Los Roques

[Nemertes]

Hello,

We are planning a trip to Los Roques in May of this year. 2 divers, 2 non divers (but 1 may be interested in becoming so). Does anybody have any recommendations re: dive shops, accommodations and how to get there from Caracas?

Mucho thanks,
Nemertes

 

[Doc]

Emma-

Los Roques is about as rustic and perfect a potential Caribbean dive base as one might like.

My only familiarity with the island, unfortunately, is by the former liveaboard Hughes Antares III which was discontinued.

I would just go and immediately begin asking for and looking over the best dive ops. Look at their boats with care. Move fast, don't get bogged down by an island greeting. You're going to want a fast boat with a covered top, canvas or otherwise. LR is a far flung collection of shallow islets. Think Maldives in miniature.

Get the per dive price and make a deal for a quantity purchase. They are not used to North American dive style, if you want 4x a day with a Night Dive, it might startle them, but you're in the bulk discount arena.

Don't be over-analytical about the look or character of the boat. It might be different than you're used to. Just look for a long thin hull, a decent ladder and that sun cover. They will haul your gear up if handed to them, you have to negotiate the ladder.

There are many more dive ops on Margarite, they have nicer boats. The diving is marginal, comparitively. What you'll find on Gran Roque is going to be much more "tribal" atmosphere. You will certainly find the right guys to go with. Just be critical of their dive set up and understand that it isn't Cayman.

The trick of Los Roques is the shallow swirling currents. If you can find a guy that can show you the many scattered wrecks- old bones of wooden hulls- they come and go being covered and exposed by shifting sands. A canon you saw yesterday will likely be gone tomorrow.

I am sorry I cant be of more help, but I envy your adventure. Please come to ScubaBoard and give a trip report- something updated and "open eyed". The few that venture there (that offer any report) are quite often unaware of what they are walking into and expecting Club Med or Margarite's infrastructure.

A few yards out of "town" at night you will be bathed in starlight.

The night diving was quite spectacular.

Best wishes on your adventure!

 

[drbill]

In the past I've wanted to combine a trip to Bonaire with one to Los Roques (so I could dive a true "South American" dive site), but discovered how difficult it is due to the trade winds. Hope you will post your experiences here on SB so we can get more info! Have a great trip.

 

[cowboyneal]

I went to Los Roques. You need to find a good "posada." Don't reserve it through the dive shop. There are a couple good choices (do your research), but also some real dogs so be careful. There are two or three choices for diving. You also have to understand that this is not Cozumel. Dive trips can get cancelled for many reasons (including not enough people or the boat doesn't work or one being used as the excuse for the other). The diving there is not all that great, actually...

The diving from Margarita is completely non-existent, you have to wade though water with gasoline and oil floating in the surf to get on the boat (no smoking, please) then bounce around for an hour to dive next to a big rock with a couple fish swimming near it...don't waste your money...go to Porlamar and go shopping...since you sound like you are "couples" I wont mention some of the other activities Margarita is well known for...ha...

If you can be happy going out on a two tank morning dive and then just lying on the same beach every day until dinner, and then sitting on the porch until bedtime, then Los Roques is for you. There is absolutely (and I mean it) not much else to do. You can go to the grocery store and see if there were any deliveries. It's also a fairly eventful moment if you are there when the boat shows up with the gasoline delivery.

There are fairly regular flights from Caracas to the Los Roques airstrip. However, if you get into Caracas too late, you have to wait until the next day. Not many overnighting hotel choices at the airport - either Eurobuilding Express ($189/night) or La Parada (they will tell you 80,000 Bolivares (about $40) on the phone, but when you get there you have to renegotiate down to $50 or so). Anything else is downtown and too far from the airport (another $40 or so by cab).

Ecobuzos is the name of one dive shop I remember in Los Roques.

 

[chairmanTARAC]

I have not been back since Chavez took over the country. When I was there dove with Sesti continental.It was the only dive operator at that time. Owner spoke 6 different languages. Had some outstanding dives. Not much to do on the island as was mentioned. Since Caracus is on the state dept watch list we have not gone back. Been to Margarita several times you are right diving is not one of the strong points. Food was great had great time.

 

[Arturo]

I live (and dive) in Venezuela. I have also visited Los Roques on several ocassions for diving purposes.

1. There are several sites worth diving in Los Roques. "La Guasa", 10 minutes boat ride from main island (Gran Roque), Cayo Sal and the "blue barrier" (one hour boat ride), to mention a few.

2. Los Roques is a National Park and all you can find there are "posadas" (hostels). They range from US$ 60 to US$ 200 per person/night/including three meals.

3. Try these places for scuba diving operators (there were three of them the last time I visited):

a) www.ecobuzos.com

b) www.divevenzuela.com (belongs to former operator Sesto Continente, now called Arrecife Divers) but the site is under construction. Instead write to Cristina Brandini at info@divevenezuela.com, she manages the diving ops at Los Roques. Mention to her I recommended you.

c) Third one I believe is ecochallenge, but don't have their site at hand. Try to Google it.

Try the following place for "posadas: www.los-roques-posadas.com

4. The flight from Caracas to Los Roques takes 35 minutes and costs around US$ 150. There several flights per day. Small planes (10 to 30 passengers), all turbo prop. No big jets in and out of Los Roques.

