looking for the Holy Grail+Unicorn+Mermaid of dive destinations for August

[KathyV]

Many thanks to all who responded.

Short answer:

Just got back from Aruba. Nice time, lovely hotel, nice Div[ing] with Clive.
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The full trip report will have to wait a few days until I crawl out from under the avalanche of email and do some photo editing.

I'm looking forward to your report because we don't hear much about Aruba diving and vacationing!

 

[KathyV]

Many thanks to all who responded.

Short answer:

Just got back from Aruba. Nice time, lovely hotel, nice Div[ing] with Clive.
​

The full trip report will have to wait a few days until I crawl out from under the avalanche of email and do some photo editing.

So just wondering how your trip was and where did you stay?

 

[rmssetc]

Many thanks to all who responded.

Short answer:

Just got back from Aruba. Nice time, lovely hotel, nice Div[ing] with Clive.
​

The full trip report will have to wait a few days until I crawl out from under the avalanche of email and do some photo editing.

How's that for "a few days"?

Here it is... with photos on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/rmsppu/albums/72157701920513025).

Aruba, last week in July. The weather met the requirements -- hot but not uncomfortable, very manageable humidity, no storms (less than 15min of rain during the trip). Plenty to do topside (yoga -- particularly liked the instructors & studio at Island Yoga, donkey sanctuary, national park, food). Beautiful beaches, and a real plus that all are open to the public.

(For background, I've done most of my diving in Cozumel, with boutique operations, so almost all subjective comments about the diving in Aruba are in comparison to that.)

I dove with "Dive Aruba", AKA "Dive With Clive". He was acommodating and easy to deal with. There were never more than 5 other divers, and one day it was just the two of us. His dive briefings and moorings were all spot-on. It's a "dive your tank" operation, with AL80s. He does air fills, checks people in, and handles gear from his home--a few minutes from the marina. He stocks rental gear if need, but I didn't use it, so I can't comment on the condition. Clive and sometimes his son Marc were on the boat daily, and one or the other lead each dive -- but they led the dive in the sense of navigation and occasional requests to check air, much more than being a guide who is finding/pointing out particular fish. Contact me directly if you want to know more.

I lost one day of scheduled diving due to an electrical problem with the boat. Dive with Clive is just that -- a one-man operation, so any maintenance or personal issue could throw off the schedule. However, each diver is given their gear back daily (this is not a valet op with rinse & storage), so I could have booked with another company but chose to take a rest day.

The visibilty was poor/moderate, between 30~50' -- much less than normal, apparently. In contrast to CZM with well-defined reefs and distinct current, the reefs in Aruba seem scattered and there was very little current, even on the two "drift" dives. At first glance, the reefs didn't look as healthy as those in CZM, but my impression may be due to the visibility and simply not knowing what to look at to appreciate the regional differences. There was abundant fish life -- dense and varied. I was struck by small distinctions in color/shape between fish I have learned to spot in CZM and the same species in Aruba, and the distribution was quite different -- more small fish in Aruba, no shark sightings, one turtle and one eagle ray, lots of lion fish...but two of the largest octopi I've seen, both on daytime dives. Diving the wrecks was interesting -- two sunken airplanes are incongruous underwater and the Antilla wreck is interesting for it's history, size, and good fish life.

I got Nitrox, which was filled from a central supplier (don't know who--but Clive said there's only one place on the island). I checked the tanks with my Cootwo (firmware update and CO sensor replaced by DiveNav shortly before the trip). I got a couple of "low" O2 readings (28% for a tank labeled as 30%, for example), and the fills were always bit lower than what Clive provided in his air tanks (2900PSI vs 3100, for example). My real issue was that I was consistently getting CO readings of 4 or 5PPM from the Nitrox tanks, and 0ppm from Clive's tanks. I would be hesitant to recommend using Nitrox.

I stayed at Hotel Karibu -- a 3 bedroom B&B. It's a lovely hotel, extremely helpful owner, clean, reasonable, and very convenient. The Karibu is on a residential block just inland from the Marriott (a walk along a dry/clean path that crosses a small marsh) and easy walking to the "high rise hotel" strip. That brings me to the thing I liked least about Aruba. The hotel zone has lots of places to eat and shop, but most of them could be found at a high-end mall in the US. Aside from the highly inflated prices, there's little about any of the strip restaurants (international chain or "local") that is unique to Aruba or remotely appealing to me. In order to find decent food, you've got to rent a car. Having personal transportation opens up lots of options, with a lower hassle than a similar car rental in CZM. The driving is pretty mellow and a rental allowed us easy access to really good Surinamese food, beautiful beaches for snorkeling, the donkey sanctuary, and the national park.

Overall, it was a good trip, though I didn't find the diving and ease of access to good food to be as good as what I've been spoiled with in Cozumel. I'd certainly go back and give it another try.