Dive Review of Great Adventures Bonaire/Harbour Village Resort in
Bonaire

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Great Adventures Bonaire/Harbour Village Resort, Feb, 2009, by Stanley Holz, NH, USA ( Reviewer 3 reports). Report 4653.
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	The Harbour Village Resort is not one of those places you hear mentioned very often when divers talk about where to stay on Bonaire. I think some of this lack of dive recognition has to be due to the lack of advertising this resort does in dive magazines. Another factor is the simple fact that Harbour Village is more expensive than most, if not all, of the other dive resorts on the island. Regardless of this relative anonymity, I found Harbour Village and its dive op, Great Adventures , to be a pleasant surprise. My room was the least expensive available, a standard room with a view of the courtyard. Somewhat smallish, it contained a generous king size bed surrounded on all sides with lace netting. A satellite TV, two tables, two dressers, a closet, a bathroom, and a small patio were part of the package. A roomy shower, but no tub, was provided. The resort’s restaurant is called La Balandra and is styled like a wooden ship. It juts out over the water at the end of the beach. On the other end of the beach sits the dive shop, Great Adventures. During my 10 day stay here, I found the food varied from good to excellent, but never bad. For lunch, the hamburgers here are irresistible … and huge. Great Adventures is managed by a gentleman named Leonel. Leonel was often the boat driver, but also acted as the Divemaster on occasion. More often, the DM was a fellow named Nollie who was also quite competent and helpful. The dive op has two boats; a big Newton 42 and a smaller 36’ boat. Both boats were comfortable, but the 42” boat was used most of the time even though we had as few as 3 divers on some of the trips. Snorkelers were welcome on the boat, and my wife Sandy got in a few trips. Nitrox is offered. Storage facilities consist of large, open wooden lockers, and hangars for BC’s and wetsuits. The storage areas are locked at night. Two rinse tanks for gear and one for cameras are on the dock. Both boats had camera rinse tanks. A good briefing preceded every dive. We were allowed to dive our computers, but depth limits were always suggested. Typically, Leonel or Nollie would have us turn back after 30 to 35 minutes or 1,000 pounds. When we reached the mooring, we were allowed to stay in the water as long as we wanted to. Most dives lasted about an hour. The majority of the dive sites visited were off Klein Bonaire, which sits directly across from the resort. We also dove the Hilma Hooker and took a short ride to Oil Slick Leap. Two dive sites are directly accessible from the resort’s beach. Only 50 yards out, rests the wreck of the “Our Confidence.” This wooden hulled former Danish fishing ship sank in 2003 and lies in only 55’ of water. It is marked by a black buoy and easily reached from shore or the dive shop pier. Even snorkelers can get a fine view of this ship from the surface. It’s starting to disintegrate rapidly now, but much of it is still intact. It is a great haven for fish, and I had a ball down there with my camera. From the wreck, or from the restaurant, a line is laid that will take you under the shipping channel to a site called Something Special. This site starts out as mostly rubble, but an incredible number and variety of fish love to feed in the rubble. The line ends at a nice reef which is teeming with all kinds of fish. Some of the sites I visited were Knife, Hands Off, the Hilma Hooker, Monte’s Divi, Leonora Reef, Bonaventure, Punt Vierkent, Just A Nice Dive, and Oil Slick Leap. I think Just A Nice Reef had to be one of my favorite dives since it’s a turtle sanctuary and also features a very healthy reef system. The Hilma Hooker is one of Bonaire’s signature dives, but I’m not that impressed. I’ve visited the wreck three times now, and always have found the water to be turbulent with poor visibility. It is a big ship, and you can dive through a cargo hold, but I have never been able to see much because of particulates in the water. It’s worth doing … once. Water temperature at every site, with no exception, was a constant 81F. The reefs, below about 25’, still seem to be in fairly good shape. There was some silting at some sites but, for the most part, I saw little bleaching. Fish life is as prolific as always; with parrotfish, pufferfish, tangs, filefish, trunkfish, chromis, angelfish, barracuda and grunts everywhere. In many spots, trains of blue and silver fish would stream almost endlessly over the reefs, reminding me of rush hour commuter traffic. On two dives I saw squid in groups of two and four, and even witnessed one spraying ink. Even snorkeling in front of the resort, I saw a group of seven juvenile squid. Turtles were spotted on most dives. I got to see one large green moray out in the open on one dive, and a tiny spotted moray hiding in the coral on another. At Hands Off, Leonel pointed out a tiny seahorse hidden in the coral. The area off the beach is coral rubble, but even there I saw rockfish, a spotted eagle ray, and all the fish I had seen diving off the boat. The restaurant is built on a rock jetty, which has now become encrusted with coral and sponge. It offered excellent snorkeling and worthwhile shallow diving. I loved staying here. It's the best!
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Curacao, Ambergris Caye, Grand Turk, Cozumel, BVI, Cayman Brac, Grand Cayman, Roatan, Turks & Caicos
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	-81°F / -27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-65 Ft/ 12-20 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	30-35 minutes out, then turn around with DM. No total time restriction. Depth restrictions suggested only.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	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		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Rinse buckets on boats. Dedicated rinse tank at dive shop.

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Dive Review of Great Adventures Bonaire/Harbour Village Resort in Bonaire

Great Adventures Bonaire/Harbour Village Resort, Feb, 2009,

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 Great Adventures Bonaire/Harbour Village Resort in
Bonaire