Backpacking and Diving through Central America

[cappyjon431]

Scuba Scotty: "Bocas del Toro is loads of fun, great town, the diving is blah at best."

"Blah at best" sounds like somewone who has not seen all that Bocas has to offer, or is not a very experienced diver. I will be the first person to admit that the viz in Bocas is not great (it averages forty feet), but it is the very sediments in the water that nourish some of the healthiest reefs in the Caribbean. It is virtually impossible to find black band disease and coral bleaching in our waters. The Smithsonian Institution has a field station here and they have identified over ninety species of coral and over a hundred species of sponge in our waters. There are more invertebrates found here than anywhere I've ever dived in the Caribbean (and I have over 3500 logged dives, most of these in the Caribbean). There are not a lot of big fish here, but we see seahorses on many of our dives. I had over 2000 logged dives before I saw my first seahorse. There is a vast variety of tropical fish. I find it is usually the inexperienced diver who has trouble finding things to see on their dives (hence the "blah" diving). While newbies will cover a quarter mile on their dives to find a shark or a turtle or a ray, an experienced diver can look at a 4' by 4' square of reef and find literally dozens of cool critters.

As a side note, the waters of Bocas del Toro are protected (on leeward sides of islands) so we never cancel a dive trip due to high seas or strong currents. We are also located out of the hurricane belt. These factors insure that dives are not lost due to weather.

Finally, if you have not dived the "outside" sites in Bocas del Toro (we only do these in September and October because they are on the windward side of various islands), you have missed world class diving. I would put sites such as Tiger Rock, Polo Beach, Dolphin Rock, and Escudo de Veraguas up there with ANY diving in the Caribbean. Big fish, healthy reefs, great viz, caves, caverns and tunnels make these sites awesome.

Sure, I'm biased--I live in Bocas, I own a dive shop here, and I try to promote our area to serious divers. That being said, I think I have enough diving experience throughout the Caribbean to speak fairly about the quality of our diving.

 

[Kupu]

Utila and Roatan would probably be a favorite for most backpackers, nice variety of dive sites and as much fun as you can handle. The bay islands have a special place in my memories.

It has been a while, and I only did a few dives around Bocas. But now that I have a camera and an addiction to macro photography, I would love to go back and get some pictures from that area. If you are in the area, check it out and make your own decision...

Backpacking with a full set of gear can be a bit tough on the back, but well worth the effort if you are serious about diving. I have managed multi month diving trips with just one pack for my full set of gear and everything else to survive. Since you plan start out in Roatan, might be worth spending a little time on Utila as well before making a commitment on the divemaster internship. You will probably get more ideas of places to visit than you have time for by talking with divers and travelers you meet along the way. Sounds like great fun!

 

[DIVEBOOBER]

I am in Costa Rica for the second time, I travel without gear,but I am sure you can store your gear at the shop. I dive with Rich coast diving and they are very helpful, this year they found a new place for me across their shop for $25 for a double room, it's small but clean and I felt perfectly safe. I heard mostly rental cars get broken in to, so don't leave your gear in the car.
Have fun, I have never been to Belize or Honduras, maybe next year.

 

[Scuba Scotty]

CappyJon,

That's an interesting counter perspective and it's obvious you certainly have more experience diving there and diving in general. "blah at best" is an overstatement now that I read it back, and for the record I enjoyed my diving there and did enjoy lot's of good macro. I did not dive the outside sites. None-the-less I would be lying if said anything except that my 8 tanks in Bocas were the least interesting of my short diving career. I saw a sea horse, the 3 different drum fish, morays, sting rays, dolphins, the wreck, and a shark - it wasn't as if I had a bad time.

Bocas is definitely loads of fun. There are a ton of backpackers there, so for me it was fantastic for 6 days but by day 7 I couldn't take it anymore.

For me and for my tastes I just prefer the other places I have been too.


Diverboober

I also did my diving with Rich Coast Diving and they were great. Say hello to the "dutch mafia" for me.

-Scotty

 

[cappyjon431]

CappyJon,

That's an interesting counter perspective and it's obvious you certainly have more experience diving there and diving in general. "blah at best" is an overstatement now that I read it back, and for the record I enjoyed my diving there and did enjoy lot's of good macro. I did not dive the outside sites. None-the-less I would be lying if said anything except that my 8 tanks in Bocas were the least interesting of my short diving career. I saw a sea horse, the 3 different drum fish, morays, sting rays, dolphins, the wreck, and a shark - it wasn't as if I had a bad time.

Bocas is definitely loads of fun. There are a ton of backpackers there, so for me it was fantastic for 6 days but by day 7 I couldn't take it anymore.

For me and for my tastes I just prefer the other places I have been too.





Diverboober

I also did my diving with Rich Coast Diving and they were great. Say hello to the "dutch mafia" for me.

