I need some advice and info on diving in Panama. I am considering a Christmas/New Years trip (2 weeks) to Panama staying 1 week on an island diving (warm Carribean side) and 1 week in Panama City doing city stuff. Can anyone recommend a diving location/dive shop/accomodation, etc for the island part? We are considering Boca del Toro as it also has bars, restaurants, etc all within walking distance for the night and diving for the day. We are moderately experienced divers (over 120 dives). I'd also like to know about the condition at this time of the year.
Diving Panama Carribean Side
- Thread starter LizStelz
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- boca del toro diving panama
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I don't care for Bocas because some of it has a bit of a college kid party atmosphere, but that's just me. I really like Golden Frog Scuba in Portobello. Unlike what you often find in Panama, the owner, Rey Sanchez, is really responsive to inquiries. He runs a couple of small boats and the dive sites are typically within 15 minutes of the dock. I'm not sure the max number of divers he takes, but I would guess you probably wouldn't have more than 8 on the boat. The reefs are a bit of degraded, as are many places in the Caribbean, but really no worse than Bocas. Regardless, I enjoyed the diving. I've only dove it in June, so i'm not sure what the conditions are like around Christmas. I suspect they are pretty good though. We had a day where a storm came through the previous night and stirred things up, the viz was maybe 20-25'. By the next day it had already started clearing up and was back to around 60'.
You can stay at the CocoPlum hotel where the dive shop is on site. The hotel has cold air conditioning and a restaurant on site. It was really nice to just walk out of the room and get on the boat. The hotel doesn't have hot water, but I didn't really miss it. There is also a house off site that can be rented. It's a little more money, but also a little nicer than CocoPlum.
Portobello has a very interesting history, but it is not a very big town. If you are looking for a relaxing pace of diving, it's really hard to beat.
http://www.goldenfrogscuba.com/home.html
You can stay at the CocoPlum hotel where the dive shop is on site. The hotel has cold air conditioning and a restaurant on site. It was really nice to just walk out of the room and get on the boat. The hotel doesn't have hot water, but I didn't really miss it. There is also a house off site that can be rented. It's a little more money, but also a little nicer than CocoPlum.
Portobello has a very interesting history, but it is not a very big town. If you are looking for a relaxing pace of diving, it's really hard to beat.
http://www.goldenfrogscuba.com/home.html
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