cork2win
Contributor
I have a very long, general trip report for this vacation but I'll leave out the non-diving stuff for here:
Diving: I was recently SCUBA certified and although this wasnt necessarily a diving vacation, we were hoping to get some dives in while here. I knew from research prior to our trip that diving wasnt exactly great here (in Sosua) but that there were some decent dive sites and that we should have been able to get some decent diving in. We brought our own equipment and decided to dive with Dolphin Divers in Sosua based on a referral. Dolphin has a small office in Cabarete (where we were staying) and they arrange transport to their shop in Sosua as part of the package price you pay with them. We walked over to the shop in Cabarete Friday morning and met with Leslie to arrange our diving for the week. We booked a 5 dive package at $27 per dive and were scheduled for our first dive the following morning, Saturday. We were told to be at the Cabarete shop at 8am to meet the cab and driving that would take us to Sosua. We arrived at 8am and were met by the cab and driver promptly. We drove to the Azzurro hotel in Cabarete and picked up 3 other divers then made our way to the shop in Sosua. Leslie told us at our initial meeting that we would only be allowed to make the second morning dive (the easier dive) on our first day because she wanted to evaluate us as divers before allowing us to make any serious dives. We understood that as we both have less than 20 dives each.
We arrived at the shop in Sosua and headed out for breakfast while the rest of the divers made the first dive of the day. The shop is small and located right on the bay in Sosua and can only be reached on foot after traveling through the gauntlet of vendors on the street outside. Im not kidding, we called it the gauntlet each time we visited. Be prepared. I believe the shop is affiliated with the hotel they are situated under but I dont know the hotel name. The shop is nice enough, although small and hardly what I would call sophisticated, but who needs sophistication in a dive shop? They had rental equipment, although some of the rental equipment looked pretty well used, and their own filling station. They had lockers for us to use and they allowed us to leave our equipment at the shop during dives so that worked out well. Im not sure how secure the shop is since its only cordoned off by a rope when no one is around, but as long as your important items are in the lockers you should be ok. Im not sure how safe our equipment was when we left it but we didnt have any problems.
This being my first dive trip I had nothing to compare it to so I wasnt too shocked, but my husband who had dived in Cozumel years ago had more to adjust to when it came to the actual diving here. The boats are very small fishing skiffs. They seat about 8 and thats it. There is no dock, no pier, no ladders. You board the boat by shuffling down the beach with all your gear to a point where the boat is able to come close enough to shore (depending on conditions). At this point you hand all your gear over to the captain who secures it on the boat, then you drag your butt out into the surf and haul yourself into the boat while trying to time it just right with the waves so you dont fall on your *** and get hit by the boat, which I did several times, to the delight of the onlookers on the beach. Once everyone gets into the boat you head out to the dive site, at which point everyone dons their fins and weight belts then jumps overboard. The captain throws your gear out to you and you don the rest of your gear while floating in the waves. This process is challenging for a new diver, to say the least. My husband and I were exhausted and frustrated before we ever descended on our first dive after struggling with our equipment. My husband learned why you never wear your mask on your head, because he lost his in the struggle. When the dive is over, you do it all in reverse. Remove your gear, lift it up to the captain and then haul your butt in over the side of the boat (without a ladder, did I mention there was no ladder?). I know a lot of people dive this way but for two relatively inexperienced divers this made the trip pretty challenging. It was a good experience though because now Im comfortable donning my gear in the water and huffing myself over the side of the boat, even though the bruises are going to take a while to get rid of!
The diving itself was less than stellar. This was my first time in the ocean so I have nothing to compare to. The water was very warm, 85 degrees Fahrenheit, so that was nice, but the visibility the first day was the best and even at best wasnt great, similar to that of the quarry diving I did here in Ohio. The reefs are pretty colorless and there is quite a bit of trash and broken coral. Only small fish were present and not in great numbers either. Some cool fan coral, some cool fish, but all in all it was less than I expected and very disappointing for my husband. Visibility worsened as the week progressed due to heavy rains. So much so that by the 4th and 5th dives, the divemaster thumbed the dive and we were refunded some money for those we werent able to finish. Luckily we were diving with Ron at that point who seemed to be more interested in our enjoyment of the dives than our money, therefore thumbing the dives, while Leslie who was diving with some students took them down anyway, even though visibility was less than 5 feet. She seemed rather upset that Ron thumbed our dives which resulted in us getting refunds. We didnt get to see the few places that are rumored to be the best, including Airport Wall, because the visibility was so bad as the week progressed. I hear Airport Wall is great, and maybe it is, but if youre a diver Id highly suggest another destination that has more diversity in sites and better conditions overall lest you end up disappointed as we were. Regardless, it was fun to get in the water and Im no longer an ocean virgin so hopefully our next dive trip will be better.
