La Plata Ecuador

[Jack1955]

Hello,

I would like to hear from anyone who has done a dive off of La Plata, on the coast of Ecuador.
How long ago, who did you hire, was the visibility good, would you recommend it?????

 

[laurenceh]

i've dived isla de la plata aug/septembers in 2010 and 2011 as part of a conservation project. at that time of the year its amazing, its where the largest aggregation of giant manta rays in the world takes place.
expect conditions similar to the galapagos, cold water, not very good viz (40ft ish) and crazy currents (very extreme at a couple of the sites), add in the illegal fishing that goes on everyday dragging lines right above you as you dive and you get the picture.
i dived with exploramar exclusively on both trips, they're very good. great dive masters and michel the owner is a great guy (he pioneered diving at la plata by bringing tanks down from quito for years until he opened exploramar a few years ago) and very knowledgeable (he's also a marine biologist). there are a couple of other dive shops in puerto lopez who visit isla de la plata sometimes but from my observations, safety is extremely lacking and its my understanding they don't even have permits to be diving there.
i highly recommend the diving at la plata and exploramar as your guide. i shot this video at isla de la plata last september 2011.
if you need more info just ask, i love talking about ecuador.

[video=youtube;H0j8LLyrJdo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0j8LLyrJdo[/video]

 

[Jack1955]

Thanks, Great video. Did you dive the north side? I am thinking it would be calmer water off the lee shore.
I will definitely check out Exporamar. I live in Puerto Cayo, a short distance from Puerto Lopez. Love it here.

 

[laurenceh]

i believe we dived on the east side of the island. there is only one side that is diveable the other is too rough. have fun, the only thing i disliked about puerto lopez was seeing hundreds of thresher and hammerhead sharks being dragged up the beach each week and their fins being shipped off to asia but at least we got them to stop taking manta and mobula rays. ecuador is a beautiful country.

 

[SD555]

Unfortunately i'd have to disagree with the above post, I just did a dive with Exploramar (late July 2013) and was very dissapointed with them. Hi Everyone,

If you are an experienced open water diver they don't try to put you with other experienced divers so expect to have to dive with other people who aren't qualified and even to have to do dives with people on discovery dives who have never dived before. This is obviously very frustrating as your dives will be slow, short and you don't get much of a chance to see the mantas. It was also more frustrating because they didn't tell me i'd have to dive with discovery divers, and made no attempt to split the groups up into beginner and experienced so that everyone could enjoy their dives. When i complained to the owner he basically didn't care at all, once he got the money he was happy and doesn't care about people's enjoyment of the diving there. I saw a couple of mantas very briefly but most of the dive was spent looking after the discovery divers. So in short, pick one of the other companies in Puerto Lopez because Exploramar only care about getting your money, not giving you a good dive experience.