Bonaire 20th to 30th March 2009

We all met at a very quiet Heathrow and after a long overnight flight to Bonaire via Amsterdam, we arrived to the warm humid heat of Bonaire at the unearthly hour of 4:30am! After checking into Captain Don's Habitat, and eventually finding the location of our 2 bedroom apartments, some of us managed to grab a few hours sleep whilst the rest of us piled into breakfast at 7am. This early arrival enabled us to find our feet very quickly and to do our check dives ready for the start of our 8 days of diving.

The Group

Barry "The Strobe" Stuart
Hazel Stuart
David "And your first name is?" Laming
Sharon Laming
Stewart Anthony

Steph Williams
Tim Drake
Vicki "Pink Diver" Jeynes
Kevin "Ray Mears" Gleeson
Sue "HRH" Gleeson (non diver)

Accommodation

Captain Don's Habitat is set right by the sea nestled in lush landscapping, enabling us to enjoy ocean front dining and drinking as well as iguanas, lizards, over 50 species of birds and many beautiful plants and trees. All our apartments had verandas enabling us to enjoy some apres dive pimms/beer drinking (if we weren't off bird watching!).

Diving

Bonaire operates on "Total Diving Freedom", meaning that you can dive 24 hours a day, 365 day a year with no rush or anxiety. The sea was ours to do as much or as little diving as we wanted, whenever we wanted. The dive centre at the hotel was run very efficiently. We had a dive briefing on our first day, telling us the "do's & don'ts, we were invited to join one of their three daily guided 1-tank boat dives and the rest was pretty much up to us.
During our first day we all did our check dives from the resort jetty and had a relaxing time swimming along the house reef. On the next day we started our boat dives, we had 8 in total to use however we wanted. We mainly opted for the 11am or 2pm boat dives so that we could all enjoy a lie in and a leisurely breakfast (a lie in - unheard of on most diving holidays!). We set ourselves some targets for the week and most of them were achieved by the end of dive no 2 on day 2. They were:

Seahorse - 6 (wow!)
Turtles - lost count
Eagle Ray - 1
Octopus - 1

During breakfast at the beginning of the holiday we noticed dolphins just in front of the restaurant on the house reef, feeding. So bright and early one morning we decided to dive (or snorkel in Stewart's case) to where we had seen them on previous mornings. Sadly we were not lucky but at least we tried!

We had some fantastic dives throughout the week, either from the boat, the shore or the jetty, giving us a huge variety of sites. The dive centre staff were fantastic, especially Max who found our first seahorses! And of course, it's always great to dive in clear, warm water!

Restaurant & Bar

Rum Runners bar and restaurant are located at the hotel and both with an ocean view. Happy hour was from 5:30pm to 6:30pm with a cocktail of the day. Naturally it was our duty to sample these so we found ourselves propped up at the bar most days. Vicki even had her own cocktail made for her, appropriately named "Pink Diver"! The restaurant served great food, especially the catch of the day, with "Wahoo" becoming a firm favorite amongst us all. The staff in the bar and resturant were fantastic, especially Quincy, who was very patient with our complicated food ordering, and always providied a good joke or story along the way. A few evenings were spent drinking with the staff from the restaurant and bar, celebrating staff birthdays and mainly the end of a hard day's work (for them!). We had made some great friends by the end of our trip!

# David & Sharon's 50th dives
# Seahorses
# Damselfish 1 Steph 0 (don't ask)
# Pimms/Beer o'clock on veranda number 2001
# Bird Watching (yes, we all got into it by the end of the trip. Thank you David, Sharon & Stewart)
# Having the use of 3 trucks for shore diving, seeing the sights, shopping and of course bird watching.
# Stewart asking for a small beer at bar and being served a beer in a shot glass!
# HRH waving us off on each dive (thank you Sue)
# Bar/Restaurant bill at end of week being won by Mr & Mrs Gleeson, followed closely by Tim & Steph)

Let me know if I have missed anything/anyone!

Memorable Moments

Final word - thanks to everyone for firstly making this trip happen and for a great 10 days with some fantastic memories & laughs. 'Till next time.
Steph x