We have visited Bonaire many times and have several good friends who live there. Except for a one-week visit at the Buddy Dive Resort, we always stay at Happy Holiday Homes. HHH is a condo complex, each no-frills but comfortable unit having bedroom(s), living room, bath, fully equipped kitchen (including utensils and dinnerware) and patio. It is ideally set up for diving, with rinse tanks and hanging pegs for gear. We arrange to rent a truck and get our air from Yellow Submarine through HHH. We usually shore dive on Bonaire. The dive boats we have tried are simply not to the level of Little Cayman Beach Resort or Wakatobi. Buddy's dive boats, in particular, are crowded. If shore diving is not for you, I recommend purchasing a boat diving package from Yellow Submarine. Our friend Albert Bianculli sometimes is the divemaster. Albert, an excellent photographer, is a guarantee of a good dive.

We rate HHH/Bonaire as an excellent value, just behind Action Divers/Portofino in the Philippines. Except for Wakatobi, Bonaire has the best reefs we have seen. We generally shop the local markets (Cultimara and the Warehouse) and prepare most of our meals to keep the costs down, but there are many fine restaurants on Bonaire (not cheap).

Some of these pictures go back to 2004 when our cameras were Olympus 5050s with an Inon D-180 strobe. Others were taken by Dr. Burt Jones with a 5050, using only an internal strobe. The last (fifth) row of pictures were taken with the Nikon D-300 in 2008.

There is excellent macro life on Bonaire, usually at shallow depths. The reef also provides some wonderful opportunities for wide-angle shots. Two specialty dives, the Salt Pier (daytime) and the Town Pier (night dive) require a divemaster, but should not be missed

 

 

The first three pictures feature the “Lady of the Lake”, a large Green Moray Eel that used to come out and pose for us at “The Lake” dive site. Unfortunately, in late 2008 an illness attacked and killed most of the Green Morays on Bonaire. We fear she is gone. These pictures are a tribute to her and the others.