral formations, barracuda, 2
> turtles, drum fish, black spotted moray, baby filefish, squirrelfish,
> basslet, parrotfish.
> #8 Oil Slick - shore dive - Did the resort "drive thru" for tanks
> which was very nice. Had to jump off a little cliff that was about 10
> ft high to enter, ladder to exit. Saw a snake and squid.
> The first stage of my reg blew towards the end of the dive, not far
> from the ladder.
>
> 7-25 - #9 Karl's Wall - Nice wall formation, turtle, sergeants,
> damsels.
> #10 Andrea II - This site can be reached by a shore dive also but we
> did the boat. Saw 10 squids !! Seahorse, snake eel eating a brittle
> star, tiny post-larval trunkfish, cowfish. Lots of soft corals. Some
> did a night dive.
>
> 7-26 - #11 - Hilma Hooker - did the shallows along the reef since I'd
> already seen the Hooker last time I was in Bonaire. Huge slipper
> lobster, tons of blue chromis, triggerfish.
> #12 - Joanne's Kiss -Huge jewfish, lots of blueheads, reticulate
> moray, lots of porcupine fish, redlip blenny, schoolmasters, a group
> of porgy, chub.
> #13 - Buddy's Reef - Went to 119 ft. The reef bottoms out here at
> about 125 ft. Giant
> porcupine fish at least 3 ft long under small wreck to the north !!
> Eel out in the open sand for a long time, schools of porgy and black
> durgon. Got a pederson shrimp to clean my finger.
> #14 - Buddy's Reef - Night dive. Big grouper, tarpon, extra large
> green moray.
>
> 7-27 - #15 Thousand Steps - Really only has 72 steps. Barracuda,
> tarpon, squid, Queen
> and French angel, large green moray that some were petting the back
> end of, bristle worm, nudibranchs, snappers, grunts. Walk down steps
> and walk south on the beach a bit to a clear spot. Difficult getting
> out because of waves.
> #16 - Old Blue - Tons of fish !! Cuda, squid, grunts, chormis, porgy,
> nudibranchs. Got a manta shrimp to come out !! Small stone pathway to
> beach then south on the beach to walk in. VERY difficult to exit again
> due to waves. Had a south wind that made the exits so difficult.
>
> When going to these shore sites, just north of Karpata the road
> changes to one way just a bit before Old Blue. Good thing it does
> since it's so narrow. Going back to the resort, there is a short cut
> about one mile before Karpata that is a dirt road. It's marked with a
> stone that has a picture of glasses or a bicycle on it. The short cut
> leads off to the right. It's bumpy and hilly but you will cut about 30
> minutes off of your return trip because if you don't take the short
> cut, you have to go thru Rincon. The short cut is also fun since you
> will probably see wild donkeys
> and goats and parrots.
>
> Restaurants - all we went to are "open air".
>
> Lion's Den - Even though it is at Buddy Dive Resort, it's not part of
> them so you can't charge your meal to your room. I had a fish dinner
> here and it was just average in taste for the price. I would not go
> back.
>
> Buddy Dive's Patio Bar - You can charge your meal and drinks to your
> room here and if you have the $75 food credit, they will deduct 50%
> from your bill up to $150 spent. They separate out the tips of course.
> We all had decent meals here. I had the vegie quesadeas (spelling?)
> for dinner one night and a salad with grilled chicken for lunch one
> day. Pretty good. Some agreed the bacon cheeseburgers were good but
> tasted different from those at home. One had
> a crab salad sandwich and liked it. They are only open for dinner
> during the "theme nites" they have a few times a week. You can partake
> in the theme or order from the menu. Friday's theme night is an all
> you can eat buffet that seems to draw a large crowd but we didn't eat
> there. I would go back and since it's at the resort, it's convenient
> when you are tired.
>
> Cactus Blue - in the town of Kralendijik, Caribbean food. Excellent
> fish soup and grilled lime and ginger shrimp. We all enjoyed the food
> here very much. Highly recommend it !!
>
> Casablanca - in town next to Cactus Blue, Argentine food. We all had
> steaks here that we enjoyed. For $17.50, I got a huge rib-eye that was
> melt in your mouth tender, rice, vegies and a salad. The night we
> tried to go there, they had an all you can eat buffet. We don't care
