Trip report: Buddy Dive Resort, Bonaire, N.A.

Nov. 10-17.

A group of eight of us flew from Baltimore to Bonaire Nov. 10 for a
week at Buddy Dive. Short story is it was a great trip -- good to
excellent visibility, water temps about 83 all week, little to no
current, LOTS of animals on the reefs, which are quite healhy by
Caribbean standards.

It was a mixed group, consisting of one couple plus four additional
men and two additional women. We had two 2-bedroom suites and a truck
for each suite included in the package, as well as unlimited free
Nitrox, free breakfast and 50% off all other meals eaten at the hotel
up to $75. The package also included 6 one-tank boat dives, but most
of us opted out of that and saved about $115 off the package price.

The fact that several people did keep the boat dive option worked well
for us, though, because we were under no pressure to have all eight of
us agree on dive sites or schedules. We did a lot of mixing and
matching over the course of the week, and I think everyone pretty much
got to do what we wanted to do.

I did 24 dives over the course of the week, diving right up to 4:15
Friday afternoon, with my flight out scheduled for 4:10 Saturday. I
did do one a la carte boat dive to Klein Bonaire (Sarah's Serenity),
and I was glad I had not taken the boat option for the week. All the
boat dives are guided dives, which tend to be too crowded, especially
when the guide sees something and everyone swims over at once to see
what he's so excited about. I expect a tsunami to result some day from
the collision of a dozen divers all hurrying to get a look a a
seahorse. Otherwise it was a very nice dive.

As were they all. In addition to Sarah's Serenity, I dove at Wayaka
II, 1000 Steps. Oil Slick Leap, Andrea I and II, Bachelor's Beach,
Alice in Wonderland (twice), Salt City, Hilma Hooker, Angel City, Bari
Reef and, of course, Buddy's Reef. Also did one night dive at Town
Pier, but we couldn't get the permit to dive at Salt Pier. I'm pretty
sure I'm leaving something out, but I can't remember what right now.

Anyway, the highlights for me were my first dive at Buddy's and two
pre-dawn dives at Buddy's. On the first dive, the viz was 100+, and I
saw three different species of morays, a couple of very bold squid and
the generally amazing collection of fish life, corals and sponges that
make Bonaire so special. I have never seen so many trumpetfish nor
Christmas tree worms. Many of the trumpetfish were shadowing other
larger fish, including groupers and parrotfish. On night dives, tarpon
swam with us, hoping our lights would help them find snacks. There was
also a big cubera snapper that we saw only at night.

The pre-dawn dives were very special. We set up our gear the night
before and left it in the gear locker at Buddy's dock. We got up and
5:30, walked down to the dock and were in the water by 5:50 or so. It
started as a night dive, but less lively than in the early evening
darkness. A lot of the night denizens had retired by this time, so it
was pretty quiet, a few soldierfish and squirrelfish, an octopus
grabbing some last morsels. As the light came up, though, the reef
came alive. Parrotfish emerged from their coccoons and prowled about
sleepily. Tangs and damselfish appeared. But the coolest thing was
looking up the wall from about 45 feet and seeing swarms off mojarras
and chromis streaming out of the reef and up the wall toward the
light. There they settled in for a day of snacking in loose
aggregations on microscopic plankton while yellowtails and bar jacks
cruised along the edges looking for their own meals.

Town Pier was interesting, but not as much as I had expected, I guess.
It, too, was a guided dive, although each guide has only four divers,
so the convergences to look at sea horses were less calamitous. Hilma
Hooker was interesting, too, a nice wreck in pretty good condition on
its side between two reefs.

Most of the entries and exits were pretty easy, though I usually
needed a little extra help with my two-strobe and huge housing camera
rig, and we did pass on a few sites because the entries looked too
difficult and/or the swim was ridiculously long.

Buddy's was much nicer than I anticipated. I usually have fairly low
expectations, but the rooms were spacious and clean, service was most
excellent. Food was middlin', and service a bit slow there, but my
only real complaint was about the availability of Nitrox tanks at the
drive through fill station. There was a large group of about 50
people, and every morning, Buddy's loaded a large truck with Nitrox
tanks for them. There still should have been enough for us, but we
showed up several times to find no Nitrox AL80s available, but a dozen
or more on whips not being filled. We then had to hunt down the
operator and get him to fill some tanks for us.

There were always plenty of tanks at the dock where we did our shore
dives at Buddy's, however.

All in all, a fine trip that I'd do again happily, but my next trip
will be a liveaboard, and on the whole, liveaboard remains my favorite
way to go.

I'll have photos on my Picasaweb site in a few days. Got some nice
macros, which is what Bonaire is noted for, of course...

gc