jbunderwater
Registered
Just finishing a 2 week trip (August 5 – 19, 2023) to Puerto Rico with my family. We chose this destination because there’s a direct flight from DC where we live and we wanted a mix of overland and underwater opportunities for fun. TLDR: Puerto Rico is definitely an under appreciated dive destination and what you can see is in the same category of places like Belize and Grand Cayman – experienced divers should focus their time around Rincon and La Parguera.
Quickly about me
This is my very first SB post and first trip report although I’ve been reading for a couple years. I started diving in 2018 and have been hooked ever since. Previous trips have included Bora Bora, Morea, Vanuatu, Taveuni, Bali, Cozumel, Belize, Grand Cayman, Bonaire, Saba, and Dominican Republic. I have all my own gear that I’ve acquired over time so I won’t be able to speak to the quality of the rental equipment on this TR.
Prior to the trip
I did a bunch of research prior to going, which was much more difficult than any other destination I’ve gone to simply because there’s just not much info. There’s very few trip reports about PR which is some of the inspiration to do this one.
Trip itinerary
We spent about 10 days in San Juan area and 4 days in Rincón area. We stayed at Airbnbs the full time. During this time, we did a number of beach and land adventures, but I’ll focus on the diving here. I did dives in Fajardo, Culebra, Rincón and La Parguera – these are the four main areas that diving is generally located around. It will likely take me a few posts but I’ll describe each of these places.
Fajardo
I booked a two-tank dive with Sea Ventures based out of Fajardo which took me to two reef areas after about a 15 minute boat ride. This was unfortunately a very poor experience, largely due to the way the operator was running the dives. I’m going to remain very factual in providing this information, but in short, I could not recommend this dive shop to anyone.
There appeared to be 1 DI for 8 divers, most of which were very inexperienced divers. There was also a DI for 4 DSDs that were running at the same time. There were two other staff members but they were not certified DIs by the looks of it and were not useful when problems started occurring. My assigned buddy noted a problem with his BC before descending which was not troubleshooted at surface, so he went down and then had a rapid ascent after about 5 minutes. The rear staff member didn’t notice this (admittedly, neither did I at first and he was my buddy). When I noticed he was gone, I informed the rear staff member who didn’t seem to know what to do; so I informed the DI. I set a timer and searched for 1 minute and we all ascended per protocol and found the guest on the boat. The guest’s problem still was not resolved, but they let him back in the water anyway with the same BCD. I stuck next to him very closely this time and it was clear he could not stop the inflation of the BCD. Once again, the rear staff member didn’t communicate to anyone else underwater and we wound up cancelling the dive completely as the DI lost sight of me, the other guest and the rear staff member after about 2 minutes in the water. In total we were in the water for about 15 minutes, never making it past the anchor. The whole thing was a mess and unsafe.
I shared my concerns about too many inexperienced divers in the water with insufficient staff with the DIs on board (one was with 4 DSDs) prior to the second dive. They explained the malfunctioning BCD was fixed and the next dive would be fine. Indeed, the second dive was better but still rather short, as they simply did not pair folks by experience (no one was asked how many dives they had) so we all wound up ascending after a fairly short dive.
The diving I did see was nice a healthy reef. We were greeted by a green turtle upon descent and I got a good shot of a spotted moray. The dive was pretty on par with what you can see elsewhere in Caribbean.
TLDR: I can’t recommend this dive shop. I’ll just add one more point that I shared my frustrations with other folks later in my trip and they shared with me that they had observed similar unsafe circumstances and it resulted in a tragic circumstance earlier this year. I cannot confirm the story they told me so I won’t repeat it here. But feel free to ask around when you are here and I am sure you will hear it. I provided my feedback to the shop and they give me a 15% discount on my dive which I appreciated it.
Culebra
I booked a two-tank dive with Aqua Adventures out of Fajardo to go to Culebra. The journey out there is ROUGH (bring motion sickness tablets). I have a strong stomach but I was ready for the boat to stop. Once out there, we did two dives (Carlos Rosario and Tamarindo). Carlos Rosario was a great dive, not too deep – 13.5m - with abundant tropical fishes, large fans and fauna, and even a reef shark. Tamarindo was very shallow (2.5m) beautiful reef, but visibility was very low due to proximity to the beach so this one wasn’t as interesting. I hear there are some great dive sites around Culebra which I don’t doubt, but after later dives in Rincón, I’m thinking Culebra might be a bit over hyped. The dive shop team was great – very professional, did an excellent job taking care of newer and more experienced divers, and was in stark contrast to the previous experience. The ride back was smooth and easy. I was happy that all the shops it seems in the PR provide snacks, soda and after dive beers which is nice. I would say Culebra is a trip worth doing if you’re in San Juan or Fajardo area.
