Puerto Rico

[gypsyjim]

I too have a related question. My girlfriend and I will be in Fajardo for a week stating this Friday 2/15. Does anyone have suggestions on where/who to dive with, or who to avoid? We've dived Culebra and Rincon with Taino Divers in the past, but this will be our first stay in Fajardo, and I'm hoping to learn from some one else's experiences/mistakes. We are trying different areas of Puerto Rico each trip. Thanks, Jim

 

[HenrikBP]

gypsyjim; how was diving with Taino. I may be heading for the Rincon or Aquadilla area in May and would like some pointers for both dive OP, hotels etc.

Thanks

Henrik

 

[Luis H]

I have a related query. I may be going to PR in April. I'd like to dive on a Monday morning, and then get back to San Juan by about 4pm. (I have a meeting in San Juan that night at 7pm, and I would need to return the rental car, check into the hotel, shower, eat, etc. before the meeting.)

Ideally, I'd like to go to Desecheo. Will that work for this schedule? What other good options are out there? I can spend Sunday night close to the diving to make it easier.

Doing Desecheo with Taino divers out of Rincon and making back to San Juan by 4:00 PM is theoretically very possible. But, taking into consideration the variables involved with traffic in PR my thought is “do you fill lucky”.

Do you have plenty of experience driving in PR?
Personally the diving is so fantastic that might risk it if the 4:00 dead line is kind of a soft dead line.

A better suggestion is to take a couple of extra days and some diving in both Parguera and Desecheo.

 

[Luis H]

I went to Dive The Wall With Parguera Divers in Puerto Rico! Pargueradivers.com and it says they closed on Jan 27, 2008. Anyone have any information on this? Is there another dive shop in the area that someone could recommend?

Thanks,
Vic

Wow, I am surprised that Angel is closing his business. I may find more information about it later.

If you read my report you will see links to the other two dive operators in Parguera. IMO, they are both great. See my post above.
Here is the link again:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gr...ort-puerto-rico-1st-week-november-2007-a.html

I particularly liked the setup that West Divers had. I liked their boat and some of the small details like having a down line with a crate at the bottom with extra weights. You can pick or leave weights if needed. This is a great setup for the traveling diver that may need to adjust your weights.

Again if you use West divers tell Victor that Luis said hi.

 

[Luis H]

gypsyjim; how was diving with Taino. I may be heading for the Rincon or Aquadilla area in May and would like some pointers for both dive OP, hotels etc.

Thanks

Henrik

Taino Divers is great! The diving in Desecheo is some of the best in PR. Carson runs a nice operation. When you see him tell him that Luis (the double hose guy) said hi.

Aguadilla has some good diving. If you read my diving report you will see a dive shop in Aguadilla that I used (PR Technical Diving in Aguadilla, Tony Cerezo is the owner).

There is also another dive shop (Aquatica) near there and one of their instructors (Darryl) PM me to see if I needed a guide to the area. He is a member of Scubaboard. I talked to him on the phone and I might have taking him up on his offer if I needed a guide.


There is a ton of places to stay at any price range. You kind of need to do a bit of search on the internet. I stayed at Tamboo in Rincon, but there is a huge variety.

 

[Luis H]

I too have a related question. My girlfriend and I will be in Fajardo for a week stating this Friday 2/15. Does anyone have suggestions on where/who to dive with, or who to avoid? We've dived Culebra and Rincon with Taino Divers in the past, but this will be our first stay in Fajardo, and I'm hoping to learn from some one else's experiences/mistakes. We are trying different areas of Puerto Rico each trip. Thanks, Jim

Well, personally I love Fajardo because that is where I grew up diving and is my childhood stumping grounds, but it is not the best diving in PR. IMHO, it is very good.

In my report you will see that I used Sea Ventures and dove near Palominitos.

Sea Ventures has a decent operation, but I consider their boat in Fajardo a bit larger than my preference. They also cater to a lot of beginner divers. My understanding is that their operation in Humacao (just south of Fajardo) does cater to more advanced divers.

There is also another dive operator out of El Conquistador Resort, but I don’t have any more information on them.

 

[SkiDiver]

Doing Desecheo with Taino divers out of Rincon and making back to San Juan by 4:00 PM is theoretically very possible. But, taking into consideration the variables involved with traffic in PR my thought is “do you fill lucky”.

Do you have plenty of experience driving in PR?
Personally the diving is so fantastic that might risk it if the 4:00 dead line is kind of a soft dead line.

A better suggestion is to take a couple of extra days and some diving in both Parguera and Desecheo.

Thanks, Luis. I've dived in Culebra and San Juan, but I'd really love to hit Desecheo. It sounds terrific.

The time deal is this: I'll need to return the rental car at the international airport, take a taxi to my hotel in San Juan (don't know which one yet), and get checked in, changed, and grab a bite to eat in time to get to my meeting by 7pm. So the 4pm deadline is somewhat arbitrary, but the 7pm one isn't.

I'm volunteering for this trip specifically to get some diving in, so it's a priority for me Unfortunately, I'll have only the one morning for diving (arriving Sunday evening, leaving Tues. morning).

 

[gypsyjim]

I'll second the comment on Taino and Carson. We had a lot of fun. Good diving at Desecheo, although we had to dive on the more sheltered side because of storm surge. Less life there, but awesome underwater playground. We stayed at the Lazy Parrot, off season it was nice and quiet, nothing fancy, but we enjoyed it.

 

[HenrikBP]

Luis & gypsyjim; Thanks much for the information. From the looks of it Rincon should provide plenty of dive site options for a week stay with 2 morning dives/day. Just need to find a decent hotel on the beach within walking distance of restaurants & such. I've found plenty of listings online, but as you know it's tricky to narrow it down.

Thanks again.

Henrik

 

[gypsyjim]

Luis & gypsyjim; Thanks much for the information. From the looks of it Rincon should provide plenty of dive site options for a week stay with 2 morning dives/day. Just need to find a decent hotel on the beach within walking distance of restaurants & such. I've found plenty of listings online, but as you know it's tricky to narrow it down.

Thanks again.

Henrik

Henrik. I can't say where you might stay and walk to Taino Divers. They aren't right at a resort or in town, kind of down a dirt road just a bit out of town. Unique boarding operation, memorable even, but Carson hates to spoil the surprise for new guests, so that's all I'll say. We had a rental car and stayed at the Lazy Parrot higher up on the point, easy to get to Taino and no problem parking etc: kind of a laid back, low pressure operation. great guys. Enjoy

Luis. Thanks for the tip. I'll check around tomorrow with Sea Ventures at both sights. We'll be at Villas at Palmas in Hamacao and they also list a Palmas divers, although I've been able to find no info on them under that name. Who knows we might even drive over to the west again during the week, as every one says, it's not a huge island, just a lot of traffic at times. Thanks again.