This was our fifth time to Bonaire. My husband and I, along with our sons (ages 9 and 12) stayed at Belmar. My husband, my 12 year old son and myself are divers. We had an awesome 2 weeks and hope to return again next summer. I will summarize the main points of our trip.

Flight
We flew Continental out of Chicago via Houston. We arrived with no problems. On the way home, our flight was delayed out of Bonaire due to technical difficulties. This caused us to miss our connection in Houston, but Continental had already scheduled us on a later flight. So, basically no major travel problems.

Lodging
We stayed at Belmar. This was our 3rd time at this hotel/apartment. As usual, we loved the accommodations, especially the great ocean view. They had some light breakfast for us in the office and we were able to get into our room fairly early and had our rental truck in time to pick up some groceries before the Cultimara closed on Sunday. I knew ahead of time that they only had one dock instead of the two from last year, but it really was not a problem. Belmar was not fully booked and there was plenty of room for sunbathers, swimmers, snorkelers and divers to share the one dock. We experienced the most problems with mosquitoes we have had so far in any of our visits to Bonaire. Our first night, we had so many in our bedroom we were “afraid” to sleep and start out our trip with lots of bites! The next day, we picked up “Bop” from Warehouse supermarket and sprayed our bedrooms before bed. It does a great job of killing the bugs (ants and mosquitoes). You just need to let it air out from the strong order for a bit before you go into the room.

Diving
It was so good to be back! We had thoughts of trying a new dive location this summer after we heard about the hurricane in Bonaire, but I am so glad we came back. You could see some damage especially in the shallows at some sites but there were the abundance of fish, coral, sponges, creatures etc. that we have grown used to in Bonaire. Here are some highlights from our dives.

We did several dives with Bas Noij. We had read on here about the night UV dive and did that first with him. We really enjoyed this dive. Bas explained everything very thoroughly, showed us how to use the equipment and picked a great dive site (Cliff) to night dive at. Night dives are always interesting because you see different creatures from during the day, but this dive was extra special. The colors were beautiful and it was neat to be made aware of more of what is going on at night, in a different “light.” We also did two day dives with Bas. We did La Dania’s Leap, drift dive to Karpata. We have been wanting to do this dive for some time, but did not feel comfortable trying it without a guide. The dive was worth it. We have always loved Karpata and enjoyed this dive very much. We then did Taylor Made and saw some squid mating among other things. Bas shared with us lots of information, history and top notch eating tips during the driving time. If you get a chance to dive with Bas, we would highly recommend him.

We mainly dove southern sites on this trip. My favorite is Pink Beach and my husband enjoyed Margate Bay. We never met a dive site on Bonaire we didn’t like .

My husband did meet a sea urchin he didn’t like...we were exiting a dive and his foot slipped and he must have stepped on an urchin (went right though the side of his dive boot). He was in intense pain in the arch of his foot for a few hours. It got better by later in the day and he was able to continue diving. It has been about a week now and he still feels it in his foot, but not to the degree when it first happened.

Our 9 year old son got to try Bubblemakers. He was able to dive in the pool and then in the ocean with his instructor (up to 6 feet deep). He plans to get certified next summer and we are excited to have all 4 of us diving together next year.

Dining
We did a lot of our own cooking, but enjoyed Pasa Bon Pizza...twice! We also had a fantastic dinner at Richard’s and my husband got the Wahoo he was craving. We like the ribs at Ribs Factory so we also enjoyed a fantastic dinner there. We tried Patagonia for the first time and thought it was simply “okay” – not worth the high prices in our opinion. We had the most delicious chicken for lunch on a Saturday. It is a place Bas recommended. It’s a butcher shop that only serves it on Saturdays and it is located just a few blocks from Warehouse Supermarket. We also saw someone selling food out of the back of the truck in a parking lot just north of Divi. She had spicy meatballs and various snacks like beef pockets, conch pockets, etc. It was very good. We of course enjoyed Lovers ice cream several times with the kids. One night as we were eating our ice cream near Karel’s bar, we saw several eels hunting for their dinner in the shallows. We also ate at Zee Zicht on Father’s Day. Dinner was fine and they even presented my husband with a complimentary “tie” as a gift at the end of the meal!

Other

We tried land sailing for the first time. It was awesome!! I can’t believe we haven’t done this before. They give you a short lesson and then off you go. It is like go karting, but with a sail instead of an engine. This was a favorite excursion of everyone in the family. We also went to the Donkey Sanctuary for the first time. You can drive through and all the donkey’s stick their heads in your truck and you can pet them. We love animals and this was fun.

We seemed to see a lot more filefish this year. I don't know if I am just more aware or there are actually more this year.

Thanks for the report and the great photos! Every time we have went by the land sailing place, it has been closed. I'm so jealous that you got to try it, but very happy you enjoyed it.

On the landsailing website, they give a phone number and an email so that you can contact them for a reservation. We did so ahead of time and it worked out great.

Nice report. Thanks for sharing. Our daughter did a bubble maker for her 9th birthday while on Bonaire in March. Ahhh, the memories. And she, too, wants to get certified next year.

Thanks for the tip on the land sailing website. Much appreciated!

Great photos and report ! Thanks for posting

Great report Janet & thanks for posting! Belmar was a favorite of ours for many years!
That chicken place is called Carnerceria Latino right off Kaya Aripuna if memory serves me correctly. Great chicken!

Nice report, Janet. Love your pics, needed to see some fish today, Thanks! The chicken from the chicken lady is great, we get it weekly when we are there, great for having lunch with.

I need to stop telling people about that Chicken....before you know it there is none left to sooth my Latino Chicken addiction

Janet, GREAT report and pictures, thanks for sharing. I only wish I had been able to start diving at your sons age, he is one lucky little dude. Please feel free to post more pictures.....

(Message edited by yucatanpat on July 10, 2009)