Hi scubadweeb,
Here's a recent & very detailed trip report from another location:
"Antares Dancer
by karen1202
Date: 2002-07-13
Location: Venezuela
Trip to and dive trip aboard Antares Dancer
Antares Trip Report
Peter Hughes Antares Dancer
Los Roques, Venezuela
June 21-29, 2002
Our flight from Atlanta to Miami (Delta) was late requiring a dead run for Cathy, Steve, Richard, Karen and Bob from H terminal to the extreme other endA terminal. Jack and Diane had a direct flight from Atlanta into Caracas. Scheduled departure for our Aeropostal flight was 5:25PMit was now nearly 5:00PM. We appeared at the counter to be told our flight was closed, however once we told them our luggage had already been checked to Caracas, we were allowed to get boarding passes and run to our gate. We managed to get through security fairly quickly and easilyexcept for Cathy and Steve who had to remove their shoes and have their feet swabbed. Upon arrival at the gate (5:10PM), we were informed of a delay due to electrical problems. We were entertained by watching through a glass partition National Guardsmen and Police detain a person searching his luggage and counting extremely large stacks of cash on a table for the entire time we waited.
We met up in Caracas International with Jack, Diane, Beth and Mike. Diane and Jacks plane had also been a bit delayed so we all arrived nearly at the same time. We picked up our luggage (except for Beth and Mike) whose luggage did not make it until sometime later in the night when it was delivered to the hotel. Beth began our haggling with an official, licensed cab company (Black and Yellow Ford Explorers) and finally reached an agreement with them as to price and terms. Our Best Western hotel was 1-½ miles from the airport and we asked that our cabs stay together (they didnt) with 4 of us in one and 5 in the other. 35 minutes and many detours down dark streets and alleys we arrived at our destination. We then witnessed an altercation between an American couple and their licensed cab driver who had pulled a gun on them and demanded all their goods. (Exactly what the state department warnings had been all abouthence our strict, but unheeded instructions to our cabs.) The end result was the man grabbing the gun and insisting on being taken to the hotel: upon arrival there, kicking out the cab windows and the couple escaping into the hotelwhich immediately locked down the front doors and brought the lady a cup of tea. She had bloodied her hands when the driver tried to take her rings and also when she had beaten him in the head. The cab driver threw his gun into a neighboring yard and pleaded innocence until the neighbors brought the gun to police. Police took the cab driver away. Thus began our lovely stay in Caracas.
The hotel was beautifulset beside the marina with lots of recreational stuffpools, etc. We were served a lovely breakfast buffet and could have made an extended stay since our flight for Los Roques did not leave until 5PM. We were packed up and headed for the airport before noon. Guess we felt safer there. We linked up with Gretchen here and had a pleasant stay in the Domestic Airport. We were looking for Judy here as well, but surmised that she would probably be waiting for us at Los Roques since she was not on our plane that left 15 minutes early! Sure enough, there she sat when we landed on the short, worn out looking little runway in our little LTA plane! She had been entertained all day by the LTA staff who had booked her on a snorkeling catamaran trip!
We were met by the uniformed, but shoeless Anteres crew who brought a cooler of soft drinks and beer, loaded all our luggage up and took us to our waiting boat. They were wonderful and we began with a short briefing on the top deck. We were then shown to our staterooms by different crewmembers. Two couples had opted to pay extra and take the two staterooms on the main deck, which were very much worth the extra money. They had picture windows vs. portholes and an outside door to the deck. Others stayed below in staterooms that were good to adequate. The size varied as to location. Each stateroom was equipped with its own private bath, hair dryer, TV/VCR and the boat had a great library of movies, books and music CDs. This boat has a 12 person capacity and we had elevendont know if we could have gotten another person in Gretchens cabin #6.
There were not many rulesbut these two were enforced: no shoes on the boat and 1st drink/last dive of the day. The food was good and varied-check Anteres web site for menus!
Since the waters tend to be shallow in most parts of this archipelago and the reefs to the top of the water, this boat, unlike other liveaboards was not allowed to travel at night. We normally dove all the sites at our location, and then left for the next location early the next morning. The captain and crew were very flexible, allowing us at times to vote on whether we wanted to move on or stay where we were for the dusk or night dive. We had to be moored before 5PM, I think.