> for these so we went to Cactus Blue instead and went to Casablanca
> another nite. I would go back.
>
> LaGuernica - in town tucked behind other restaurants facing the water,
> mixed menu. We went here for the "tapas", which are Spanish dishes
> that are small portions, like appetizers. Each person orders 3 or 4
> different ones. Interesting concept. Food was good and we would
> probably go back. They gave us a 10% discount to try their other
> restaurant, Bambu.
>
> Bambu - in town on the water, mixed menu. Very nicely decorated,
> upscale but not overly expensive. I had the grilled shrimp in coconut
> and mango with rice. Excellent food per everyone and we would go back.
> A special treat is that right next door to the restaurant is an ice
> cream place you can visit for dessert.
>
> City Cafe Restaurant - in town, mixed menu, kinda like a TGIF. I
> ordered a Caesar salad which was good. I also had the pasta of the day
> which was spaghetti with fish in a red sauce. It came with a little
> salad and if I knew that, I wouldn't have ordered the Caesar. Both the
> pasta and the fish were way overcooked. One person was the only one
> happy with his meal here. He ordered a cheesesteak and fries. I
> wouldn't go back.
>
> Buddy Dive Resort can be very inexpensive and it's a nice resort.
> There's a large supermarket in town (and a smaller higher priced one
> near to the resort) so if you don't want to dine out, you can shop for
> food and have your meals in your room because the kitchens are fully
> stocked, even with dish towels, cloths and dish soap. We brought many
> snack items like crackers, pepperoni, nuts, etc with us. We bought
> cheese at the supermarket and along with the crackers, etc had our
> lunch in our room one day.
>
> The hotel provides shampoo, body gel and body lotion. They also
> provide beach towels. If you loose it however, you are charged $25. I
> didn't take my beach towel on the boat, just took it for shore dives.
> There is a nice breeze all the time but the island is still hot so
> there was no need for a towel on the boat but some ppl brought theirs.
> Bring something for bugs because they bite at nite. Also, one day we
> had a small scorpion in our room !!
>
> When doing shore dives, leave your valuables in your room safe box
> leave the vehicle unlocked with the windows down. I brought my reg
> (both my personal one and the one I had to rent after my first stage
> blew) along with my BC and my shortie up to the room after dives. I
> only left my mask, fins and weights in the gear room. The gear room
> isn't locked. Many ppl left all their gear in the gear room after
> dives and overnight. I didn't hear of anyone who had anything stolen.
>
> They charge you a $70 deposit on your bill for your lock box key which
> they refund when you give the key back. One wore our lock box key
> around his neck on the chain provided, even during dives. We kept our
> passports, etc in there. We asked for an extra room key, which was
> helpful with the four of us. The third key we inserted into the door
> to lock it and you need to leave the key in the door to keep it
> locked. Our rooms only had one main door but each room had a sliding
> glass door that could be locked from the inside.
>
> The hotel has a dog (Puck) and a cat or two. The hotel doesn't mind if
> you feed them so we took leftovers put them into ziplock baggies that
> we brought with us so that we could give the cat and the dog treats.
> They charge you $7 per room for a wild donkey assistance program. The
> fee is voluntary and we decided to pay it. We also took rolls from the
> breakfast buffet and put them in the ziplock baggies to take with us
> on dives and feed the fish.
>
> All in all, this was a wonderful trip, so good that we're thinking of
> going back next year. The ability to have a free truck for shore dives
> and going into town or just driving around the island is wonderful. I
> recommend doing some research online about the shore dives or buying a
> book on the shore dives. I also recommend asking your boat captain
> which dives he intends to do because if he is doing some of the shore
> dives you had planned, then you might just go on the boat because it's
> easier.
>

