Dive Review of Divi Flamingo in
Bonaire

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Divi Flamingo: "The west side of Bonaire is lovely and our east side dive was amazing!", Sep, 2022, by Elizabeth Hilla, VA, US ( 2 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 12059 has 2 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We arrived on a Wednesday afternoon and got started with our dive orientation the next morning. The staff member gave an excellent briefing but included a strong caution against diving the east side of the island where winds and currents are stronger. I am so glad that another diver gave us some different guidance a couple of days later – he advised us to book with Bonaire East Coast Diving and said they were safe and professional and the diving was amazing. Best tip we ever had. The west side diving was exactly what we had expected and hoped for. My husband had remembered Bonaire (from 20+ years before) for the quantity of eels, and he remembered right. Big green morays, small free swimming sharptail eels, and spotted morays with their small heads peeking out of corals. Plenty of fish including the occasional large tarpon, a couple of turtles over the course of the week, a few squid, a sting ray, and lovely soft corals. The divemasters know where the frogfish and sea horses are and made sure we got a look. We did mostly boat diving but shore dived one day at Invisibles and Salt Pier. I am less enamored of shore diving than other Bonaire divers – the entries over rocky coral with light surf make it hard to find the way in and out without falling. No injuries, but graceful it was not. Our outing with Bonaire East Coast Diving, booked online, was Monday afternoon – the only open spot they had all week. The Divi dive staff were kind enough to make sure we returned to the dock from our morning boat dive before noon, since the East Coast boat leaves at 12:45 pm. The drive to Sorobon on the other side of the island only took about 15 minutes, so we were there in plenty of time. We met the East Coast dive staff at Fishermans Pier. There were about 8 divers on the Zodiak-style boat. The divemaster, Martin, gave an excellent briefing while the boat was still in the calm waters of the bay. He said we’d do a drift dive and see two sites, White Hole and Turtle City, and explained what we might see there. He explained about getting in the water and back on the boat, which turned out to be very easy since winds were light that day. We backrolled in and started the dive at about 12 feet and immediately saw three small squid, a turtle, and a big tarpon. Martin then led us into the White Hole. First we saw several individual large tarpon. A big green moray under a ledge. Barracuda. Spotted drum. Big porcupine fish. French angel. Then a whole battalion of tarpon in a little hollowed out area. My husband counted them: 21! Next a sting ray buried in sand and then an eagle ray flew by - eventually making a big circle back. Then Martin pointed out the first turtle cleaning station. At least two big turtles were getting cleaned - standing on their toes and leaning this way and that (honey, would you scrub under my belly?). Amazing. Other turtles swam by. A sea horse was attached to a small soft coral out in the middle of the flat sandy bottom. We swam across the sand and up a bit and saw a nurse shark napping in a ledge. He swam off after a minute. We followed Martin out of the hole into sea fan flats about 12 feet deep, toward the Turtle City dive site. Many flamingo tongues. An octopus hiding in a hole. Two more big green morays. MORE turtle cleaning stations— all over the place. Then we got to a drop off and saw three sting rays swimming in a pack. More turtles - we saw at least 20-25 total, both up close and far away. One had wedged himself under a ledge to help stay put. Where the water got deeper, we saw two very long (5 feet?) cornet fish, apparently a fairly rare sighting. Then two more eagle rays glided by. Honestly, it was the most mind-blowing dive we’d ever done. When I got back to the resort, I found the nice man from North Carolina who had recommended the East Coast trip and gave him a hug. We were very happy staying at Divi. We enjoyed having drinks at the waterside bar. We loved snorkeling underneath the dive dock to find the resident octopus along with eels, a scorpion fish, and other creatures. A buffet breakfast was included (if you go, try the pumpkin pancakes!). We had a couple of other meals at Divi as well but also checked out several restaurants in town and they were all good. Lunch at Julian’s is a winner, as is the gelato at Luciano’s. A vacation with ice cream, eagle rays, and turtles is a very good one indeed! Tip: if you are going to Bonaire and want to go out with East Coast Diving, book online a couple of weeks ahead to ensure availability.
Websites	Divi Flamingo
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	All over the Caribbean - Little Cayman, Saba, Roatan, Utila, Curacao, Belize, North and South Caicos, San Salvador in the Bahamas. Also Costa Rica.
Closest Airport	Bonaire	Getting There	We made all connections, which was very fortunate because if we had missed the Wed flight from Miami to Bonaire the next one wasn't till Saturday! BTW, I think making a Wed-Wed trip rather than Sat-Sat may have reduced the headaches a bit.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	-°F / -°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	- Ft/ - M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Divi Flamingo in Bonaire

Divi Flamingo: "The west side of Bonaire is lovely and our east side dive was amazing!", Sep, 2022,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Divi Flamingo in
Bonaire