Trip Report Puerto Rico Dive Report - Early September 2023

[FreqFlier]

their website does not allow bookings for Sunday

Nayda and Pedro they like to take Sundays off. But the will go if they have two or more divers. We dived with them on Sunday.

 

[sup]

Nayda and Pedro they like to take Sundays off. But the will go if they have two or more divers. We dived with them on Sunday.

Yeah, it's just me, and they already got back to me and said they didn't have availability for Sunday so I'm signed on with Paradise Scuba. Thanks tho!
There's not much in the way of accomodations in La Parguera.

 

[FreqFlier]

There's not much in the way of accomodations in La Parguera

Yeah, Kiko (owner of Paradise) can help you out with that.

Will be waiting for your trip report!

 

[sup]

Ok I'm hijacking this thread to report on my two tank dive out of La Parguera in January. I dove with Paradise Scuba and stayed at Parador Guanica 1929. It was about a 20 or 30 minute drive in the morning from my hotel to the dive shop. By the time I got there, everyone was already on the boat. I loaded up my gear and off we went. We probably only rode about 5 or 10 minutes into the bay to the first site which was the wall. Honestly, it was fantastic, especially for an add-on to a work trip, I was pleasantly surprised by how good the diving was considering how little attention this island gets for scuba diving. The second site, I have no idea what it was called but it was relatively shallow but also lovely.
Paradise Scuba was great. Their shop is air conditioned so I left my handbag there so my makeup wouldn't melt and it was there when I got back, everything intact. They had a decent selection of rash guards and other gear if you need anything while you're there. The dive master said if I wanted to dive for 10 days, he wouldn't have to take me to the same one twice. I can't remember exactly how much the diving cost, maybe $130 or $140 for a two tank dive, considerably less than Scuba dogs wanted. Island Scuba does not go out on Sundays so they were not an option.
The town of La Paguera was just adorable. It was pretty quiet on a Sunday afternoon, but I did walk around and order a latte from the coffee stand in the square.
Parador Guanica 1929 was a decent place to stay. Not fancy, but the room was clean and air conditioned. They had a restaurant but I couldn't eat there because I guess it was booked for a private event or something so I went to a little collection of roadsides stands just down PR325 where it intersects PR202 and had a delicious meal of mofongo.

 

[sparragus]

Ok I'm hijacking this thread to report on my two tank dive out of La Parguera in January. I dove with Paradise Scuba and stayed at Parador Guanica 1929. It was about a 20 or 30 minute drive in the morning from my hotel to the dive shop. By the time I got there, everyone was already on the boat. I loaded up my gear and off we went. We probably only rode about 5 or 10 minutes into the bay to the first site which was the wall. Honestly, it was fantastic, especially for an add-on to a work trip, I was pleasantly surprised by how good the diving was considering how little attention this island gets for scuba diving. The second site, I have no idea what it was called but it was relatively shallow but also lovely.
Paradise Scuba was great. Their shop is air conditioned so I left my handbag there so my makeup wouldn't melt and it was there when I got back, everything intact. They had a decent selection of rash guards and other gear if you need anything while you're there. The dive master said if I wanted to dive for 10 days, he wouldn't have to take me to the same one twice. I can't remember exactly how much the diving cost, maybe $130 or $140 for a two tank dive, considerably less than Scuba dogs wanted. Island Scuba does not go out on Sundays so they were not an option.
The town of La Paguera was just adorable. It was pretty quiet on a Sunday afternoon, but I did walk around and order a latte from the coffee stand in the square.
Parador Guanica 1929 was a decent place to stay. Not fancy, but the room was clean and air conditioned. They had a restaurant but I couldn't eat there because I guess it was booked for a private event or something so I went to a little collection of roadsides stands just down PR325 where it intersects PR202 and had a delicious meal of mofongo.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[FreqFlier]

I was pleasantly surprised by how good the diving was considering how little attention this island gets for scuba diving.

I've never seen or heard them advertising in English. And I guess there are some logistics and resort (-y) challenges? And more customers would justify having Nitrox available.

 

[JossRincon]

I've never seen or heard them advertising in English. And I guess there are some logistics and resort (-y) challenges? And more customers would justify having Nitrox available.

Not sure what you mean - what kinds of logistic/resort challenges? There are amazing dives / dive shops all over (Spanish speaking, yes, because it's PR - but English ads are all over the Island for the various dive companies.) Taino Divers has a nitrox fill station, and I believe Paradise is currently getting theirs up and running.

 

[Jake 10]

I've never seen or heard them advertising in English. And I guess there are some logistics and resort (-y) challenges? And more customers would justify having Nitrox available.

Most of the island population speak English as a second language. It would be easy to communicate ! There are English advertisement and web-apps for all of these shops.

 

[sup]

I've never seen or heard them advertising in English. And I guess there are some logistics and resort (-y) challenges? And more customers would justify having Nitrox available.

I had last been to Puerto Rico probably 15 years ago and at that time there were a lot of businesses where the workers didn't speak any Spanish. So this time when I went I would try to speak my terrible Spanish to workers and they'd always answer me in perfect English so I quit with the terrible Spanish after a day. Anyone under about 25 or so spoke English with no discernable accent, and I didn't really run into anyone who didn't speak English during my stay on the island.
I don't know what logistic challenges you are talking about. I think things were built back better after Maria, because the whole island seemed much more Americanized than the last time I was there and infrastructure seemed vastly improved.