Aruba Trip Report 12/25 - 1/1

[jlevine]

I just completed a week-long trip to Aruba. I dove with Clive Paula at Dive Aruba (www.divearuba.com). What a great dive trip! Clive used to be based at the Bushiri Resort which subsequently closed. He now runs the operation out of his home. I did five days of two-tank diving with him. You can see the schedule on his web site. Clive takes out no more than seven people on each trip. He led us through several wrecks (The Antilla, Jane Sea, Sonesta) and some drift dives as well. What I like about Clive the most is that he lets us stay down as long as we want. Because of this, I had my longest dive ever, 1 hour and 27 minutes. Ok, I confess...it was at an average depth of 30 feet. During the surface intervals, Clive provided fruit and soft drinks. The visibility was good, but not quite up to the level of Bonaire and Roatan. I highly recommend Clive. You will not be disappointed.

As far as lodging, I stayed at Villa Sunflower (www.arubasunflower.com). It is a land house with guest suites. The suites are clean and simple with A/C, kitchenette, and cable TV. The owner, Rienke Bosch, is very kind and does whatever she can to make people comfortable. The rates were very reasonable ($80/night) and it is close to Palm Beach. When I got off the plane, I wasn't sure if I would like Aruba. By the end of my trip, I didn't want to leave!

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Thanks for the trip report. Where else have you dove and how does Aruba compare to those places?

 

[jlevine]

Thanks for the trip report. Where else have you dove and how does Aruba compare to those places?

Hello,

I have dived in Aruba (10 dives), Bonaire (approx. 10 dives), Curacao (approx 10 dives), and Roatan (approx 70 dives). How does Aruba compare? In terms of visibility, Aruba was the lowest, perhaps 40-60 feet on average. I was told it is usually somewhat better but there had been some rain that week. I have, however, been in the other locations during rainy periods and still had much better visibility (80-100+ feet). In terms of marine life, Roatan, Bonaire, and Curacao had more variety and larger numbers of fish in the locations I went to. The same goes for coral. When it comes to wreck diving, Aruba has great wrecks that are large enough for some good penetration. The wrecks in Roatan are good as well, but I'd put Aruba ahead of Roatan and say it's roughly the same as Curacao in this regard. To anyone considering Aruba, I would say go. I did 10 dives with Clive and had a great experience. I will definitely return in the future. If you have questions about the locations from a non-diving perspective, feel free to PM me and I can provide additional info.

Best,

Jeff Levine

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Thanks for the perspective.