Did you happen to pick up the book "Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy" by Susan
Porter? This book is invaluable when going to Bonaire. It lists not only
all the dive locations, but also rates each location as far as difficulty,
exactly where and how to enter and exit, anything you need to be on the
lookout for, what kind of corals and fish you will probably see, how deep it
is, etc. We got a chance to meet Susan when we were in Bonaire this June.
Great lady! I asked her if she was going to do a similar book for Klein
Bonaire, the little island just a couple hundred yards off Bonaire. She
said it is possible. She continually updates the book. Sells for $10.

Check out the bulletin board at
http://www.bonaire-travelguide.com/index.shtml and you'll see why so many
people love to dive there. Can't wait to go back. We stayed at Divi
Flamingo when we were there but didn't eat there--bought groceries in town
and ate at local restaurants. Did one two tank boat dive and the rest of
our dives were boat dives. Just rent a truck, throw your tanks in the bank
and go for the day. Gorgeous diving! Next year we'll go for two weeks!
Jane





<hierophantfish@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1185865903.987267.61650@22g2000hsm.googlegrou ps.com...
> Bonaire July 21 - July 28, 2007 Buddy Dive Resort
>
> Air Jamaica to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a short lay-over, then to
> Bonaire. Three hours plus to Montego Bay. Received breakfast. One
> hour 45 minutes to Bonaire. Received snacks. On the trip home, had a
> 'snack flight' and a dinner flight. Free champagne all flights. Free
> movie on long flights. Return trip was delayed by about one hour,
> combining both flights. Over-all Air Jamaica was good.
>
> A large truck took our luggage and we got a bus (unairconditioned) to
> the resort. On the last day, we checked in our luggage early at the
> airport, got our plane tickets, filled our free rental truck with gas
> and came back to the resort. We squared up our bill and relaxed in the
> pool for an hour before we caught a small hotel van back to the
> airport. Kept our carry-on luggage with us so we could shower and
> change. There was no one telling us to get out of our room by a
> certain time. The check-in counter at Flamingo Airport opens at 10 am.
> Departure tax was $32.00 pp cash or travelers check. Checking in early
> at the airport was a good idea, cuts out the hassle and then you have
> some time to relax. Since you're checked in and have your tickets
> already, you don't need to be at the airport til 2 pm and the gas
> station is one the way to the airport. Depending on which company
> gives you the rental truck, you either return it to the airport or to
> Buddy Dive. Your return trip may vary.
>
> First day at Buddy Dive Resort was hectic. No diving. Our large group
> (27 ppl) was one of many large groups checking in. Had to get room
> assignment and rental truck. Had to watch a video of the dive
> operation and listen to other hotel speakers about the activities and
> rules, etc.
>
> The four of us had two rooms which connected.Two bedrooms, two
> bathrooms, two kitchens, two porches with table and chairs and a
> common area with a table, chairs, couch, TV and phone. I think we had
> a good location as far as being close to the dive dock and the
> restaurants. In addition, we had the nicest pool of the three just
> outside our door.
>
> The next day, we did a required check-out dive off the dock and dove
> Buddy's Reef. No one observed you... you just went along yourself. We
> saw squids and the usual fish.
> #2 - boat dive @ Knife - loggerhead turtle (tracking device on back of
> shell), drum fish, trumpets, peacock flounders, lots of blennies and
> wrasses.
>
> 7-23 - #3 Buddy's Reef - lots of eels today, lizardfish, scorpionfish.
> #4 - Sharon's Serenity - beautiful reef, several orange phase
> filefish.
> #5 - South Bay - excellent reef, lots of banded coral shrimp, large
> black grouper with a cleaner on him, 2 cowfish and one was biting the
> other. Some did a night dive and saw an octopus.
>
> 7-24 - #6 Knife again
> #7 Repel - excellent site !! Cool coral formations, barracuda, 2
> turtles, drum fish, black spotted moray, baby filefish, squirrelfish,
> basslet, parrotfish.
> #8 Oil Slick - shore dive - Did the resort "drive thru" for tanks
> which was very nice. Had to jump off a little cliff that was about 10
> ft high to enter, ladder to exit. Saw a snake and squid.
> The first stage of my reg blew towards the end of the dive, not far
> from the ladder.
>
> 7-25 - #9 Karl's Wall - Nice wall formation, turtle, sergeants,
> damsels.
> #10 Andrea II - This site can be reached by a shore dive also but we
> did the boat. Saw 10 squids !! Seahorse, snake eel eating a brittle
> star, tiny post-larval trunkfish, cowfish. Lots of soft corals. Some
> did a night dive.
>
> 7-26 - #11 - Hilma Hooker - did the shallows along the reef since I'd
> already seen the Hooker last time I was in Bonaire. Huge slipper
> lobster, tons of blue chromis, triggerfish.
> #12 - Joanne's Kiss -Huge jewfish, lots of blueheads, reticulate
> moray, lots of porcupine fish, redlip blenny, schoolmasters, a group
> of porgy, chub.
> #13 - Buddy's Reef - Went to 119 ft. The reef bottoms out here at
> about 125 ft. Giant
> porcupine fish at least 3 ft long under small wreck to the north !!
> Eel out in the open sand for a long time, schools of porgy and black
> durgon. Got a pederson shrimp to clean my finger.
> #14 - Buddy's Reef - Night dive. Big grouper, tarpon, extra large
> green moray.
>
> 7-27 - #15 Thousand Steps - Really only has 72 steps. Barracuda,
> tarpon, squid, Queen
> and French angel, large green moray that some were petting the back
> end of, bristle worm, nudibranchs, snappers, grunts. Walk down steps
> and walk south on the beach a bit to a clear spot. Difficult getting
> out because of waves.
> #16 - Old Blue - Tons of fish !! Cuda, squid, grunts, chormis, porgy,
> nudibranchs. Got a manta shrimp to come out !! Small stone pathway to
> beach then south on the beach to walk in. VERY difficult to exit again
> due to waves. Had a south wind that made the exits so difficult.
>
> When going to these shore sites, just north of Karpata the road
> changes to one way just a bit before Old Blue. Good thing it does
