A Diver's Paradise

After a 10 hour flight from Amsterdam, we arrived at the bright pink Flamingo Airport in Bonaire.


The plane landing was a terrifying experience. The runway starts basically at the beach, so we came in to land low, very low. I (Jason) thought that we would all die. It looked like we were going to land in the water. When we landed, everyone cheered. That pilot must get that a lot.

We were met at the aiport by our landlord, Benny. He showed us to our car rental agency. After we signed some papers and handed over our visa, we were ablt to transfer our lunggage to a nice little van. From there we followed Benny to our Bungalow.

We were immediately impressed. It is set back in some tropical landscaping, where a hammock hangs on the porch.


We were introduced to the Bungalow's many luxuries: an air-conditioned bedroom, a screen door on the living room, cable TV, gas range, microwave, toaster oven, rice cooker, etc, etc, etc. I was particularly happy to see the racks for hanging our scuba gear after we rinsed it.

When Benny found out that we were excited about scuba diving, he showed us to his shed, where he had some equipment stored. He offered to let us borrow whatever we needed. I gratefully accepted a BCD, regulator, and fins. Larissa took some fins and a wetsuit. Less gear to rent! Needless to say, we were already impressed with his hospitality and generosity. After getting our place organized, Benny wanted to make sure that we got a tour around town. He hopped into his pickup and drove to Bonaire's main waterfront streets in the town of Kralendijk. It is colorful and very islandy. From there he showed us some dive shops and the main supermarket while reccomending some restaurants along the way.

Written on the lisence plates of Bonaire are the words "Diver's Paradise", which explains why we had to come here.


This place is often referred to as the shorediving capital of the world. Dive sites around the island are only a few meters off-shore, and thus are ideal for shore access. The popular thing to do here is sign up for an unlimited shore diving package. With such a package on is provided with unlimited tanks, along with a weightbelt and weights. All you have to do is drive you car through the drive-through,
load up with tanks, go do a couple dives, and return to the shop to trade out the empties.

The morning after our arrival we bought a 7 day package from the photo tour dive shop. We chose them because they have a network of shops around the island where you can pick-up and return tanks. Oh, and they give a discount to people who stay at Bonaire Townhomes, where we are staying.

Before going on our first dive we were obligated to undergo a Bonaire Marine Park Orientation. Dive tourism is huge here, so they have put a big priority on protecting their reefs. No spearfishing, no collecting, no touching whatsoever.

Shorediving Bonaire has been made quite simple. All of the dive sights have been named and numbered and are all marked by yellow painted stones along the road.


After doing an orientation checkout dive near town, we headed down south to partake in a couple more dives. We had a great time comparing the sights and creatures of the Bonaire underwater world with that of the other places we have visited on our trip.

Groceries are quite expensive here. We would just eat rice and potatoes, but potatoes here are actually very expensive so we have to stick to rice. We were interested to see that Worthington veggie meat products are sold here, though they are way out of our price range.

We did splurge on a tin of Danish butter cookies. I figured it would be a good idea to get Larissa to associate one of her favorite foods with diving. We instituted a program where each of us would award ourselves with a few butter cookies following each dive. This soon proved to be a successful system. On our third dive, the first words out of Larissa's mouth were "Cookie time!"

So we have settled into our new home quite nicely, and are enjoying the last days of our honeymoon as much as possible.