Dive Review of Buddy Dive in
Bonaire

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Buddy Dive, Jan, 2009, by Joel Solomon, New York, USA ( 2 reports). Report 4627.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Bonaire is possibly the best overall diving that I have ever done. The reefs are the healthiest that I have ever seen. The fish life, with the exception of large fish, is excellent. The house reef at Buddy Dive was my favorite overall dive of the trip, with excellent corals and sea life. Bonaire is well known for it's shore diving. What may not be as well known is that the entry and exits for these dives is over fields of broken dead coral and slippery algae covered rocks. After a particularly challenging shore dive, we stuck to boat dives, Buddy's reef and shore dives where there was a ladder or some similar access to the water. The Buddy Dive op was great. The boats ran very punctually and were professionally staffed. The DMs were a bit more casual than in some other places that I have been. This may be because the divers were a more competent group than I have observed anywhere else. One of our DMs, Murph, showed me my first frogfish. It was a highlight of my trip. All of the boat dives had deep swims out and shallow (30ish feet) swims back, allowing for long bottom times. Nitrox was available at no extra charge. If you stay onsite, the dives work out to about $25 each. To me this was worth not having to drive and drag your kit over the broken coral. We started out with one boat dive per day in our package, but wound up adding a second boat dive and then would do an easy shore dive or two in the afternoon. Although I loved the Buddy Dive dive op, I was a bit disappointed by the accommodations. Our one bedroom unit was tired, to say the least. There was no air conditioning and an inadequate fan in the living room, rendering it uninhabitable. The bedroom air-conditioning worked well. The bathroom was the size of a phone booth and the shower had no shower curtain. It was impossible to use the bathroom without making a mess. Even though we only spent a couple of hours a day in our unit, aside from sleeping, it was an unpleasant place to hang around in. The balcony was nice, though, and saved us from a total hotel disaster. Our package came with a breakfast buffet. The food was adequate. Because many people ate breakfast in a relatively short period of time, it was a bit crowded. This was a surmountable problem. We rented a truck, which was really fun. Aside from shore diving, we were able to check out restaurants. I can highly recommend Patagonia, an Argentine steakhouse and Papaya Moon, a Tex Mex influenced restaurant. We also checked out the donkey sanctuary and observed some flamingos. Overall, the trip was great. I am not sure whether or not I would stay at Buddy Dive again. It seems as if many of the people that stay there buy food and cook their meals onsite, which makes the kitchen facilities important. Apparently there are units that have been renovated. There are also units that have a/c in the living room. If I went back, I would make sure that I had a renovated, fully air conditioned unit. The dive op and house reef are so good that it's a tough call. We checked out Divi Flamingo and found the facilities to be in much better shape, with air conditioning and spacious modern bathrooms. They are more like regular hotel or motel rooms. I would give Divi Flamingo serious consideration. I would also think about staying near Buddy Dive and using their dive facilities. The Sand Dollar and Harbor House are two nicer seeming places to stay that are nearby. One way or another, I will definitely be diving Bonaire again.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	51-100 dives
Where else diving	Florida Keys, Fort Lauderdale, Bahamas, Belize, Cozumel, Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos,
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm
Water Temp	80-85°F / 27-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	100', 60 minutes maximum
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Each boat had at least one camera only rinse bucket. The dive op had 2 camera only rinse tanks at the pier.

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Dive Review of Buddy Dive in Bonaire

Buddy Dive, Jan, 2009,

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 Buddy Dive in
Bonaire