My sister, Carol, and I decided to go diving in Bonaire because…well, because we hadn’t been there and had heard it was beautiful diving. Does one really need a better reason? This was pre-hurricane Lenny and the diving was fabulous and we hung out at the Divi Flamingo resort bar in the evenings, enjoying a rum punch and swapping dive stories with everyone. We made a total of 14 dives while there and will definitely return. The water is warm, viz was great, and the coral and other marine life abundant and beautiful.
One of my favorite dives was the Town Pier. Carol had serious problems with her BC so had to abort (she couldn’t deflate it and kept bumping up against the pier, not fun). So it was just me and our dive guide.
What made the dive so fun was that there were only the two of us and Lutty knew the territory like the back of his hand. He kept us away from the madding crowds and found all sorts of wonderful marine life for me to enjoy. The 15-20 foot tube sponges were amazing, he found sea horses and used my slate to show me how to tell the males and females apart (look it up, it’s fascinating), came pretty up close and personal with a sea snake, several eels and, of course, plenty of fish. I understand that now there are stricter rules for diving the Pier and that is a good thing. There were way too many people down there who didn’t have much of an idea how to manage themselves in close quarters.
Another spectacular dive was 1000 Steps, so named because it seems like there’s that many to hike down to dive if you’re getting there from shore. It was raining pretty hard that day and Carol decided it was an excellent reason to stay in, read and enjoy some good coffee. Glutton that I am, I jumped on the boat and made the dive. Clearly a much easier way to get there than by shore. The corals were magnificent and I saw a lot of critters as well – eels, barracuda, coral-banded shrimp.
My favorite dive was Rapell. We saw lobster and crab, morays and parrotfish, nudibranchs and scorpion fish. The coral flowing down the wall was spectacular and included large fan coral. A very satisfying dive.
Highly recommend diving in Bonaire!
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My sister, Carol, and I decided to go diving in Bonaire because…well, because we hadn’t been there and had heard it was beautiful diving. Does one really need a better reason? This was pre-hurricane Lenny and the diving was fabulous and we hung out at the Divi Flamingo resort bar in the evenings, enjoying a rum punch and swapping dive stories with everyone. We made a total of 14 dives while there and will definitely return. The water is warm, viz was great, and the coral and other marine life abundant and beautiful. 
What made the dive so fun was that there were only the two of us and Lutty knew the territory like the back of his hand. He kept us away from the madding crowds and found all sorts of wonderful marine life for me to enjoy. The 15-20 foot tube sponges were amazing, he found sea horses and used my slate to show me how to tell the males and females apart (look it up, it’s fascinating), came pretty up close and personal with a sea snake, several eels and, of course, plenty of fish. I understand that now there are stricter rules for diving the Pier and that is a good thing. There were way too many people down there who didn’t have much of an idea how to manage themselves in close quarters.
