Every so often, American Airlines offers a "Net Saver" fare that includes a non-stop from Baltimore (my closest airport) to San Juan for $289 round-trip. Since one came up I had to go diving. My wife (who doesn't dive) fully supports any hobby of mine that causes her to get taken to warm tropical locales. The trips are offered as "last minute" trips, so we only had a week to plan. After significant research here, we chose to focus on the Southwest and La Parguera in particular. I heard so much good press about Parguera Divers that I had to book my dives with them. PD operates from the grounds of Posada Porlamar in downtown La Parguera.
La Parguera is about two and a half hours from San Juan if you drive the autopista through the mountains. I would consider renting a car mandatory (we used Charlie car rental). We were there for 6 days and put over 600 miles on the car (and we stayed in one area). If you are traveling to San Juan right after diving, you should go the long way around via the coast since the mountains are actually quite high. No idea how long it takes, but since the coastal route is dotted with stop lights it could be long. Remember to keep lots of change for tolls for the autopista.
Accomodations
We wanted to keep costs down (kind of the point when you go on a low-fare, last-minute, long weekend trip), but I didn't want to make my wife put up with a lousy room (this could negatively impact my future diving). Very little information was available, so I had to go off the websites. Since I wanted to focus on diving, we looked at a few hotels in the area and decided on Villa Parguera. Since information is sparse on this topic, I'll share my impressions.
Villa Parguera is right next door to Posada Porlamar. Travel time from my room to the boat was about 4 minutes by foot. The hotel is actually a resort, with a restaurant, a pool, and an enclosed yard. We were quoted a rate of $96 and change per night (inclusive of taxes) for 5 nights (Thursday-Monday) but offered an upgrade to "Ocean view" for $7 more per night. I guess they forgot and just charged me the $96. Total bill for 5 nights was about $485. I like no surprise fees.
The room was quite comfortable. Clean, with two full beds, a working air conditioner, cable tv (deal breaker for the wife), and a private balcony with an awning overlooking the bay. Our view was quite nice. Since La Parguera faces south, we didnt have to deal with direct sun on the balcony. There was only one usable electrical outlet (hosting a lamp and TV), so we bought extension cords from Big-K. The shower was large enough to rinse equipment and things dried quickly on the balcony.
The restaurant, like all in Parguera, was overpriced; but nice. The staff were helpful and friendly and spoke English well (not to be assumed so far from San Juan). One thing that surprised us though, outside food and beverages are not permitted. This seems to be a common rule for the resorts (there was a similar sign at Porlamar). We had bought a cooler, snacks, drinks, et. al. We left the cooler in the car and smuggled in stuff daily though. All in all, we would not be averse to staying there again.
We have a few impressions of other accommodations, but not in detail. Porlamar was more expensive (even with the diving package and meal coupon). Porlamar is much smaller and didnt seem as nice. It overlooks the marina (8-10 boats) and has a small pool (enclosed). They had a nice open-air restaurant that my wife liked for breakfast, though.
Copamarina (Guanica, right next to Cana Gorda public beach) is about 25 minutes to the East. Very nice all-inclusive resort. Dive operator (Sea Ventures) on-site. The resort is a good way off the highway, down twisting roads. I dove with them so Ill have more later. Downside is price. Figuring what we paid, including dives, Copamarina was over twice the price. It is an all-inclusive, though so if you want to stay at the hotel it could be worth it. We were all over the Southwest so it wouldnt have been for us.
There are other small hotels nearby, some as low as $60/night, but frankly they look awful primitive. Parguera Guesthouse, across the street, looks like a trailer park. A couple of guys I dove with stayed there and said it was fine, but two guys diving around Puerto Rico is a very different situation than a non-diving wife who thinks she's on a vacation in the Caribbean
.
Day 1: Sea Ventures at Copamarina
PD wasnt going out our first day, so I booked my first dives with SV. Very professional outfit. Dive Master was Bam Bam. We only had 4 divers going out and they let my wife come for the boat ride for free. Two dives at reefs about 15 minutes from shore. Easy diving, about 45-55 minutes each. Since I am still new, and it was my first dive in nearly a year, thats about all I could do on 3,000 psi air, but they werent rushing me out. I came up when I needed to. We were sitting over a small school of barracuda (about 20). Reefs here are full and fairly healthy, although the corals and fish are not terribly large. Fish are plentiful.
We returned to La Parguera and I went to the Parguera Divers shop (about a block from the hotel) to take a Nitrox class. They do the old-fashioned PADI course, with classroom and two dives. Victor did our class work. We had 4 students in the class, so my timing was impeccable.