> since it's so narrow. Going back to the resort, there is a short cut
> about one mile before Karpata that is a dirt road. It's marked with a
> stone that has a picture of glasses or a bicycle on it. The short cut
> leads off to the right. It's bumpy and hilly but you will cut about 30
> minutes off of your return trip because if you don't take the short
> cut, you have to go thru Rincon. The short cut is also fun since you
> will probably see wild donkeys
> and goats and parrots.
>
> Restaurants - all we went to are "open air".
>
> Lion's Den - Even though it is at Buddy Dive Resort, it's not part of
> them so you can't charge your meal to your room. I had a fish dinner
> here and it was just average in taste for the price. I would not go
> back.
>
> Buddy Dive's Patio Bar - You can charge your meal and drinks to your
> room here and if you have the $75 food credit, they will deduct 50%
> from your bill up to $150 spent. They separate out the tips of course.
> We all had decent meals here. I had the vegie quesadeas (spelling?)
> for dinner one night and a salad with grilled chicken for lunch one
> day. Pretty good. Some agreed the bacon cheeseburgers were good but
> tasted different from those at home. One had
> a crab salad sandwich and liked it. They are only open for dinner
> during the "theme nites" they have a few times a week. You can partake
> in the theme or order from the menu. Friday's theme night is an all
> you can eat buffet that seems to draw a large crowd but we didn't eat
> there. I would go back and since it's at the resort, it's convenient
> when you are tired.
>
> Cactus Blue - in the town of Kralendijik, Caribbean food. Excellent
> fish soup and grilled lime and ginger shrimp. We all enjoyed the food
> here very much. Highly recommend it !!
>
> Casablanca - in town next to Cactus Blue, Argentine food. We all had
> steaks here that we enjoyed. For $17.50, I got a huge rib-eye that was
> melt in your mouth tender, rice, vegies and a salad. The night we
> tried to go there, they had an all you can eat buffet. We don't care
> for these so we went to Cactus Blue instead and went to Casablanca
> another nite. I would go back.
>
> LaGuernica - in town tucked behind other restaurants facing the water,
> mixed menu. We went here for the "tapas", which are Spanish dishes
> that are small portions, like appetizers. Each person orders 3 or 4
> different ones. Interesting concept. Food was good and we would
> probably go back. They gave us a 10% discount to try their other
> restaurant, Bambu.
>
> Bambu - in town on the water, mixed menu. Very nicely decorated,
> upscale but not overly expensive. I had the grilled shrimp in coconut
> and mango with rice. Excellent food per everyone and we would go back.
> A special treat is that right next door to the restaurant is an ice
> cream place you can visit for dessert.
>
> City Cafe Restaurant - in town, mixed menu, kinda like a TGIF. I
> ordered a Caesar salad which was good. I also had the pasta of the day
> which was spaghetti with fish in a red sauce. It came with a little
> salad and if I knew that, I wouldn't have ordered the Caesar. Both the
> pasta and the fish were way overcooked. One person was the only one
> happy with his meal here. He ordered a cheesesteak and fries. I
> wouldn't go back.
>
> Buddy Dive Resort can be very inexpensive and it's a nice resort.
> There's a large supermarket in town (and a smaller higher priced one
> near to the resort) so if you don't want to dine out, you can shop for
> food and have your meals in your room because the kitchens are fully
> stocked, even with dish towels, cloths and dish soap. We brought many
> snack items like crackers, pepperoni, nuts, etc with us. We bought
> cheese at the supermarket and along with the crackers, etc had our
> lunch in our room one day.
>
> The hotel provides shampoo, body gel and body lotion. They also
> provide beach towels. If you loose it however, you are charged $25. I
> didn't take my beach towel on the boat, just took it for shore dives.
> There is a nice breeze all the time but the island is still hot so
> there was no need for a towel on the boat but some ppl brought theirs.
> Bring something for bugs because they bite at nite. Also, one day we
> had a small scorpion in our room !!
>
> When doing shore dives, leave your valuables in your room safe box
> leave the vehicle unlocked with the windows down. I brought my reg
> (both my personal one and the one I had to rent after my first stage
> blew) along with my BC and my shortie up to the room after dives. I
> only left my mask, fins and weights in the gear room. The gear room
> isn't locked. Many ppl left all their gear in the gear room after
> dives and overnight. I didn't hear of anyone who had anything stolen.
>
> They charge you a $70 deposit on your bill for your lock box key which
> they refund when you give the key back. One wore our lock box key
> around his neck on the chain provided, even during dives. We kept our
> passports, etc in there. We asked for an extra room key, which was
> helpful with the four of us. The third key we inserted into the door
> to lock it and you need to leave the key in the door to keep it
> locked. Our rooms only had one main door but each room had a sliding
> glass door that could be locked from the inside.
>
> The hotel has a dog (Puck) and a cat or two. The hotel doesn't mind if
> you feed them so we took leftovers put them into ziplock baggies that
> we brought with us so that we could give the cat and the dog treats.
> They charge you $7 per room for a wild donkey assistance program. The
> fee is voluntary and we decided to pay it. We also took rolls from the
> breakfast buffet and put them in the ziplock baggies to take with us
> on dives and feed the fish.
>
> All in all, this was a wonderful trip, so good that we're thinking of
> going back next year. The ability to have a free truck for shore dives
> and going into town or just driving around the island is wonderful. I
> recommend doing some research online about the shore dives or buying a
> book on the shore dives. I also recommend asking your boat captain
> which dives he intends to do because if he is doing some of the shore
> dives you had planned, then you might just go on the boat because it's
> easier.
>

