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Do you think it's worth the drive from San Juan to dive with Paradise?
Diving in Puerto Rico
- Thread starter Alex_Garland
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Other than to get off the plane and rent a car in San Juan, it is the only place I would go in PR. Turtle bay inn is nice and cheap in la Parguera.
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jonhall
Contributor
Thanks for info FireMedicATL. La Parguera looks to be about a 2 ½ hour drive from Palmas del Mar. Will hope that I luck into some good diving days where I'm staying during January.
Can you tell me if the bioluminescent bays in Puerto Rico (not for the purpose of diving) are as good as what one reads about them in travel guides?
Jon
Can you tell me if the bioluminescent bays in Puerto Rico (not for the purpose of diving) are as good as what one reads about them in travel guides?
Jon
They are very cool, but I have never been in another to compare it to.
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diveratlaw
New
I recently booked a trip to San Juan for the first week of September. We will be spending 4 nights in San Juan and then we have 2 days or so that can be dedicated to diving. I have experience in Cozumel, Bonaire, Roatan, Grand Cayman, Flower Gardens, Costa Rica, and Belize, with 100+ dives. I am interested in finding the best dive shops in the SW part of the island. I've read about the dive spots on this thread, but not much about a good dive shop or two, other than perhaps Island Scuba in Guanica. Anyone have any suggestions?
jonhall
Contributor
Just wondering if anyone else has ventured to PR and done any diving out of Fajardo. My trip to Palmas Del Mar in PR is the last week of Jan.
Since my earlier post back in June, I have determined that just getting underwater on the east coast might be tough. Having contacted Sea Watch Divers located in Palmas Del Mar, I found the captain has no engines on his boat (as of the end of Dec.) Sea Ventures which advertises locations in Fajardo and Palmas Del Mar seems to only go out in their Fajardo location. If they had 5 divers in Palmas, they would take their boat out there.
Sea Venture takes out, according to the reservation page on their website, up to 27 people as they are multi level trips (snorkeling and various levels of scuba) but everyday I'll be there except for a Sunday, shows 27 spots still available; Sunday 25. I have reserved a spot for 2 on Sunday, which is held with a credit card; payment happens when you get there. Hoping I get to go out 2-3 days and don't receive a dreaded call saying they aren't going out due to weather, as seems to be a common thread in prior posts.
Any updates from recent travelers would be welcomed.
Since my earlier post back in June, I have determined that just getting underwater on the east coast might be tough. Having contacted Sea Watch Divers located in Palmas Del Mar, I found the captain has no engines on his boat (as of the end of Dec.) Sea Ventures which advertises locations in Fajardo and Palmas Del Mar seems to only go out in their Fajardo location. If they had 5 divers in Palmas, they would take their boat out there.
Sea Venture takes out, according to the reservation page on their website, up to 27 people as they are multi level trips (snorkeling and various levels of scuba) but everyday I'll be there except for a Sunday, shows 27 spots still available; Sunday 25. I have reserved a spot for 2 on Sunday, which is held with a credit card; payment happens when you get there. Hoping I get to go out 2-3 days and don't receive a dreaded call saying they aren't going out due to weather, as seems to be a common thread in prior posts.
Any updates from recent travelers would be welcomed.
jonhall
Contributor
My Puerto Rico and Sea Ventures update.
Went the last week of January. Amazing weather (sunshine and low to mid 80's) with many things to do.
The diving was okay. Didn't give it much of a chance as I only did one 2 tank dive, because my buddy didn't enjoy it enough to go again. Went with Sea Ventures in Fajardo (northeast), which was 30 minute drive from our location. We stayed in Humacao on SE side of island, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, Sea Ventures needed 5 people to dive from the area to go out of the Palmas del Mar Marina and there just doesn't seem to be any interest there. No other dive ops in Palmas del Mar area.
All of the dive staff were friendly and stressed safety. Visibility was good and water temp was 81. First dive was to depth of 47'. Started with tank at 2524 psi and came up 43 minutes later at 1450 psi. Do the math! The last 13 minutes were around the boat at 15'. The second dive was about the same; 51' depth and a 55 minute dive with last 15 around boat, but at 30-35'. Used 1769 of 2669 psi only because I was determined to be the last one up.
Nothing really stood out during the dives; several turtles, trumpetfish, and various fish. I would have gone another day just to dive if not for buddy. Actually called another dive op in Fajardo that said they would call me back if they had enough divers for the day I asked for. They called me the morning of to verify I was coming, but had failed to call me the day before to let me know they had enough divers. They apologized and my diving in Puerto Rico was done.
Thank goodness I was able to spend the next week in Grand Cayman. Great diving everyday!
Went the last week of January. Amazing weather (sunshine and low to mid 80's) with many things to do.
The diving was okay. Didn't give it much of a chance as I only did one 2 tank dive, because my buddy didn't enjoy it enough to go again. Went with Sea Ventures in Fajardo (northeast), which was 30 minute drive from our location. We stayed in Humacao on SE side of island, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, Sea Ventures needed 5 people to dive from the area to go out of the Palmas del Mar Marina and there just doesn't seem to be any interest there. No other dive ops in Palmas del Mar area.
All of the dive staff were friendly and stressed safety. Visibility was good and water temp was 81. First dive was to depth of 47'. Started with tank at 2524 psi and came up 43 minutes later at 1450 psi. Do the math! The last 13 minutes were around the boat at 15'. The second dive was about the same; 51' depth and a 55 minute dive with last 15 around boat, but at 30-35'. Used 1769 of 2669 psi only because I was determined to be the last one up.
Nothing really stood out during the dives; several turtles, trumpetfish, and various fish. I would have gone another day just to dive if not for buddy. Actually called another dive op in Fajardo that said they would call me back if they had enough divers for the day I asked for. They called me the morning of to verify I was coming, but had failed to call me the day before to let me know they had enough divers. They apologized and my diving in Puerto Rico was done.
Thank goodness I was able to spend the next week in Grand Cayman. Great diving everyday!
afdgf
Contributor
We spent a week in Fajardo diving with Sea Ventures. We stayed at the Fajardo Inn. We were in San Juan for a conference so we figured we would try diving after the conference as long as we were there anyway. We had a much better time than expected. One day the boat went to Culebra which was very good with a bunch of turtles. One day they had a family of Discover Divers on the boat with us and it was interesting in that they had two instructors in the water and one on the boat and let each DD go one at a time to giant stride off, go to rope, go down 45', go back up rope, and get back on boat. All of this with three staff paying attention.
I would not necessarily recommend it to anyone else, but we might go to PR again and try to get to Vieques. We were surprised that we enjoyed it as much as we did. It just seemed like we could dive with them and it seemed very easy. I would not say that for the driving in the PR traffic. I am convinced there are no traffic laws in PR. If there are, they are not enforced.
I would not necessarily recommend it to anyone else, but we might go to PR again and try to get to Vieques. We were surprised that we enjoyed it as much as we did. It just seemed like we could dive with them and it seemed very easy. I would not say that for the driving in the PR traffic. I am convinced there are no traffic laws in PR. If there are, they are not enforced.
ginovega
Contributor
They are awsome! there are five in the whole world and three are in PR. One in Parguera Lajas PR , one in Fajardo and one in Vieques....
---------- Post added March 15th, 2015 at 03:52 PM ----------
they are awsome! Only 5 in the world and three are in PR, one in Pargurea, one in Fajardo and another one in Vieques...
---------- Post added March 15th, 2015 at 03:52 PM ----------
they are awsome! Only 5 in the world and three are in PR, one in Pargurea, one in Fajardo and another one in Vieques...
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