My impressions of Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles are marked by good service and some nice people that my companion, Angie, and I met during a six day scuba trip in late October, 1997. They had succumbed to their love with this small, but energetic island and escaped from various colder parts of the world.
Bonaire is very remotely located off the coast of Venezuela. The majority of its 10,000 locals live in the centrally located town of Kralendijk and the northern community of Rincon. Antilles Airlines (ALM), a little sister to KLM, sends MD-9’s on a circle that includes Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, Miami and Atlanta.
We caught the Sunday flight that goes from Miami straight to Bonaire in 2 hours, 40 minutes. Due to a series of errors that only checked my bags to Miami, I made four trips to Flamingo Airport before my gear arrive on Tuesday morning. A cautious travel I will be next time to double check that I am fully routed or that I have to claim my bags in Miami.
Our resort, Sorobon, on the windy eastern coast, was on a good road that separated it from the airport by miles of cactus, scrub bush, salt ponds with pink flamingos, wind mills, wild donkeys, lizards, iguanas and birds. Long, fat lizards would come clattering across our porch looking for handouts and my companion got one to drink from a glass after he gorged himself on fresh carrots.
Sorobon is a first rate resort with wonderfully executed cottages, nice porches, tiled floors, very modern bathrooms with glass shower stalls. Good solar hot water is available on demand and our food and drinks stayed cool in our marvelously appointed kitchenette, while the living room furniture was modern and invitingly comfortable.
Sorobon is a thirty cottage, clothing optional resort that we shared with five other couples who all seemed to be from Holland and not overly social with us or each other. Constant, cooling winds wailed through the bay that Sorobon shares with Windsurfer’s Castle and us book wormed sunbathers anchored beach chairs, watching textile boys and girls have wrestling matches with sails. If you were ambitious you could rent a sea kayak, explore the bay, anchor to a distant platform and snorkel. Angie was.
We scouted the big named dive operators, just north the hub of Kralendijk, Captain Don’s Habitat and Buddy Dive Resort. Mary was the face that greeted us at Bon Bini Divers, sharing pier space with Buddy and the Ocean Restaurant. She was from Chicago and so personable that after a while I conjured up fantasies of slapping her for being too dammed nice. People living in the cold First Worlds are suspicious of friendly service.
Mary had been from Chicago, in Bonaire for six years and while Habitat and Buddy Divers had too many people aboard their boats for my comfort, Bon Bini’s boat was down for repair and they were at low tide for business. She bent over to make a sale, she offered equipment while mine was in transit from Miami. She offered to send us on Buddy’s boat until theirs was ready (soon come). We were sold on the personal service.
After we learned the operations and order of Bon Bini, our first dive, by Bonaire law, had to be a shore dive. We were invited to dive off their dock into the very inviting clean waters. Within fifty yards we crested a drop off and went to sixty five feet, with a bottom of 140. The reefs were astonishingly bright, healthy, unsoiled or damaged. It was the first time that my partner had dived on a reef wall that was a sheer a drop as in front on Habitat. A local barracuda welcomed us to Bonaire, have a nice day.
When we took our evening stroll through the bright lights of Downtown Kralendijk, we passed a passenger liner docked and partying in the north pier. A most prominent sign stated in English that “Diving off the north pier was prohibited unless written permission from the harbor master’s office was secured in advance.” Legend has it that the town’s piers make for a great night dive and Bon Bini offered to provide a dive master that would help secure the graces of harbor authorities and insure that the night dives are safe.
Our second night in town we found the Plaza Resort Bonaire, where there was advertised a Monday Caribbean music and dance show for the cost of the buffet. By the time we found our way around this super developed resort and casino, the dancers had finished, the band was taking a break and dessert was replacing the main courses.
The Plaza’s chef apologized for us being far behind the buffet schedule and promised to only charge us one buffet price. He also went back to his kitchen, whipped up a hot vegetarian pasta and complimented us with it. How very nice! The band was local, although I swore that they could have been from Cuba, very good and they graciously allowed me to play my trumpet with them.
We went home with four tanks in our trunk for the next day’s shore dives along the calm southwest shores. Our choices of the many shore dive sites which were well marked and busy that day were Invisibles and the Helma Hooker.
We approached Invisibles marked at 100 yards off shore and went over a ridge at 25 feet to find a garden of eels at 85-100 feet in a white sandy bottom. As if cultivated by Bonaire’s sea gardeners, the garden eels waved from their holes until a meal passed by. But when divers got within ten feet they said “see you later” and descended into the sand. As we moved away, they crept up cautiously with great eyesight.
We entered the water at the Helma Hooker wreck site (a 285 foot ganja cargo boat sunk in 100 feet) and I so was overwhelmed by the size of the wreckage that I had to back away to focus my equilibrium. We circled the hull lying on it’s starboard side and I stood hyperventilating, trying to put into perspective the immense scene, twin masts intact, wedged in the sand preventing the wreck from drifting.
As one small group of divers circled the boat from the opposite direction, two 40-50 pound tarpon hustled for tips. We examined the boat’s huge propeller and went up to the fifty foot depth to explore the top, look in portholes and off gas from this exciting shore dive.
We took several boat dives to Klein Bonaire, the island that lies an easy ten minutes off the western shore of Kralendijk. The sites were healthy reefs, nice walls, plenty animals and made good atmosphere for exploring. I am easily bored with coral reef diving, but I am good company for those who can explore the reefs for days on end and be perfectly content.
I would plan another trip to Bonaire in the future to spend time exploring the national parks in the north and to see the highways that surround Rincon by daylight. It was wonderful staying at Sorobon, being unclothed, hearing the winds wail, watching our clothes, towels and cares flap in the breeze. It was fun driving good roads that led so far from civilization and seeing the occasional donkey grazing the roadside.
Bonaire gets two thumbs up, nice people, clean land and water, laid back locals, variety and convenience in restaurants, nice airport, no pressure customs and immigration. Only thing I’d change is the size of the Amstel Beer bottles, nine ounces is too little for the money.
For reference, the Sorobon reservations number is (800) 432-3471 http://www.sorobon.com/ and Bon Bini Divers are reached at (5997) 5425, E-mail: Bonbinidiv @aol.com.
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