Michaelszippy
Contributor
My wife and I were in Cuba for an educational visit... and to celebrate my twin sons' 30th birthday. We ended up at Maria La Gorda for a day, and I took the opportunity to do a dive. Here's a brief synopsis.
There's only one dive shop there. It's affiliated with the resort, which takes payment for all diving at the front desk. A number of package options are available, with prices starting at $35 per immersion and sliding down to $20 per immersion for a 20 dive package using your own gear. A typical day appears to be three dives. My cost was $49CUC, $35 for the dive and $14 for the rental gear.
Since this wasn't a diving vacation, I had no gear with me and had to rent everything. The shop was pretty booked, with a group that was certifying and a couple of other divers on rental equipment. Consequently, they did not have fins or a wetsuit in my size. I ended up with fins one size too small and a wetsuit one size too large. The wetsuit was relatively new, 3mm. The rest of the gear was very old and did not look particularly well maintained. This was born out in the water, where the BC leaked at the inflator connection, the depth gauge didn't work, and the SPG leaked through the faceplate in certain positions. SPG readings were in BAR, as they don't cater to an American clientele. They do not have computers available for rent. I would not dive this gear again, and I'm glad my dive was shallow. We dove AL80s with air fills. I don't think they have Nitrox available. My tank had a 10% overfill.
The dive boat was quite nice, 48 feet, beamy, no exhaust coming into the cockpit, good working space for setting up your gear. We had 12 people going into the water, six students and six certified divers of varying experience levels. They put the students in one group and the certified divers in another.
We got a decent dive briefing. The profile was essentially to stay on top of the reef, pretty much a steady depth of around 45 feet and a 45 minute time limit on the dive. Had to stay with the dive master, no options for diving with your own buddy. They have a variety of dive sites, including wall dives.
Water temp was around 80 degrees f. Visibility was excellent; the water was crystal clear. This particular dive was quite good. The coral is healthy and was very colorful. It's a protected area. Marine life was abundant and huge. We spent some time with a ~3 foot black grouper who was very friendly. Green and spotted morays, barracuda, yellowtail snapper, queen angels, puffers, many miscellaneous smaller reef fish. Disgustingly large lionfish. Lots to see and great for photography. About 30 minutes in, one member of our group went low on gas. The dive master took her up while we waited on the bottom and then we resumed the dive. The divemaster seemed competent. Well versed in hand signals and checked in with the group frequently.
I'd go back here for a longer dive trip. It's isolated (approximately 200 miles from Havana). The beach is quite nice...but there's nothing to do here other than swim, snorkel, dive, fish, or sit on the beach. There is only one resort at the beach. It's being upgraded now. The new beachfront cabins are 85 to 100CUC/ night and looked OK. The older rooms looked dumpy. There is a restaurant and a couple of bars. The food was pretty mediocre. There are several essentially empty beaches a short distance from Maria La Gorda and there are some other hospitality options within a few miles, but I don't know how you would do transportation given the isolation (we had a rental car, so not an issue for us).
There's only one dive shop there. It's affiliated with the resort, which takes payment for all diving at the front desk. A number of package options are available, with prices starting at $35 per immersion and sliding down to $20 per immersion for a 20 dive package using your own gear. A typical day appears to be three dives. My cost was $49CUC, $35 for the dive and $14 for the rental gear.
Since this wasn't a diving vacation, I had no gear with me and had to rent everything. The shop was pretty booked, with a group that was certifying and a couple of other divers on rental equipment. Consequently, they did not have fins or a wetsuit in my size. I ended up with fins one size too small and a wetsuit one size too large. The wetsuit was relatively new, 3mm. The rest of the gear was very old and did not look particularly well maintained. This was born out in the water, where the BC leaked at the inflator connection, the depth gauge didn't work, and the SPG leaked through the faceplate in certain positions. SPG readings were in BAR, as they don't cater to an American clientele. They do not have computers available for rent. I would not dive this gear again, and I'm glad my dive was shallow. We dove AL80s with air fills. I don't think they have Nitrox available. My tank had a 10% overfill.
The dive boat was quite nice, 48 feet, beamy, no exhaust coming into the cockpit, good working space for setting up your gear. We had 12 people going into the water, six students and six certified divers of varying experience levels. They put the students in one group and the certified divers in another.
We got a decent dive briefing. The profile was essentially to stay on top of the reef, pretty much a steady depth of around 45 feet and a 45 minute time limit on the dive. Had to stay with the dive master, no options for diving with your own buddy. They have a variety of dive sites, including wall dives.
Water temp was around 80 degrees f. Visibility was excellent; the water was crystal clear. This particular dive was quite good. The coral is healthy and was very colorful. It's a protected area. Marine life was abundant and huge. We spent some time with a ~3 foot black grouper who was very friendly. Green and spotted morays, barracuda, yellowtail snapper, queen angels, puffers, many miscellaneous smaller reef fish. Disgustingly large lionfish. Lots to see and great for photography. About 30 minutes in, one member of our group went low on gas. The dive master took her up while we waited on the bottom and then we resumed the dive. The divemaster seemed competent. Well versed in hand signals and checked in with the group frequently.
I'd go back here for a longer dive trip. It's isolated (approximately 200 miles from Havana). The beach is quite nice...but there's nothing to do here other than swim, snorkel, dive, fish, or sit on the beach. There is only one resort at the beach. It's being upgraded now. The new beachfront cabins are 85 to 100CUC/ night and looked OK. The older rooms looked dumpy. There is a restaurant and a couple of bars. The food was pretty mediocre. There are several essentially empty beaches a short distance from Maria La Gorda and there are some other hospitality options within a few miles, but I don't know how you would do transportation given the isolation (we had a rental car, so not an issue for us).
