Punta Cana, Dominican Republic dive info needed!

[MikeM_scuba]

I'm going to Punta Cana January 6th, planning to do one or two dives there. There is no good dives in Dominican Republic, I just want to do couple of dives to keep my skills sharp. I will bring my wetsuit, reg with computer and mask with me, nothing more. If I was planning to do more dives I would haul all my gear, but for couple of dives it's not making any sense.

 

[237sparky]

I went to punta cana in May of 2005. It is NOT noted for excellant diving. Main reason is the surf is quite rough and it beats the daylight out of the coral reefs. Don't get deppressed read the rest of my reply. I dove with the Mariana Dive Sports Crew at the Majestic Colonial Inn (Talk to Emma at the dive shop - she's multilingual). You really don't need your own gear other than the mask, and regulators. I normally shoot video when I dive down South but left ALL my video gear at home, because I didn't expect any decent diving. I took four dives with them and divers that came from other resorts. A package of four dives was cheaper that individual dives. On May 12, 2006 I dove with a divemaster named Jos (multilingual). English is a minority language there. The divesite was called "Rondana" and the shop had a vidoegrapher that went on all the trips. Her name was "Anna" pronounce Onna. On this dive we ran into two wild manatees at this site. This was only the 2nd time this had ever happened and both times "Jos" was the divemaster on the boat. I bought Anna's DVD of the dive, for $49 US. I had been diving for exactly 20 years to the day when I went there. As it turned out, this was one of my BEST dive trips I have ever been on. Please reply if I can help in anyway. You will need to take a decent glass and a can cooler for your glass as most places only give ya plastic cups. You can look the hotel up on the internet and get more info on the diving from the place your staying. Have a great time and remember it's like you say "Even a bad day of diving beats a good day in the office. HAVE FUN

 

[dtech]

Hi, my wife and I went to punta cana last year and stayed at the iberostar bavaro. I dove with Dressel divers the onsite dive operator. They were very professional but some of the rental gear was older and I had to return two bc's because of leaks. If you get the chance they do excursions to the south side of the island (la romana) to a few Islands in the national park (saona, catalina and catalinita ) The diving was way better there. We are going back again this year but we are staying on the south side in La romana at the iberostar hacienda dominicus. This year I am taking my dive gear as I feel more comfortable using something I am familiar with.