-Scotty

Scuba Scotty-no insult intended. You are certainly welcome to your opinion and you should be able to express your opinion freely. As a dive shop owner, sometimes I get cranky when I hear a diver on the boat say something like "there was nothing down there." I'll have been on the same dive and seen seahorses, nudibranchs, juvenile spotted drums, flying gunards, toadfish, etc. (all of which are not common sitings ANYWHERE) and the divers "still haven't seen anything." While I hate to generalize, what I think they mean is that they haven't seen anything that they can easily identify. Everyone can identify a shark or a ray or a turtle, but it is the more unusual critters that make diving fascinating for me. It's not that I don't like the big stuff (I used to feed sharks when I worked on a liveaboard, and have been involved in sea turtle conservation for twenty rears). It's just I hate to hear people say "there is nothing down there." I've done over 3500 dives, and I've yet to be on one when there was nothing down there. I can always find cool stuff to look at.

 

[Bredman]

What a great board this is! I'm happy to see so many discussions on my little thread.

We've made it to Utila now, took a sailboat over from Roatan yesterday. We had high hopes for Roatan, and unfortunately, high expectations too. We dove with CT and stayed in their dorms, which was great. The diving, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired. Strange that it was so highly acclaimed by dive mags. We found it expensive, dirty and not particularly charming, so are concerned that other central american areas may be equally overrated. That sounds so harsh as I write it, and Utila has been a bit better but hopefully I can explain why I feel this way.

I think I should add a little more information about myself and my thinking in this. I've spent the last 2 years living in Singapore, which itself if not a dive destination. It is, however, a $100 flight from Bali, Philippines, or Thailand and a short drive/ferry from Tioman/Aur/Redang/Perhentian. I have been spoiled, it seems.

When I came here, I was thinking that like in southeast Asia, if you don't have your own equipment, you are limited in destinations, and you can't always rely on the quality of rental stuff. For this reason, we brought our own stuff, but are considering sending it back now, as dive shops typically don't give a big discount for having your own, and its a 50lb suitcase to carry around :shocked2:. Maybe I'll do as was suggested above and just leave it somewhere I know I'll have to come back to.

I think we'll probably still make it down to both Rich Coast and Bocas areas, but we will likely limit ourselves to a couple of dives per area and not do our DM until we get back to Asia or the South Pacific. Thanks for all the responses here, as it has given us many ideas for both diving and non-diving destinations.

 

[Scuba Scotty]

Cappyjon -

Thank you for your kind response. As it happens I may be moving to Panama within the next year and if I do I'll have to search you out and, put each foot in my mouth (this is difficult as I have poor flexibility) and get you to take me diving. You've definitely enticed me to take a second look. I also couldn't agree with you more about there always being something cool to see - comparing my diving is like "well the winnings of this lottery weren't quite as much as this other lottery I won," either way it's incredible and seems a bit blasphemous to say anything approaching negative on the subject.

Bredman -

Well I hope you find what you're looking for. Give yourself some time to adjust. From what I can gather Central America is going to be more expensive than SE Asia no matter where you go - and if you're finding Roatan expensive then that will likely be the case everywhere you go. If you get away from the "international" pricing of scuba diving you'll find the expense will plummet. Islands don't offer you the ability to get away from that, so you may find a mainland dive destination will suit your wants better.

There's an overabundance of DM's in Honduras, you might consider finding an independent DM, hiring a boat and trying to save some money going to the "special" sites, or use the boat for local sites and only paying a shop for the "special" sites. The boat will likely be small and the seas may be rough so you'll have to decide your level of tolerance there, but if I had all my own gear I'd certainly figure out a non-dive shop diving option for at least a few days - having a custom itinerary in a more "out diving with friends" situation may be really fun... or really awful. Check out CouchSurfing - Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time - there will be a wealth of local knowledge for you just about anywhere you go from people on that site.

Good luck and keep us updated,

-Scotty

 

[jeridolp]

I spent 2 months in SE Asia last year..a month in Cambodia and Vietnam (sans diving) and a month on Koh Phi Phi in Thailand (TONS of diving) I highly recommend Phi Phi for diving, from what we heard travelers saying about the surrounding islands, phi phi was the best. And its CHEAP. We lived in a bamboo hut in the middle of the island with a bathroom and electricity for 250/month. If you want more info, let me know! I was debating on going back to do my DMT there, but decided on Central America..I'm thinking Belize or Utila. Cheers!

 

[HerraduraDivers]

Every Diveshop with a good customersupport would store your divegear for some time.
maybe they will tell you that the decline any responsaility, but diveshops are usual safe places.

I personally would not backpack with my divegear becaus i don't want to carry all this extra weight and
the risk that it gets stolen or i get robbed because of the extra luggage.

Serious diveshops rent you well maintained Divegear and there is no reason to use your own.
To rent the complete Divegear will be a cost of +/- 15$ per Diveday, so in 20 Divedays it would be 300$,
sounds a lot, but consider some extrafees for overweight, storing, insurances and you realize that it's not really so much money.


Best regards

Chris Karrer

 

[Lisan]

I also have a problem of backpacking with divegear. Don't do it, carry all that stuff is not worth it. I think that the 15 - 20 $ of rental gear is more than worth it. Just imagine having longer trips with all that weight not to mention the expences you have when something breaks or even worse when your back get stolen or lost. You really have to concider that.

You can store your back in the most dive shops. I also dived with Rich Coast Diving, Playas del Coco, Costa Rica. I could put all my personal stuff in de back of the shop, save from anyone who will come in the shop.