Rincon
In Rincon I went diving with Taino Divers, which have been discussed on this forum. They were great; yes, you do help load up all the equipment on the boat but I didn’t mind. It was a smaller boat but I appreciated the limited number of divers they take. I wanted to go to Desecheo but the winds were too high. The dive boat captain explained that the diving is the same as Rincon reefs without the hour long trip out there. I LOVED the diving here. The first dive was at Garden of Eden, a short boat ride away. The sea was calm due to the protected nature of the area. The reef was ALIVE – fish everywhere so much so that you didn’t know quite where to look. The reef is huge and there’s tons to explore. The second dive was a drift dive at Snapper Hotel. The current wasn’t as strong as you get in Cozumel, but it was fast enough to make it quite some fun. This was probably my favorite dive of the whole trip as we simply saw so much beautiful reef and fish, especially French angelfish that apparently love this site. Rincon should be top of your list for diving in PR, and I highly recommend Taino Divers.
La Parguera
I booked a two tank morning dive with La Parguera with Paradise Scuba. It’s about an hour drive from Rincon where we were staying, but definitely worth the morning drive. Paradise was clearly professionally run and was the experience you expect to have with a dive outfit. The first dive was a deep dive to the famous Wall. I personally love wall dives, and this met the high standard of other wall dives in the Caribbean. Similar to Rincon, this is a large, healthy reef with an abundance of fish. We didn’t see any sharks this time but they are known to visit. On the surface, we managed to spot some dolphins as well. The second dive was a shallower dive of course, but I was truly impressed with just how much area there is to cover. Between Rincon and Parguera, you can easily spend a week visiting spots and exploring the reef. Turtles and sharks are known to be common, although we didn’t see any on these dives. Highly recommend.
As a note, La Parguera is a small town with some restaurants and shops, so you can easily find a post dive meal. Pro tip – check out La Parguera Plaza Hotel. They have a day pass for $15 to use their pool and cabanas, which was a welcome respite for the excessive heat while we waited for the evening Bioluminescent snorkel tour in the evening. You can order food from their adjacent restaurant.
Conclusion
Puerto Rico is great destination for folks who want to a big island with good diving. The island itself is not as nice in looks if you are used to being in Bonaire, Dominican Republic, Cozumel and places like that. But the diving itself is actually very good if you focus your time around the Caribbean side.
Happy to answer any questions folks have. I will follow this post with some photos.
Quickly about me
This is my very first SB post and first trip report although I’ve been reading for a couple years. I started diving in 2018 and have been hooked ever since. Previous trips have included Bora Bora, Morea, Vanuatu, Taveuni, Bali, Cozumel, Belize, Grand Cayman, Bonaire, Saba, and Dominican Republic. I have all my own gear that I’ve acquired over time so I won’t be able to speak to the quality of the rental equipment on this TR.
Prior to the trip
I did a bunch of research prior to going, which was much more difficult than any other destination I’ve gone to simply because there’s just not much info. There’s very few trip reports about PR which is some of the inspiration to do this one.
Trip itinerary
We spent about 10 days in San Juan area and 4 days in Rincón area. We stayed at Airbnbs the full time. During this time, we did a number of beach and land adventures, but I’ll focus on the diving here. I did dives in Fajardo, Culebra, Rincón and La Parguera – these are the four main areas that diving is generally located around. It will likely take me a few posts but I’ll describe each of these places.
Fajardo
I booked a two-tank dive with Sea Ventures based out of Fajardo which took me to two reef areas after about a 15 minute boat ride. This was unfortunately a very poor experience, largely due to the way the operator was running the dives. I’m going to remain very factual in providing this information, but in short, I could not recommend this dive shop to anyone.
There appeared to be 1 DI for 8 divers, most of which were very inexperienced divers. There was also a DI for 4 DSDs that were running at the same time. There were two other staff members but they were not certified DIs by the looks of it and were not useful when problems started occurring. My assigned buddy noted a problem with his BC before descending which was not troubleshooted at surface, so he went down and then had a rapid ascent after about 5 minutes. The rear staff member didn’t notice this (admittedly, neither did I at first and he was my buddy). When I noticed he was gone, I informed the rear staff member who didn’t seem to know what to do; so I informed the DI. I set a timer and searched for 1 minute and we all ascended per protocol and found the guest on the boat. The guest’s problem still was not resolved, but they let him back in the water anyway with the same BCD. I stuck next to him very closely this time and it was clear he could not stop the inflation of the BCD. Once again, the rear staff member didn’t communicate to anyone else underwater and we wound up cancelling the dive completely as the DI lost sight of me, the other guest and the rear staff member after about 2 minutes in the water. In total we were in the water for about 15 minutes, never making it past the anchor. The whole thing was a mess and unsafe.
