bnajdrovsky
Contributor
Well, I've been back from the trip for a couple of weeks, but only just now had the chance to post my report. I did 3 days (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). The first day we went to Las Marietas, and that was really the only disappointing day. The ride out to the islands was pretty rough due to relatively large waves. The boat was somewhat over-crowded (10 divers, 2 DM's and captain) and I had to sit at the front, which is the worst spot when it's pounding the waves. After the hour long ride to the islands I semi-jokingly asked the others near the back of the boat if they could look for my spine back there. The surge was pretty strong and was kicking up a lot of particulate in the water, so when we finally got under, the visibility was maybe 20 feet at best. We did have a few nice critters like an octopus and a big green moray eel, but again, the visibility was bad and the strong surge made the end of the dive somewhat uncomfortable, trying to keep from being thrown into the rocks. When I first contacted Twin Dolphin via email, they told me that the water temp was 73 degrees, so I brought my 5 mil wet suit. I wore it on the first dive, but since the temperature was actually 81, I decided to do rest of the dives just in my swimming trunks, because that 5 mil is too uncomfortable. It seemed kinda strange to me that the temperature could rise by 8 degrees in a matter of 1 week, but the dive masters told me that's pretty normal for that area.
The next day we went to Los Arcos and the experience there was much, much better. The visibility was probably around 60 - 65 feet, and the water was nice and calm. There were lots of puffer fish, lots of eels, and also quite a few colorful reef fish that I hadn't seen the previous day at the Marietas. Over all, quite enjoyable pair of dives. I would compare them to diving the Big Island in Hawaii.
When I paid Giovanni for my dives on the first day, he promised me that we'd go to El Moro on Saturday, but Friday evening he called me at the hotel to tell me that unfortunately they only had beginner divers for the next day, so we ended up going back out to the south end of the bay, about a kilometer past Los Arcos. The name of the site escapes me, but there there was a very scenic little beach with a restaurant on it, and it was surrounded by rocks on both sides. The diving there was comparable to Los Arcos, even though the underwater topography was different. It was kind of a semi-wall dive. The bottom was very rocky, so while there wasn't much coral, it was a great place to look for critters that are usually hard to find on the reefs. I myself spotted at least 3 octopuses, and my divemaster (Hugo) found a couple more that he pulled out from the nooks and crannies and played with them. We also had some eagle rays, and several varieties of different eels. Both of those dives were pretty good also, and even though I was a bit bummed that I didn't get to go see El Moro, I was still satisfied with the dives. Like I mentioned above, over all I would compare diving in PV to Hawaii. Not nearly as nice as the Caribbean, but not bad either. Thanks for recommending Twin Dolphins, over all they did a good pretty good job.
The next day we went to Los Arcos and the experience there was much, much better. The visibility was probably around 60 - 65 feet, and the water was nice and calm. There were lots of puffer fish, lots of eels, and also quite a few colorful reef fish that I hadn't seen the previous day at the Marietas. Over all, quite enjoyable pair of dives. I would compare them to diving the Big Island in Hawaii.
When I paid Giovanni for my dives on the first day, he promised me that we'd go to El Moro on Saturday, but Friday evening he called me at the hotel to tell me that unfortunately they only had beginner divers for the next day, so we ended up going back out to the south end of the bay, about a kilometer past Los Arcos. The name of the site escapes me, but there there was a very scenic little beach with a restaurant on it, and it was surrounded by rocks on both sides. The diving there was comparable to Los Arcos, even though the underwater topography was different. It was kind of a semi-wall dive. The bottom was very rocky, so while there wasn't much coral, it was a great place to look for critters that are usually hard to find on the reefs. I myself spotted at least 3 octopuses, and my divemaster (Hugo) found a couple more that he pulled out from the nooks and crannies and played with them. We also had some eagle rays, and several varieties of different eels. Both of those dives were pretty good also, and even though I was a bit bummed that I didn't get to go see El Moro, I was still satisfied with the dives. Like I mentioned above, over all I would compare diving in PV to Hawaii. Not nearly as nice as the Caribbean, but not bad either. Thanks for recommending Twin Dolphins, over all they did a good pretty good job.