Did you happen to pick up the book "Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy" by Susan
Porter? This book is invaluable when going to Bonaire. It lists not only
all the dive locations, but also rates each location as far as difficulty,
exactly where and how to enter and exit, anything you need to be on the
lookout for, what kind of corals and fish you will probably see, how deep it
is, etc. We got a chance to meet Susan when we were in Bonaire this June.
Great lady! I asked her if she was going to do a similar book for Klein
Bonaire, the little island just a couple hundred yards off Bonaire. She
said it is possible. She continually updates the book. Sells for $10.

Check out the bulletin board at
http://www.bonaire-travelguide.com/index.shtml and you'll see why so many
people love to dive there. Can't wait to go back. We stayed at Divi
Flamingo when we were there but didn't eat there--bought groceries in town
and ate at local restaurants. Did one two tank boat dive and the rest of
our dives were boat dives. Just rent a truck, throw your tanks in the bank
and go for the day. Gorgeous diving! Next year we'll go for two weeks!
Jane





<hierophantfish@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1185865903.987267.61650@22g2000hsm.googlegrou ps.com...
> Bonaire July 21 - July 28, 2007 Buddy Dive Resort
>
> Air Jamaica to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a short lay-over, then to
> Bonaire. Three hours plus to Montego Bay. Received breakfast. One
> hour 45 minutes to Bonaire. Received snacks. On the trip home, had a
> 'snack flight' and a dinner flight. Free champagne all flights. Free
> movie on long flights. Return trip was delayed by about one hour,
> combining both flights. Over-all Air Jamaica was good.
>
> A large truck took our luggage and we got a bus (unairconditioned) to
> the resort. On the last day, we checked in our luggage early at the
> airport, got our plane tickets, filled our free rental truck with gas
> and came back to the resort. We squared up our bill and relaxed in the
> pool for an hour before we caught a small hotel van back to the
> airport. Kept our carry-on luggage with us so we could shower and
> change. There was no one telling us to get out of our room by a
> certain time. The check-in counter at Flamingo Airport opens at 10 am.
> Departure tax was $32.00 pp cash or travelers check. Checking in early
> at the airport was a good idea, cuts out the hassle and then you have
> some time to relax. Since you're checked in and have your tickets
> already, you don't need to be at the airport til 2 pm and the gas
> station is one the way to the airport. Depending on which company
> gives you the rental truck, you either return it to the airport or to
> Buddy Dive. Your return trip may vary.
>
> First day at Buddy Dive Resort was hectic. No diving. Our large group
> (27 ppl) was one of many large groups checking in. Had to get room
> assignment and rental truck. Had to watch a video of the dive
> operation and listen to other hotel speakers about the activities and
> rules, etc.
>
> The four of us had two rooms which connected.Two bedrooms, two
> bathrooms, two kitchens, two porches with table and chairs and a
> common area with a table, chairs, couch, TV and phone. I think we had
> a good location as far as being close to the dive dock and the
> restaurants. In addition, we had the nicest pool of the three just
> outside our door.
>
> The next day, we did a required check-out dive off the dock and dove
> Buddy's Reef. No one observed you... you just went along yourself. We
> saw squids and the usual fish.
> #2 - boat dive @ Knife - loggerhead turtle (tracking device on back of
> shell), drum fish, trumpets, peacock flounders, lots of blennies and
> wrasses.
>
> 7-23 - #3 Buddy's Reef - lots of eels today, lizardfish, scorpionfish.
> #4 - Sharon's Serenity - beautiful reef, several orange phase
> filefish.
> #5 - South Bay - excellent reef, lots of banded coral shrimp, large
> black grouper with a cleaner on him, 2 cowfish and one was biting the
> other. Some did a night dive and saw an octopus.
>
> 7-24 - #6 Knife again
> #7 Repel - excellent site !! Cool coral formations, barracuda, 2
> turtles, drum fish, black spotted moray, baby filefish, squirrelfish,
> basslet, parrotfish.
> #8 Oil Slick - shore dive - Did the resort "drive thru" for tanks
> which was very nice. Had to jump off a little cliff that was about 10
> ft high to enter, ladder to exit. Saw a snake and squid.
> The first stage of my reg blew towards the end of the dive, not far
> from the ladder.
>
> 7-25 - #9 Karl's Wall - Nice wall formation, turtle, sergeants,
> damsels.
> #10 Andrea II - This site can be reached by a shore dive also but we
> did the boat. Saw 10 squids !! Seahorse, snake eel eating a brittle
> star, tiny post-larval trunkfish, cowfish. Lots of soft corals. Some
> did a night dive.
>
> 7-26 - #11 - Hilma Hooker - did the shallows along the reef since I'd
> already seen the Hooker last time I was in Bonaire. Huge slipper
> lobster, tons of blue chromis, triggerfish.
> #12 - Joanne's Kiss -Huge jewfish, lots of blueheads, reticulate
> moray, lots of porcupine fish, redlip blenny, schoolmasters, a group
> of porgy, chub.
> #13 - Buddy's Reef - Went to 119 ft. The reef bottoms out here at
> about 125 ft. Giant
> porcupine fish at least 3 ft long under small wreck to the north !!
> Eel out in the open sand for a long time, schools of porgy and black
> durgon. Got a pederson shrimp to clean my finger.
> #14 - Buddy's Reef - Night dive. Big grouper, tarpon, extra large
> green moray.
>
> 7-27 - #15 Thousand Steps - Really only has 72 steps. Barracuda,
> tarpon, squid, Queen
> and French angel, large green moray that some were petting the back
> end of, bristle worm, nudibranchs, snappers, grunts. Walk down steps
> and walk south on the beach a bit to a clear spot. Difficult getting
> out because of waves.
> #16 - Old Blue - Tons of fish !! Cuda, squid, grunts, chormis, porgy,
> nudibranchs. Got a manta shrimp to come out !! Small stone pathway to
> beach then south on the beach to walk in. VERY difficult to exit again
> due to waves. Had a south wind that made the exits so difficult.
>
> When going to these shore sites, just north of Karpata the road
> changes to one way just a bit before Old Blue. Good thing it does
