Puerto Rico Trip

[The Goose]

Well, just got back from my trip 1st Dive trip to Puerto Rico.... and it was worse than I expected... perhaps it may have been the area I chose to dive, I hope! Anyway, we were staying in San Juan and I wasn't really in the mood to make a 2 1/2 hour car drive to Rincon so I settled for Fajardo... To make a long story short the "reefs" are dead and so is the fishlife (I actually had to swim out and search for sea life) it was quite dissapointing. I understand that Puerto Rico has had their share of hurricanes in the past couple of years, but really, I question their environmental standards or lack there of. It bothers me to see dive leaders drag their equipment and fins thru the reefs, and of course the continual development of the island itself doesn't help much either... Basically, if you've never been, it looks like someone cut a chunk out of Los Angeles and slapped on an island...
At the end of the day, it was a horrible reminder of what is happening to our reefs and oceans... Therefore, iwould like to challenge every diver on this board to go out and continue to lobby and harrass the hell out of your congressman to get something done about this!

 

[frameless]

Thank you,

I'm on my way to P.R on the 14th for a business trip and thought I get a few dives in around Fajardo. I think I'll jump over to St. Croix or do the 2.5 hr drive to Rincon

 

[Seawitch2]

The Goose,

I have to respectfully disagree with your generalization of Puerto Rico. Maybe you were misinformed about what the island has to offer. If you were diving in the area of San Juan and Fajardo, you picked the worst possible diving site. The best diving spots are in the North and West coasts of PR. You stated that you did not feel like driving 21/2 hour to Rincon. Well, I am glad you did not waste your time, as Rincon is not a diving site. While the beaches in there are beautiful, the strong currents do not make the area suitable for diving. You would have found nothing but surfers. The area of San Juan is over-built, but if yuo would have taken that 21/2 hr trip, you have realized that San Juan is not represntative of the rest of the island. In fact, the island has abundant and spectacular natural sites on land and under water. I appreciate your concerns for the reefs and inadequate divers and diving operations;l and I agree that action should be taken. However, there are a lot of reputable operators down there. If you ever need one let me know and I'll provide a list of reputable operators,and plently of useful information that may help you broad your experience. The are not even 2 hours away from San Juan.

In fact, the link below shows pictures recently taken and just posted in another thread. The pictures were taken on Mona Island off the west coast of Puerto Rico

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=48766

My 2 psi...

 

[Seawitch2]

Frameless,

This has been previously discussed on this board. If you do a Search, you will find several trip reports on Puerto Rico and a lot of useful information. I would not recommend the area of San Juan or Fajardo for diving. The north coast has beutiful sites with lots of reefs, marine life, walls and caverns.

 

[The Goose]

Seawitch2,
I had not intention of talking bad about the entire Island, I know that Puerto Rico has a lot to offer... I was just being specific around the Fajardo area since that was the only area I was at... I did hear that the other side of the Island is the place to go for diving... perhaps I was just at the wrong place with the wrong operator... but still, we need to do a better job in protecting Puerto Rico's reefs...

 

[tvictory]

Try the diving from La Parguera in the extreme SW of the island. It can be truly excellent.

 

[scuba-punk]

Fajardo is my least favorite dive site on the island. A lot of run off makes the vis kinda crappy, but I have been fortunate to see big spotted eagle rays, nurse sharks and turtles there. If I were you Goose, I would have spent the extra $5.00 and taken the ferry to Culebra or Vieques from Fajardo. Much better diving there. Shallow, but clear.

Parguera on the other hand is great. 1500' walls, spur and groove formations, abundant fish, etc. I really liked that area but I haven't been back to dive it in the past 8 years. In May, I'm taking a group from my LDS to dive Desecheo, Camp/Dive at Mona and Monita and do some local Mayaguez reefs too. I'll post some sort of trip report when we get back. I'm really excited to do those dives because I've read a lot of great stuff about Mona and Desecheo.

Goose, sorry that you didn't get a chance to really see how nice P.R. can be underwater. I equate diving in Fajardo to Grand Bahama Island - except that it's missing that raw sewage smell that GBI seems to improve on every time I've gone

-Frank