Calabas Reef is Bonaire's check-out dive: walking distance from the centre, flat entry, water that rarely does anything surprising. The reef is visibly used and not the finest on the island, but it does what it is meant to do — check your gear, set your weights, settle in.
Calabas Reef is a beginner shore dive in Kralendijk itself: shallow top at three to five metres, slope to twenty-five metres, visibly used and within walking distance of the centre.
A shallow top at three to five metres with remains of old structures and plenty of juvenile fish. The slope runs calmly to twenty-five metres with sponges and soft corals. Seahorses and frogfish are reported here more often than the state of the reef would suggest.
As the first dive of the trip, or at the end of the day when the dive schools are back. Visibility is better in the morning, the site quieter in the afternoon.
The most visited reef on the island, and it shows: broken coral and bare patches on the top. Boat traffic near the hotel. Facilities belong to the hotel, not to the public shore. Do not expect a pristine dive.
Decisions on diveability, technique and health belong with STINAPA, a dive school or a doctor. This page only describes the conditions.
Bonaire's first dive centre stood on this spot, where dive tourism began in the sixties. The reef carries the traces of sixty years of visits and is therefore used in monitoring programmes as a reference for heavily visited coast.
No commercial interest in this site. Report a correction.