Diving: I was recently SCUBA certified and although this wasnt necessarily a diving vacation, we were hoping to get some dives in while here. I knew from research prior to our trip that diving wasnt exactly great here (in Sosua) but that there were some decent dive sites and that we should have been able to get some decent diving in. We brought our own equipment and decided to dive with Dolphin Divers in Sosua based on a referral. Dolphin has a small office in Cabarete (where we were staying) and they arrange transport to their shop in Sosua as part of the package price you pay with them. We walked over to the shop in Cabarete Friday morning and met with Leslie to arrange our diving for the week. We booked a 5 dive package at $27 per dive and were scheduled for our first dive the following morning, Saturday. We were told to be at the Cabarete shop at 8am to meet the cab and driving that would take us to Sosua. We arrived at 8am and were met by the cab and driver promptly. We drove to the Azzurro hotel in Cabarete and picked up 3 other divers then made our way to the shop in Sosua. Leslie told us at our initial meeting that we would only be allowed to make the second morning dive (the easier dive) on our first day because she wanted to evaluate us as divers before allowing us to make any serious dives. We understood that as we both have less than 20 dives each.
We arrived at the shop in Sosua and headed out for breakfast while the rest of the divers made the first dive of the day. The shop is small and located right on the bay in Sosua and can only be reached on foot after traveling through the gauntlet of vendors on the street outside. Im not kidding, we called it the gauntlet each time we visited. Be prepared. I believe the shop is affiliated with the hotel they are situated under but I dont know the hotel name. The shop is nice enough, although small and hardly what I would call sophisticated, but who needs sophistication in a dive shop? They had rental equipment, although some of the rental equipment looked pretty well used, and their own filling station. They had lockers for us to use and they allowed us to leave our equipment at the shop during dives so that worked out well. Im not sure how secure the shop is since its only cordoned off by a rope when no one is around, but as long as your important items are in the lockers you should be ok. Im not sure how safe our equipment was when we left it but we didnt have any problems.
This being my first dive trip I had nothing to compare it to so I wasnt too shocked, but my husband who had dived in Cozumel years ago had more to adjust to when it came to the actual diving here. The boats are very small fishing skiffs. They seat about 8 and thats it. There is no dock, no pier, no ladders. You board the boat by shuffling down the beach with all your gear to a point where the boat is able to come close enough to shore (depending on conditions). At this point you hand all your gear over to the captain who secures it on the boat, then you drag your butt out into the surf and haul yourself into the boat while trying to time it just right with the waves so you dont fall on your *** and get hit by the boat, which I did several times, to the delight of the onlookers on the beach. Once everyone gets into the boat you head out to the dive site, at which point everyone dons their fins and weight belts then jumps overboard. The captain throws your gear out to you and you don the rest of your gear while floating in the waves. This process is challenging for a new diver, to say the least. My husband and I were exhausted and frustrated before we ever descended on our first dive after struggling with our equipment. My husband learned why you never wear your mask on your head, because he lost his in the struggle. When the dive is over, you do it all in reverse. Remove your gear, lift it up to the captain and then haul your butt in over the side of the boat (without a ladder, did I mention there was no ladder?). I know a lot of people dive this way but for two relatively inexperienced divers this made the trip pretty challenging. It was a good experience though because now Im comfortable donning my gear in the water and huffing myself over the side of the boat, even though the bruises are going to take a while to get rid of!
The diving itself was less than stellar. This was my first time in the ocean so I have nothing to compare to. The water was very warm, 85 degrees Fahrenheit, so that was nice, but the visibility the first day was the best and even at best wasnt great, similar to that of the quarry diving I did here in Ohio. The reefs are pretty colorless and there is quite a bit of trash and broken coral. Only small fish were present and not in great numbers either. Some cool fan coral, some cool fish, but all in all it was less than I expected and very disappointing for my husband. Visibility worsened as the week progressed due to heavy rains. So much so that by the 4th and 5th dives, the divemaster thumbed the dive and we were refunded some money for those we werent able to finish. Luckily we were diving with Ron at that point who seemed to be more interested in our enjoyment of the dives than our money, therefore thumbing the dives, while Leslie who was diving with some students took them down anyway, even though visibility was less than 5 feet. She seemed rather upset that Ron thumbed our dives which resulted in us getting refunds. We didnt get to see the few places that are rumored to be the best, including Airport Wall, because the visibility was so bad as the week progressed. I hear Airport Wall is great, and maybe it is, but if youre a diver Id highly suggest another destination that has more diversity in sites and better conditions overall lest you end up disappointed as we were. Regardless, it was fun to get in the water and Im no longer an ocean virgin so hopefully our next dive trip will be better.
