Scubagal
January 31st, 2007, 08:08 PM
all I can saw is WOW!!! We had a terrific trip.
Flew Continental Airlines red-eye flight through Houston. Actually didn't mind it, felt like we gained an extra day in Bonaire. On time, and the flights weren't completely full, so we had seats A,B, and C to ourselves both ways, which was nice.
Stayed at the Divi Flamingo in an oceanfront room. I'd requested room 201, corner room on the 2nd floor with a king bed. Unfortunately found out around noon that the people occupying it had decided to stay longer, so we ended up with a first floor room with 2 double beds. Had a problem with the air conditioner leaking, but maintenance fixed that shortly after we reported the problem. Loved the view! During our stay they brought new furniture for the balcony, and a new table and chairs for inside the room. We requested a mini fridge and a coffee maker in the room, which we received. I had been advised that there was a charge for these, however they didn't charge for them. Would recommend checking out the night before departure, as there were a lot of charges on our bill that needed to be removed. Took a bit of time to sort it all out.
We had the breakfast/dinner meal plan at the Divi. Had great service and food at the Chibi Chibi every night (thanks Junior!), and the breakfast buffet was very convenient before hopping on the dive boat. Went into town for a couple of lunches, enjoyed our meal at Casablanca, the Argentinean grill, and had a fabulous meal with wonderful service at Capriccio, the Italian restaurant.
Now for the diving! My husband did 20 dives during our week long stay, I got in 19. Sightings included a spotted eagle ray (my hubby saw two), our first frogfish (yippee!), lots of seahorses (five on one dive site alone), a couple of octopus, tons of eels, including a huge green moray, tarpon, squid, turtles on three different dives, more trumpetfish that I could count, and of course tons and tons of fish. Loved seeing all the juvi's. Water temps were a little cooler than I expected, 78-79, however the topside weather was nearly perfect. Hard to come back to the weather here, below 0 wind chill this morning, and snow at noon, quite a shock to the system.
Dive sites included: Calabas Reef (7 dives), Knife (Klein), Forest (Klein), Hands Off (Klein), Oil Slick Leap, Bloodlet, Petries Pillar, Small Wall, Ol' Blue, Karpata, Tori's Reef, Kalli's Reef, and Town Pier (Night Dive).
Suffering some severe PBD (post Bonaire depression!). Guess we'll need to start planning a return trip! Below are a few photos.
http://www.scubadiving.com/forum/albumtn.aspx/mid_90-B7A0D3CAAB504D0FABD37920BC94C9A4.jpg
http://www.scubadiving.com/forum/albumtn.aspx/mid_90-AB5C939187474A28AC7A5B4D0083A1C7.jpg
http://www.scubadiving.com/forum/albumtn.aspx/mid_90-6890290927724050998071BFD1396398.jpg
http://www.scubadiving.com/forum/albumtn.aspx/mid_90-05A33C74D1974312B9F9D5415E65E1A6.jpg
Flew Continental Airlines red-eye flight through Houston. Actually didn't mind it, felt like we gained an extra day in Bonaire. On time, and the flights weren't completely full, so we had seats A,B, and C to ourselves both ways, which was nice.
Stayed at the Divi Flamingo in an oceanfront room. I'd requested room 201, corner room on the 2nd floor with a king bed. Unfortunately found out around noon that the people occupying it had decided to stay longer, so we ended up with a first floor room with 2 double beds. Had a problem with the air conditioner leaking, but maintenance fixed that shortly after we reported the problem. Loved the view! During our stay they brought new furniture for the balcony, and a new table and chairs for inside the room. We requested a mini fridge and a coffee maker in the room, which we received. I had been advised that there was a charge for these, however they didn't charge for them. Would recommend checking out the night before departure, as there were a lot of charges on our bill that needed to be removed. Took a bit of time to sort it all out.
We had the breakfast/dinner meal plan at the Divi. Had great service and food at the Chibi Chibi every night (thanks Junior!), and the breakfast buffet was very convenient before hopping on the dive boat. Went into town for a couple of lunches, enjoyed our meal at Casablanca, the Argentinean grill, and had a fabulous meal with wonderful service at Capriccio, the Italian restaurant.
Now for the diving! My husband did 20 dives during our week long stay, I got in 19. Sightings included a spotted eagle ray (my hubby saw two), our first frogfish (yippee!), lots of seahorses (five on one dive site alone), a couple of octopus, tons of eels, including a huge green moray, tarpon, squid, turtles on three different dives, more trumpetfish that I could count, and of course tons and tons of fish. Loved seeing all the juvi's. Water temps were a little cooler than I expected, 78-79, however the topside weather was nearly perfect. Hard to come back to the weather here, below 0 wind chill this morning, and snow at noon, quite a shock to the system.
Dive sites included: Calabas Reef (7 dives), Knife (Klein), Forest (Klein), Hands Off (Klein), Oil Slick Leap, Bloodlet, Petries Pillar, Small Wall, Ol' Blue, Karpata, Tori's Reef, Kalli's Reef, and Town Pier (Night Dive).
Suffering some severe PBD (post Bonaire depression!). Guess we'll need to start planning a return trip! Below are a few photos.
http://www.scubadiving.com/forum/albumtn.aspx/mid_90-B7A0D3CAAB504D0FABD37920BC94C9A4.jpg
http://www.scubadiving.com/forum/albumtn.aspx/mid_90-AB5C939187474A28AC7A5B4D0083A1C7.jpg
http://www.scubadiving.com/forum/albumtn.aspx/mid_90-6890290927724050998071BFD1396398.jpg
http://www.scubadiving.com/forum/albumtn.aspx/mid_90-05A33C74D1974312B9F9D5415E65E1A6.jpg