Our first full day in Bonaire had a number of housekeeping items to attend to. Todd and I were up and having breakfast by 7:30 AM, and we met my parents in the breakfast area shortly after we’d sat down to eat. The breakfast options were plentiful, and I was excited because there was an omelette station which I tried. After breakfast Todd and I went back to our room and did a bit of unpacking and organizing.
The first task of the day was to attend the dive shop orientation which started at 9 AM. One of the staff members walked us through the dive area, explained a bit about diving on the island, and explained where we’d go to get air tanks both for diving their house reef, as well as if we’re diving any of the other shore sites. The day before the winds had reversed and this had caused some very large waves to hit the west side of the island. This was apparently uncommon but not unheard of, it was explained to us that every couple of years it can happen, but the result was that some of the docks at the resort had been damaged and many benches had been removed to avoid them being washed away. As we were getting our briefing the dive shop was a hive of activity as the staff was trying to get everything back to normal. After completing the orientation we got our rental gear sized up, and then got a locker we could use for the duration of our stay to store the gear.
After we completed the dive briefing we went back to the front desk to pick up our rental truck, so that we could leave the resort and pick up some groceries for lunches and snacks. After going through the whole checkout process we discovered that the battery in the truck was dead, so we had to wait a bit for the resort to see if they could get the truck going. I went back to the room and did a bit more organizing.
Shortly after 11 AM we went back to the front desk, and were told we’d be given a new truck. We had to go through the checkout process again, but the second truck was much newer and in better condition so we felt like it was worth the wait. Mom, Dad and I left the resort around 11:30 AM, and using Google Maps went to 4 different grocery stores to see what we could find. Ironically the best grocery store of the 4 was the one which was only a couple minute drive from the resort, and it was the one we ended up visiting last. It was still a nice way to get a bit of a feel for the town.
We were back from the grocery trip at 1 PM, and by this time we were all hungry so made lunch using the groceries we’d purchased. We had bought bread, buns, peanut butter, cheese, apples, broccoli and some crackers which made for a filling lunch. After we’d eaten we got changed into our swim gear, packed up our dive equipment and headed down to the dive shop to complete our checkout dive.
We took a bit of time getting all of our gear assembled on the dock, but by 3:00 PM we were descending the ladder into the ocean for our first dive of the trip. The checkout dive was a nice opportunity to get familiarized with the equipment and make sure we had the appropriate weight. It also gave us an opportunity to see some of the reef right beside the resort! I chose not to bring my camera on this dive to focus on the basics, which was unfortunate because I saw a Caribbean reef squid hanging out in some coral which was something I hadn’t seen diving before. For me the checkout dive went smoothly, but both Todd and my Dad decided they didn’t have enough weight, so after we returned from the dive they got additional weights from the rental shop. We didn’t make it a full dive, we were under for around 35 minutes, but it was a good start! After getting everything rinsed and away it was around 4:15 PM and so we returned to our rooms.
After the checkout dive we got showered and ready for dinner. We met up with my parents at 5:15 PM, chatted for about 30 minutes, and then left the resort for dinner at 5:45 PM. We drove to downtown Kralendijk and found a parking spot right on the waterfront, and walked to Bon Tapa for our meal. We didn’t have a reservation but were able to get a table, and we enjoyed a delicious dinner. We sat outside and got to watch the sky darken as the sun set, unfortunately we didn’t have a clear view of the sunset.
We returned to the resort, where we did a bit of reading before bed shortly after 9 PM.