San Salvador/Columbus Isle Help

[leyendahp]

Hello,

Planning a trip to San Salvador this December. I have read so many great things about the diving there. We will be staying at the Club Med. Just wondering about transporting my gear and what if any weight or baggage limits there may be or problems anyone may have ran into while getting to the island.

Has anyone been there during December and if so what should I expect as far as the diving and what critters I may see this time of year?

Has anyone dove with Club Med and/or RRI and can give me a comparison?

Thanks!

 

[archman]

Dang, haven't you posted like five similar postings about this in the last couple of weeks?!

If you run a search, you'll find that there isn't too much info for San Salvador. Even though the diving's great, very few people have visited there.

If you're diving out of Club Med, emailing those folks direct should be the best way to get your questions answered. They're all about customer service!

 

[leyendahp]

Yes I did post to another post but no one other than yourself has made a reply so I thought it best to make my own thread now that I have figured out how. Sorry if that bothers you

 

[archman]

Well, what's gonna happen is that whenever future people run their own searches about San Salvador, the first things that are going to pop up are all these redundant queries. A moderator like me will likely go in and eventually merge all the ones with info in them together and delete all the rest.

As a general rule here, if you haven't gotten a reply within a week, odds are you're not going to get a reply. Folks here are quick on the trigger!

 

[drl]

We were in San Sal in January. We stayed at Riding Rock Inn, not Club Med.
Spirit Air now has jet service from Fort Lauderdale to San Sal, because of the Club Med; if you take that you will have no problems transporting gear. Your regular U.S. baggage limits apply. Club Med picks you and your bags up at the airport.
In January the water temps were about 73, which got pretty chilly after 3 dives a day for a week. I wore a 3-mil wetsuit with a 3-mil vest and a beanie, and wished I had brought the 5-mil core warmer.
We saw hammerheads, both great and scalloped, almost every day. Lots of turtles, rays on the sand flats, a tiger shark one day (cruising by in a foul mood trailing a fishing line). Lots of swim-throughs. The biggest parrotfish I've ever seen.
That's just out of my head; if you want more details I can look at my logs when I get home. Hope that helps.

Deborah

 

[Doc]

Yes I did post to another post but no one other than yourself has made a reply so I thought it best to make my own thread now that I have figured out how. Sorry if that bothers you

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Okay, then.

Riding Rock is a pure diver's resort.

Club Med is Club Med.

It's all the same ocean, right?

Look, if you go to Club Med, understand that as the owners of SCUBABoard want to make this board all-inclusive, you're within a small minority of posters here. Most folks who go to Club Med want a vacation resort, parasols in their drinks, topless beaches and whatever. Not alltogether a bad thing. Until recently that included occasionaly randomly assigned room mates, no locks on the doors and mindless hookups. Also not a bad thing. It always included SCUBA Diving based on the French Resort Course model. If you showed up with your own gear, most GO's rolled their eyes... usualy with good reason. The diving was held to the lowest common denominator. Everybody came back from their big adventure all aglow.

RRI? Strap in and dive. This is a no-bull diver's resort, owned and run by divers. Sit down, hang on, shut up and dive. Come back to the Inn after your dive: "Arghhhh. Grog for me and me boys. Tonight we'll go to Club Dread, poke fun at the GO's, and take their women! Arghhhh."

Divers on vacation. Vacationers who try diving.

You will find no-one here (IMnSHO) who purport have enjoyed Club Med that can offer reliable diving advice, you will find even fewer here that have done both Columbus Isle and Riding Rock.

Go have fun. Look for advice here on diving at that time of year, yes, but understand that the RRI boats go to vastlty different sites than you will be offered at CMCI.

 

[leyendahp]

Thank you,
All the information is great and a big help!
I will look into diving with RRI since that is why I am going.

Thank you Again

 

[Doc]

Thank you,
All the information is great and a big help!
I will look into diving with RRI since that is why I am going.

Brilliant solution. Arrange for a weekly deal/daily trip with one particular cabbie. Live in absolute luxury, dive with divers.

Why didn't I think of that.

Post the photos of the non-tan-line beaches... if you know what I mean. "Nudge, nudge- say no more!"

 

[archman]

This may have changed, but I think Spirit Air's San Sal flights are only on Saturdays. Something to keep in mind. Riding Rock's diver trips seem to take this into account, however.

After flying on Twin Air's little planes, and those loonie-tunes Bahamas-Air turboprops, a nice big jetliner (direct from Florida!) and a 70lb luggage allowance seem heavenly.

God bless the United States Navy and the enormous runway they built on that dinky island.

 

[Doc]

God bless the United States Navy and the enormous runway they built on that dinky island.

See, the story I heard is that it was Club Dread what built it to attract those 747's from Europe.

Quite the visual change in perspectives of the island view when one of those monsters comes in. As in, "Holy Schpitt ! Everybody duck! " I believe it pretty well runs 8000'+ from one tip to the other.