Diverdown in Bonaire

Have you ever wanted to try diving for fun?  It's like flying, except you can only stay down for about an hour at a time, though most who have a passion for diving would love to get gills.  The cost isn't bad and the time it takes to do the classes isn't too long.  You can typically take your courses for @$225 per person and your check out dive is similar in cost.  The equipment isn't expensive either, for @$600 you can have equipment that'll last you a decade or more easily.  The only people I would not recommend diving to are people who become claustrophobic, because if they panic 100 feet down, they may not manage to get back up top intact.  

Now, once you finish your preperations to start you on your exciting adventure of diving, may I recommend Bonaire, part of the Dutch Antillies off the north west tip of Venezuela also know as the ABC islands.  If you come from the US, you generally stop in Puerto Rico and hop a large puddle jumper to the island of 13,000.  The city is very European, and it is friendly and safe to travel any time of the day or night.  The colorful homes are a pleasure to watch above water and almost rivals those below the waterline.  The history of the island is easy to spot as are the dive sites.  This is one of the few spots in the world you can really enjoy night diving.  The local wild life has gotten so used to night divers that tarpons linger in the dark behind divers waiting for divers to put their flash ligh onto animals on the reek, which temporarily blinds the fish, and the tarpon rush past the divers to snatch up a quick meal of the blinded fish.  First time it happened to my wife, she instantly calle dthe dive and worked her way up safely to get out it shook her that much, even though the tarpon are harmless to human beings.  To give you an idea of what a tarpon looks like if you have never seen on in person, think of a pro basketball player sized fish, now flatter him to @7-8 inched thick and cover him in a child's hand sized silver scales and a huge head and it looks a bit like a sardine.

You find tarpon during the day in the shadows of the Wilhma Hooker wreck, a cargoship that is now part of the reef only 30-40 feet off shore with a 120 foot bottom, so even the least experienced diver can touch bottom and look around at the wonder.  Seeing several large fish hanging in the dark corners of the wreck may seem scary to some, but in fact, you live to find these experiences when you dive Bonaire.  Best part is, you come to the island and sign up wth one of the dive shops for your tanks, so for @$130/week /person you have unlimited air for diving and even Gesser Gas for us older divers who don't want to go 200 feet but enjoy the 50-120 foot range, which for most divers is plenty.  So you can go back over and over to your favorite sites.

One nice thing about Bonaire besides the people, cheap air and top quality dive services, is you can dive 24/7/365 and most dive sites are far enough apoart so you can off gass between locations (off gassing is ridding the body of compressed nitrogen gas in the blood stream because the build up can cause health issues).  So, with a rental truck, unlimited air and a dive partner you can have the island almost to yourself.  The people all around are helpful and nice to converse with.  The thing is, if you visit Bonaire for diving, you might find yourself taking a vacation from your vacation once you come back, because once you enter the water you never want to leave it and may find yourself doing 5 dives a day (that's @10 hours of dive and rest time).  So, go get your dive license and start something new!