The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers October 2007 Vol. 22, No. 10 Bruce Bowker’s Carib Inn, Bonaire IN THIS ISSUE: hard to book, but heaven for hardcore divers Carib Inn, Bonaire . 1 Dear Reader: Car Rental Insurance. .. 3 Bonaire’s semi-arid climate makes for great visibil- Thumbs Down: AquaCat . 4 ity, and its reefs are shallow and full of life. The Reef Environmental Educational Foundation (REEF) lists eight Indonesian Liveaboard of North America’s top 10 sites for species richness in Update. .............. 5 Bonaire. Another bonus: Bonaire lies far south of the Dive Boat Fiascos . ..... 6 Caribbean’s hurricane belt, so it was spared any effects of recent hurricanes Dean and Felix. The last hurricane Readers’ Travel Reports . 7 it felt was Lenny in 1999. Waves hitting the western side for 12 hours destroyed the charming restaurant and dive Diver’s Death Due to Few shop that stood over the water at Sand Dollar Condominium Skills, Faulty Valve . .. 7 Resort, my usual haunt. The government became restrictive about structures built over water so Sand Dollar wasn’t Disabled Diver Sues DAN permitted to rebuild on the old site. My new choice would and Coast Guard. .... 8 be the Carib Inn. Divers as Hazards. ..... 9 With years of diving under my belt, I felt wor- New Advice for Divers thy of becoming a guest. That’s because this small, no- frills resort caters strictly to hardcore divers. Bowker, in Rip Currents . ..... 10 Bonaire’s first full-time dive instructor back in 1973, Is Diving Eco-Friendly? . 11 worked for Captain Don, then founded the Carib Inn in 1980 and is legendary among serious divers. His staff gives Breathing Exercises for excellent service but also leaves divers to do as they Longer Dive Time. .. 12 please. That’s why the Carib Inn, just south of downtown Kralendijk, has an average occupancy rate of 90 percent Underwater Photo Tips and the highest return guest percentage in Bonaire. It’s from the Pros . ..... 14 so hard to get a reservation that even return guests must book a year ahead of time. Dive Pioneers Tell All . 15 As a first-time visitor last June, I got a brief div- Flotsam and Jetsam . .. 16 ing orientation after checking in. Unescorted by a divemas- www.undercurrent.org ter, I did the official checkout dive on the Inn’s house reef. The white, sandy bottom spread out gently, scattered Editorial Office: with nautical debris, including a mix of rusted anchors Ben Davison from different decades. Reef squid hovered in groups, Publisher and Editor Undercurrent while a small octopus was out and about. I also saw three 3020 Bridgeway, Suite 102 spotted morays, a goldentail and a sharptail moray. When I Sausalito, CA 94965 placed my hand in front of Pederson cleaner shrimp, they [email protected] soon hopped on to do a manicure. During my night dives, a large green moray, 24 inches around at the neck, basked in Miami shallow water, and on afternoon dives an eagle ray put on lengthy shows. Aruba Bonaire In my mind, “resort” conjures up images VENEZUELA of pools, bars, restaurants and long lists of Curacao guest activities. Not the Carib Inn. It has a freshwater pool, but no restaurant or bar. However, the Divi Flamingo Beach Resort and Casino have such amenities. There are only San Juan 10 units, each containing a refrigerator and microwave, and eight have kitchens. Rooms are basic but air-conditioned, clean and comfort- able. I stayed in Unit 3, near the pool, with tile floors and a full kitchen. Two twin beds could be pushed together, and the day bed quickly became an equipment bench. The bath- room was small and needed more ventilation but had a nice-sized shower. I gladly paid the additional $10 daily charge to run the air-conditioning when not in the room because it couldn’t cool the room quickly after being switched off. Free wi-fi Internet access around the pool also worked well in my room. During my week, the guests were American hardcore divers, with the exception of a young Dutch couple. I met a couple enjoying their 27th visit to the resort. All divers are required to pay a $25 annual fee to dive in the Bonaire National Marine Park and receive a tag to place on their BCs. At Angel City in the south, a ranger politely asked to see my tags. Part of a double reef system, Angel City had a easy beach entry, although like all the southern entries, there are many chunks of sharp ironshore in the sand interspersed with slick rocks that can cut and trip divers when waves come in. The two reefs merged just south