Puerto Rico for Beginner and St Lucia Info

[Nev4416]

My girlfriend and I are going to be in San Juan 12-12 and half of 12-13 and would like dive somewhere in Puerto Rico. This will be my 1rst dive after my certification. All i hear about San juan is its a waste of time but all the good places seem to be at least 2 1/2 to 3 hours ONE way. Is there a happy medium some where that would be a nice dive and would not make it an all morning an day marathon. Also is the concensus of the group that Sea Ventures is bad.

My other question is about St . Lucia we are going to be there on a cruise that docks at Castries and would like to dive down around Anse...by were the pitons are. From what i gather in my reading the previous post its hard by boat and almost impossible from land to get there from Castries. Has anyone done this or do they have any suggestions. I cant dive at Scuba St. Lucia they wont let me cuz they have a contract wiht my cruise company.

Thanks a million.

Nev

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Too bad about Scuba St. Lucia. They run a great op. I would dive with them again in a heartbeat. Are you sure they need to know you are coming off the cruise ship? What if you took a water taxi down from Castries (they run every hour) and just showed up an hour before their afternoon dive run? Just a thought.

 

[scuba-punk]

Well I voted for a "Great Place" - but that was for Puerto Rico - I've never dove with Sea Ventures, so I can't say anything about that. Wifey and I did our honeymoon in P.R. so that she could meet the rest of my family. Those were our first dives after OW class. If you leave early enough in the morning, Fajardo is about 1.5 to 2 hours drive (yeah, I know, it's only about 35 miles from San Juan)

Also, a day trip to Culebra is nice too. The ferry is a few dollars each way and Flamenco Beach is nice.

-Frank =-)

 

[-hh]

The problem with diving near San Juan is that the river's watershed and sandy coastline there creates a lot of cruddy water. It also doesn't help that there's pollution in the harbor, from both the local industry and port shipping. So while there's always the chance that you'll get lucky and have a good day, the odds are against it.

If you enjoy muck diving, you might get lucky and see a seahorse.

My recollection of my dive there was that visibility was 15-30ft, and that my comment afterwords was that I preferred a dive in NJ's Shark River inlet because while it wasn't really any better, unlike the PR dive, it was at least cheap.

I've been back to San Juan since that trip, and I didn't even bother to take my dive gear along. There is some worthwhile diving in PR...its just not conveniently near San Juan.

Since Nev specifically asked to rate San Juan's diving, there's absolutely no way that I can give it anything other than the "Waste of Air" score.

-hh

 

[NJDiveGirl]

we dove the west coast - in Rincon - if you can make the time, it would be worth your while to give it a try!!!