| Comments From Our Customers |
| Dear Kim,
WE LOVE SAND DOLLAR….. THANK YOU for suggesting the Sand Dollar on Bonaire. It was a perfect set-up for us! The two families fit beautifully in the 3-bedroom 3-bath condo, and, oh, those ocean sunset views! We loved the condo’s terrific screen-enclosed outdoor patio area and its central location on the west side of the island. Eddy’s was fantastic (went there twice for dinner); we also had delicious lunch sandwiches at Elle’s, and we bought some groceries at the mini-mart — all within easy walking distance. How nice to be able to return home for lunch between our morning and afternoon snorkels. Went on 8 snorkels total, including two at Klein Bonaire, where the water taxi took us to one location and picked us up two hours later at a different location. The current carried us along. Fabulous snorkeling!!!!!! Bill and I saw more than 80 different fish species; Brian and his family, almost 100!Because we are all animal lovers, we were also thrilled with the green iguanas (several “tame” ones at the Sand Dollar), the whiptail lizards, the bananaquit birds high up in the palm trees, and the donkeys in the Donkey Sanctuary. Thanks a million! Hopefully we’ll be able to go on another trip with SPITravel connections again soon! Love,Sue _____________________________________________________________________________________ Fiji 2011: Paradise Found Dear Kim, As if Fiji weren’t “paradise” already, what better way to spend your time in Fiji than at Paradise (the resort). Located at the south/eastern tip of Taveuni, this resort was recommended by our travel agent (same one who did such a stellar job on the Australia trip), and it exceeded expectations. There are certain things I look for in a dive resort, and Paradise filled the bill: small (only 9 bures/huts), nice and clean (see pics), good food, good dive operation, and nice places to relax when not diving. Add to this awesome sunsets, and the extra bonus of the friendly, funny, and warm Fijian people, and you’ve got an idyllic vacation. And I haven’t even mentioned the diving yet ! Travelling during Fiji’s summer (our winter) is a bit risky due to it being their cyclone (hurricane) season. And our trip started out with some rainy/windy weather. Which made for some bumpy boat rides to the dive sites. But as the week went on, the weather improved and by the time we left, the seas were waterskiing-glassy calm, we could see stars at night again, and we were treated to some spectacular sunsets. After the somewhat disappointing (by south pacific standards) diving on the Great Barrier Reef, I wanted to give/show Candace what I was used to for diving in the south pacific. And Fiji was the ideal choice to accomplish this. Plus diving off Taveuni allowed us to see the wonderful soft corals as well. We dove both the Vuna reef to the south, and the Rainbow Reef in the Somo-Somo strait. Perhaps due to the stormy weather, the visibility wasn’t “phenomenal”, but the fish and sealife were out in full force. Huge schools of fish hanging in the currents, sharks (white-tip reef sharks) hanging out on the bottom, and all kinds of fish and creatures tucked into coral itself. Some of the dives on the Rainbow Reef sites were a bit strong, and Candace opted to only dive there on one of the days. We also did a couple shore dives (I did my night dive) off the Paradise resort, and their reef was one of the better resort dive sites I’ve been to. Rather than bore you with the names for all these different things, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. I will point out that the small, slug-looking things are called “nudibranchs”. And along with all cool stuff we saw underwater, on the return from Rainbow Reef one day, we saw this group of pilot whales on the surface. Actually, the surface provided some nice treats along with the pilot whales: manta rays cruising right in front of the resort and dolphins on our way out to a site on Vuna. Perhaps the downside to diving Taveuni, which ironically is also why the diving is so good there, is the currents, which can be somewhat unpredictable and strong at times. I made it clear to the dive staff that Candace was not keen on strong currents, and they did their best to take us to mellower dive sites. But on this one site which is apparently very low current, we had one of those fly-by-the-reef experiences. We all did okay, but Candace did not enjoy the dive. To make matters worse, because of the unexpectedly strong current, we ended up surfacing further than the boat expected. So we had a bit of a long bobbing-on-the-surface session until the boat arrived. Again, not one of Candace’s favorite parts of a dive. Because of some noisy construction going on at the resort one day, the owner offered us a free excursion to the local village that afternoon. This turned out to be quite a treat. We first paid respect to the sort of acting village chief (every village has a chief, but this one hadn’t quite decided on the new chief since the previous one had passed away). There is a bit of ceremony involved with presenting the chief with a gift to allow us to visit his village. The ceremony was pretty cool, and the chief was curious to know where we were all from. We then took a tour of the village with our guide explaining the history and showing us the sights (like the natural, freshwater bathing/wading pool). A number of the village children were intrigued by our group, and ended up tagging along for the tour. What really impressed me about Fiji on my first trip was how genuine, friendly, and warm the Fijian people were. And I really wanted Candace to experience that. The staff at the Paradise was perfect examples of this unspoiled warmth and generosity. From bringing you cool glasses of water while you were laying out to being so willing to share their knowledge of the local plants and trees and how they are used for cooking and what not. After having been to a number of resorts and dive resorts, it’s the little things you notice that set one place or the people apart. It’s somewhat intangible, but you really get a sense that the staff are doing what they can to make sure you have a great time not just so that you’ll come back (or for a tip – which is something they really don’t do in Fiji), but just to see that you have a GREAT time. To sum up, our trip was, quite simply, paradise in Paradise! Peter ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Hi Kim- Regarding the trip, as you indicated the diving was fantastic! We did a Sardine run dive as one of the last dives off Pescador Island which was quite different! The Siren’s a beautiful boat. The food was excellent! Our cabin was very comfortable. Thank you for helping to mention it was our anniversary and with that they had flowers/wine as a greeting! Beds themselves were quite comfortable and we loved having the 3 berths so we could layout some of our luggage/stuff on the extra bed. The Atmosphere was fantastic! Owners and sales manager (Bigges) were very personable and the divemasters and restaurant/hotel staff were very friendly. Rooms were very clean/comfortable. Food was excellent! Diving was great! Both at Apo Island (beautiful coral reefs/fish) and the muck diving around Dauin was very unique and enjoyable. I think on every dive we saw something different! Ornate pipe fish, frog fish, devil fish, various kinds of shrimp, the list goes on. On the last evening they arranged an anniversary dinner for us with a beach dinner, linen curtains around the table, flowers/candles leading to the table and candlelit dinner. It was VERY nice! The Radisson Blue was also a very nice hotel and had excellent food! Thank you for everything Barb _______________________________________________________________________________
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