> since it's so narrow. Going back to the resort, there is a short cut
> about one mile before Karpata that is a dirt road. It's marked with a
> stone that has a picture of glasses or a bicycle on it. The short cut
> leads off to the right. It's bumpy and hilly but you will cut about 30
> minutes off of your return trip because if you don't take the short
> cut, you have to go thru Rincon. The short cut is also fun since you
> will probably see wild donkeys
> and goats and parrots.
>
> Restaurants - all we went to are "open air".
>
> Lion's Den - Even though it is at Buddy Dive Resort, it's not part of
> them so you can't charge your meal to your room. I had a fish dinner
> here and it was just average in taste for the price. I would not go
> back.
>
> Buddy Dive's Patio Bar - You can charge your meal and drinks to your
> room here and if you have the $75 food credit, they will deduct 50%
> from your bill up to $150 spent. They separate out the tips of course.
> We all had decent meals here. I had the vegie quesadeas (spelling?)
> for dinner one night and a salad with grilled chicken for lunch one
> day. Pretty good. Some agreed the bacon cheeseburgers were good but
> tasted different from those at home. One had
> a crab salad sandwich and liked it. They are only open for dinner
> during the "theme nites" they have a few times a week. You can partake
> in the theme or order from the menu. Friday's theme night is an all
> you can eat buffet that seems to draw a large crowd but we didn't eat
> there. I would go back and since it's at the resort, it's convenient
> when you are tired.
>
> Cactus Blue - in the town of Kralendijik, Caribbean food. Excellent
> fish soup and grilled lime and ginger shrimp. We all enjoyed the food
> here very much. Highly recommend it !!
>
> Casablanca - in town next to Cactus Blue, Argentine food. We all had
> steaks here that we enjoyed. For $17.50, I got a huge rib-eye that was
> melt in your mouth tender, rice, vegies and a salad. The night we
> tried to go there, they had an all you can eat buffet. We don't care
> for these so we went to Cactus Blue instead and went to Casablanca
> another nite. I would go back.
>
> LaGuernica - in town tucked behind other restaurants facing the water,
> mixed menu. We went here for the "tapas", which are Spanish dishes
> that are small portions, like appetizers. Each person orders 3 or 4
> different ones. Interesting concept. Food was good and we would
> probably go back. They gave us a 10% discount to try their other
> restaurant, Bambu.
>
> Bambu - in town on the water, mixed menu. Very nicely decorated,
> upscale but not overly expensive. I had the grilled shrimp in coconut
> and mango with rice. Excellent food per everyone and we would go back.
> A special treat is that right next door to the restaurant is an ice
> cream place you can visit for dessert.
>
> City Cafe Restaurant - in town, mixed menu, kinda like a TGIF. I
> ordered a Caesar salad which was good. I also had the pasta of the day
> which was spaghetti with fish in a red sauce. It came with a little
> salad and if I knew that, I wouldn't have ordered the Caesar. Both the
> pasta and the fish were way overcooked. One person was the only one
> happy with his meal here. He ordered a cheesesteak and fries. I
> wouldn't go back.
>
> Buddy Dive Resort can be very inexpensive and it's a nice resort.
> There's a large supermarket in town (and a smaller higher priced one
> near to the resort) so if you don't want to dine out, you can shop for
> food and have your meals in your room because the kitchens are fully
> stocked, even with dish towels, cloths and dish soap. We brought many
> snack items like crackers, pepperoni, nuts, etc with us. We bought
> cheese at the supermarket and along with the crackers, etc had our
> lunch in our room one day.
>
> The hotel provides shampoo, body gel and body lotion. They also
> provide beach towels. If you loose it however, you are charged $25. I
> didn't take my beach towel on the boat, just took it for shore dives.
> There is a nice breeze all the time but the island is still hot so
> there was no need for a towel on the boat but some ppl brought theirs.
> Bring something for bugs because they bite at nite. Also, one day we
> had a small scorpion in our room !!
>
> When doing shore dives, leave your valuables in your room safe box
> leave the vehicle unlocked with the windows down. I brought my reg
> (both my personal one and the one I had to rent after my first stage
> blew) along with my BC and my shortie up to the room after dives. I
> only left my mask, fins and weights in the gear room. The gear room
> isn't locked. Many ppl left all their gear in the gear room after
> dives and overnight. I didn't hear of anyone who had anything stolen.
>
> They charge you a $70 deposit on your bill for your lock box key which
> they refund when you give the key back. One wore our lock box key
> around his neck on the chain provided, even during dives. We kept our
> passports, etc in there. We asked for an extra room key, which was
> helpful with the four of us. The third key we inserted into the door
> to lock it and you need to leave the key in the door to keep it
> locked. Our rooms only had one main door but each room had a sliding
> glass door that could be locked from the inside.
>
> The hotel has a dog (Puck) and a cat or two. The hotel doesn't mind if
> you feed them so we took leftovers put them into ziplock baggies that
> we brought with us so that we could give the cat and the dog treats.
> They charge you $7 per room for a wild donkey assistance program. The
> fee is voluntary and we decided to pay it. We also took rolls from the
> breakfast buffet and put them in the ziplock baggies to take with us
> on dives and feed the fish.
>
> All in all, this was a wonderful trip, so good that we're thinking of
> going back next year. The ability to have a free truck for shore dives
> and going into town or just driving around the island is wonderful. I
> recommend doing some research online about the shore dives or buying a
> book on the shore dives. I also recommend asking your boat captain
> which dives he intends to do because if he is doing some of the shore
> dives you had planned, then you might just go on the boat because it's
> easier.
>

