Puerto Rico

[Luis H]

My first post! Thanks to everyone here, especially Luis H, for the great info!

Mrs. DivingPanda and I are planning a long weekend in Puerto Rico in June. We've never been to PR before, but have gotten excited about diving Parguera and Desecheo based on the comments here. We'll be able to dive 3 days, so I'm thinking 1-2 days with West Divers and 1-2 days with Taino Divers, depending on conditions at Desecheo. It looks like Mayaguez is about equidistant (25-35 min on Google Maps) between Rincon and Parguera and we're planning on renting a car. I'm wondering if anyone's stayed there before and if this sounds like a good plan? In the past, we've always dived with one shop for 2-8 days on our trips, but I know that others have no trouble hitting multiple shops during a given trip.

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!

Personally I would not be staying in Mayagüez. The distances are not large, but the morning traffic can be bad. Mayagüez is not a tourist town and IMO you would have to get up very early to avoid the morning commute and make in time to the boats.

Driving into Parguera is not difficult, but it can be a bit confusing. IMO it is better to drive the night/ day before. In Parguera there are some very reasonably priced guest houses or if you want to treat yourself I would recommend the Hotel Villa Parguera. It is about $100 a night but it is right on the water and a very nice relaxing place.

There is a guest house almost across the street from Hotel Villa Parguera that is very reasonable. Roxanna from West Divers (Victor’s wife) can help you with the lodging reservations.

As I have mentioned, Desecheo is a most do dive, but if your time is very limited and you want a relaxed mini vacation you may want to consider just staying in Parguera and doing three great days of diving locally. The local diving is fantastic and the small town is relaxing and most everything is in walking distance.

Last November we did stay two days in Parguera (for two days of diving) and then one night in Rincon to dive the next morning with Tainos. This is not difficult and gives you all the best diving (weather permitting), but it may not be for everyone if you are looking for a totally relaxed vacation.


In any case have a great time

 

[DivingPanda]

Personally I would not be staying in Mayagüez. The distances are not large, but the morning traffic can be bad. Mayagüez is not a tourist town and IMO you would have to get up very early to avoid the morning commute and make in time to the boats.<snip>

Thanks for the advice! I hadn't thought about the traffic. The Villa Parguera sounds great (we're from NYC, so $100 is a steal for us, and the Holiday Inn in Mayaguez was >$130 anyways).

Anywhere you'd recommend to stay up in Rincon? I think we can handle a similar itinerary to the one you did in Nov and we'd feel bad if we missed Desecheo.

Also, I heard from Taino Divers that their night dive is a shore dive. Are there other opportunities for shore diving up there or down in Parguera with West Divers? We've been to Bonaire, but that's the extent of our shore diving experience - would we need to tow a buoy?

 

[gypsyjim]

We stayed a the Lazy Parrot when we were in Rincon. Not real fancy, but it was nice and clean, a bit picturesque, and not overly expensive. Short drive to Taino divers. There was a deal for Lazy Parrot last week on the internet. Can't say about Taino's night dive, as we didn't night dive there, but after shore/night diving Bonaire your going to be spoiled!!!

 

[Luis H]

DivingPanda

I have heard good things about Lazy Parrot. We stayed at Tamboo-Beside The Pointe which was nice, but will consider Lazy Parrot next time.

The last time I actually stayed at Hotel Villa Parguera was close to 30 years ago, but we had dinner at their restaurant twice when we were there and it looks like they have redone it and kept it up very nicely. We stayed next door (also on the water) at Posada por La Mar and it was OK, but after we saw both we would have preferred Villa Parguera.

If you are used to driving in NY, PR should not be too bad. You will do fine with a similar schedule as ours. It was some fantastic diving.

I don’t know about the shore diving around Rincon. Just a bit north there is some decent shore diving in Aguadilla. I agree with gypsyjim, none of the shore diving in PR will be as good as the shore diving in Bonaire.

I can’t imagine that there would be any shore diving in Parguera, but you can ask Victor. I think your best bet is to ask them to take you out for a night dive on their boat.

 

[DivingPanda]

Thanks again for all of the advice. Here's how things are shaping up:

Arrive SJU late Thurs and drive to La Parguera (we'll have to skip the Fri AM dives to sleep in ). We'll be staying at Villa Parguera (great rates!) and diving Fri PM and Sat AM and PM with West Divers. Hopefully a night dive in there somewhere as well!

Then we'll drive up to Rincon on Sat evening and stay at Villa Cofresi, which was recommended by David at Taino Divers. Looks nice, at a bit higher rate, but on par with the big chains in Mayaguez and much closer. We'll do the Sun AM Desecheo dive with Taino, then look to do some Sun afternoon/eve shore diving up in Aguadilla.

David wasn't sure he'd have the staffing for our Aguadilla shore dives, so I contacted the Puerto Rico Technical Diving Center, which I've read that others here have used for directions and fills. It sounds like they can provide us with a guide (even though we are lowly rec divers) - has anyone done guided shore diving with them before? Alternatively, I suppose we could just drag a buoy ourselves but, not having dived there before, we'd feel a bit better having a guide.

