As a quick follow-up to my previous questions here in this thread (thanks again to BDA for being so helpful), here's a quick trip report.
Weather was ok. Being smart cookies, we didn't believe the marketing talk of the travel agencies and did some research of our own. We knew that during winter, weather can be anything from nice and sunny and warm to stormy, rainy and somewat chilly, and that's exactly what we got (all of it in various combinations). Still, even in the crappiest days, it was still pleasant to be outside and wander around, as we came prepared with rainsuits and were used to below-zero temperatures
What we didn't know was that it was so incredibly off-season that most dive shops (and in fact most water sports places and also some other attractions) were closed altogether. That included Triangle Diving, with was on site with our hotel (Grotto Bay). Only through a sheer stroke of luck we managed to get two dives in anyhow: Blue Water Divers contacted me through email just when my phone was online and just a day before they headed out for a dive trip as weather was looking good for that day, so I gave them a call and got everything sorted for joining them the next day. They also don't go out on a regular basis in low season, but they try to when the weather is permitting and there's enough people.
Their shop is on the other side of the island from our hotel which is about 45-60 minutes away, but we had a scooter anyway so no problem there. Everybody was extremely nice and helpful to us (almost) complete noobs and the dive sites they selected were easy and shallow, perfect for us beginners. They had a very nice selection of 2-piece 5/7-mm wetsuits that worked well for keeping us warm in the ~65F water. They have no hoods or gloves for rent and said that we wouldn't need it. Having done some fairly cold water in the past, we were skeptical and used one of their spare hood and beanie at first, which they gladly let us use. But on the second dive we skipped on those, and they were right - no hood or gloves were needed. My wife did get a little cold on the second dive though. Visibility was nothing short of awesome and we had a great time on our first ocean dives.
The scooter was lots of fun to ride down the narrow winding streets, but I can see how people who have never driven one before and/or have never driven on the left side can have major problems and how it can even be dangerous. It's also quite easy to take the wrong turn somewhere without even noticing (you can't read the map while riding
and the street signs are somewhat insufficient), but with us being avid geocachers we have handheld GPS devices that can give us driving directions, and that worked perfect for getting around. The rental place was just around the corner from our hotel, very convenient.
As for internet access (another thing that relates to us being geocachers
), the Swizzle Inn (also just down the road from the hotel) offers free Wifi, so I skipped on getting a SIM card for my phone and instead we went to the Swizzle every evening for drinks and dinner, as they have quite reasonable prices. The hotel's wifi was non-existent in our room and only barely worked in the lobby, but even there you had to pay extra to use it.
All in all it was an awesome trip despite the low season. In some ways, the low season was nice, as everything was nice and empty and quiet. I can't imagine how it's like when the place is overrun by tourist. We'll already thinking of going back maybe later this year, maybe exclusively for diving
