mission barbados complete

Well been there done that and got numerous t-shirts.

Just been to barbados for a couple of weeks and spent most of my time underwater (so much for the sunbathing).

The diving was fantastic and I would reccomend it to anyone who loves both the sun and diving, even the real novices like myself.

I dove with a company calles maldivers and I found them really helpfull and above all good at thier job

Was there unlimited shore diving? How was the marine life?
Also, how was the night diving? Any curfews? Take photos?

Hi Missy,

Did you happen to take any pictures down there? If you would like, I would be more than happy to set you up a photo gallery so you can post them online.

Just drop me an email and let me know.

Cheers,

I did not do any shore diving with the company as all the best sites were about ten minuts away by boat so i could not tell you the answer there, but all do air fills over there so if you take your buddy with you then I don't see why not.
As for the marine life, incredible, amazing and enchanting these words still don't come close.

There were large shoals of fish everywhere nd they were not shy there were also quite a few baracuda.

As for night diving there were no curferws it just depended on how tired the instructor was Oh and of corse how much you paid him )

The prices were all very reasonable. diving is about the only thing in barbados that doesent carry a massive price tag.

If you are ever going to barbados and want any travel tips just ask and I will be only too happy to help...

missy,

hehe, are you holding out on us? Both mike and Ladydiver asked about photos and you didnt mention any... Are you holding out on us? Remember, we could always pin you down and make you watch Don do the hula in a grass skirt!

=-)

I believe Barbados is real expensive please give info on costs

I was in Barbados for the last couple of weeks, helping with a marine biology research project that Divinggal went on earlier. Did a combination of shore dives and boat dives, and two with a commercial outfit -- Hightide Diving.

I wouldn't recommend the shore diving, at least where we were (W-side around Holetown), as it's not that spectacular and much coral death has occured. Fishlife pretty small. Reasonable for snorkeling though -- once you get say 50 yds out and 10-15 ft deep, beyond the range of riff-raff snorkelers, there's more life and some nice schools of grunts and other small fish.

The deeper sites were much better, though vis in the late summer isn't always good. One day was maybe 30 ft, but another day was probably 80 ft.

Hightide does an interesting dive a few times a week when they're accompanied by the turtle research project that goes out to find and tag sea turtles. They do two dives for $80 barbados ($40 US). One's an 80ft, and the other a 50ft with lots of coral life and the occasional bigger fish (e.g. barracuda). Three turtles were caught on the deeper dive, and it was interesting to see them up close on the boat, where they were weighed and measured (they were 7-8 yr old juveniles, so not that big). Supposedly, the Stav is nice, but I didn't do that. Also Carlisle Bay is supposed to be good too.

-Simon

Barbados isn't super expensive, though it can be: local beer at the local joints is as little as US$1, and as much as US$3 at the hotels. Cheapest Coke is .5L for US$0.50. Food range is likewise large, depending on where you eat. Anything that caters primarily to tourists is pretty expensive, but local places abound, and are relatively cheaper (e.g. US$7 for a nice filling plate of something). Likewise, there are cheaper hotels on the South and East coasts (e.g. $25) and also outrageously expensive hotels on the W coast (e.g. $2000).

As an anecdote, I went into Sandy Lane, a very exclusive hotel, when they called the research center about some turtle hatchlings. We didn't find any when we got there the next morning, but did see Sporty Spice sunning herself on the beach (I actually had no idea who it was -- she looked like any tourist in a bikini, but someone else mentioned afterwards that it was her).

-Simon