Travel and Hotel - 5 June 2004

The Resort

PRB's Beach

Toucan Diving

Another Boat

Winter, 2003. It doesn't get that cold in Texas, but it's a little chilly when doing Open Water training with students in Lake Travis at 60 degrees! So when Beth and I started thinking about a dive vacation that summer, it had to be someplace warm, for at least a week, so we could really soak up the warm water. Back to Bonaire!

We did Bonaire in March of 2001 for our honeymoon, and it was truly fantastic. So we were really excited when we got a great deal from Caradonna at the Plaza Resort Bonaire (PRB) resort, with diving at Toucan Diving. Best of all, they had a special, where "Tou Can Dive For One". June couldn't come fast enough!

Our plane trip was uneventful - Austin to Dallas to San Juan, Puerto Rico to Bonaire. (We chose to fly from Austin to Dallas to avoid the three-hour drive.) The two-hour PR-to-Bonaire leg was in a dual prop job, an American Eagle Super ATR-72, noisy but pretty smooth. Thanks to Beth's iPod Mini we had plenty of music to drown out the engine noise.

It was a late-night arrival in Bonaire, and the "high quality" rental car we arranged was a real piece of junk. Nonfunctional wipers, badly scratched on all surfaces, a badly-bent bench seat, no radio or A/C - but it did drive.

The fun didn't end there, though. I remembered the way to PRB, and with a little help we found our room. I was pretty hungry when we finally made it back to our room, and given the late hour, we ordered room service. It took nearly 90 minutes to get the food! First they claimed to "mishear" the room number, and then they "couldn't find the room". Yeesh - it's their hotel! Welcome to the Caribbean.