500 Adrenaline Adventures (Frommer's) - Lois Friedland [36]
I love night diving, especially because you can establish neutral buoyancy and turn out your light. It’s a feeling like no other. Also, when you move your arms or legs you can watch the bioluminescence. It’s a whole different world at night with coral opening and many creatures that sleep during the day coming to life in the dark. If you’re lucky, you may find a large tarpon swimming with you. It’s not there to keep you company, but has learned that your light might temporarily stun its next meal and make it easy pickings. That said, I’ve not seen anything to fear in the way of finned creatures while night diving around Bonaire.
Depending on which location you choose, you can dive from a marked site on the shore or enter at about 2.5m (8 ft.), swim a short way (at which point I like to anchor a small strobe), and then head down. It’s an easy dive to drop to about 15m (50 ft.) on the way out and come back toward the shore at a depth of 9m (30 ft.). At these depths, there’s plenty to see to keep your adrenaline pumping.
The dive from the town pier is renowned, and you’ll hear about it all over the island. However, I found other dives to be more exciting. While there’s good yellow-orange coral, lots of eels, fish, crabs, and even sea horses, along with old tires and other garbage, the dive is shallow, requires a dive master for each four divers, is limited to a scheduled 1 hour, and is crowded with other divers. A better night dive option might be the Hilma Hooker wreck or one from the beach off the Sand Dollar Resort (see below). Discuss the options with your dive operator (for our recommendations, see below). They’ll surely be able to recommend a dive site that will meet your needs.
Bonaire is one of the top dive sites in the world. The water is warm (75°–84°F/24°–29°C), visibility is generally in the 30m (100-ft.) range, coral and other marine life is abundant, rain is scarce, and hurricanes usually miss the island.
Bonaire’s economy is tourism based and most of its visitors come to dive, snorkel, or just enjoy the water. The waters around the island are part of the Bonaire National Marine Park. There are numerous rules and regulations, such as the requirement for an orientation session before one can purchase ($25) the required tag for use of the park, so be sure to be accommodating. —LF
Info Bonaire (www.infobonaire.com). Bonaire Talk (www.bonairetalk.com). Bonaire National Marine Park ( 599/717-8444;www.bmp.org).
Tour: Bonaire Dive and Adventure, Kaya Gobernador N. Debrot 77A ( 599-717-2229;www.bonairediveandadventure.com).
When to Go: Year-round.
Bonaire.
$$ Sand Dollar Resort, Kaya Gobernador N. Debrot 79 ( 599/717-8738;divesanddollar.com). $$$$ Harbor Village Beach Club, Kaya Gobernador N. Debrot No. 71 ( 800/424-0004 in the U.S. and Canada, 599/717-7500; www.harbourvillage.com). $$–$$$ The Deep Blue View, Kaya Diamanta No. 50 ( 599/717-8073;www.deepblueview.com).
75
Scuba Diving off Colombia
Swim with the Sharks
Malpelo, Colombia
From the sea, Malpelo looks like something out of a classic 007 movie—the remote Pacific hideout where the over-the-top villain plots some dastardly scheme from within a rocky fortress. The island’s profile is so sinister it’s almost campy: The “shoreline” consists of sheer cliffs, and the island’s highest peak, Cerro de la Mona, looms 376m (1,234 ft.) above like a glowering overlord. The entire surface of Malpelo, a scant 350 hectares (865 acres), is harsh grey lavic rock, practically devoid of vegetation. And for 10km (6 miles) in every direction, the waters around Malpelo are a UNESCO sanctuary where some of the ocean’s most menacing-looking creatures circle and feed. Yet it’s thanks to this teeming and diverse population of sharks that Malpelo is one of the top scuba diving destinations in the world.
The miniscule above-water peak of an enormous undersea mountain that extends for 3.2km (2 miles) to the floor of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Malpelo is located 506km (314 miles)