Back to Bonaire after 10 yrs.
Date posted: June 17, 2011
I love to promote island-hopping vacations whenever people have the time and can easily make inter-island flights. In retrospect, we wasted a lot of time getting between Aruba and Bonaire. In order to save a lot of money we flew on Insel Air, connecting in Curacao both ways. You usually get what you pay for and our planes were very old. The good news is we survived!
We used to go to Bonaire a lot because it had dive and snorkel sites right from shore up and down the whole coastline. We are avid snorkelers and got hooked on this sleepy, quiet island with no high-rise hotels. We also loved that it was not situated in the hurricane zone.
The last time we went, ten years ago, we were shocked to find out a big wave had wiped out a lot of the coral reef! Our snorkeling adventures were shockingly different but we still found some good ones and also got to kayak in the mangroves for the first time. Thinking that it had been way too long since our last visit, we booked a week in an apartment. Our apartment was next door to the Plaza Resort where we had always stayed.
The apartment was not as nice as the photos but our landlady was so sweet we just made do. Then came the really disappointing discoveries of what happened in Bonaire over the last ten years!
- The Plaza Resort was so run-down and ugly that we nearly cried. A casualty of the poor economy.
- A construction frenzy five years ago also left many unfinished projects unfunded.
- Another big wave had hit the island and pushed tons of dead coral up onto the beaches. Now there are almost no beaches, just piles of coral.
- The numbers of reef fish have greatly diminished, it seems due to overfishing! We still saw fish but not the big schools of fish we used to see.
- You can’t have a peaceful dinner downtown on the waterfront Friday-Sunday due to the constant traffic cruising the street playing loud music and revving their engines.
- We read about many flamingoes dying because of a section of power lines near the salt flats yet nothing has been done in the several years of talking about it.
Although it still seems okay for divers there, as they can dive the steep walls, I suspect that they too are not seeing the numbers of fish that used to thrive there.
It is also good for wind surfers, as Lac Bay is such an ideal shallow water bay for them. Lac Bay has two windsurfing companies and a resort called Sorobon. Sorobon was always a clothing optional resort but as of December have become clothing required! We toured the property and it was cute and well kept. Little beach cottages that are popular with families because the water there is extremely shallow.
We made the best of our week there but agreed not to go back to Bonaire again. It is time to find another favorite island.
Good-bye Bonaire – we wish you luck in recovering from a weak economy and a couple of big, bad waves.
