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Photos and comments from our 2003 trip to Bonaire
with a stopover in Puerto Rico.
We spent two weeks on Bonaire in October 2003, staying in "the House" at Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn.
Here are the "Good Guys" from this year's trip:
Pascual was our "official" taxi driver for the duration. Took us to shore dive sites, responded to an
emergency call at the supermarket when we bought too much to carry, took us to the airport to pick up Linda's folks, out to eat, etc. The few dollars spent with him was MUCH less expensive than renting a car.
I violated the basic rule - SET IT UP AND TEST IT BEFORE YOU GO. I had a new housing and hadn't used the strobe with it. Tim Peters of Fish-Eye Photo went far and beyond what would
be expected to help me get things going. When my strobe failed (first time in 20 years of UW photo - I bounced it on the tile floor on the on/off switch) he was there with a rental, so I didn't miss a
dive! Paul at Light and Motion responded within a very few minutes to an international fax with a
reply fax (also international) to correct an operator error with the Tetra housing! Not mentioned in either the Tetra manual or the Olympus manual is that the Olympus 3030 will ONLY operate an
external strobe (like the Nikonos) in the MANUAL mode - I was trying to use shutter priority. This fax arrived after the morning boat dive on Friday, setting me up to use the strobe all weekend,
which might not otherwise happened. Tim found out the issue with the MANUAL setting and Paul confirmed it, plus faxing two pages of Tetra tips from the Light and Motion website. I should have
printed them and taken them with me, but, thanks to Paul, I had them. Communications Systems Bonire (Gabriel Saleh, Sales Manager), Kaya Grandi 34A, (phone 717-2828) came to our rescue by having his very efficient technician move photos from the camera
cards to CD to free up storage space on the camera cards. The technician even stayed overtime to make the transfer, rather than having us come back two days later! Restaurants of note this trip:
The Rendez-Vous has been purcahsed by two folks from Holland. While it has been
remodeled, the fine food continues in a much more plesant atmosphere. Their $20 three course dinner was satsifying and beautifully presented. A local watering hole on Kaya Abraham between the Carib Inn and downtown has been
turned into an Argentinina grill, called Casablanca. They serve a "mixed grill for two" for $32 which left us with enough leftovers for several lunches. The Divi has remodeled the Calabas and only serves a buffet breakfast there. While the surroundings are nice, the service was poor, the food was mediocre and the price ($27 for
two) was outrageous! I guess I just don't take well to having to elbow my way through three employees shooting the breeze in front of the cashier to pay that kind of money for breakfast!
We met many new friends there - most of them come to the Carib Inn once or twice a year! It really feels like home!
Enough of that - click on the buttons at the top right to see the sights on the surface and underwater!
or click here:
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