diveski01
Contributor
Here's how my trip went:
First day we dove with a commercial dive op, Parguera
Divers, in La Parguera a small fishing village grown
now to be a little touristy and went to a couple of
pretty decent sites. Very nice wall dive followed by
deep reef (50-70ft) dive. The dive shop was in a nice
old hotel with nice big rooms - not too fancy but
would make a very nice place for a group trip. Their
30 ft custom boat is less than one year and can take
12-15 divers. Very good Capt and DM team. They
brought all sorts of drinks and even club sandwiches
for the surface interval. We all maxed out our
no-deco times on both dives. The Capt/owner/instructor
led both dives and came over to me right as my wrist
computer went to 1 min no-deco. His timing was sort
of freaky! I showed him my other computer in the
console that still had 3 minutes so he just laughed
and I started up anyway. They were checking out my
bp/wings/long hose gear and I was referred to the rest
of the time as the "gringa technical diver with always
her feet in the air".
Second day we had to run around town and get tanks and
food and stuff together for an overnight on a private
boat of a friend so no sailing or kite-surfing as we
had planned. We left the yacht club around 8:30pm
under a full moon and anchored behind a small barrier
reef off Isla Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island) 12 miles
off shore and had a BBQ steak dinner on the boat and
watched fireworks going off on shore.
Next day dive sites were another 2 miles out and only
known by GPS coordinates. Despite 4-8 ft seas, we
went to an awesome area that the commercial dive boats
never go to. Only the locals with their own boats know
where to dive the area. Viz 80+ and no current to
speak of. Not much in way of "eating" fish (grouper,
snapper, etc) the entire island has been over fished -
but LOTS of everything else. Saw a MASSIVE porcupine
(puffer) - about 2 ft long, eyes the size of golf
balls, a big fat 7 ft nurse shark, LOTS of barracuda -
they seem to like my gear as there were always about 5
or 6 following me but none around Pito - must have
been the shiny new bolt snaps. The second site was a
50ft reef with small "caves" that were undercuts into
the reef about 30 feet back and wide loaded with
various small shrimps and arrow crabs, small fish, etc
- very colorful. Went to the caye for surface
interval and swam around on a really pretty and quiet
beach, walked around the nature preserve and
mini-museum.
Sunday we tagged along on Christopher's first
check-out dives on a dive boat out of Mayaguez on the
West side of PR. There was a storm front coming in so
the viz was only about 30-50 ft and a decent current
running. Very easy to navigate horseshoe shaped reef
site but nothing too exciting. Good for looking for
little guys for macro photography. After dives we
stopped in another fishing village. Every Sunday is a
street fair with cart after cart of fresh oysters,
grilled shark or chicken, margaritas, beers, t-shirts
and jewelry, etc.
Monday was back to reality - packing and flying home.
Next trip there will be to Isla de Culebra which is
supposed to have dive sites 20x better and one of the most
beautiful beaches in the world.
First day we dove with a commercial dive op, Parguera
Divers, in La Parguera a small fishing village grown
now to be a little touristy and went to a couple of
pretty decent sites. Very nice wall dive followed by
deep reef (50-70ft) dive. The dive shop was in a nice
old hotel with nice big rooms - not too fancy but
would make a very nice place for a group trip. Their
30 ft custom boat is less than one year and can take
12-15 divers. Very good Capt and DM team. They
brought all sorts of drinks and even club sandwiches
for the surface interval. We all maxed out our
no-deco times on both dives. The Capt/owner/instructor
led both dives and came over to me right as my wrist
computer went to 1 min no-deco. His timing was sort
of freaky! I showed him my other computer in the
console that still had 3 minutes so he just laughed
and I started up anyway. They were checking out my
bp/wings/long hose gear and I was referred to the rest
of the time as the "gringa technical diver with always
her feet in the air".
Second day we had to run around town and get tanks and
food and stuff together for an overnight on a private
boat of a friend so no sailing or kite-surfing as we
had planned. We left the yacht club around 8:30pm
under a full moon and anchored behind a small barrier
reef off Isla Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island) 12 miles
off shore and had a BBQ steak dinner on the boat and
watched fireworks going off on shore.
Next day dive sites were another 2 miles out and only
known by GPS coordinates. Despite 4-8 ft seas, we
went to an awesome area that the commercial dive boats
never go to. Only the locals with their own boats know
where to dive the area. Viz 80+ and no current to
speak of. Not much in way of "eating" fish (grouper,
snapper, etc) the entire island has been over fished -
but LOTS of everything else. Saw a MASSIVE porcupine
(puffer) - about 2 ft long, eyes the size of golf
balls, a big fat 7 ft nurse shark, LOTS of barracuda -
they seem to like my gear as there were always about 5
or 6 following me but none around Pito - must have
been the shiny new bolt snaps. The second site was a
50ft reef with small "caves" that were undercuts into
the reef about 30 feet back and wide loaded with
various small shrimps and arrow crabs, small fish, etc
- very colorful. Went to the caye for surface
interval and swam around on a really pretty and quiet
beach, walked around the nature preserve and
mini-museum.
Sunday we tagged along on Christopher's first
check-out dives on a dive boat out of Mayaguez on the
West side of PR. There was a storm front coming in so
the viz was only about 30-50 ft and a decent current
running. Very easy to navigate horseshoe shaped reef
site but nothing too exciting. Good for looking for
little guys for macro photography. After dives we
stopped in another fishing village. Every Sunday is a
street fair with cart after cart of fresh oysters,
grilled shark or chicken, margaritas, beers, t-shirts
and jewelry, etc.
Monday was back to reality - packing and flying home.
Next trip there will be to Isla de Culebra which is
supposed to have dive sites 20x better and one of the most
beautiful beaches in the world.
