Beginner Dutch Caribbean
Bonaire
Eighty marked dive sites accessible from shore and a marine park that has existed since 1979
In Bonaire you rent a pickup truck with tanks in the back, drive along the coast until you spot a yellow rock with a name painted on it, park, and dive. There are more than eighty sites marked this way, and they work around the clock.
In this guide you'll find out how this self-guided shore-diving system works, why this island's reef is better preserved than almost any other in the Caribbean, what you'll see, when to go, and what rules govern a marine park that has been running since 1979.
It's the oldest and most cited example of managing a Caribbean reef through a marine park, and the destination that defined what it means to dive from shore with complete independence.
Geography and access
Bonaire is a Dutch Caribbean island located off the coast of Venezuela, outside the usual hurricane belt.
It's an arid island with no rivers and very little runoff. That means little sediment and few nutrients reaching the sea, which largely explains the visibility and health of the reef.
The west coast is sheltered from the prevailing wind and has an almost continuous strip of reef that starts just a few meters from shore and drops down a wall into deep water.
That continuity is what makes the marked-site system possible: almost any stretch of the west coast is a valid dive site, marked with a rock painted yellow.
All the water surrounding the island, from the high-tide mark down to sixty meters, has been a marine park since 1979, one of the oldest in the world.
Access is by international flight to the island, often with a connection. Logistics on the ground are handled with your own pickup truck and full tanks.
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