When: 4/15/2005...4/23/2005
How: MIA->CUR (AA) and CUR->BON (BonairExel)
Water temp: 78-80F
Visibility: not great for Bonaire but 80-100 feet most of the time
Operator: Buddy Dive Hotel.
Weather: Windy, Hot and Humid.
Crime: We managed to go a whole week without getting robbed. More on that later.

Diving - Overall:  just OK. I don't think I'll go back. The Caribbean has many better offerings.

Buddy Dive was good:
 The trucks are new and run well.
 The prices are reasonable.
 We got Nitrox for free.
 They offer <some> 36 as well as all the 32 you want
 The Buddy Dive house reef is as good as any we dived though maybe not as
 pretty as say, Andrea II up on top.
 Their drive through air pickup is nice.
 Their Nitrox system very clean and well maintained.
 Dive operations from boat were nicely done (for the style).
 Most of the people on the staff (including DMs) speak 3-4 languages.

Buddy Dive was bad:
 They have no idea how to make coffee. Dirty water that tastes like soap
 is their preference.
 Breakfast fare was generally poor, except for fruit and breads.
 The rooms are NOT air conditioned, only the sleeping room has AC.
 The room furnishings are uncomfortable and cheesy.
 The rooms were tiled with the slickest tile imaginable except when wet
 (slickness is then beyond imagination).
 The boat operation wants all divers to dive in a group, but is otherwise
 reasonable about times and depths.
 Too "group" oriented (may depend on your week), but groups get the grease
 if they are there.

Bonaire in general:

Reef conservation is a myth.  There is no such thing that I could observe.  
Of all the Caribbean destinations I have dived, Bonaire has more diver
damage than any place I have ever seen...by a country mile.  When you
drive the South end of the island, you'll pass the salt pans.  What you
might not notice as you continue is that the land you're riding on was
reclaimed in the oldest of Dutch traditions.  I wouldn't care to guess how
many acres of reef was covered up with fill to make the land, but it's
certainly quite a bit.  The Park Rangers found us the very first day,
and never again.  They didn't want to know anything except who collected
our park fees and oddly (I thought) whether or not we had any
cameras...Have they noticed that U/W Photogs are scourge of the reef
community or were they prospecting for thieves?  

Shore dives generally all had the same profile: shallow hardpan covered
with a little sand then a steep slope to 130-150fswg, densely covered with
boulder/mounding star coral, brain corals and knobby star corals, giving
way to sheet corals as you go deeper.  Staghorn and Elkhorn corals were
very scarce.  I was amazed to see the amount of damage done by Lenny and
never repaired.  Apparently nobody on this island thought to simply turn
the corals over, so there they sit, still upside down several years down
the road from the event that rolled them over.  They're done now, but what
a shame.  Elkhorn is trying to come back but not with much enthusiasm.  

Deep down (75 and below) the reefs are healthy and unspoiled.  As you go
up, diver damage increases.  At 100 fswg and below, it's pristine.  

Fishermen fish the reefs.  Through the week I saw one and only one spiny
lobster.  Monofilament was evident on several dives.  Large groupers were
practically nonexistent.  

I tired of being "nicked" by the businesses.  When paying them, 1.75NAF =
$1.00; when they are paying you, $1.00=1.80NAF, and at restaurants, bills
in NAF magically convert only to whole US dollars.  When you get a bill,
there is sometimes a line for a service charge (tip)...when the credit
card slip comes back for signing, the itemization has disappeared and
there is a conspicuous line waiting for a tip.  We're there spending money
voluntarily already, there is no need to steal it.  

Food/restaurants on Bonaire, despite ravings of the rabble are very
mediocre.  Me thinks the aficionados believe Outback has gourmet fare.  
No, I did not visit them all.  I went to Bonaire to dive.  After a couple
of expensive disappointments, I saw no reason to search for more.  The
Lions Den is now part of Buddy, and if you avoid the evening specials, you
can eat fairly well and reasonably without leaving the camp.  One of the
highlights of the Den is the Caesar Salad which is traditional, and
perfectly prepared order by order.  