of the mooring buoy anchored in the sand and were filled with large boulder star coral and multiple schools of school- masters, creole wrasses, blue tangs and bold trumpet fish. Several juvenile spot- ted drums posed for pictures. While I was told to expect large schools of horse-eyed jacks, I never saw any here or at any other site. I dived Alice in Wonderland, south of Angel City, three times. On the south end is a canal bringing seawater to the solar salt farm that made a good entry point to go in geared up and avoid the slick rock. It was a long swim to the inner reef but worth it to see colorful boulder star coral, brain coral and tube sponges. Rainbow anemones contained Pederson, squat and spotted cleaner shrimp, often in the same anem- one. Five flamingo tongues clung to one gorgonian. Large schools of Creole wrasses and blue tangs were common, as well as hinds and graysbys. I have never seen so many lettuce leaf slugs; one was the size of a small lime. The Carib Inn made diving easy. Bruce Bowker’s Carib Inn I was assigned a number to hold space on the dive boats that also corre- Diving (experienced) H HHHH sponded with a numbered tank. There was Diving H HHHH a signup board for after-hours tanks, (beginners) and extra tanks for shore divers were Snorkeling HHH always available day and night. After each dive, I returned my tank to be Accommodations HHH refilled. Because I went shore diving, Restaurant Food H HHHH I didn’t interact much with the staff; they left me alone unless I asked for Service and Attitude H HHHH something and then were friendly and Money’s Worth H HHHH helpful. Multi-day fill packages were also offered but there was no need to purchase one in advance. At the end of H = poor HHHHH= excellent my stay, staff looked at my total fills and gave me the package that equaled the Caribbean Scale best possible deal. 2 The dive shop is a full-service facility stocked with high-end equip- ment for sale and rent. My dive buddy A Good Reason for had a regulator problem, and Bowker worked on it twice without charge. He Car Rental Insurance was unable to solve the problem but After diving in Bonaire, Undercurrent subscriber Beverly when my friend asked for a rental, Leo wanted to pass on this warning: Beware of car-rental Bowker explained that the regulator companies trying to take advantage if you’ve passed on their wouldn’t pose safety concerns during collision-damage waiver (CDW). “It seems some have a ripoff the week, and he was right. Nitrox was expensive –- fills were $15 each or scheme by claiming renters are damaging their vehicles. $179 for six days of unlimited fills Without complete photographic evidence, the dispute goes (by comparison, the Aggressor boats on and on, and the renter has to either leave the credit card charge $100 for the week). But Bowker charge open or close the account, signing off on the additional says he doesn’t think Nitrox is worth charges.” the cost when doing two to three dives daily with huge surface intervals. Divers renting cars in Bonaire are ideal targets. Because the red-eye lands while still dark, the car rental person goes Two dive boats went out promptly with a flashlight to mark dents and scratches on the paper- at 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. daily for one-tank dives. Boat diving was handled work. When you return the car in the daytime, voila, there’s the same way as tank rental -- inter- supposedly a new dent. That’s what happened to the man ested divers could place their number standing in front of Leo at Budget Car Rental. “He had taken on the sign-up board by the tank fill photos of the sides of the rental truck, but he photographed room. Like the Inn itself, the boats them in the early morning and didn’t photograph the front were clean, basic, fiberglass boats or rear. He said the Budget employee had written down the powered by large outboards, with large areas of the car which he had photographed, but the dent they ladders making for easy exits from the claimed he caused was on the unphotographed region of the water. Boat dives were $15 each, with vehicle. That caused us to photograph the entirety of our vehi- the best package deal calculated at trip’s end. However, only one boat was cle and when we returned our car, it was without incident.” in use each day and it was never full. It doesn’t end with the car rental agency – then you have With 60 dive sites on Bonaire’s west- ern side alone, shore diving never got to dispute the claim with your credit card company.