Finally, it's been suggested to me that we try to stick with PADI dive shops, but Taino is apparently not on the list. Of course, they're the only shop that goes to Desecheo. Do others here feel this is a big deal? I figure as long as the boat has O2 and a radio, we should be ok?

 

[gypsyjim]

You know, I never even noticed that Taino Divers was not PADI. They were a professional, safe and fun outfit to dive with. I would certainly recommend Carson and his crew, and Desecheo Island if you are in Rincon, and if I do get back to that area I will dive with them again! Just being a PADI operation is not the end all be all, in my experience. There are both good and bad, unsafe operators everywhere, and there have been PADI crews that I absolutely will not ever dive with again, ever. Not very many, that is true, but a brand name on the door is not as important as the individual team's attitude and professionalism. You should have no problems diving with Taino. Enjoy!!!!

 

[Luis H]

Thanks again for all of the advice. Here's how things are shaping up:

Arrive SJU late Thurs and drive to La Parguera (we'll have to skip the Fri AM dives to sleep in ). We'll be staying at Villa Parguera (great rates!) and diving Fri PM and Sat AM and PM with West Divers. Hopefully a night dive in there somewhere as well!

Then we'll drive up to Rincon on Sat evening and stay at Villa Cofresi, which was recommended by David at Taino Divers. Looks nice, at a bit higher rate, but on par with the big chains in Mayaguez and much closer. We'll do the Sun AM Desecheo dive with Taino, then look to do some Sun afternoon/eve shore diving up in Aguadilla.

David wasn't sure he'd have the staffing for our Aguadilla shore dives, so I contacted the Puerto Rico Technical Diving Center, which I've read that others here have used for directions and fills. It sounds like they can provide us with a guide (even though we are lowly rec divers) - has anyone done guided shore diving with them before? Alternatively, I suppose we could just drag a buoy ourselves but, not having dived there before, we'd feel a bit better having a guide.

Finally, it's been suggested to me that we try to stick with PADI dive shops, but Taino is apparently not on the list. Of course, they're the only shop that goes to Desecheo. Do others here feel this is a big deal? I figure as long as the boat has O2 and a radio, we should be ok?

You are doing all this wrong! You need to take me as your guide…

Sounds like a great plan, but skip the morning sleeping in. You are just a few feet from the dock and the diving is far better than sleeping. Sleeping is way over rated.

PR Technical Diving is a great shop and Tony Cerezo is a good guy. I just met him once, but he also came highly recommended from other friends. Say hi to Tony from me also. Tell him the guy with the double hose regulators (he probably doesn’t remember my name).

You could go shore diving in Aguadilla without a guide, but with such short time a guide may help get the most out of it (again I am still available ).


I don’t know who suggested it, but using only PADI dive shops is IMHO a bunch of nonsense. What an unbelievable marketing scam. I totally agree with gypsyjim, any shop can be good or bad; who they are affiliated with is not that meaningful.


Have a great time!

 

[DivingPanda]

Thanks for the replies, guys! That was pretty much my take on the PADI issue as well. I'll be sure to report back on how everything goes!

 

[geklee]

Luis, gypsyjim, DivingPanda and Henrik,

Thanks for the great advice, wisdom and patience. I might have stumbled onto a thread where the participants are gracious to each other. I too hope to dive the south and west coast but later in mid-July. I know I am risking hurricane season but when there isn't a hurricane, what are the conditions like?

I especially appreciate all your help, Luis, from hotels to dive areas. Are 2 days in Parguera and 2 days in Rincon with Taino Divers enough time to get sufficient impression of the sites?

I did look into the Copamarina but from reading reviews on traveladvisor.com, consistent complaints came from divers who spent a lot of money for their special occasion and ended up not diving because the dive operation wouldn't go out for various reasons. Sounds like West Divers are much more reliable? Can one of you recommend a nice hotel with air conditioned rooms on the water in La Paguera that is one or two notch below the 5 * Copamarina? Don't like their isolated location. The reason we're in Puerto Rico instead of Cozumel or Grand Cayman is because we like the opportunity to mingle with our fellow and maybe eventual fellow U.S. citizens. Guess what I am after is your recommendation for the next best hotel after Copamarina in or near Parguera.

Thanks so much again!

Gek

 

[gypsyjim]

We stayed one night at Copamarina this Feb, and it was an enjoyable resort, although management had recently changed and there was a lot of complaining being heard. I practically had to drag the dive operators out to do a two tank dive, and they wanted to stay close in, instead of diving the wall. I wasn't happy, since I had driven over from Fajardo area for one night just to dive there. Had a similar problem motivating Sea Ventures to do one trip out of Humacao during the whole week we were there, and I believe that both Humacao and Copamarina are Sea Ventures operations. I have to be gentle as they were decent people over all, and it was a bit choppy the whole week. I found myself wishing that I had returned to Rincon and dived with Taino, or gone over to Culebra, where I went to snorkel on my dry to fly day.