Puerto Rico

[gmerick]

Signed up with Juliet Sailing and Diving for a week out to Mona Island starting 03 Dec 2023. Finding out about the trip was the hard part -- not well published on the usual LOB lists. Air travel to Mayaguez and Holiday in the night before. Juliet visits PR twice each year as they switch between summers in Miami, and winters in St Croix. Reviewed several trip reports and videos. There's also a repeat customer's facebook group.

 

[FreqFlier]

You will be fine with either one of those shops. I have dove with both multiple times over the past ~20 years. I will usually dive with Island Scuba because the shop is closer to the hotel we use (Copa Marina is highly recommended). I know they have nitrox, not sure about Paradise.
I last dove Desecheo 20 years ago and it was a beautiful dive. I remember a strong current. The trips fill up fast so make reservations as soon as you can.
Try to visit La Parguera and Boqueron, both awesome fishing towns with great restaurants. The bioluminescent bay is amazing and better if you go when there is new moon.
Enjoy Puerto Rico. Let me know if you have any questions.

Yup, Copamarina is great, staying there. Already booked a day ea with Paradise, Taino and IS - let's hope weather will cooperate.

 

[FreqFlier]

You will be fine with either one of those shops. I have dove with both multiple times over the past ~20 years. I will usually dive with Island Scuba because the shop is closer to the hotel we use (Copa Marina is highly recommended). I know they have nitrox, not sure about Paradise.
I last dove Desecheo 20 years ago and it was a beautiful dive. I remember a strong current. The trips fill up fast so make reservations as soon as you can.
Try to visit La Parguera and Boqueron, both awesome fishing towns with great restaurants. The bioluminescent bay is amazing and better if you go when there is new moon.
Enjoy Puerto Rico. Let me know if you have any questions.

Just got responses from both Paradise and Island Scuba - neither has Nitrox available. Interesting, I'd guess Parguera wall dive will be short... Supposedly up to 120' deep on air?

 

[Grateful head]

You will be fine with either one of those shops. I have dove with both multiple times over the past ~20 years. I will usually dive with Island Scuba because the shop is closer to the hotel we use (Copa Marina is highly recommended). I know they have nitrox, not sure about Paradise.
I last dove Desecheo 20 years ago and it was a beautiful dive. I remember a strong current. The trips fill up fast so make reservations as soon as you can.
Try to visit La Parguera and Boqueron, both awesome fishing towns with great restaurants. The bioluminescent bay is amazing and better if you go when there is new moon.
Enjoy Puerto Rico. Let me know if you have any questions.

I spoke to Island Scuba three days ago and while the woman I spoke to was helpful, I have a few questions for you. I am trying to gauge the quality of diving in and around the Guanica area. I have pretty much decided to concentrate my effort in this area. I have YouTubed some videos from the area and spoke to the dive shop about the quality of diving there but I don’t yet have great feel for the diving.

Also, restaurants and dining….. the dive shop told me the other day that most restaurants are closed in the Guanica area Monday thru Thursday but she couldn’t really say what other towns to go for lunch and dinner. As a tourist who is considering spending five or more days in this area, can you offer ideas or insight on this? Thanks

 

[FreqFlier]

I spoke to Island Scuba three days ago and while the woman I spoke to was helpful, I have a few questions for you. I am trying to gauge the quality of diving in and around the Guanica area. I have pretty much decided to concentrate my effort in this area. I have YouTubed some videos from the area and spoke to the dive shop about the quality of diving there but I don’t yet have great feel for the diving.

Also, restaurants and dining….. the dive shop told me the other day that most restaurants are closed in the Guanica area Monday thru Thursday but she couldn’t really say what other towns to go for lunch and dinner. As a tourist who is considering spending five or more days in this area, can you offer ideas or insight on this? Thanks

GH - I can't say I know much about the area, but: lady is somewhat right talking about RESTAURANTS around Guanica (translation - fancy (-ier) places). Guanica is one of the poorest places in PR, so they are mostly closed Mo-Thu, but there's plenty of places to eat like Trasiego, Las Palmas, Parador etc. You have to have a car to get around - then La Parguera, Boqueron and even Ponce is on the table. Do not shy away from kiosks and other tiny places (like a hole in the wall type of places) - food is usually crazy good. Mofongo with seafood, asopao de langosta, octopus salad and empanadillas - to die for.
Diving - so far I don't have this "warm and fuzzy" feeling about that part (I have 3 days of diving booked already though, end of Feb).

 

[Grateful head]

GH - I can't say I know much about the area, but: lady is somewhat right talking about RESTAURANTS around Guanica (translation - fancy (-ier) places). Guanica is one of the poorest places in PR, so they are mostly closed Mo-Thu, but there's plenty of places to eat like Trasiego, Las Palmas, Parador etc. You have to have a car to get around - then La Parguera, Boqueron and even Ponce is on the table. Do not shy away from kiosks and other tiny places (like a hole in the wall type of places) - food is usually crazy good. Mofongo with seafood, asopao de langosta, octopus salad and empanadillas - to die for.
Diving - so far I don't have this "warm and fuzzy" feeling about that part (I have 3 days of diving booked already though, end of Feb).

