We did a 7 day liveaboard around Glover Atoll with a few dives around Turneffe in October of 2023. Here is a video from 26 dives on that trip
Our trip was on Aggressor III. Departing from Belize City we did 4 days at Glover Atoll primarily south east side, and then headed over to Turneffe for a day and a half of diving there. Aggressor as usual was a great diving boat, wonderful crew, great food, 4 dives a day plus night dive, and they let you have long dives.
We did two days of diving in Cozumel in August of 2023, after our diving trip to Malpelo in Colombia and before heading to Tulum. Cozumel is famous for strong currents and drift dives. But with all the warm water and El Nino, or for whatever reason, the currents were very weak when we were there. Diving was very nice with good visibility, warm water, incredible huge coral formations and quite a lot of fish. Cozumel Marine park was established in 1996 and conservation efforts have been successful in restoring fish populations. Here is a short vide with highlights from the dives.
We dove with Tres Pelicanos dive center. They were excellent and well organized. There are many dive shops in Cozumel. We would see half a dozen dive boats around each dive site – quite a shock after Malpelo. This was a low season and we were told that during the high season there would be at least double or triple the number of divers that we saw in August.
Logistics
We flew to Cancun and took a ferry over to Cozumel. There is an international airport in Cozumel, but it has fewer flights. The connection from the airport, by bus to the ferry in Playa de Carmen works very well. There are two ferry companies and there is a ferry going to Cozumel every our.
In Cancun one can stay in the main town or in one of the resorts along the shore. We stayed in town in one of the many small hotels – ours had 4 units in it. Since we were only there for a couple of days, we did not hire a car. We walked around the main town and its shops and restaurants. And one afternoon hired a motorbike to explore the island.
Even during the low season in August there were two or three cruise ships in Cozumel every day.
On one of the days, after finishing diving we hired a motorbike and went around the island. There is a road that makes a loop around the southern part of the island. I tis a very good paved road with not many vehicles on it once you get out of the town itself.
Along the eastern shore there are several beaches. It was quite windy and the water was pretty rough when we were there. There was also fair bit of sargassum washed up on the shores. The beaches are sites for turtles laying eggs. There is a large turtle conservation program on Cozumel and sites were all marked. There are also special tours where one can help conservation program.
We drove through the Punta Sur eco beach park. The road inside of the park is not paved but it is a good compacted road and two wheel drive or motorbike works fine.
On the main road, next to the entrance to the Punta Sur eco beach park, there is a Bob Marley Bar – also known as Rasta Bar and Reggae beach bar. Having lived in Ethiopia and Jamaica we were very determined to make it there for a drink. Unfortunately, we did not read the sign and did not realize it closed at 5pm. By the time were done with Eco beach park and ready for a sundowner, it was closed. Maybe for the next time then.
The next day we headed to Tulum to try diving in cenotes and explore Maya ruins.
Bonaire is a Dutch island in the Caribbean sea close to the coast of Venezuela. It is known as a shore diving capital of the world. We dove around Bonair for a week in early August 2022 before heading for another week of diving in Curacao.
The video below has highlights of what we saw on our dives. We did 17 shore dives on Bonaire and 2 boat dives around Klein Bonaire – a smaller island next to Bonaire.
August is a hurricane season in the Caribbean, but Bonair, Curacao and Aruba (ABC islands) are located south of the hurricane belt, and generally do not get much rainfall all year round. During our trip the weather was good even though we had occasional short showers in the afternoon. We were able to dive every day and explore top side too. Visibility was excellent about 20-30m. Water temperature was C27-28.
Getting there.
There is no ferry service between ABC islands. We arrived to Bonaire by a small plane from Curacao. In 2022 two airlines operated flights between Curacao and Bonair. We flew on Dividivi air and there was also EZAir. Because of the small size of the plane there is a strict maximum 23 kg luggage weight limit. Water temperatures were warm C27-28 and we did not bring wetsuits with us. We were able to get our bags with full dive gear just under the limit.
Accommodation.
There are hotels, dive resorts and private rentals all around the small island. We stayed a bit out of the main town in one of the smaller private rentals where one could just walk out of from the door and shore dive.
Scuba Diving.
Shore diving is the main attraction of Bonair. You hire a car (pickup truck), then hire the tanks, drive to the dive site, gear up, walk in, dive, finish a dive or two, go back to the dive shop to swap the tanks, repeat. The advise is not to leave anything in the car when going diving, not to lock it, and leave windows open. We followed the advise. Most of the time we would see at least another couple of cars parked with people diving, arriving or packing up and felt absolutely safe all around the island.
There are quite a few dive shops on the island where diving seems to be the main tourist activity and tourism – the main industry. We rented our air from VIP diving. We dove on nitrox to extend bottom time and did 3 dives most of the days. There is an option to have a guide, but we dove without one. There are several books with very detailed descriptions of all Bonair dive sites. We have used a paperback version of 2018 addition of Reef Smart Guides Bonaire: Scuba Dive. Snorkel. Surf. The book has the most detailed and clear dive site descriptions we’ve ever seen, even with 3D drawings. Because entry points are rocky and have sharp reef areas, one needs to dive with booties (no open toe fins), and the thicker the sole on the booties the better.