The roads in Bonaire are in terrible condition.  This little island
collects millions, if not billions in revenues.  We paid $50/person in
direct head taxes, that doesn't count sales taxes.  Where does it all go?  
It certainly doesn't go to infrastructure or services.  It doesn't go
towards making safe shore entries (for both people and reef).  It doesn't
go towards police.  They have desalinated water and fairly reliable power.  
I suppose both are heavily subsidized for the locals.  

I would not want to be on this island in the summer.  37C and no wind, the
place would be hell except while underwater.  It appears to be very arid.  
I don't know what happens in late summer.  We had a short rain the day
before we left and it turned into a sauna, and that's in April.  

Bonaire is building out on the coast; the diving coast.  Several shore
dives are inaccessible now, and more will follow.  I think this is a
mistake, but moreover, I feel sorry for the homeowners.  Having traveled
the Caribbean quite a bit, I've seen all kinds of construction.  The
masonry work in Bonaire is horrendous.  I have never seen anything so
atrocious.  New and old alike, it's like mortar is something that you put
on a block when you feel like it, and the amount is not especially
important.  The Stucco that covers it up though, is immaculate.  I can
only wonder about the plumbing and electrical.  There are a good number of
abandoned home starts, reportedly un sellable for years because of shoddy
construction needing demolition.  

Reef Health:

A certain kind of coral (brain shaped, gray-green and dimpled - Starlet I
think) was very ill.  Hardly a specimen could be found that was not under
attack.  There was also a lot of Cyanobacteria.  I expect some, but there
was a lot.  It is difficult to distinguish for certain, but once it gets
to be over an inch long it's pretty clear I think.  Virtually every clump
of flower coral harbored a thick coating down in the stalks, and if you
waved your hand, the stuff would fly out showing sickly decayed remains
beneath.  I know way more than I'd like about this stuff, and it is highly
dependent on nitrogen availability.  I don't know what they do for sewage
treatment on the island.  There was none evident.  The South end of the
island has a shrimp farm; reportedly one of the dirtiest known forms of
aquaculture.  Little things too: Throwing watermelon rinds in the water is
bad ju-ju.  First, it sets the tone: the ocean is a garbage can for
guests.  Second, watermelon rinds may seem harmless, but are they?  They
are fertilized.  They are pesticided, and the permissible kinds of both
are harsh, because the rind is not eaten.  They are chewed on by humans
and so all the flora and fauna of your mouth is deposited.  These may be
trace amounts rind by rind, but taken on the whole, tons of refuse per
day, eventually introduce tons of trace chemicals.  It's bad, bad bad, and
I don't care if the parrotfish eat it or not.  I doubt these melons come
from USA, so the galaxy of possible chemicals is probably tripled.  

In the shallows were many, many unhealthy fish; banded butterfly and
surgeon/doctor fish being the most obvious.  I did not see any that were
not darkly and copiously stained with some <fungal?> parasite.  Yellowtail
snapper were also afflicted.  Possibly many others, but not so evident
because of coloration.  I've never seen the like of it, so I don't know
how serious it is, but it's certainly ominous.  

I was surprised to learn that if you wanted to see a frogfish, the DM will
have to take you to a known haunt to find a regular.  The same for
Seahorses.  Throughout the week we spoke with many divers, some more
experienced than others and some more familiar with Bonaire ( like one
couple on their 20-something'th visit).  No one, anywhere, found either
specie unexpectedly, and between us all, there were a lot of dives.  This
is not the way I recall it being reported a few years back.    

Other resorts:

According to Bonaire regulars we met, Captain Don's is in need of some
work.  Dive lockers etc.  are run down.  Sand Dollar has not been doing
well since Lenny.  They failed to rebuild immediately, and lost clientele
to those that did.  These were their preferred locations in prior years,
but they have moved on.  There was lots of work needed at Buddy Dive too,
but they were doing it.  Diving infrastructure (from air to valves) wanted
for nothing.  Buddy knows what butters their bread

I had to pull a Captain Don's DM off the reef at Oil Slick Leap.  He was
looking for the yellow seahorse and was directly on hard corals and
tearing up soft coral when he wasn't.  He responded by signing that he was
a DM and it was "OK".  I signed something else back.  Avoid.  

