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buddy dive, Apr, 2009, by Connie Thousand, CA, USA ( 1 report). Report 5046.
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
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We rented a 4 bedroom house called "Eldakia" through Sunrentals. I'll never do that again. It costs us $400 per day and the house was in poor shape. Here were a few of the problems: 1. There was no hot water in the kitchen or the front bedroom during waking hours. I could have saved a lot of money if I didn't need the house to have hot water. 2. There was an ant infestation in the kitchen when we arrived. The house should have been checked before we got there. They fumigated after we complained, but the house smelled for 2 days thereafter. 3. The stove/oven is very rusty and the oven didn't work at all. 4. The roof in the front bedroom leaked on my friends head the first night we were there. 5. The air conditioner in the back bedroom leaked on our heads. 6. There wasn't adequate lighting in the dining room or the living room. There is only indirect "mood" type lighting. We couldn't read or fill out our dive log books in the kitchen or den. 7. The laminates on the kitchen cabinets were coming off. 8. The sliding glass door was sticking most of the time we were there. 9. Light bulbs were missing. I did not expect luxury, but for almost $400/night, I didn't expect a house in that poor of shape. I sent Sunrentals my list of complaints and the answer that came back was "too bad". Renting a house wasn't great anyway because there was no real reef off of the house to dive. So, we had to pack up the truck and drive everywhere. This took time to get 6 people going. I will stay at one of the dive resorts on the water in the future. We did only shore diving and renting a truck is a must. We rented through Budget and it took forever to get through their process. Expect to spend an hour getting your truck. Give youself plenty of time at the airport to return the truck - even if you are returning it at 2 a.m. They are painfully slow. We did an unlimited shore dive package through Buddy Dive. We had 6 people in our group. One was a snorkeler only and one other only wanted to dive 2 or 3 days. Buddy dive would not make accomidations for those who didn't want the unlimited package. They said either all of us do the unlimited or no one does. This is understandable because some people cheat the system and only buy one package and share their tanks. But, it put us in a bind. So, if you have someone who doesn't want the unlimited package, don't show up with them when you purchase yours. Have them go separately. The drive through tank pickup policy was great. Originally, Buddy Dive had said they would drop off tanks at our house every morning. They did so for two mornings but stopped after that. Also, they never got the tanks there by the time we were ready to go. So, it's better to just plan to go up to Buddy Dive and pick up your tanks for tomorrow. But, don't forget that the drive through closes at 6 pm. Every shore dive spot was awesome. It cracked us up though that every 100 yards down the beach was a new "shore dive" site. Shoot, it's all the same reef - nothing is different. But, it's all good. Guess they have to do that to sell the shore dive book. We also laughed at their "rocky entry". We're from southern california. Their rocky entry looks like pebbles to us. Even my 64 year old mother had no problem with the "rocky entry". Do your north end diving in the morning and your south end diving in the afternoon. Less windy that way. The house reef off of Buddy's was excellent, particularly for night diving. We went to the national park the last day. Skip it. It's basically a hot, dusty, desert. We did go by the land wind surfing site which looked fun, but they were booked for the day. Our cell phones only worked on Roaming. My blackberry didn't work at all. Friends who stayed at Buddy Dive Resort said the internet access was spotty at best.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Cozumel Mexico, Maui Hawaii, Southern California, Aruba
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	77-80°F / 25-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	60-100 Ft/ 18-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	none
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	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of buddy dive in Bonaire

buddy dive, Apr, 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