I shared my concerns about too many inexperienced divers in the water with insufficient staff with the DIs on board (one was with 4 DSDs) prior to the second dive. They explained the malfunctioning BCD was fixed and the next dive would be fine. Indeed, the second dive was better but still rather short, as they simply did not pair folks by experience (no one was asked how many dives they had) so we all wound up ascending after a fairly short dive.
The diving I did see was nice a healthy reef. We were greeted by a green turtle upon descent and I got a good shot of a spotted moray. The dive was pretty on par with what you can see elsewhere in Caribbean.
TLDR: I can’t recommend this dive shop. I’ll just add one more point that I shared my frustrations with other folks later in my trip and they shared with me that they had observed similar unsafe circumstances and it resulted in a tragic circumstance earlier this year. I cannot confirm the story they told me so I won’t repeat it here. But feel free to ask around when you are here and I am sure you will hear it. I provided my feedback to the shop and they give me a 15% discount on my dive which I appreciated it.
Culebra
I booked a two-tank dive with Aqua Adventures out of Fajardo to go to Culebra. The journey out there is ROUGH (bring motion sickness tablets). I have a strong stomach but I was ready for the boat to stop. Once out there, we did two dives (Carlos Rosario and Tamarindo). Carlos Rosario was a great dive, not too deep – 13.5m - with abundant tropical fishes, large fans and fauna, and even a reef shark. Tamarindo was very shallow (2.5m) beautiful reef, but visibility was very low due to proximity to the beach so this one wasn’t as interesting. I hear there are some great dive sites around Culebra which I don’t doubt, but after later dives in Rincón, I’m thinking Culebra might be a bit over hyped. The dive shop team was great – very professional, did an excellent job taking care of newer and more experienced divers, and was in stark contrast to the previous experience. The ride back was smooth and easy. I was happy that all the shops it seems in the PR provide snacks, soda and after dive beers which is nice. I would say Culebra is a trip worth doing if you’re in San Juan or Fajardo area.
Rincon
In Rincon I went diving with Taino Divers, which have been discussed on this forum. They were great; yes, you do help load up all the equipment on the boat but I didn’t mind. It was a smaller boat but I appreciated the limited number of divers they take. I wanted to go to Desecheo but the winds were too high. The dive boat captain explained that the diving is the same as Rincon reefs without the hour long trip out there. I LOVED the diving here. The first dive was at Garden of Eden, a short boat ride away. The sea was calm due to the protected nature of the area. The reef was ALIVE – fish everywhere so much so that you didn’t know quite where to look. The reef is huge and there’s tons to explore. The second dive was a drift dive at Snapper Hotel. The current wasn’t as strong as you get in Cozumel, but it was fast enough to make it quite some fun. This was probably my favorite dive of the whole trip as we simply saw so much beautiful reef and fish, especially French angelfish that apparently love this site. Rincon should be top of your list for diving in PR, and I highly recommend Taino Divers.
La Parguera
I booked a two tank morning dive with La Parguera with Paradise Scuba. It’s about an hour drive from Rincon where we were staying, but definitely worth the morning drive. Paradise was clearly professionally run and was the experience you expect to have with a dive outfit. The first dive was a deep dive to the famous Wall. I personally love wall dives, and this met the high standard of other wall dives in the Caribbean. Similar to Rincon, this is a large, healthy reef with an abundance of fish. We didn’t see any sharks this time but they are known to visit. On the surface, we managed to spot some dolphins as well. The second dive was a shallower dive of course, but I was truly impressed with just how much area there is to cover. Between Rincon and Parguera, you can easily spend a week visiting spots and exploring the reef. Turtles and sharks are known to be common, although we didn’t see any on these dives. Highly recommend.
As a note, La Parguera is a small town with some restaurants and shops, so you can easily find a post dive meal. Pro tip – check out La Parguera Plaza Hotel. They have a day pass for $15 to use their pool and cabanas, which was a welcome respite for the excessive heat while we waited for the evening Bioluminescent snorkel tour in the evening. You can order food from their adjacent restaurant.
Conclusion
Puerto Rico is great destination for folks who want to a big island with good diving. The island itself is not as nice in looks if you are used to being in Bonaire, Dominican Republic, Cozumel and places like that. But the diving itself is actually very good if you focus your time around the Caribbean side.
Happy to answer any questions folks have. I will follow this post with some photos.
