Bonaire, 2008, with divers “too”

After getting an introduction to the Bonaire Marine Park when we arrived, most of us made our first dive--our checkout dive--off the beach of the Plaza Resort’s “house reef.” It’s an easy entry and a pleasant dive. The shoulder of the sloping reef starts only 100 feet off the beach (where you see the color change in the picture), and the bottom is around 100 feet deep. The reef is interesting and loaded with life. Many of us made additional shore dives here, including night dives.

We made two-tank dives from Toucan’s Green Flash every day. The dive boats are run with a captain and a dive master, each of whom leads one of the two tours underwater. Our captains were Sherman, Erica, and Jason. Our dive masters were Jenny, Jinny, and Danielle.

Carl arranged for the boat dives to be mostly at sites that are inaccessible from shore. The boat dive sites were:

    Andrea I
    Welcome Home
    Mi Dushi
    Rappel
    Rock Pile
    Karpata
    Monte’s Divi Tree
    Hilma Hooker
    Angel City
    La Dania’s Leap
    Bonaventure.

I especially like Rappel, La Dania’s and Karpata, for their awesome reef architecture. I like the Klein Bonaire sites just as much, especially for the life in their extensive, sandy shallows.

Diving

Our most unusual dive was a night dive under the Karlendijk town pier. Toucan Diving made arrangements with the harbormaster for us to dive the pier and suggested the required dive master. The pier has a kaleidoscope of gaudy, primary colors and unusual fishes. Gary W. called it one of his all-time favorite dives.

Here’s how the shore divers among us began their afternoons. Among others, they dived:

    Corporal Meiss
    Invisibles
    Margate Bay
    Angel City
    Andrea II
    Oil Slick Leap
    Alice in Wonderland.