KISS Classic in Bonaire

Gill Envy

Carl, thanks for the report and details.

I have been disappointed with much of the diving I've done in the Caribbean but keep hearing good things about Bonair, how effective the marine preserve has been and particularly that it's nice for doing long dives at your own pace since most of the diving is from shore on your own time... sounds perfect for rebreather diving. Even for recreational diving, the extended NDL's and reduced fatigue are well worth it.

It sounds like the reefs are still pretty healthy?

How nice it must be to not have to take tanks and sorb... on our last trip to Indo we had to take kegs, dill and o2 and even our bail out bottles.

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Gill Envy

...Because I wasn't born with gills!
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tony13

Welcome home. Sounds like you had fun. Now let's go do some nice Jersey diving.
Tony

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rEvo Shearwater

darthmuhl

Like I said, I'm not a widely travelled Carribbean diver, but the reefs in Bonaire were stunning to me. They made the reefs I've done off of Pompano Beach , FL look lifeless, those in the FL Keys and Bahamas so-so. On many of the Bonaire dives I went into visual overload. Not able to focus on individual spots on the reef, and just took everything in. Hard to describe.

There is a lot of construction going on near the shore, and apparently this has degraded the reefs to some (small?) extent. One of our group has been there several times and remarked on some signs of reef distress. One of the locals attributed this to the construction runoff, but felt the reefs would recover once the construction is completed.

Here's a website with pics from our trip:
Bonaire, 2008, with divers “too�


One issue in Bonaire that might concern people is theft from vehicles left on shore sites. You are warned not to leave anything of value in the vehicle and leave it unlocked and with the windows open. We didn't have any problems, but someone at one of the sites we were at had a gear bag taken from inside the vehicle.

Vehicle insurance doesn't cover you for broken windows or damages if you lock the doors.

Carl

debersole

Thanks for the great report.

I've been fortunate enough to be on faculty for a dive medicine meeting in Bonaire each of the last few years. I always take my Kiss with me and it has worked out great. There have been no issues whatsoever.

Toucan Diving is very accommodating as was mentioned above and I, too, highly recommend Walt Stark at Rec Tek Scuba. He is great.

The recreational diving is very good, but there is some deep stuff as well. If you get a chance dive the deep wall at Karpata or Red Slave Huts and do the Windjammer Wreck up near the BOPEC station. Walt can arranged everything for you. The Windjammer is a slight hassle as you have to get him a copy of your passport ahead of time so you can be "cleared" and there can't be ships in port.

Doug

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