We left London at 10:10 BST on Tuesday 5th October 2010 on BA2159 to Trinidad via St Lucia. Landed in St Lucia about 8 hours later but unfortunately all we saw of it was the runway from inside the plane as we weren't allowed off. A couple of hours later and we arrived in Trinidad. We weren't allowed immediately through immigration since we didn't have a print out of our onward ticket with us! Seems they are a lot stricter on these sort of things in the Caribbean than anywhere else I've ever been before. A nice man from BA managed to get us a print out from our next airline and we were through and in a taxi to the Holiday Inn Express. Probably the most expensive hotel we will stay in all year but the only hotel close to the airport and it was pretty nice to get there after a long flight.
The next morning we headed back to the airport to continue our journey to Curacao and Bonaire. Along the way we paid more in excess baggage charges than I have ever paid before (we each have our dive gear in a separate bag). For future reference, Liat have particularly high charges, we handed over an extra $184 for the 2 hour flight to Curacao, only slightly less than the cost of the tickets!
After dealing with more immigration difficulties in Bonaire (no onward flight ticket and no booked accommodation and wanting to stay for 40 days apparently not OK) we found ourselves in the tourist information office in Kralendijk desperately seeking a room during the busiest week of the year, International Regatta week! Luckily we found a room for that night only that didn't cost the earth and was in town. Next day (Thursday) we found a room further out of town, at the Black Durgon Inn, for a few days at a very cheap rate. Good enough while we looked for something more long term but a long 3 mile walk from town.
Finally on Thursday afternoon we had a chance to get in the water. Just for a snorkel as we arrived too late for a diving orientation of the marine park. Water is 30 degrees C at the surface, clear with almost endless visibility and a stunning number and variety of fish even in 2 metres depth!
Thursday evening we walked into town and went to Wannadive Hut, where we are planning to spend the rest of our time here, for their weekly all you can eat BBQ with free run punch :-) Seems like a very friendly place bustling with divers and cheapish beer. Met a group from Seattle who spend most of the year cold water diving much like ourselves. Hopefully, we will see them again and maybe go diving with them.
On Friday we started diving. The Black Durgon Inn has access to a site called Small Wall which we're told is a very good site that you can only dive if you are staying here or come in by boat (Bonaire is pretty much all shore diving). After breakfast and an orientation we jumped in and had a pootle along the reef to see what we could see. Was pretty awesome (not quite as diverse and colourful as the Indo-Pacific but pretty close). After the dive I headed into town to take my CV to every dive school I could find. Every one had pretty much the same answer, no work permit it's going to be difficult especially as the law changes on Monday when Bonaire becomes a municipality of The Netherlands. Also I'm not really here for long enough to be of use to anyone. So guess it's just going to be a long (and expensive) holiday until I head to Tobago in mid-November to work for Coral Cay Conservation. I probably need the break anyway. A second dive just before sunset cheered me up and this time we actually saw the wall part of the dive site which the current didn't allow us to earlier. Pretty impressive. Will hopefully have a chance to learn more about the fish here as they are quite different to those I know in Asia and The Red Sea.
Saturday (today) has been a diving and relaxing day. 3 dives, some reading, some eating and some napping :-) First dive of the day was to 35 metres where a sizable stingray swam past. Also saw lots of morays, a couple of snake eels, 2 cuttlefish and a huge barracuda amongst thousands of other fish. The cutest sights of the day are probably the tiny tobies and a juvenile burrfish who was hanging around at the start and end of our third dive.
Tomorrow we plan to dive further afield having grabbed a lift with a couple of guys who arrived today. Not sure we've quite adjusted to the slower pace of life yet but definitely getting there. No running has been accomplished yet but I think we may have found the Bonaire Hash House Harriers who run every other Wednesday.
Glad you made it, despite the paperwork. Sounds like the diving is worth the trip, hope the hash is as good :-)
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