Dive Review of Belmar/Rented House in
Bonaire

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Belmar/Rented House, Mar, 2008, by Erik Enger, DC, USA . Report 3950.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	There’s plenty of information already available on Bonaire from Undercurrent and other sources so I’ll try to limit my report to information I think is a little less widespread. This was my second two week trip to Bonaire and once again I chose to rent a house. There are several real estate companies with reasonably good websites to find a suitable house for oneself. I’ve found this to be a more economical option than staying at a dive resort - in addition to being more to my liking. When you combine this savings with the fact that Bonaire is the Grand Central Station of shore diving and there’s no need to spend money on boat dives, Bonaire is easily one of the best bangs for buck dive vacations an east coaster can make. Obviously, it’s also one of the best dive spots in the Caribbean making this an even sweeter deal. We chose to book our dive package through Belmar Apartments. By doing so, we could get tanks from Belmar (down south) or Buddy Dive (on the north end of Kralendijk). Although the island isn’t very big, if you’re doing a lot of diving as we were, this can really save you some time. If you book through Buddy you can only get tanks from Buddy. Officially, you’re limited to two tanks per person at a time but this isn’t enforced by anyone but yourself. We sometimes took more when we planned to do night and early morning dives and promptly returned empties in an effort to comply with the spirit of the rule. Tanks are available at both locations from 8am to 5pm- sometimes you could get tanks a bit later. On my last trip when we booked through Toucan we could get tanks 24/7 which made things easier (I don’t know if that’s still their policy) but we managed fine- just had to plan ahead a little more. Belmar itself only has dive boats going out on Tuesdays and Thursdays however, you’re also able to go out on Buddy’s boats. We mostly dealt with the staff at Belmar (including arranging for some boat dives with Buddy) and they were always very helpful. Me and a friend from my last trip were delighted to find that one of our all time favorite dive masters Ebby (formerly with Toucan) had joined Belmar’s operation the week before we arrived and so we were reunited with him. He was our guide for night dives on the Town Pier and Salt Pier, both of these dives require a guide and cost $25p/p plus tip – this is outside of the cost of the normal unlimited shore diving package. Ebby is simply terrific. He found one of my favorite sightings of the whole trip, a leather-backed doris at Salt Pier. In addition to the ‘normal diving’ we also spent a day shore diving the less frequented East Side of the island with a great guy named Bas who has a one man operation (email- loonybin@bonairelive.com). The diving can be a bit more advanced and in my opinion is very much worth the trip. The East Side features larger life, different creatures (incl. black brotula, Spanish grunt, mutton hamlet, lesser seen junveniles, etc) and very different topography. By the way,, Ebby , who also dives the East Side, told us he saw an 18 ft. hammerhead there the week before. Favorite dives were on the East Side, both piers, Angel City (outer reef), My Place, Karpata, Something Special and between Cliff and Bari Reef. I experienced a couple of equipment problems and quickly discovered that Bruce Bowker at the Carib Inn is The Man to go to. He has both the mechanical knowledge to fix things and more parts than anyone else. I visited him three times and he never charged me a cent. Happily, I was able to return the favor when one of my friends spent a rather large sum of money at his shop. If you want meet and hang out with locals, go to Bongo’s around 7pm on Friday night. Later on the party supposedly moves to the Little Havana though we never made it that far. Finally, Susan Porter’s Bonaire: Shore Diving Made Easy is an invaluable resource and a steal for $20.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Costa Rica, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, North Carolina, Cozumel, Bonaire, St. Vincent
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather		Seas
Water Temp	78-77°F / 26-25°C	Wetsuit Thickness	0
Water Visibility	0-0 Ft/ 0-0 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	100 ft. on boat dives
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 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 Belmar/Rented House in Bonaire

Belmar/Rented House, Mar, 2008,

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 Belmar/Rented House in
Bonaire