Palau

[gkrane]

umm, if memory serves, Klein Bonaire was devastated by a hurricane some years back, demolishing it's reefs. While my last trip to Bonaire was about 10 yrs ago, we hired a catamaran sail boat to sail around one day, and we landed on Klein Bonaire to stroll the beach (and snorkel if one wanted too) but I seem to remember being told nobody scubas on Klein due to past hurricane damage, it wasn't worth the bother.

You heard wrong my friend. I was at Klein in July and the diving was fantastic.

 

[lamarpaulski]

Thanks guys. Cancun or the Bahamas sound like a more of a noob spot?

[h=3] Trip Report - Isla Mujeres October 2015...recent SB post[/h]
This looked pretty darn nice and also easy too. Off of Cancun.

 

[Colo Hippie]

Palau drifts compared to Cozumel drifts..... can be very similar, but Palau has some drifts waaaaay beyond if conditions are there. We had a couple of dives where I felt like I was going to die, flying like a bat out of heck, totally out of control. One dive a DM grabbed me and pulled me down to him (we were at Blue Corner, which is always listed as the top dive in the world on many of those "Best of" polls.) and another dive we were at Ulong Channel flying down the narrow channel at mach 3 for the entire dive. Both dives I was literally scared as we were going so fast. Now, would I go back??? Yes, most likely. Some other dives were literally the BEST DIVES OF MY LIFE.
The biggest issue with the drifts in Palau is some dives are very deep, and if you get a down-well, which are there but we were briefed where it would happen and to kick like heck across it... or places where the current comes around a corner and can blow you out away from the wall suddenly and then you can get lost at sea. One of our DMs actually had this happen to him... blown out away while shooting video, and he surfaced with no boats in sight. He was out there alone with sharks coming to check him out for over an hour before another boat found him. They had called him lost at sea and boats came from all over to search. Luckily he was okay.... that is the current.

robin

Having done both - Paulu's currents when strong are not suited for new divers and can make Coz seem like a gentle summer breeze. There is a reason the Agressor live aboards in Paulu assign a Nautilus Lifeline to each buddy team