Day 1 diving: 1st dive was a check out dive where we caught the boat at Los Roques at dive site Buceadora. We had been told that the weather had been bad (wind and rain) and visibility was not its best, however we still saw huge midnight parrot fish, large barracudas, queen angels, juvenile and adult spotted drum, schools of all kinds of swirling reef fish (every dive) and lo and behold (!) large Caribbean reef octopuswe counted at least 5 out swimming around in the daytime! The water remained cool75-78 for the entire trip. The wind did blow and the water was rough for the entire trip as well.
Dive 2Called the Pinnacle (or Guasa)the not for sissies dive. Lots of surge and current and struggling down a rope to the top of the pinnacle. One of ours got swept off and could not get downshe was rescued by another boat nearby. I made it to the bottom of the rope only to be jerked back up by not having every bit of air dumped out of my BC. My dive buddy did not see me ascend, however the dive master helped me back down and linked me back up with him. He stayed with us and gave us a guided tour of what would have to be one of the top dive sites in the worldif we had had better visibility. It was very poorbut we still managed to see everything you can think of up close: huge, varied species of parrot fish, more octopus, drums, eels, scorpion fish, interesting corals, and more reef fish that you could imagine. With the current, we could only imagine what lay out of our line of vision!
The next day brought a different location and better vis. Our first two dive sites (Boca de cote and Medio de Canal) brought healthy, colorful reefs full of wonderful things too many to name. The 3rd dive here (Los Gatos) brought us huge nurse sharks, morays, fighting (with each other!) scorpion fish and the biggest scrawled filefish any of us had ever seen.
Day 3the most exciting! We began at Green Paradise (and it was). 1st and Los Cuchos (Eagle Rays and there were!) (2nd) Good vis and all the Eagle Rays you could countnot to mention a few bull sharks swimming back and forth below. Dive master Martin, spotted a hammerhead in the distance. Huge green morays (some of the biggest weve seen since Cozumel 10 years ago!) were on every divemany times more than one sighting and also out free swimming! Returned to Los Chuchos for 3rd dive as well!
Day 4Dive sites: Mini Wall, New Wall, Ledges and back to New Wall! Turtles, African Pompano, queen angels everywhere, soap fish, huge southern rays. Wicked, flying current at Ledgesbut big nurse sharks hidden everywhere in the ledges, big porcupine fish, and biggest cowfish we have ever seen. Beautiful forests of corals and so many schools we called it the Fish Freeway.
Day 5 and Last DayEl Avion (2x) and LaCocina. Visibility dubbed La Cocina the Where Were You? dive. Almost all of us rolled off and never saw our own buddy until the end of the dive. We buddied up with whomever we could find and all made the dive. Again, clouds of every size wrasse and other fish. The last dive was called the Sergeant Major dive-they were everywhere.
Our resident marine biologist, Dr. Diane Nelson (one of the top 5 in the nation or is that world?!) said that this was the healthiest reef she had seenand she has pretty much seen them all. We wished for calmer weather, clearer, warmer waterbut then you might not have been able to get us off the boat! As we were leaving the water was flat and clearof course!
The crew (Thomas the captain, Eric, the steward, his brother, Larry our dingy driver, an engineer whose name I forget, our dive masters, Martin and Eugene) of the Anteres was wonderfulEric our steward entertained us with magic and card tricks. Our two dive masters were great! Eugene from South America (Argentina originally, then Venezuela I think) was one of the best weve ever had. Martin from Switzerland had been there two weeks and is learning fast! If Martin cant make it here, he could be a stand up comic on a cruise shiphe was hilarious! All of the crew was good- natured, very friendly and very willing to help us with anything at anytime! They helped us off with wetsuits and washed them after every dive and took care of all our equipment. All we had to do was get on the dingy, slip into our already assembled gear and back roll into the water! The cook, Amelio, surprised us each day with delicious snacks, homemade soups and breads and all kinds of gourmet-like main/side dishes!
We had a side trip to a turtle research station and the entire area itself is what tropical postcards are made of. KS"
I dove the boat back before Peter Hughes owned it--was called the Antares III. IMHO, the diving was enjoyable, but nothing special & I wouldn't go back.
If you're looking for a special liveaboard trip, I highly recommend the Aggressors in Hawaii, Fiji & Galapagos. If these venues are too far, too expensive or exceed your dive comfort level, the TCI Aggressor is a super choice.
Best regards.
DocVikingo
