In early 2012 we had the pleasure of travelling to Bonaire, on a mission to improve our underwater photography and videography skills. While we were out there we also had the opportunity to get to know SeaLife Cameras. We got to play with SeaLife's awesome DC 1400 and Mini ll cameras. We used them in all sorts of situations: with lights, without lights on the surface and below - for both video and photo.
We stayed at Divi Flamingo which is an amazing dive resort! The staff were incredibly nice and very accommodating. The rooms were very comfortable and had American electrical outlets, which we loved!
Boat Diving during the day was great. We got to explore several different dive sites around Bonaire. My favorite experience for the day diving was checking out the Sea Horses. I had never seen one before and on this trip I got to see many of them! They were also a good size, probably around 5 inches in length! We didn't see a lot of large creatures this time - one eagle ray, a few turtles ... that's about it. The macro life here however, is just amazing!
Hilma Hooker is Bonaire's most popular wreck dive, which is around 230 ft in length and sits around 90ft of water. This dive site is popular and can get very busy. So if you are looking to get a good photo opportunity, it's best to try and be on the first boat of the day. You can talk to your dive guides and see when they think the best time to go out to the dive site would be. I think our boat left at 7:30am so we would be there by 8am and had at least 20 minutes alone with the wreck.
Night Diving was also just as amazing! Our night dives were all shore dives, and we were able to see all sorts of things. My favorite experience at night was the resident octopus. Like most night dives, it was always a great adventure!
Food at the resort was tasty, although we did try and eat at local restaurants as much as we could. My favorite restaurant hands down was Capriccio Ristorante!! Their food is beyond amazing! Make sure to make a dinner reservation as they were booked pretty solid around dinner time.
We got to explore much of the island thanks to Bonaire Toursim. We explored the Mangroves in Lac Bay, which I highly recommend. It's a two hour kayak and snorkel tour. You learn about the Mangroves and surrounding ocean life. It was a great break and top side activity to do.
The coolest top side adventure however, was the cave exploring and snorkeling. We didn't really know what we were in for when we were told that we were going to go "cave snorkeling". It was quite exciting to drop a rope down into a cave, crawl through it and then snorkel around. Definitely a unique experience and something you might want to check out!
Let us know if you have any questions about Bonaire or SeaLife cameras. We'd love to hear from you!
Enjoy the video!!
