Manta Divers Blog: Team Manta Travels to Bonaire

Well, Team Manta is off on another adventure, this time to Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. We started out Saturday, January 12 at 2:30am with a limo ride to the airport. After running the gauntlet of check in, baggage weigh ins, security checks and body scans at Chicago O’Hare airport, we squeezed sardine like into our seats and were winging our way to a week at the Caribbean’s most famous dive island.

We arrived at Flamingo International airport at 3:05pm local time. We were hoping that the reward for braving the scary wee hours of the morning would be that we would have enough time to check in, attend orientation, and then DIVE. Alas, it was not to be. We got to the dive shop after 5 pm and they were closed, however, we still could snorkel, so a bunch of Manta Divers who just couldn’t wait grabbed their snorkel gear and hit the clear, turquoise water. We will have to go to the orientation on Sunday morning and start our dive week then.

We were told that the stores all closed at 6 on Saturday and all day Sunday, so we had already sent Mike to the store to get at least a few essentials to get us through the next couple of days. He came back with a supply of cold cuts, bread, fruit, snacks, soda and beer, but everything was quite pricey. I suppose it beats eating in the restaurant. One thing I should have brought, but did not is bug spray. For how windy it is on Bonaire it is surprising how many little biting insects there are. Not everyone complained about the bugs, though, so perhaps they just like me better.

Our next order of business is to find out where to watch the Packers game. It appeared, based on the TV listings, that we have a choice of watching it in our condo or at the pool bar, but after the Ravens’ overtime win over the Broncos, the island networks decided that they had had enough of American football and switched to soccer! The silver lining, though was that we were spared witnessing the Packers’ loss and we when to bed earlier and caught up on much needed sleep. We will be ready to dive tomorrow.

I did take a little time to explore the property, so take a look at the attached photos. Stay tuned for the next Manta Divers blog, “They named it Angel City but the devil was in the entry and exit.”