Sites are marked by yellow stones from the main road and there is also a yellow buoy in the water usually where the reef starts. Most dive sites are slopes covered with soft and hard corals. It is easy to just swim out to the marker, go in one direction along the reef and then turn around and come back. Definitely need compass. While some sights have easy entry and a sandy beach, most do not. Rocky shore, waves and swell can make entry a bit of a challenge. Most sites had clear marking on the best entry point – also with yellow stones. And then there are other divers coming in and getting out so it is good to observe before heading in.
Our top three dive sites were Salt Pier – for all the fish life and just really beautiful diving around pylons, HIlma Hooker wreck – for a cool reck and also lots of fish life and huge tarpans hanging around it, and Margate with beautiful reef and loads of fish life. But to be fair, all dives were good and each site was offering something different.
Bonaire National Marine Park includes all waters around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire down to the depth of 60 meters. It was established in 1979, is one of the oldest in the world and is considered one of the most successful. Fees paid by divers and other visitors finance the management of the park. Reefs are in very good condition with generally healthy soft and hard corals and huge sponges. Stony coral tissue loss disease unfortunately has reached Bonaire and at the time we were diving, two dive sites were closed off trying to contain the spread. All dive shops also were adding disinfectant when rinsing dive gear.
We saw a few lion fish while diving. These are invasive species without natural predators in the Caribbean. It is allowed to spear them to help protect the reef. The conditions for spearing are strict, requiring a license or diving with an authorized operator and only using marine park authorized spear (provided by a dive operator). Dive shops also require anyone wanting to spear to take PADI lion fish hunting specialty course.
Reef renewal foundation of Bonaire is trying to find ways to improve coral growth around Bonaire. They have several nurseries where pieces of corals are grown and then transplanted to the reef.
All manner of critters and other macro lens candidates were alive and well on the reef. We even found one little orange frog fish hiding in a sponge at appropriately named Something Special site.
Exploring top side
There is plenty to see on the top side of Bonaire. There is cute little old town with a few bars and restaurants, scenic drives around the island, rum distillery, iguanas, flamingoes and other birds.
On the last day before flying out we spent a day exploring the island driving all around it first heading down south, through the old town, past the salt pier, flamingo sanctuary (you can watch them from the road but cant go closer), then along the shore on the east side of the island, then inland via town and north towards Rincon (and its distillery), then loop through Washington Slagbaai National Park, and back to Rincon and back to town. The permit for diving in Marine National Park also includes the price of entry to the national park so you only have to pay once.
After a fantastic week in Bonaire we flew back to Curacao, for one more week of diving and exploring the Dutch Caribbean ABC islands.
Curacao is one of the three Dutch Caribbean islands close to the coast of Venezuela – Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao known together as ABC. We went diving in Curacao for a week in August 2022, combining with a week of diving in Bonaire.
The video below has diving highlights from 14 dives during our week in Curacao.
While it is possible to do shore diving in Curacao, it is not as easy as in Bonaire. The terrain of Curacao with little lagoons and rocky cliffs limits the number of sites one can easily reach from the shore. Diving is good though and a Curacao Bonaire combo trip worked out well for us since we in any case needed to fly to Curacao to get the small plane to Bonaire.
We based ourselves on the western side of the island in Westpunt and were diving with Go West Diving. We mostly dove from a boat and only did a couple of shore dives near the jetty, at Lagun, and on Go West excellent house reef Alice in Wonderland. Westpunt is the quiet end of Curacao, without big resorts and is about 1 hour drive from the capital Willemstad. There are a couple of smaller dive resorts and private rentals in Westpunt. There is no big supermarket so all the major shopping must be done in Willemstad. There are a couple of ok restaurants in the area. We were in a self-catering accommodation right on the cliffs with beautiful sunset views and our own barbeque which worked out perfectly for us.
When not diving we explored the island. The capital of Willemstad has many nice restaurants, the famous bridge and cute old town with colorful dutch style houses. There is the distillery that makes the famous Blue Curacao liqueur worth a visit. We also liked maritime museum in the old town.
There are two national parks on the island in its northeastern part. On the last day before flying out when we could not dive, we did both parks in the morning and then had a nice late lunch and walked around Willemstad. Shete Boka park has trails along the barren sea cliffs with striking views over the rougher side of Caribbean coast.
Christoffel national park is next door and has both rugged coast and forested area with nice views. There is a loop drive with a fully paved road to see the park. It is possible to do the hikes in the park, but we were there in the warmer time of the year and were not tempted to hike.
All in all Curacao was a nice trip. Good easy diving in warm water with good visibility, lots of things to explore on top side, good restaurants and friendly locals. Curacao Bonaire combo makes good sense if one makes it all the way down to this corner of the Caribbean.