Diving Guatemala ?

[DECKHAND]

I was wondering! there's any good diving in Guatemala and where is it.:scubadive

 

[ChevaYEA]

Yeah, me too. I was just coming to the board to ask the same question. I know that you can get small charters out of Livingston to the Southern most Keys of Belize. There was a dive shop just opening up in Livingston last time i was there. But Livingston can be a bit tricky to get to. Take a boat all the way down Rio Dulce or head to Puerto Barios and take a boat over. Once in Livingston there are some decent hotels or some very inexpensive, rustic bungalos.

Is there anywhere else to dive in Guatemala?

 

[Thatch Caye Belize]

There is a lot of lake diving up in the mountains on the Pacific highland side, but for easy diving in good walls and reefs without very long boat rides, it is better to just catch the ferry from Livingston or Puerto Barrios to Belize. In Belize we are right on the reef and can do two or three dives a day at a liesurely pace. In Livingston, the boat ride out to the cayes is at least two hours and the sea is often very rough since the reef on the southernmost section of Belize is very open and sparse till you hit Utila in Honduras again.

 

[ChevaYEA]

Yep, we did hit some rough waters and long boat rides coming out of livingston. You would be better off just heading up to Belize.

I hear that the waters in Lake Atitlan can get a bit dangerous. I don't know what causes it but it is well rumored around the area.

 

[turcintoon]

Hi I am having exactly the same question. We are heading to Guatemala in two weeks tomorrow. At this point, I am planning to make a few altitude dives at Lake Atitlán on April 1. I have seen relatively nothing regarding the dive conditions, but it appears to be a small operation and they take good care of their divers. It will be interesting for me in that it will be my first altitude dive. Not as beautiful as diving in the Caribbean, but hopefully it will be interesting. My son will be refreshing his AOW while there and his friend will try a DSD. That sounds like fun. Hope you got to make a great dive when you were there. I see it has been a few years now. Take care.