Dive Review of Photo Tours Divers/Ocean View Villas in
Bonaire

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Photo Tours Divers/Ocean View Villas, Jul, 2005, by Robert and Rhonda Fleming, AZ, USA . Report 1857.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Photo Tours Divers (www.bonphototours.com): The classic Bonaire arrangement--unlimited shore diving for a flat daily fee, two-tank morning boat dives and one-tank afternoon dives. The boats go to Klein Bonaire except Wednesdays and Fridays, when they go to the northern end of the island. If you want to dive the southern sites, you are better off doing them as shore dives. Dive Masters were helpful, friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. The "drive-through" tank arrangement worked beautifully--pull up in front of a Photo Tours location, throw up to two tanks each into the back of your truck (you MUST rent a small truck while shore diving in Bonaire), drive off, dive, return the tanks even after hours. The dives: OK, let's start with the important thing. A pod of about 15 dolphins played with the boat enroute to Rockpile (a site on Klein Bonaire), then swam past us after we were in the water (about 30 feet away, purposeful but not seeming very interested in us), then played with the boat again during our move to the next site. After that, much of the rest of the trip--though wonderful--was anticlimax. We also saw spotted eagle rays, turtles, ocean triggerfish, large (but no huge) grouper, about a gazillion flounder and trumpetfish, a surprising variety of eels, plus all the other usual suspects. Every single dive was among the most diverse and interesting I have ever enjoyed. Unseen: squid and seahorses were pretty much the only things I had hoped to observe but did not. We're pretty confident that we could have found both with just one more day of diving. PTD has two boats, one larger and considerably shabbier than the other. The smaller, newer boat is very comfortable (though backroll entry may be a challenge if you have not learned that approach), but the older, larger boat is, well, a little long in the tooth. Probably not a big problem in Bonaire, where the water tends to be calm and the dive conditions near-perfect. Ocean View Villas (www.oceanviewvillas.com/): this interesting three-apartment complex south of the airport was designed by a Cuban architect and is managed by Tim and John, who live on the premises. No meals are provided. While it is not on the beach, it is a very short distance from shore and was laid out beautifully for divers, with rinse and outdoor shower facilities, enclosed high-wall patios (each unit private from the others), and kitchenettes for meal preparation. All utensils, spices and basics were already there, and a shopping trip the first day took care of stocking the refrigerator for our 8-day stay. Tim and John were excellent hosts, and happy to help with everything we wanted--they ended up making restaurant recommendations, reservations for post-dive massages and mangrove kayak tour on our last day (for those last two, check out the day spa run by Nubia Obando --www.infobonaire.com/dayspa/ --and the Mangrove Info and Kayak Center --www.infobonaire.com/kayaking/ --respectively). Robert and Rhonda Fleming Tucson, Arizona Trip: July 27-August 4, 2005
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Belize, Cozumel, Hawaii, Fiji, Florida Keys, St. Croix, Gulf of California
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy, cloudy	Seas	calm
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-75 Ft/ 9-23 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	No restrictions. Dive master in the water on every dive, but no requirement that divers stay with or in contact with the dive master.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	Schools	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
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Boats had a small camera tank, but no divers on any of our boat trips had anything more than simple digital cameras

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Dive Review of Photo Tours Divers/Ocean View Villas in Bonaire

Photo Tours Divers/Ocean View Villas, Jul, 2005,

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 Photo Tours Divers/Ocean View Villas in
Bonaire