Our family stayed at Coral Paradise Resort, Dec 13-21. We were very pleased with the room. The kitchen had everything we needed, nice balcony, pool and it is new. The hosts were interesting and helpful in every way. Be careful at the grocers though. I thought I did well figuring which was non-fat milk until I tasted the buttermilk on my Honey Nut Cheerios. We highly recommend Coral Paradise!

cheryl, welcome to BT. where is coral paradise located? we usually buy the boxed milk and i don't remember if it comes in non-fat or not. we always get the low-fat (helf melk i think it's called)

I'm excited to hear that! We are booked into Coral Paradise from 10th-18th and can't wait! The owner has been great in answering all of my silly questions!
This will be our first Bonaire trip so I am hoping there are a couple of other people staying there that can give us some tips (besides all the ones I have read here).

Pat, check out this link:
http://coralparadise.com/

thanks ron....we leave four weeks from tomorrow. i'll look at it while we are there.

Coral Paradise is fabulous ... we stayed with Kenny and Margeret (the best hosts around) Dec 27 to Jan 4 ... the rooms have everthing you need ... the pool is inviting ... and you are just a few steps from the sea for a dive at Cliff or off Habitat's dock. I would recommend it without question ...

Any information on the diving situation with cpt dons would be helpful, orientation (long-short)? ease of getting tanks and gear from the lockers, house reefs?
thanks

Hi- we just got to Coral Paradise last night and did our orientation this morning. it was easy- 1/2 hour talk about the marine park system and how to access tanks, etc from Capt. Don's. the only requirement is that you do your first dive (at your leisure) on the reef in front of Capt Don's. Use that as a gear check, weight check etc... All very easy- there are lockers at Capt Don's if you want to store your gear there (bring a lock- or Kenny at Coral paradise said he had one though I am not sure how many he keeps around). Don's has rinse tanks and Coral paradise has a couple of rubber bins to use as rinse tanks. There are also clothes lines on the patio/balconies.
Tanks are available 24 hours a day. It is a short walk from Coral Paradise to the dock but doesn't seem further than some of the Capt Don's rooms... and there is a drive up area to pick up tanks to take off property.

How is the ladder at Cliff?

Ladder at Cliff?

When we dove Cliff New Year's week, we just walked in!

When we were there in Aug of 08 the ladder was is fair shape. One of the hand rails was rusted and real wobbly but the other side was fine, steps were in good shape. Don't know what Omar did to them.Once down the ladder it is a fairly easy entry. You might check with Bonaire Dive Friends by email, I think that is one of thier satellite shops right at The Cliff.

Does capt Dons have a wreck at their house reef? maybe im thinking of harbour...
thanks Rose and enjoy your vac.........
Dont miss Margate bay!!or invisibles !
and have a bright with some gouda for us!!

there are steps at cliff to get down to the water. they are moderately steep but i wouldn't describe it as a ladder.

I love that dive. I'm gonna have to stay somewhere that lets me have Cliff as my house dive. Coral Paradise does look nice...

We dove the Cliff last week and the red steps/ladder had a "no entry" sign strung across the top of them. Of course, while we were gearing up, an older couple climbed up the steps, and just pushed the sign out of the way when they got to the top. I guess the stairs aren't THAT damaged.

It is pretty quiet here at Coral paradise this week...I think we have the run of the place! There are only 6 guest rooms-which I think is perfect! I am glad we are downstairs because it makes it easy to bring our stuff to the patio to rinse and hang to dry.
Capt Don's seems pretty quiet too. I don't think there is a wreck at Capt. Don's- dove the "house reef" for our orientation dive and will do a night dive there tonight. I did not notice a "ladder" at Cliff but did see the stone steps.

Invisibles was our first Bonaire shore dive- loved it but only did the inner reef on Monday- going back tomorrow morning for the outer reef.

of course we also had a Bright or two to top off a perfect first day on Bonaire!

Hi everyone.. there is a small wreck south of Captain Dons.. in about 40-50 ft of water a HUGE eel used to live in that wreck the name of it is the name of the site Man??????? something and a deep wreck just in front of dons in about 150+ ft of water or deeper maybe.. when the viz is clear you can see it from the line running down.. I believe Walt uses it for deep dive training.. I could be mistaken on the depths of both however..

La Machacha





I googled it











I'm very bored......

I found this site in my boredom...it's kind of fun. You guy probably already know about it....


http://www.aquaexplorers.com/bonire_shipwrecks.htm

Thats it CB thanks ..... I will trade you paying Bills for the boredom!!!!

Yup, that's a toss up, Freddie...

Went and found the small wreck at La Machaca yesterday evening...couldn't find the big eel...
I enjoy using the Habitat dive shop and having their "house reef" so close- it was a really nice end of the day dive with a lot of fish activity.

yeah weve seen that wreck, not a whole lot there..
i was thinking of Our Confidence and its not at habitat, its off harbour resort...

Really there are so many beautiful sites to see who needs an old piece of rust to look at..
we loved margate bay and a few sites around that area that werent even named, just find a good place to go in and park and SWEET!!!!
A good place to look is south of the fish hut about 100-200 yds or so....
im jealous your there and were not!!


enjoy!