Dive Review of Dive Friends Bonaire/The Laughing Seahorse in
Bonaire/Hamlet Villas

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Dive Friends Bonaire/The Laughing Seahorse: "Annual January Trip", Jan, 2020, by Barbara Cordaro, GA, US ( 2 reports). Report 11426.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	My husband is a Bonaire junky, mainly for the shore diving and the freedom of not catching a dive boat or being on a schedule. That is our idea of vacation, not to just dive but to decompress. Every year we decide on a different area to call home for one week. This year was at The Laughing Seahorse, a stand alone home in Hamlet Villas (#12) that is owned and operated by a lovely couple. The house reef is The Cliff which is why we picked this particular area. The Cliff offered us access to a deeper, interesting dive, but what we found North of the dive site near the desalinization plant was even better! Plenty of Tarpon, a few Great Barracuda and lots of healthy coral. My attempt to find 2 things on this trip came up Zero: seahorse and juvenile spotted drum. But the corals, especially staghorn are making a comeback. We dove South and North, every day we picked a different dive site and then back to the Cliff for an end of the day dive or snorkel. I snorkeled at the Cliff and really enjoyed hanging over the small corals and watching all the juvy fish. Hilma Hooker is always fun and I love the reef on the way back. Surface swim to the closest bouy on this dive is relatively easy but caution when getting out, we saw over 5 people get washed up on the coral and had to get help from fellow divers at the site. The folks at Dive Friends are very friendly, we had great fills on Nitrox every dive and no problems with O-rings. We used their Hamlet location to get our tanks, weights. Dive op does not make you come to the orientation at a specific time, they are on our schedule and they have plenty of staff available to go through orientation as you show up. The Laughing Seahorse is a converted Villa at Hamlet that has 4 apartments upstairs with the owners living in the downstairs area. We had the "Coral" room, one king bed and small fridge, coffee maker and toaster which we used everyday. The largest room was unavailable for our stay. By the end of the week, our room was starting to feel a little small but the grounds and common areas gave us a respite from our room. Great set up for dive gear with locks/hangers/rinse tanks provided and an outdoor shower at the exit of the dive. A word of caution if you have issues climbing steps: the stairs up to the second floor are very narrow and steep and I always had one hand available for safety. The plus side to staying in this area is the availability of restaurants in walking distance. The downside for us is stargazing on the rooftop of a home and the seclusion & privacy like at El Peublo Villas or South in a villa rental near Punt Verkant. Will report back on our next stay! Happy and safe diving.
Websites	Dive Friends Bonaire The Laughing Seahorse
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Cozumel, Belize, St. Lucia, Barbados, Provo, Grand Turk, West Palm FL
Closest Airport	Atlanta	Getting There	Direct 3hour 50 minute flight from Atlanta.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, no currents
Water Temp	78-80°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	60-80 Ft/ 18-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Exclusively shore diving, no boat dives this trip. Dive your own profile.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
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 Dive Friends Bonaire/The Laughing Seahorse in Bonaire/Hamlet Villas

Dive Friends Bonaire/The Laughing Seahorse: "Annual January Trip", Jan, 2020,

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 Dive Friends Bonaire/The Laughing Seahorse in
Bonaire/Hamlet Villas