Dominican Republic

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well, just returned from our week in punta cana. stayed at bavaro princess resort, which was not the greatest that we've been to. I definately prefer the iberostar resorts down the beach. this resort was nice, but too big. for the first time ever, we went with my in-laws time share (royal holiday) and spent the entire week warding off the reps from there trying to get us to buy into the time share. totally not cool... anyways, on to the diving...

the dive shop in the resort was scubacaribe. our first encounter was not good. we actually walked away. i wish i had known more about the area and gone with another dive shop all together but didn't. the first time we inquired about diving, the guy met us on the beach and tried to sell us a bunch of other crap that we weren't interested in. just diving we explained. so he referred us to somone else but as he walked away reminded us that "i work on commission and don't get anything for diving." oh well. so the second guy, we tell him that we're looking at a 6 dive package per person with the trip to catalina. he tries to sell us a 16 dive package and actually writes out the ticket this way. needless to say, i got irritated and walked away. :confused: i would have love to do that many dives, but when it's not what you're looking for....

so we go back the next day and book our dives (planned 6 dives with trip to catalina). we plan to dive tues-wed-thurs. so as you have it, good old hurricane omar spins up near the dominican republic and causes some huge surf and surge... no diving on tuesday and my hubby has diarrhea on weds so no catalina trip. so far, this diving thing is not working out. so its now thursday and we haven't dove yet. we finally get 2 dives in on thursday. the first dive was botato and 2nd rondana. the first dive was a learning experience for my hubby. he neglected to check his valves on his bcd and was leaking air when he inflated :no: he kept yelling at the divemaster that he had a problem and the guy was grabbing at his inflator hose and saying "it's ok, just go to the line and go down." then they would yell at me to go down and just "wait at the bottom." i refused to go down without my buddy and about knocked the guy out when he grabbed for my hose and tried to deflate me. we finally got his problem fixed and were able to complete the dive, which at that point lasted 15 minutes since he used up 1000 pounds before even going down.

the catalina dives were phenomenal! :D i would certainly recommend that to anyone who goes to the area. the wall dive was amazing without a lot of surge and the aquarium dive had the most species of any dive. the only problem was the 2.5 hour bus ride to get there...

we did one more dive on saturday, coco loco. the surge was pretty strong and the waves were pretty big. the boat, which had 8 people filled with water on the way out to the dive site. i've never bailed into the water so quickly. i got my gear on and got in. the dive itself was good, saw a big green moray. however, when we surfaced.... no boat. the before mentioned boat had to go back to the beach to get the water out, and never returned.... :confused: now, i don't do too well just bobbing at the surface. another boat came along after our divemaster was using his whistle for quite some time. we weren't able to get into that boat because it wasn't a "scubacaribe" boat. screw that. so he leaves us there! we were sitting on the surface for about 25 minutes before our boat finally returned to retrieve us. by that time, i was so seasick, we cancelled our final dive that was scheduled for that day.

so we got 5 dives in, and i'm happy with that. i learned alot on this trip, which was our first diving trip since certified.
#1 I would not recommend scuba caribe out of bavaro princess resort. I can't speak for the others in the chain. I just didn't feel safety was a concern and there was a HUGE language barrier that could have gotten my husband killed.
#2 if I had to do it all over again, I would not have done the dives out of our resort. I would have planned at least 2 days (4 dives) at Catalina Island. that was the best diving available.

overall, it was a good trip, just not as good diving as I would have liked. oh well, a vacation is better than spending a week at work right???

sorry so long, had a lot to say!
 
Unfortunately the visibility is not yet as normally is, the ocean is still clearing after all the storms we had. But hopefully no more storms are coming and we will have the great visibility soon which is about 30 m / 100ft.
oh yeah, visibility was definately not that great! maybe 40 feet at the best...
 
When I went this visibility was great and so was the diving.
 
... so we got 5 dives in, and i'm happy with that. i learned alot on this trip, which was our first diving trip since certified.
#1 I would not recommend scuba caribe out of bavaro princess resort. I can't speak for the others in the chain. I just didn't feel safety was a concern and there was a HUGE language barrier that could have gotten my husband killed.
#2 if I had to do it all over again, I would not have done the dives out of our resort. I would have planned at least 2 days (4 dives) at Catalina Island. that was the best diving available.

overall, it was a good trip, just not as good diving as I would have liked. oh well, a vacation is better than spending a week at work right???

sorry so long, had a lot to say!

Sorry to hear, that you didn't have good diving. Next time (if you ever come diving to Dominican republic again) plan your vacation to the south side of the island - Bayahibe / Dominicus area, many divers think the diving is much better here then around Bavaro - Punta Cana

oh yeah, visibility was definately not that great! maybe 40 feet at the best...

The visibility is back to normal, you have to come back :)
 
Do you prefer all inclusive or independent hotel to stay in?
The only problem sometimes people have with diving with some resort dive shops, that they have to follow the schedule for dive sites, and cannot choose what they want. We have 23 dives sites around Bayahibe and they go probably to 10 of them. Look here Dive sites around Bayahibe

Hi,

I am actually in the DR for the week of Oct 25 - Nov 1 (business) but want to come and dive.

I may or may not stay in Bayahibe but if I do I look for something small and not inclusive. Really do not care about hotel other than quiet, clean and close by dive places.

Suggestions?

Thanks
Curtis
 
One more question and this is likely also for DRsharky - how is the viz now?

Curtis
 
Hey guys, i'm also headed to the southe east dom rep june 7th for a 6 month instructor course w/ the caribbean dive college/pelicanosport. Any recommendations on the punta cana/bavaro area and the bayahibe area would be mucho appreciated. Also, if anyones had ann experience w/ the company i mentioned, feedback would be useful also... And,...I'm hoping i made a wise decision to commit to so much time here, think i'll get tired of it? Should i do a 2 month course and move on elsewhere? Thanks, thefishyfinger
 
Well it's hard to say how long you should stay in the area. If you like resorty feeling - Bavaro/Punta Cana area is a great place to be. If you like to see more Dominican life, then Bayahibe is the place to be. I met 2 people who worked here as instructors, one was in Bavaro, hated it and came to Bayahibe, the other one loved it (more then Bayahibe area)and ended up working there for 6 months. So it's hard to say, you have to see it yourself.
As you read above, the diving is not that exciting in Punta Cana / Bavaro area, there are more choices here on the south in Bayahibe.
Good luck and let me know if you need more info
 

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