bmaber:
Hi
I love those pictures!!
As a Canadian, I think I might just go to Cuba this winter, and get some like those. (Sorry to my American cousins). Where is the best dive sites? Who operates a good dive operation? Would like to find a good cheep hotel with great beach and lots of diving.
Blaine
Many of the pictures looked very familiar. We went to Cuba for two weeks over Christmas/New Year's 2002-03, and did some fantastic diving from the resort on Isla de la Juventud (formerly Isle of Pines, before that the ancient pirate hideout, Parrot Island, immortalized as Treasure Island).
The only way to dive there is through the government-run Puerto Sol International Diving Centre (also know as the Colony Hotel) but we had few complaints.
The accommodation were excellent. We stayed in one of the recently added beach bungalows (clean and really modern!), which are much nicer than the old Soviet era main block. The always helpful staff even created a "triple" (very hard to get in Cuba!) to include our daughter, saving us hundreds and put through a Christmas call to the US (almost impossible!).
The food, aside from plentiful fresh fruit and juices, generally lived down to the long-standing Cuban reputation of being bland and starchy, with exceptions: delicious Christmas roast-on-a-spit pig and fresh seafood lunches between dives. At least it was safe and plentiful, and not much worse than Varadero hotel-fodder. (However, the best advice is to eat at one of the many "paladares" which operate in private homes, some with, some without government sanction, whenever possible.)
The setting is incredible: sundets over a palm-dotted seashore and Mojita bar hut at the end of a long walkway. Unfortunately, there are too many sea urchins and the water there is too shallow for more than quick and careful dips. But the diving makes up for this. The fifty or so 40 minute distant dive sites that the three 42 foot diveboats depart for every day are truly world-class (and divers come from all over the world to dive them!). They are all in a heavily protected marine reserve area and absolutely pristine. We were graced by a whale shark the first day, and saw turtles, stingrays and many other marine creatlures over the course of our eight planned and several informal-for-cash dives. The underwater terrain was especially interesting with gullies and valleys and many little lairs and overhangs. The divemasters were extremely helpful, cheerful and very professional. You do have to get to this island: the flight from Havana is quite reasonably priced, but the planes are ancient. There is apparently also a ferry.
There is a similar operation at Maria La Gorda on the mainland, where there is supposed to be excellent shore and close-to-shore diving, but this is generally much harder to book. Apparently the diving is excellent. I found the diving near Varadero okay, but not that special (except for, at one site,or a 9 foot moray that approached each and every diver for handouts!). As already mentioned, Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs) has more to offer, and can be done from the shore (they even st provide an entry ladder, unlike our powers-that-be at ****ing Ogden Point, Victoria). It is a bit of a swim--better done underwater--before the drop into reefs, so watch you gas usage.
I'm sure that there are many other good to great dive sites in and around Cuba. Lonely Planet provides an excellent general guidebook and a good dive guide. There is also a memorable book on diving and marine research experiences around Cuba, DEEP CUBA, by Bill Beleville.
Email me privately for further info/experiences/opinions on car rental, accommodation...and operators--like Voyages Aquanautes--to avoid.
erich