Did you happen to pick up the book "Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy" by Susan
Porter? This book is invaluable when going to Bonaire. It lists not only
all the dive locations, but also rates each location as far as difficulty,
exactly where and how to enter and exit, anything you need to be on the
lookout for, what kind of corals and fish you will probably see, how deep it
is, etc. We got a chance to meet Susan when we were in Bonaire this June.
Great lady! I asked her if she was going to do a similar book for Klein
Bonaire, the little island just a couple hundred yards off Bonaire. She
said it is possible. She continually updates the book. Sells for $10.

Check out the bulletin board at
http://www.bonaire-travelguide.com/index.shtml and you'll see why so many
people love to dive there. Can't wait to go back. We stayed at Divi
Flamingo when we were there but didn't eat there--bought groceries in town
and ate at local restaurants. Did one two tank boat dive and the rest of
our dives were boat dives. Just rent a truck, throw your tanks in the bank
and go for the day. Gorgeous diving! Next year we'll go for two weeks!
Jane





<hierophantfish@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1185865903.987267.61650@22g2000hsm.googlegrou ps.com...
> Bonaire July 21 - July 28, 2007 Buddy Dive Resort
>
> Air Jamaica to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a short lay-over, then to
> Bonaire. Three hours plus to Montego Bay. Received breakfast. One
> hour 45 minutes to Bonaire. Received snacks. On the trip home, had a
> 'snack flight' and a dinner flight. Free champagne all flights. Free
> movie on long flights. Return trip was delayed by about one hour,
> combining both flights. Over-all Air Jamaica was good.
>
> A large truck took our luggage and we got a bus (unairconditioned) to
> the resort. On the last day, we checked in our luggage early at the
> airport, got our plane tickets, filled our free rental truck with gas
> and came back to the resort. We squared up our bill and relaxed in the
> pool for an hour before we caught a small hotel van back to the
> airport. Kept our carry-on luggage with us so we could shower and
> change. There was no one telling us to get out of our room by a
> certain time. The check-in counter at Flamingo Airport opens at 10 am.
> Departure tax was $32.00 pp cash or travelers check. Checking in early
> at the airport was a good idea, cuts out the hassle and then you have
> some time to relax. Since you're checked in and have your tickets
> already, you don't need to be at the airport til 2 pm and the gas
> station is one the way to the airport. Depending on which company
> gives you the rental truck, you either return it to the airport or to
> Buddy Dive. Your return trip may vary.
>
> First day at Buddy Dive Resort was hectic. No diving. Our large group
> (27 ppl) was one of many large groups checking in. Had to get room
> assignment and rental truck. Had to watch a video of the dive
> operation and listen to other hotel speakers about the activities and
> rules, etc.
>
> The four of us had two rooms which connected.Two bedrooms, two
> bathrooms, two kitchens, two porches with table and chairs and a
> common area with a table, chairs, couch, TV and phone. I think we had
> a good location as far as being close to the dive dock and the
> restaurants. In addition, we had the nicest pool of the three just
> outside our door.
>
> The next day, we did a required check-out dive off the dock and dove
> Buddy's Reef. No one observed you... you just went along yourself. We
> saw squids and the usual fish.
> #2 - boat dive @ Knife - loggerhead turtle (tracking device on back of
> shell), drum fish, trumpets, peacock flounders, lots of blennies and
> wrasses.
>
> 7-23 - #3 Buddy's Reef - lots of eels today, lizardfish, scorpionfish.
> #4 - Sharon's Serenity - beautiful reef, several orange phase
> filefish.
> #5 - South Bay - excellent reef, lots of banded coral shrimp, large
> black grouper with a cleaner on him, 2 cowfish and one was biting the
> other. Some did a night dive and saw an octopus.
>
> 7-24 - #6 Knife again
> #7 Repel - excellent site !! Cool coral formations, barracuda, 2
> turtles, drum fish, black spotted moray, baby filefish, squirrelfish,
> basslet, parrotfish.
> #8 Oil Slick - shore dive - Did the resort "drive thru" for tanks
> which was very nice. Had to jump off a little cliff that was about 10
> ft high to enter, ladder to exit. Saw a snake and squid.
> The first stage of my reg blew towards the end of the dive, not far
> from the ladder.
>
> 7-25 - #9 Karl's Wall - Nice wall formation, turtle, sergeants,
> damsels.
> #10 Andrea II - This site can be reached by a shore dive also but we
> did the boat. Saw 10 squids !! Seahorse, snake eel eating a brittle
> star, tiny post-larval trunkfish, cowfish. Lots of soft corals. Some
> did a night dive.
>
> 7-26 - #11 - Hilma Hooker - did the shallows along the reef since I'd
> already seen the Hooker last time I was in Bonaire. Huge slipper
> lobster, tons of blue chromis, triggerfish.
> #12 - Joanne's Kiss -Huge jewfish, lots of blueheads, reticulate
> moray, lots of porcupine fish, redlip blenny, schoolmasters, a group
> of porgy, chub.
> #13 - Buddy's Reef - Went to 119 ft. The reef bottoms out here at
> about 125 ft. Giant
> porcupine fish at least 3 ft long under small wreck to the north !!
> Eel out in the open sand for a long time, schools of porgy and black
> durgon. Got a pederson shrimp to clean my finger.
> #14 - Buddy's Reef - Night dive. Big grouper, tarpon, extra large
> green moray.
>
> 7-27 - #15 Thousand Steps - Really only has 72 steps. Barracuda,
> tarpon, squid, Queen
> and French angel, large green moray that some were petting the back
> end of, bristle worm, nudibranchs, snappers, grunts. Walk down steps
> and walk south on the beach a bit to a clear spot. Difficult getting
> out because of waves.
> #16 - Old Blue - Tons of fish !! Cuda, squid, grunts, chormis, porgy,
> nudibranchs. Got a manta shrimp to come out !! Small stone pathway to
> beach then south on the beach to walk in. VERY difficult to exit again
> due to waves. Had a south wind that made the exits so difficult.
>
> When going to these shore sites, just north of Karpata the road
> changes to one way just a bit before Old Blue. Good thing it does
> since it's so narrow. Going back to the resort, there is a short cut
> about one mile before Karpata that is a dirt road. It's marked with a
> stone that has a picture of glasses or a bicycle on it. The short cut
> leads off to the right. It's bumpy and hilly but you will cut about 30
> minutes off of your return trip because if you don't take the short