Some outfit (Toucan divers) tried to do some drift dives on Klein Bonaire.  
First, the current did not warrant it, and second, the operation was a
Charlie Foxtrot.  Divers were surfacing everywhere and expected to swim
for the boat.  Avoid.  

Speaking of currents, they were generally light to non-existent.

Takeways:

We'll never forget the Cargill saltpans in the South. Thousands of acres of
pink, and lavender and emerald green.

Shore diving is way too much work.

Bonaire natives drive like idiots and are generally indifferent to crime there.

There are too many newbies and bad divers. It was difficult if not impossible
to get a dive alone.

Do go to 1000 steps and take in the view.

Do not dive 1000 steps from shore, make a boat take you there. This is a serious
DCI issue as well as intelligence marker.

We did not dive the "town pier"; everyone who did was disappointed.

I never want to see another red lip blenny.

If you want to study the breeding habits of brown chromis, creole wrasse,
blueheads or parrots, this is the place.

The only reason to dive the Hilma Hooker is to make friends with the Jewfish,
then leave it behind for the second reef.

The only reason to dive the Hilma Hooker is to night dive the 1/2 acre of Cup
Coral on shore side of the bow.

The only reason to dive the Hilma Hooker is to find the only shrimp goby
(orange spotted) in the Caribbean.

All three require extended stays at 100fswg, so unless you're up for that,
there is no reason to dive the Hilma Hooker.

The adjacent sites provide access to the double reef without the clouds of
split-fin newbies descending from boats every 1/2 hour.

All the shore entries we did except oil slick leap were dangerous for the
diver and the near shore coral.

I saw a backplate! Stranger sh.t has happened, but not often. I never saw
it leave the gear room though.

Bonaire is worth seeing at least once, but I'd put Belize(liveaboard),
T&C(liveaboard), Caymans and Coz way in front.

Bonaire is way too hard to get to.  Air Jamaibe makes us stay over night
in Kingston on the way back.  AA Eagle makes travel on week days.  
BonairExel from Curacao is not real reliable and maybe not long for this
world.  Though part of the same country (Netherland Antilles), you're
forced to clear customs and immigration twice (taxed of course) and the
immigration people are notably put out when they find that you're just
passing through.  The scheduling is also tight.  Though very economical,
this route is not an option for Dan Bracuk because of the tight schedules.  

Cultimara was the most ridiculous grocery store I have ever seen.  A
stones throw from SA, nearly everything in the store was imported from
Europe.  

Crime in Bonaire:

I did not visit Bonaire for years because I thought the crime situation
was unforgivable.  Having been there and done that, I now know that I was
right, right, right.  The crime exists because Bonaire likes it that way,
and that, is that.  Stopping this nonsense would be child's play, but
first they would have to acknowledge the problem and second, they would
have to spend a few dollars.  In short, addressing the problem would
involve public admission of their past indifference...a huge loss of face,
making them look bad, so nothing will be done.  

We managed to not get robbed.  That wasn't an accident.  The place we
stayed is secured at night.  Buddy Dive's gear room has 24 hour video
surveillance.  I felt reasonably secure leaving anything there.  We were
vigilant and defensive.  Our truck was gone thru at least once while we
were diving.  We took nothing of value that we could not carry on the
dive.  We left the truck open.  I conspicuously observed the tag numbers
of any locals hanging out at the sites.  

It's really a shame.  It's the principle reason we will probably not
return.  When I arranged this trip it seemed that the problem was in
decline.  But in recent weeks reports have been in full swing, including
multiple B&Es at popular apartments (Yachtclub).  

It would do them good to see no business for a year or two so they could
sort out which of the unemployed layabouts can no longer make the payments
on their Dodge Ram 426 Hemi pick up trucks.  

safe diving,

bullshark