Best diving destinations in Central & South America?

[JDelage]

Hi,

First post here outside of intro...

I live in the US, and for me Central / South America is an easy destination for diving. I just got (re)certified last September in Cozumel, and I loved it.

I'm looking for good destinations in Latin America - ideally diving spots close to a city, with decent diving outfits. I think that there must be a well known "top 15 spots in Latin America", but since I'm new on the scene, I thought I would ask.

Having not dived that much before, any type of dives is of interest.

Thanks!

 

[drbill]

Galapagos, Ecuador
Cocos Island, Costa Rica
San Andres Island, Columbia
Santa Marta, Columbia
Los Roques, Venezuela
kelp forests of Chile
Abrolhas, Brazil
Fernando de Noronha, Brazil

are the ones that come to mind immediately

 

[Cudabait]

For me, Venezuela is out!

A little less extravagant:

Baja Mexico
Plan a weekend stopover in Houston enroute to somewhere else..try to work in a trip to the Flower Gardens National Banks see: www.gulf-diving.com.
Numerous derstinations on Riviera Maya (Mexico)
Cozumel is always good
Cancun
Roatan
Utila
San Andres, but I'd go on over to Isla Providencia for some pristine stuff.

Happy researching!!

Regards,

 

[JDelage]

For those interested, I put together a list on Listible.com:

http://www.listible.com/list/best-diving-destinations

Listible is a site that allows you to build a list and for people to vote items up or down. You can also add to the list. I thought that would be a good way to test this site, which I'm curious about...

 

[Doc]

For those interested, I put together a list on Listible.spam:

Jeepers, 11 posts, and you already started 5 threads. Your profile shows only one thing, in "interests", it says "collect things". Like info off the internet.

Have a happy website, info troll.

 

[shurford]

Playa-del-Carmen is fantastic but if you want some big stuff, Utila is a must:

Stayed at Colibri Hill resort: www.colibri-resort.com - Excellent!

Dived with DeepBlue: www.deepblueutila.com - Superb, wouldn't dive with any other operation on the island....and they have the best whale shark captain on the Island -respect to Gringo!!

Social life? Dived four times a day, ate then slept - that's what I was there for ;o)

If you wanna see what the diving is like, check out my vid on www.myspace.com/shurford

PS - bring some kick-*** sand fly repellant - but really!!

 

[peterbj7]

Probably isn't politically correct, but from the diving I've done at Cozumel and certainly Playa del Carmen I think the barrier reef diving we have here at San Pedro Belize is much better.. Mind you, I also think barrier reef diving in Belize is often better than the atolls.

 

[tiburon72157]

dr. b - it's colombia not columbia. one is a country, the other is a college.