Instant Reader Report
on Captain Dons / Captain Dons in
Bonaire / [N/A] on
2003/08
by
Artie Burke , TX, USA
Report Number 031005231718525

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 Indian Ocean, Carribean 

Dive Conditions

If on your own - no restrictions. If on the boat - 1 hour bottom time, max
100 ft on morning and max 80 ft on afternoon dives  

Great place for small fish - first time I used macro and got some decent
results. The photo shop was helpful in pointers and support such as
batteries. Several people rented digital cameras and were pleased with
them and the results.   

Overall Rating

We went for 2 reasons - had heard great things about Bonaire and had great
connections from Houston via Jamaica to Bonaire.
The first half day of potential diving was a waste - had to sit through an
1hr 15min discussion on marine park and facilities which could have been
done in 30 mins - then had to wait for marine tags, weights etc. Finally
got in the water right after noon on first day.  All could have been done
night before if organized to get you diving that morning. After that
things went well. 
Enjoyed a mix of boat diving with Captain Dons and shore diving on our
own. We found 2 seahorses and 2 frog fish - very exciting. 
The shore diving wasn't as easy as I thought it would be - some sights
-such as Angel City and Andrea - had rocky entances. Karpata was great.
Wish we had purchased a Guide to Shore Dives as this may have helped in
finding specific points of each site. Angel City was the most difficult as
we had a fast current and wasted a lot of air just getting to the wall on
the way out but was able to have a decent swim back in and readily found
the exit point. 
Facilities at Capt Dons was OK - we stayed in the jr. suites-nothing fancy
but adequate. These had nice ocean views. The cottages were newer but no
view.  The food at Rum Runners (restaurant on site) was very good and we
had beautiful sunsets.  Also went to Richards for a wonderful meal at
sunset as well. 
We enjoyed having a rent car and some freedom in our dive timings although
it was not easy to and from the vehicle to the water on every site. A good
break was diving on the boat and that gave us access to some good sites as
well as diving on Klein. 
The dive masters at Capt. Dons are great - especially enjoyed Neatto,
Jonathan and Sherman. 
Our return trip was not so great as Air Jamaica cancelled the flight from
Jamaica to Houston and routed us to Atlanta and then to Houston - so we
got home about 8 hrs after our origninal plan flights. But all the gear
made there and back with us so really can't complain. Overall, enjoyed
Capt. Don's, the facilities, the dive crew and shore diving overall.  

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