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I got my open water cert. last summer and loved it. Unfortunately it was in rock quary since I'm landlocked. I did however do some diving at Bonne Terre Mine in Missouri this Fall and LOVED it (minus the COLD water). I will definitely go back! I'm also doing my advance a week from now in a lake up in Wisconsin.
Now on to my next adventure, I am looking to go to somewhere by S. America. I think I've narrowed it down to Roatant and Bonaire. I am BIG into corals as well as fish and inverts. However, I'd love to see some sharks and do some wreck dives. I'd be traveling alone, so if that makes a difference (b/c I won't have my own buddy) where I could get into a group or guided dive, I'd like to know that ahead of time.
Please help me out with a simple recomendation of where to go and where to stay. Maybe even a quick reason why would be awesome. Please no negative nancy's or thread hyjacking!
Since you are a pretty new diver travelling alone, might I suggest a Live Aboard? Each of the locations you mentioned has one or more servicing the areas and there is no better way to dive imho. Most live aboard trips are all-inclusive (minus taxes, fees, etc) and you would be with the same group of divers for the whole trip. In addition, I am sure that if you talked to the crew, you could dive with a guide as an added safety feature. Live Aboard diving looks expensive at first glance, but when you start to calculate in hotels, meals, ground transportation (taxi, rent-a-car, etc) and useless souvenir purchases.....you get the picture. You often will get to visit sites that are not hit hardest by the day trip or shore diving crowd and there is usually no set time frame. Just dive, eat, sleep, dive RnR. It's not uncommon to get in 4 to 5 dives a day, depending on profiles, so you get the most diving bang for the buck.
There's about 3 wrecks at recreational depths off Bonaire. Most are of the size of small cabin cruisers and the like. At least one isn't even penetrable because it's too small. Nothing worth making a special dive for IMO. Some of the other Bonaire wrecks are pretty much just coral covered rubble. Bonaire is all about small stuff. I'd be hugely surprised if you saw anything but a very occasional nurse shark there. There are sharks on the much rougher (advanced diving) east side - it's fast currents and rougher water - often a live drop off a zodiac. Advanced in a quarry vs. advanced in the ocean with surge and currents can be two very different experiences.
Quite a few Stingrays though at certain sites. And always Tarpon and Turtles. Bonaire can be a little more difficult as a single diver - if you stay at one of the dive resorts you pay a big single supplement. If you don't and stay off-water you're less likely to meet other divers. If you do stay at a resort finding a buddy is highly likely - even more than one. Partly that's because just about everyone gets the standard 4dr. truck as part of their package so people have room for one more. I know I was asked 3-4 times if I needed a buddy while waiting for mine at several of the dive resorts.
On Roatan Cocoview has the Prince Albert Wreck just off their property. The top of it is around 28'. It's a pretty decent big wreck. The other major wreck on the north side is at depths exceeding 100'. And it's pretty beat up. CCV would be good for a single diver except you'll pay a single supplement. The reason it's good is that it's a self-contained AI resort so if you don't meet other divers - you really aren't trying. You'll be assigned a boat all week and meals are community style. It's very much a go there/dive there place. What nightlife there is on Roatan is a 30min. $45 cab ride away in the West End.
Having said that, the only sharks you're likely to see there are at the Shark Dive. If your profile is correct, that dive could be above your current skill set. It can be either totally benign or it can be currents so severe that they teach you a special way to descend and you risk being blown away if you don't crouch on the bottom. No way to tell which until you do it.
Both are good for that. I'd give the edge to Bonaire though. But the south side of Roatan around Cocoview is a very close 2nd IMO.
Nothing personal but the previous poster has no idea what he's talking about. There is no liveaboard on Bonaire or in fact in any of the ABC islands. There never has been on Bonaire. Almost all of the dive sites are shore accessible so they can't compete. The last one was an old boat on Curacao that ran along the coast and did many of the dives accessible from shore but it went out of business some years ago.
MV Pearl is based on Utila but does make the crossing over to Roatan during the week for a couple of days. Halliburton is about the only wreck off Utila and we did occasionally see a reef shark there. In early Spring there's Whale Sharks there but that's snorkel only. They're occasionally seen off Roatan also around that time.
I'd tell you where to go for coral reefs, sharks and wrecks but "no thread hyjacking" so I can't...
Ok, I'll allow it! lol I should also mention my timeline is coming up very soon... I had to use some vacay at work or I'd lose it, so I'm planning this thing in about 3-4 weeks. Nothing like some spontaneity!
Extensive Coral and sharks are found in the Turks/Caicos. Not a lot of wrecks though.
