At the beginning of our vacation in Bonaire, we stopped into the dive shop to get our air for two weeks, As we were doing so, we were told by Rob, one of the dive shop managers, that we should leave all of our valuables in the apartment and not in the car when diving.




While many people do “boat dives” when scuba diving, Mary and prefer shore dives whenever possible. Boat dives usually mean that you sign up to go out on a boat with a group of anywhere from six to twenty divers and a guide.




The folks who run the boat do all the work for you. They lug all the gear. They hook up all the tanks. They help you on and off with all of your equipment.




As a diver, all you have to do is take a giant stride off the back of the boat when the time comes to enter the water. Either that, or you sit on the rail, hold your mask and regulator, and tumble over backwards into the water.




No swimming is required.




Easy.




However, doing a boat dive also means that you are diving in a crowd, and you have to stay with the group.




When you do a shore dive, you pack all of your gear in a car or truck and drive to a dive site. (In Bonaire, there are about fifty such sites that are accessible from the shore. As you drive along the shore road, the sites are marked my orange-painted rocks. You simply park your car, put your gear on, go into the ocean, snorkel out to drop-off point, replace your snorkel with your regulator, empty the air out of your buoyancy device, and drop down for your dive.




With shore diving, you go at your own pace, investigate the things you want investigate, and you don’t have to worry about some beginner hitting you in the head with his flipper and sending your mask flying off to Davy Jones’ Locker.




However, many of these dive sites are out in the middle of nowhere. So, you often see cars parked along desolate sections of road with nobody around.




If you’re a thief, and you see such a car, you know that the folks who own the vehicle are under about 60 feet of water, and they won’t coming back any time soon. So, it’s a golden opportunity.




Rob told us to take nothing with us when we go diving except for our dive gear which, of course, accompanies us into the water. He also told us to leave the truck unlocked with the windows rolled down so that the would-be thieves will understand that there is nothing there to take.




I questioned Rob about taking at least my driver’s license with me, and he said, “Nobody ever gets stopped here in Bonaire for a license check. Nobody.”




Then he looked at me and said, “If you get stopped, I’ll buy you and Mary donuts.”




SOOOOooooOOOOO, Mary and I went off on our first dive. We weren’t two miles out of town when…yup…we got stopped at a traffic check!




The officer was a really friendly fellow. He asked for any identification whatsoever.




“Nope.”




“Nothing?”




"Nothing"

“No license?”




“Uhn-uh.”




“No registration for the truck?”




"Nope. It’s a rental vehicle.”




“Rental agreement?”




“Yup! Right here.”




“Anything to prove that you’re the Jim Hetrick this thing is rented to?”




“Nada.”




“Why not?”




“Rob, the manager of Buddy Dive Shop told us you guys would NEVER pull us over.”




“I know Rob. He told you that?”




Well, to make a long story just a little longer, Bonairian law allows you twenty-four hours to produce a driver’s license. So, we drove back to the apartment, grabbed my license, and drove back to the traffic stop. When I showed the officer my license, I told him the donut story. He laughed and said, “Tell that loser he owes you. He should buy you dinners at It Rains Fishes (A wonderful restaurant)!”




Then, we drove on to our dive.




Afterwards, we came back to the dive site, met up with Rob. When I told him about the traffic stop and described the officer, he shook his head and said, “Oh, that’s just Steve! He’s just a donut-muncher!”




Since there are no donut shops on the island, Rob gave me a new snorkel-keeper instead.




About a week later, Rob informed me that our traffic stop was part of a island-wide police effort to crack down on construction truck drivers who had no licenses. He said that the local police even flew in thirty officers from Curacao for the sting.




Just my luck, huh?