ambergris caye trip report = sorta

[cm77]

So, I'm back to New York, but want to share some information on my first solo trip to the happy wonderful little island of ambergris caye/ san pedro. (my orginal post titled 27 year old femle ambergris caye?) People were so helpful and friendly to me on this message board that i wanted to spread my knowlege.
San Pedro is a beautiful friendly island inhabited by even more amazing people, locals, travelers and ex pats alike. I went to this island with my sole intention of diving and had the pleasure of making the aquaintence with some amazing intelligent people manyof whom i will try to stay in t ouch with.

I did tons of research before I went to make certain that I dove with the best shop on the island and bevause of all that research - I DID!! I dove with Protech everyday of my vacation. Protech (ask for Peter) - is an amazing dive shop with friendly personal service. They had great equipment and were incredibly safe and never dove with a ratio over 4 divers to one dm while i was with them. The sea life and coral are amzing. On my trip I saw tons of rays, nurse sharks, reeef sharks, bull sharks, grouper, shellfish, octopus. etc. There was alot of drama with other dive shops while i was there - I spoke to one woman who ended up with protech becaus the diveshop at her hotel had subpar equipment - another dive boat ran out of gas on their way back from the blue hole. They had no lights on board and had to call via cell phone for rescue and on my night dive at HOl Chan - we actually had to rescue divers that got caught in the rip current after not being properly breifed. I was very happy with protec to saythe least and can not tell you enuff good things about them.

I couold go on and on but my computer is getting very slow. Feel free to ask me any questions diving or otherwise related to san pedro. Im in love it.

xo

 

[DandyDon]

Glad you went with ProTech - can't go wrong there. :medal:

I have a hunch I know the operator who ran out of gas without lights, but - there could be more than one bad one? :lol2:

 

[Gaz]

Me too Don LOL and your probably right HOWEVER I want to make sure that people reading this that 99% of diveshops on Ambergris are competant and proffesional and it is unfair to allow the portrayal of diveshops to be made in bad light there is a single operator that is constantly shown as unproffesional however to allow that one to taint all the other operators is unfair and not a fair representation of the other proffesional operators in town.

I an not involved in this since my operation is located way north of town however I feel it is my duty to speak for the other operators located in town whom (who dont read and frequent message boards such as this) I feel are getting a bad rap because of one operator the majority of operations on Ambergirs are proffesional and competant.

CM's comments on that divers were not well briefed cannot be clarified unless she was on the boat in question as a dive operator we have ALL been caught in the current at Hol Chan and had to have a boat come and get us not because we did not brief guests correctly but that they did not follow the briefing, hol chan can be tricky at best if you do not follow the briefing, so to use that as an example of a bad operation is inaccurate as it can happen to all of us operators on the island and i expect has to 99% of us over the years and will to the remainging 1% in the coming years.

There is no excuse to run out of gas from the Blue Hole though

If someone has a great time (or bad) post it and let people know but keep to promoting the diveshop and dont slam other ops on heresay unless you have first hand experience such as DandyDon in his case.

you may want to really pump up the shop you dive with beacuse you had such a good time but its best not to try and portray other shops as bad without first hand experience your favorute shop will do well when different people constantly post good comments theres no need to bash there competition unless of course you have first hand experience to warrant it.

Word of mouth is the best advertising around theres nothing wrong with people constantly praising an operation however if it is being represented that all other operators are bad thats not fair and has to be clarified

JMHO

Dive Safe

Gaz Cooper

P.S CM glad you had a great time and all went well for you I hope my advice was helpful to you and sorry I was not in town while you were here have to catch up for that beer another time since you will be back

 

[cm77]

I I obvioulsy could have written more about my trip but decided to keep my report in the same vain as my original post. Finding the best dive shop to suit my needs which I did. I made the post to thank all those people who helped guide me , yourself included - not to disrepect any of the other dive shops on the island.

I hope to be back the san pedro SOON.

To Gaz - I hope the offer for the drink still stands when i return.

xo christine

Me too Don LOL and your probably right HOWEVER I want to make sure that people reading this that 99% of diveshops on Ambergris are competant and proffesional and it is unfair to allow the portrayal of diveshops to be made in bad light there is a single operator that is constantly shown as unproffesional however to allow that one to taint all the other operators is unfair and not a fair representation of the other proffesional operators in town.

I an not involved in this since my operation is located way north of town however I feel it is my duty to speak for the other operators located in town whom (who dont read and frequent message boards such as this) I feel are getting a bad rap because of one operator the majority of operations on Ambergirs are proffesional and competant.

CM's comments on that divers were not well briefed cannot be clarified unless she was on the boat in question as a dive operator we have ALL been caught in the current at Hol Chan and had to have a boat come and get us not because we did not brief guests correctly but that they did not follow the briefing, hol chan can be tricky at best if you do not follow the briefing, so to use that as an example of a bad operation is inaccurate as it can happen to all of us operators on the island and i expect has to 99% of us over the years and will to the remainging 1% in the coming years.

There is no excuse to run out of gas from the Blue Hole though

If someone has a great time (or bad) post it and let people know but keep to promoting the diveshop and dont slam other ops on heresay unless you have first hand experience such as DandyDon in his case.

you may want to really pump up the shop you dive with beacuse you had such a good time but its best not to try and portray other shops as bad without first hand experience your favorute shop will do well when different people constantly post good comments theres no need to bash there competition unless of course you have first hand experience to warrant it.

Word of mouth is the best advertising around theres nothing wrong with people constantly praising an operation however if it is being represented that all other operators are bad thats not fair and has to be clarified

JMHO

Dive Safe

Gaz Cooper

P.S CM glad you had a great time and all went well for you I hope my advice was helpful to you and sorry I was not in town while you were here have to catch up for that beer another time since you will be back

 

[peterbj7]

Gaz - Christine did talk at length then and the following day to some of the divers, who were all experienced tho' new to SP. It was an unfortunate incident that was avoidable but could have happened to anyone - I'm just glad we were around to help. 5 minutes later and we wouldn't have been. A "thank you" from the other operator would have been nice.

 

[JRO]

Glad to hear your trip went so well!
Hopefully this puts to rest some of the fears of solo travel for you.

Take Care,

Jeff

 

[Gaz]

Hey christine

your Beer is here waiting for your next trip to the island

Glad you had a great time which is what counts

all the best

Gaz Cooper

 

[leadweight]

Glad youloved it CM77. I can't wait to get back, for another long trip of a month or more.

 

[Cudabait]

Things do happen....

Some years ago, at Ambergris Caye, my wife and daughter saved the life of a dive guide that was drowning on the surface. He had exhausted himself and had removed his flotation. It really is good to research all you can before making these trips into 3rd world countries. Just never know!

Regards,

 

[peterbj7]

I know an instructor who went to Egypt to dive and was obliged to have a check dive with a young and obviously inexperienced DM. Much the same result - the DM had to be rescued.