> cut, you have to go thru Rincon. The short cut is also fun since you
> will probably see wild donkeys
> and goats and parrots.
>
> Restaurants - all we went to are "open air".
>
> Lion's Den - Even though it is at Buddy Dive Resort, it's not part of
> them so you can't charge your meal to your room. I had a fish dinner
> here and it was just average in taste for the price. I would not go
> back.
>
> Buddy Dive's Patio Bar - You can charge your meal and drinks to your
> room here and if you have the $75 food credit, they will deduct 50%
> from your bill up to $150 spent. They separate out the tips of course.
> We all had decent meals here. I had the vegie quesadeas (spelling?)
> for dinner one night and a salad with grilled chicken for lunch one
> day. Pretty good. Some agreed the bacon cheeseburgers were good but
> tasted different from those at home. One had
> a crab salad sandwich and liked it. They are only open for dinner
> during the "theme nites" they have a few times a week. You can partake
> in the theme or order from the menu. Friday's theme night is an all
> you can eat buffet that seems to draw a large crowd but we didn't eat
> there. I would go back and since it's at the resort, it's convenient
> when you are tired.
>
> Cactus Blue - in the town of Kralendijik, Caribbean food. Excellent
> fish soup and grilled lime and ginger shrimp. We all enjoyed the food
> here very much. Highly recommend it !!
>
> Casablanca - in town next to Cactus Blue, Argentine food. We all had
> steaks here that we enjoyed. For $17.50, I got a huge rib-eye that was
> melt in your mouth tender, rice, vegies and a salad. The night we
> tried to go there, they had an all you can eat buffet. We don't care
> for these so we went to Cactus Blue instead and went to Casablanca
> another nite. I would go back.
>
> LaGuernica - in town tucked behind other restaurants facing the water,
> mixed menu. We went here for the "tapas", which are Spanish dishes
> that are small portions, like appetizers. Each person orders 3 or 4
> different ones. Interesting concept. Food was good and we would
> probably go back. They gave us a 10% discount to try their other
> restaurant, Bambu.
>
> Bambu - in town on the water, mixed menu. Very nicely decorated,
> upscale but not overly expensive. I had the grilled shrimp in coconut
> and mango with rice. Excellent food per everyone and we would go back.
> A special treat is that right next door to the restaurant is an ice
> cream place you can visit for dessert.
>
> City Cafe Restaurant - in town, mixed menu, kinda like a TGIF. I
> ordered a Caesar salad which was good. I also had the pasta of the day
> which was spaghetti with fish in a red sauce. It came with a little
> salad and if I knew that, I wouldn't have ordered the Caesar. Both the
> pasta and the fish were way overcooked. One person was the only one
> happy with his meal here. He ordered a cheesesteak and fries. I
> wouldn't go back.
>
> Buddy Dive Resort can be very inexpensive and it's a nice resort.
> There's a large supermarket in town (and a smaller higher priced one
> near to the resort) so if you don't want to dine out, you can shop for
> food and have your meals in your room because the kitchens are fully
> stocked, even with dish towels, cloths and dish soap. We brought many
> snack items like crackers, pepperoni, nuts, etc with us. We bought
> cheese at the supermarket and along with the crackers, etc had our
> lunch in our room one day.
>
> The hotel provides shampoo, body gel and body lotion. They also
> provide beach towels. If you loose it however, you are charged $25. I
> didn't take my beach towel on the boat, just took it for shore dives.
> There is a nice breeze all the time but the island is still hot so
> there was no need for a towel on the boat but some ppl brought theirs.
> Bring something for bugs because they bite at nite. Also, one day we
> had a small scorpion in our room !!
>
> When doing shore dives, leave your valuables in your room safe box
> leave the vehicle unlocked with the windows down. I brought my reg
> (both my personal one and the one I had to rent after my first stage
> blew) along with my BC and my shortie up to the room after dives. I
> only left my mask, fins and weights in the gear room. The gear room
> isn't locked. Many ppl left all their gear in the gear room after
> dives and overnight. I didn't hear of anyone who had anything stolen.
>
> They charge you a $70 deposit on your bill for your lock box key which
> they refund when you give the key back. One wore our lock box key
> around his neck on the chain provided, even during dives. We kept our
> passports, etc in there. We asked for an extra room key, which was
> helpful with the four of us. The third key we inserted into the door
> to lock it and you need to leave the key in the door to keep it
> locked. Our rooms only had one main door but each room had a sliding
> glass door that could be locked from the inside.
>
> The hotel has a dog (Puck) and a cat or two. The hotel doesn't mind if
> you feed them so we took leftovers put them into ziplock baggies that
> we brought with us so that we could give the cat and the dog treats.
> They charge you $7 per room for a wild donkey assistance program. The
> fee is voluntary and we decided to pay it. We also took rolls from the
> breakfast buffet and put them in the ziplock baggies to take with us
> on dives and feed the fish.
>
> All in all, this was a wonderful trip, so good that we're thinking of
> going back next year. The ability to have a free truck for shore dives
> and going into town or just driving around the island is wonderful. I
> recommend doing some research online about the shore dives or buying a
> book on the shore dives. I also recommend asking your boat captain
> which dives he intends to do because if he is doing some of the shore
> dives you had planned, then you might just go on the boat because it's
> easier.
>

<hierophantfish@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1185865903.987267.61650@22g2000hsm.googlegrou ps.com...
> Bonaire July 21 - July 28, 2007 Buddy Dive Resort

Thanks for the report.

<hierophantfish@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1185865903.987267.61650@22g2000hsm.googlegrou ps.com...
> Bonaire July 21 - July 28, 2007 Buddy Dive Resort

Thanks for the report.

<hierophantfish@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1185865903.987267.61650@22g2000hsm.googlegrou ps.com...
> Bonaire July 21 - July 28, 2007 Buddy Dive Resort

Thanks for the report.

<hierophantfish@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1185865903.987267.61650@22g2000hsm.googlegrou ps.com...
> Bonaire July 21 - July 28, 2007 Buddy Dive Resort

Thanks for the report.