In case you need further info and orientation feel free to write me a private message.

 

[enomisdivemaster]

For those of you who had bad experiences diving around Margarita, here are some facts that may lure you back (or not of course, lol)! The following opinions are mine alone.......as they say. First the bad. If you are into Tec diving, 5 tanks a day diving, deeper than 100' diving, major wreck diving, diving with sharks diving, beach diving, absolute unlimited viz diving year around, then yes, diving around Margarita probably is not for you. BUT, I can take you on dives around Los Frailes where you can do some nice drift diving at Payape and La Pecha, night or day diving on an old sunken yacht at Cominoto, swim completely around a huge rock (or small island) named El Farallon where a 4' bronze statue of the Virgen De Valle has been sunk, take you to reefs where you are surrounded by schools of Jacks, Barracudas, Grunts, many spotted and green eels, lobster, Scorpion fish, lots of Puffers, and off course all the other usual Caribbean reef fish found around the hard and soft corals. Water temperature here falls between 22 to 26 degrees. We have a large river south of us called the Orinoco which dumps a lot of nutrients, plankton, silt, and other stuff into the ocean. Ocean currents, which strengths differ at different times of the year sweep this stuff right past our doorstep which, at times, can limit viz. Our viz runs between 2 meters to 50 meters, with an average of 20 meters or so. But, when viz is limited we just get lower to the bottom and look for the smaller marine life. In my opinion there are no bad dives, some are just better than others. Our dive operation on Margarita Island has 2 modern dive boats, one a 30' Island Hopper custom made dive boat named the Explorador 1, the other a 26' Mako. The boats are docked at the Concord marina by the Pescador restaurant and are boarded from a wood dock..... no wading through cruddy water here. We offer a relaxing 2 tank dive day with lunch and refreshments served between dives. We usually leave the marina at 0930 and return around 1600 or so. We do "Valet" diving unless the diver customer prefers not to. Most of the people diving here are from Europe, England and Canada. We have tons of referrals. AND Margarita Island has lots of other stuff to see and do. Large very modern shopping malls, fine restaurants, historic forts, a world class wind and kite surfing beach, beaches running from crowded tourist beaches to pristine secluded beaches, golfing and horseback riding. The best part about Margarita is that it is still so very affordable and is much cheaper than other Caribbean get aways. So in my opinion it definitely makes a nice place to take a vacation to. Hope this helps somebody out there in diver land!

 

[Doc]

For those of you who had bad experiences diving around Margarita, here are some facts that may lure you back (or not of course, lol)!!

Great to have such a well worded post about this area. There is a lot of interest from divers, but many roadblocks and variables as to transportation make it a formidable and daunting trip plan.

Does anyone offer diving over the many older wrecks that lie scattered in the shallows of Los Roques? We spent two weeks diving of the Antares II back when- the place was littered with wooden "bones".

Any way to do this any more?

 

[Arturo]

Roatan man:

Don't think you can dive those old wooden wrecks you mention. I didn't know about its existence. Try writing some of the diving operators in Los Roques. They should know.

 

[Nemertes]

Hello everybody,

Thanks for the tips on Los Roques. We ended up winging it, spending one night in Macuito and getting our tickets from AeroTuy at the national terminal of the Caracas airport - about 250 USD roundtrip. There are a few flights a day between Caracas and Los Roques and this time of year is no problem for avaiability.

Los Roques was actually quite nice! It was low season so we landed without a reservation for a posada, ended up staying with Arrecife who said that their dive shop was closed for the week (the two instructors were gone to Caracas) and they sent us to Ecobuzos. The other dive shop open is Eco-Challenge, next to Posada Canto de la Ballena.

One of us did her open water course with Ecobuzos and had her private instructor and was quite pleased with it. My dive buddy and I dove one day with Eco Challenge, and then bought a package with Ecobuzos. We managed to do La Guaza, which was fantastic. Fish soup as I've only seen in South East Asia, but with Caribbean fish. There was a group of experienced divers from Barcelona who were in so that's how we got to dive La Guasa. The dive trips are max 12 divers (we were usually 5-6) with a surface interval on one of the beaches, usually Madrizquin. Eco Buzos is well managed - Juan Carlos the manager used to work for the Peter Hughes liveaboards and has done his share aroudn the world - PNG, Solomon, Turks and Caicos, Bay Islands, yade yade yada. We found giant moray eels, many juvenile drums (they call them obispos in Spanish, which means bishop - thought that was cute), few lobsters, couple stingrays, many large groupers and many schools of fish at La Guaza.

Overall it wasn't that difficult to organize. I recommend shopping for posadas once there as there is a lot of choice but the cheap ones are barely above the youth hostel comfort level. I would say that accommodation was expensive overall, diving was reasonable (180 USD for a 6 dive package with some rental equipment thrown in). Bringing US cash is probably best although we had been advised to change it in Caracas. One must be aware that the change rate can be anywhere between 2000 bolivars to 3500 bolivars to the dollar, which makes a huge difference.

For more details just send me a private message. I may post some pictures at one point, will let you know where and when

Cheers!

Emma from Canada