More specifically West Caicos and French Cay but they're uninhabited so most people stay on Providenciales (Provo) and take the 45min. ride over. Provo is very expensive though - there is a Comfort Suites in Grace Bay that's not too bad. All boat diving and they're pretty high due to fuel costs. This is a Liveaboard trip report we saw everything but the dolphins. You might see if one of the weeks you can go Explorer has a last minute deal - that can be up to $4-500 off. You'll be able to do 5 dives/day and they pick you up at the airport so all your costs are the trip and the tip. Plus around $200 in fees/taxes. It caters to all levels - they'll provide a DM if asked or you can pair up with your cabin-mate or others. We dove as 2, 3, 5, 6, and once 8 on a night dive. The moorings all start around 40' and so do all the cool critters. One of our group spent a lot of his time under coral heads near the boat - he shot an amazing amount of small stuff. We also saw sharks every single dive at French Cay and often at West Caicos. At most sites the coral grows on top of the coral till way beyond rec. limits.
Extensive Coral, a few wrecks (Kittiwake, Poulson, a couple other smaller ones) and limited sharks - mostly off the North wall - are off Grand Cayman. Again pretty expensive but there is some shore dive options there. The wall is literally coral on coral as deep as you can go. My buddy did a dive on Babylon - they're feeding lionfish now. He stopped once and turned and almost kicked a reef shark placidly following them hoping they were LF hunting. I've seen sharks deep off the North Wall but too deep to ID. I understand there's more sharks/larger Pelagics off Little Cayman also - and Bloody Bay Wall. I believe you can transit thru Grand Cayman the same day.
Lots of wrecks, good coral and lots of sea fans etc. with shallow diving - try St. Thomas. Blue Water Divers has a dive site map showing at least a dozen wrecks they dive. We saw a few reef sharks off the East End but they were pretty skittish. And the smaller fish life isn't as extensive. Fairly easy to get to so I mentioned. it.
Coral, ,shallow diving, lots of wrecks, lots of sharks - Nassau is your spot. Stuart Coves does the shark feeds and many of the nearby sites are sharky as they hang around waiting for it. IMO those are actually the better dives since you can interact with them at whatever level you want. Bahama Divers also does the Blue Hole dive and sharks are usually seen there. Several of their sites are old movie props or actual wrecks put down as dive sites. Some of the James Bond movies were filmed there. This is way too dramatic but: http://www.sportdiver.com/destinati...bahamas-top-5-experiences-shark-feeding-video
Coves also bundles packages with several resorts on the north side. Their shop is on the south side so they have a free shuttle from Nassau, Paradise Island and the resort areas. Expedia has some good prices at times - esp. on Cable Beach which is a little older.
Grand Bahama is another location with all three. UNEXSO in Port Lucaya does shark feeds and also Dolphin Dives. The coral is excellent in many areas also. For a bigger thrill, drive out to the other Stuart Coves location and do a day trip out to Tiger Beach - google it for videos. Lot's of big Tigers and Lemons in 40' of water on a sandy bottom. Theo's Wreck is big and somewhat famous. There's also others, I just don't know them since I don't dive wrecks. Bahamasair flies there from several FL origin points but this close to departure those flights might be more. Another option is to take the FLL to Grand Bahama ferry - not as cheap but you can almost always get a seat. http://www.ferryexpress.com/wps/portal/comercial/home_us_en?resetPortlet=true
This is Cristina Zenato - Women Divers Hall of Fame nominee partly for her shark research. She works at UNEXSO. There's at least a good chance you'd be diving with her on their shark dives. You don't get to get as close as Joe though - he works for the Shark Research Inst.
You'll find sharks and excellent coral reefs in Belize also. Haven't been so maybe someone else comment on it.
In another recent thread I was able to find R/T flights to both Belize and Roatan under $350. Very specific weeks - I believe one was the last week of June. And all red-eyes with a late friday night departure. And from Phoenix, but maybe Iowa is similar. Here's a link: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/southwestern-region/483568-cheap-phx.html
I talked to the owner of the LDS and he talked highly of Buddy Dive. He also recommended that I save my money and do my advanced course there (where ever I end up going), that way I could do the Hilma Hooker for the wreck dive protion and see tons of corals, etc. All I'd be missing would be the bigger fish... I might just have to plan a seperate trip for that sometime this winter
Find someone to go with to Buddy's because their single rack rates are double their double occupancy rates: http://www.buddydive.com/rates/BDR Rack Rates 2014 LS.pdf Or if you buy the dive package, 1/2 again as much. You can do a lot of other stuff on Bonaire for $500.
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