Dive Review of Dive Friends Bonaire/Private Home in
Bonaire

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Dive Friends Bonaire/Private Home, Jan, 2012, by Peter and Mary Pinkerton, NY, US ( Sr. Reviewer 9 reports with 9 Helpful votes). Report 6416.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude	N/A	Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We rented a privately owned condo from Dec. 10, 2011-Jan. 7, 2012 (4 weeks) on the water at Lighthouse Beach Resort. The only amenity at the resort was a well maintained pool. The really good-We signed up with Dive Friends at Yellow Submarine and used tank cards to keep track of our tanks (15 tanks on each card). Dive Friends have 4 locations so it was really easy to drop off and pick up tanks. We went with them to Klein Bonaire one day for a 2 tank dive. Through out our 4 weeks staff were great, and very accommodating! The rest of the time we took advantage of the easy shore diving. We purchased "Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy" and found it invaluable. While each site has its own pros and cons, overall the walls, hard and soft corals and schooling fish are really good. Bonaire is not a place to go for the big animals (other than tarpon that like to follow the lights at night). The salt pier is an aquarium of schooling fish. Both times we were there we watched a small school of squid who were not really very skittish. We found the sea horse on Andrea 1 and saw turtles on 3-4 different dives. Almost always saw Flamingo Tongues, eels, Angel Fish, and the other usual critters. Never did find the frog fish! The sites farther north and south were much better than the ones in town which tended to have silt/sand and some trash. Most of our dives were well over an hour in length (which is why we were wearing 5 ml suits). We were generally not very deep, and only had to deal with current a couple of times. We are both photographers so we tend to move slowly through the water. One of the best things about Bonaire is that there are so many choices of sites that often you never see another diver. Unlike so many places where we are all together on the same reef at the same time. Bonaire has a variety of grocery stores. The newest one (Van den Tweel) has wonderful produce and meats that I have come not to expect when we stay on an island. Yes, you pay for the convenience but we thought it was well worth the price. There are also a wide variety of restaurants and we only had one meal we didn't like (unfortunately it was on Christmas Day!). We have been to Bonaire several times before but always stayed at Buddy Dive or Flamingo Beach for just a week. Having 4 weeks allowed us to really explore the island. Wonder how many know there is a golf course on Bonaire? We came across a pond by the dump that was just full of flamingos, found the dive sites way north past BOPEC, and spent a day just wandering thru Washington Slagbaii Park. The not as good- It was rainy season so we did have some rain. Mostly short showers that didn't affect us very much. The standing water did however increase the no see um and mosquito population. We used 2 cans of spray while we were there. As typical, early morning and dusk were the worst times. Our condo was rundown and there was no security at Lighthouse Beach even though it was promoted on the website. We had to close and clock the house (including drapes) every time we left. It was annoying and hard to keep the house at a cooler temperature. We paid attention to all that we have read and heard about crime on Bonaire. We were careful not to leave valuables in the truck or outside of our house (which meant we had dripping wetsuits in the house most of the time). After our night dives we locked everything in the cab of the truck and parked under street lights in well populated areas so we could eat dinner, and had no problems. We had no issues with crime and we did not hear of any while we were there. Overall it was a great vacation.
Websites	Dive Friends Bonaire
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Carribbean, Maldives, Australia, Truk Lagoon, Costa Rica, French Polynesia, Indonesia...and lots of other places!
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy	Seas	calm
Water Temp	79-83°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	45-70 Ft/ 14-21 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	We dove our own profile with no restrictions.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	The Dive Friends at Yellow Submarine boat did not have any accommodations for cameras.

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Dive Review of Dive Friends Bonaire/Private Home in Bonaire

Dive Friends Bonaire/Private Home, Jan, 2012,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Dive Friends Bonaire/Private Home in
Bonaire