Very insightful, thanks. So you have been to Guanica before but never dive there? Can you comment on other resorts or hotels in the area worth looking in to?
Would love to hear about your February dive trip as well when you are done. Thanks

 

[sagesign]

Just leaving PR now. First time here and the first trip I've taken in 10 years that I didn't bring all of my gear. My wife is a non diver but has always been good with me diving everyday when we vacation. Since this was our first trip here we decided we'd stay in multiple locations, Aguadilla, La Parguera, Luquillo, and the final night in Old San Juan. With this much travel I knew I wouldn't be diving much and wasn't sure how good the diving actually would be. Brought my mask and computer. Did one shore dive in Rincon with Great Escape at Steps Beach. I always have a hard time guaging visibility, does 40' mean you can see crystal clear your buddy 40' away or you can make out your buddies silhouette 40' away(this is an example, don't want to debate having a buddy 40' away!)? I would say the visibility would be 40' using the second scenario. Nothing exceptional, other than the amount of good sized lion fish that displayed no fear. Did a two tank boat dive with Island Scuba in Guanica. I wish I would have gotten a chance to try Paradise Scuba in La Parguera also. They seemed to have a nice shop and nice boats. Island Scuba ran a good operation. Was to be at the shop at 7am. Two other divers, both experienced and on time(not always my experience in areas that aren't hard core diving). I would say the boat left the dock by 7:15 with a 10 minute ride to the wall. I wasn't aware this was to be a shark feeding dive. I don't have any issues with that, especially the way it was done here, just a small piece of fish in a crate and a decent size lion fish Pedro speared on the dive. We dove the wall for half of the dive with reef sharks around. Typical wall dive, my max depth was 85', probably 60' or so visibility. Had an eagle ray cruise by and could hear humpbacks singing in the distance. Turned the dive at half tank and came up on the ledge and started heading back to the boat. No current. About 10 reef sharks now following and at the end two got a meal. About a 60 minute dive. Second site was a reef at about 45'-50'. Nice easy dive. Four different nurse sharks, a good size barracuda, moray eel, etc., for 74 minutes. I wouldn't hesitate to dive with them again. Not sure how many different sites they run to, but between them and Paradise Scuba I think you could easily get a good week of diving in. We were in La Parguera on a Monday and Tuesday and I would say 60% of the restaurants were open with the others being open later in the week. We stayed at airbnb's everywhere we went so can't comment on hotels. We would definitely go back and we enjoyed every area we stayed. We tried to do and see as much as possible and feel like there is so much more to see. Make sure to do the bio bay tour in La Parguera where you can actually swim in the bay. Unbelievable the amount of color in the water.

 

[drrich2]

Since this was our first trip here we decided we'd stay in multiple locations, Aguadilla, La Parguera, Luquillo, and the final night in Old San Juan.

We stayed at airbnb's everywhere we went so can't comment on hotels. We would definitely go back and we enjoyed every area we stayed.

Sounds like you did what I call the 'appetizer sampler platter' approach to Puerto Rico. I have a few follow up questions for you:

1.) What led you to choose Puerto Rico for your trip?

2.) What other dive destinations have you been to that you might compare it to?

3.) If you were going for a week's dive vacation without your wife, would Puerto Rico be in the running, or would you choose elsewhere pretty easily?

4.) If you were going to spend a week at one of the places you tried, which would it be?

5.) Other than the bio bay tour in La Parguera, what else did you guys do topside? Puerto Rico seems to be a 'variety' destinations, so I imagine many people considering it are interested in the topside attractions, too.

6.) While every AirBnB type place is its own thing, but did you think of your experiences with those? Anything you didn't like? Any particular advantage over renting hotel rooms?

 

[sagesign]

1.) What led you to choose Puerto Rico for your trip?

We like to try out different places and sitting at a beach is not our style. Puerto Rico looked to have a lot of DIY attractions.

2.) What other dive destinations have you been to that you might compare it to?

Hard to say with only getting 3 dives in, but probably most similar to St. Croix.


3.) If you were going for a week's dive vacation without your wife, would Puerto Rico be in the running, or would you choose elsewhere pretty easily?

No. You can find better diving with easier access to boats or shore diving at comparable prices. Also felt pretty fortunate to have experienced divers on the boat so we could get some longer dives in. Not sure how often that happens.

4.) If you were going to spend a week at one of the places you tried, which would it be?

We enjoyed La Parguera, but you could run out of things to do after day 4. But you're still only an hour away from a lot of different activities.

5.) Other than the bio bay tour in La Parguera, what else did you guys do topside? Puerto Rico seems to be a 'variety' destinations, so I imagine many people considering it are interested in the topside attractions, too.

We rented a little Boston Whaler style boat from one of the 2 or 3 boat rentals there and spent one day cruising around to the little keys in the area. They also offer boat taxi service to one of the larger keys. We drove to Cabo Rojo the afternoon after the morning boat dives to go to the salt flats, but they were closed. It said they were closed, but thought we might as well drive there just to see the area and maybe you could still see or get in. You couldn't. But it was a nice drive.

6.) While every AirBnB type place is its own thing, but did you think of your experiences with those? Anything you didn't like? Any particular advantage over renting hotel rooms?

Just ok. The main thing is some of the cleaning fees seem pretty ridiculous, especially when the host expects you to clean up after yourself, wash dishes,etc. We have absolutely no problem cleaning the place before we leave, we always do, but being expected to do so and paying a cleaning fee seems like a real price gouge. But we're the ones who booked them and agreed to the price so only ourselves to blame.
We like to have a kitchen area in case we decide to cook instead of going out. The convenience of a larger refrigerator. Having a normal coffee maker so I can buy some local coffee and drink as much as I want. I'm sure there's hotels that offer all of these, but we just never look at hotels much.

 

[Grateful head]

Excellent questions by Rich and very detailed, informative answers by Sage. I am planning a late spring 23, 7-9 day trip somewhere. Coz has been very good to us over the last few years but this kind of first hand info into P.R. makes me think. Sage, can you expound briefly on your flights to and from P.R.? I consistently see decent priced flights into San Juan from Ohare but the times in and out are less than desirable.