dlao
Contributor
Transportation:
Pre-paying the 75-dollar entry tax online speeds up passing the border control a lot. Half of the plane is filled by divers, so it’s better to mark your checked luggage, as those dive bags all look the same. I booked my car from AB Car Rental. After landing, there’s a shuttle waiting outside the airport terminal. I got a JAC pickup truck with manual transmission, costing 506 dollars for 8 days with full insurance. The car is in good shape, but with minor problems. We had to replace the trunk latch, and the driver-side window doesn’t always work. I don’t blame the rental company since it’s a dive truck exposed to a lot of seawater. AB Car Rental has its own repair workshop, so minor problems like this are addressed immediately.
Driving on the island is slow and chill. I don’t remember hearing any honking during driving and people are quite nice. One can reach most parts of the island within half an hour. Parking is always free and almost always sufficient.
Safety:
Coming from Los Angeles, I feel quite safe overall, and am confident walking around and doing midnight dives. The car rental company suggests leaving nothing valuable in the cabin and always keep the window rolled down so that the car will not be broken into. We followed this rule, bringing only the driver's license (and sometimes a credit card). We always simply leave the key in the car when diving, and never had any problem. I guess car theft isn’t a big problem on the island since there’s no way of transporting them out.
Hotel:
We booked a villa in Grand Windsock. Very convenient location. 6 people shared 3 bedrooms. The hotel feels safe and organized, and the hotel staffs are easygoing. They don’t really care how many people are in one room, so technically more people can share the same villa if tight on budget.
Dive shop:
We used Wannadive, which is right in the hotel. They offer unlimited 32% and 21%. We are suggested to take two tanks each time but they don’t really enforce it, so I guess if we really want to take 3 tanks it’s also doable. There are gear rinse sinks and a dedicated gear room. So wet gear can be dried and stored not needing to be brought to the hotel room. Both DIN and Yoke tanks are available. Tank pick-up and drop-off are fully DIY and 24-7, grab and go.
Diver briefing and check dive:
There is a mandatory briefing about the dive sites on the island. Free of charge and very informative. No one should miss it. Divers are not allowed to use gloves or pointer sticks. I brought a stick but never used it, and the guy at the dive shop was very nervous seeing it, saying if the police find it in the car I’m gonna have trouble. So if you accidentally bring anything prohibited, better keep them in the hotel room. There’s also a mandatory check dive by law, to make sure you use the right amount of weights. However, this dive is not monitored by anyone, and you are free to do it any time anywhere. So essentially you can claim any regular dive as your check dive. One may choose a dive site near the dive shop, just in case something is needed.
Dive Sites:
There are three types of dive sites, I call them northern, city, and southern. The northern ones are next to a cliff, so water entry can only be done at dedicated points. The southern ones are beach entry. One can enter/exit the water anywhere along the beach. The sites in the city depend, some have docks and stairs. We love diving La Machaca, right next to the TDS dive shop, for its easy water entry from the stairs. Most dive sites have sufficient parking.
Navigation is easy in general. Northern dive sites are mostly walls. There is current, but not strong. We begin the dive against the current and return when used half tank. We always start deep (20+ m) return shallow (10-15 m), diving 32%, and usually return with more than 50 bars left. Navigating the southern sites is also very simple with a compass.
Water temperature is constant 27 C. Thermocline is at ~25 m but the temperature jump is minimal and mostly unnoticeable. A 3mm wetsuit is sufficient. One can also dive rashguard comfortably. Visibilities are always 20-30 meters, except for one night dive we did at Hilma Hooker wreck where visibility was less than 15 meters.
There are not many people diving from the east coast, since the sea is extremely rough. The easiest water entry is Lac Cai. However, only very experienced divers (and good swimmers) are suggested to dive there since navigation from the lagoon to the open sea is difficult and visibility in the lagoon is very poor. We made a mistake in navigation so ended up surfacing in the open sea. It was a long surface swim back in the rough sea. We haven’t explored any other east coast sites, but I hear good stories from divers in the group about chartering a boat to dive the east coast.
Night Dive:
Night dive is convenient in the city and southern sites. Northern sites can be tricky to dive. I solo-dived Tolo one night, and found myself the only human being in the whole area. I could see wild animal eyes reflecting when shooting my flashlight to the shore. If you want to dive those rural sites at night, better have a bigger team, with someone waiting in the car providing support with water entry/exit, and keeping the car light on just in case someone cannot find the water exit point in the darkness.
Deep Dive:
Southern sites are shallow in general. The so-called 'deep dive', Hilma Hooker, has a maximum depth of 30 m. But one may pass this wreck and move further towards the west. After passing a shallower section (~20 m depth) corals extend to a greater depth (over 60 m). In the city, coral walls end at 30 m depth and then it’s sandy bottom. The only thing I found interesting diving deep is a baby wreck outside La Machaca at 34m. Northern part, however, can dive quite deep. I went to 57 m at Karpata, and 56 m at Tolo, and can see the reef structure extending all the way down to 100+ m. So if you dive Trimix/rebreather and are interested in exploring a bit, those sites would be very interesting.
Karpata 50+ m
Solo Dives:
I didn’t bring a pony bottle. When I dive solo I just dive regular back mount single and rigged an additional al80 stage bottle on the left. Never had any issues with water entry. However, water entry can be quite an issue if you dive twin/SM, and your choice of dive sites may be restricted. So I do not recommend it.
Marine Life:
Diving from the west coast the marine life is disappointing in general, especially if you want to find ‘big stuff’ like sharks, rays, turtles, etc., as they are rarely seen. However there are some fun things to see like garden eels, squids, and octopuses. There are also a lot of tarpons. And they follow you all the time during night dive. East coast is different. It is almost guaranteed to see turtles and eagle rays when you hire the right guide.
Food:
A regular meal costs 10-30 dollars depending on the restaurant. Our hotel room has a kitchen so we can also cook. Alcoholic drink is 5-15 dollars each.
Out-of-water Activities:
Diving is exhausting, so we didn’t explore local nightlife much, but there are a lot of bars along the beaches to hang out. During the day there is kayaking, horse riding, etc. One may also visit the national park and I 100% recommend it. A regular self-driving safari-style visit takes around 3 hours, and there are also hiking trails if you want to spend the whole day. There’s a lot of offroading, so you need an SUV or a pick-up truck to drive there.
Photos and videos coming soon.