Day 2-4: Parguera Divers
Since we didnt have to drive, I got to sleep in another half hour. PD goes out to the wall for the first dive and a reef for the second. Since this was Saturday, the boat was fairly full, with our Nitrox class (4) and about 4 other divers. Angel finished us through the class, and served as DM. I have to agree that what everyone here says is true, they are a great op. Since I am still fairly new I dont yet own my own equipment. The rental gear was high quality and in great shape.
The wall starts at around 60 feet and drops to 150 or so. Honestly, I was a little disappointed (briefly) since my only other wall was in Grand Cayman (90 feet to 6000 or so). Wasnt expecting to see the bottom of the wall. It turned out to be a nice dive with lots of interesting overhangs. Reef is pretty healthy and wide ranging with small but interesting structures, like the chimney (where you go in the small cave and come out the top) All dives ran 60-100 feet, 45-60 minutes, limited by air and NDL. Divers come up as they need to, not en-masse when the first one does. PD supplies drinks and sandwiches for the surface interval, which runs about an hour. Barring delays, the boat leaves at 8am and returns at 12:30. Still leaves plenty of time for an afternoon trip.
Having completed my Nitrox Cert I used EAN30 for the next two days. PD offers two tanks for $14 and I rented a computer for $5. Since I still use up the gas before hitting NDL I dont think I got more bottom time using Nitrox, but there was a considerable difference in fatigue. I wasnt nearly as tired after diving as I usually am. That alone is worth the extra cost since it gave me my afternoons.
Non-diving activities
My wife spent her mornings just beyond Copamarina. There are a string of nearly empty sandy beaches right off the road. You pull over, walk 15 feet, spread your blanket and youre at the beach. Fine sand and rolling waves. Few people and free. Other things to see in the southwest include the El Faro Lighthouse (set on 200ft cliffs), Buye beach (free but packed), and Cana Gorda beach (only open on weekends, $3 entrance fee, and very popular). It is about 45 minutes to Mayaguez, about the same to Ponce (to see the firehouse), and 20 minutes to Yauco (for emergency shopping).
All in all we had a wonderful trip, I got 8 dives in and my wife got her hot sand therapy.
La Parguera is about two and a half hours from San Juan if you drive the autopista through the mountains. I would consider renting a car mandatory (we used Charlie car rental). We were there for 6 days and put over 600 miles on the car (and we stayed in one area). If you are traveling to San Juan right after diving, you should go the long way around via the coast since the mountains are actually quite high. No idea how long it takes, but since the coastal route is dotted with stop lights it could be long. Remember to keep lots of change for tolls for the autopista.
Accomodations
We wanted to keep costs down (kind of the point when you go on a low-fare, last-minute, long weekend trip), but I didn't want to make my wife put up with a lousy room (this could negatively impact my future diving). Very little information was available, so I had to go off the websites. Since I wanted to focus on diving, we looked at a few hotels in the area and decided on Villa Parguera. Since information is sparse on this topic, I'll share my impressions.
Villa Parguera is right next door to Posada Porlamar. Travel time from my room to the boat was about 4 minutes by foot. The hotel is actually a resort, with a restaurant, a pool, and an enclosed yard. We were quoted a rate of $96 and change per night (inclusive of taxes) for 5 nights (Thursday-Monday) but offered an upgrade to "Ocean view" for $7 more per night. I guess they forgot and just charged me the $96. Total bill for 5 nights was about $485. I like no surprise fees.
The room was quite comfortable. Clean, with two full beds, a working air conditioner, cable tv (deal breaker for the wife), and a private balcony with an awning overlooking the bay. Our view was quite nice. Since La Parguera faces south, we didnt have to deal with direct sun on the balcony. There was only one usable electrical outlet (hosting a lamp and TV), so we bought extension cords from Big-K. The shower was large enough to rinse equipment and things dried quickly on the balcony.
The restaurant, like all in Parguera, was overpriced; but nice. The staff were helpful and friendly and spoke English well (not to be assumed so far from San Juan). One thing that surprised us though, outside food and beverages are not permitted. This seems to be a common rule for the resorts (there was a similar sign at Porlamar). We had bought a cooler, snacks, drinks, et. al. We left the cooler in the car and smuggled in stuff daily though. All in all, we would not be averse to staying there again.
We have a few impressions of other accommodations, but not in detail. Porlamar was more expensive (even with the diving package and meal coupon). Porlamar is much smaller and didnt seem as nice. It overlooks the marina (8-10 boats) and has a small pool (enclosed). They had a nice open-air restaurant that my wife liked for breakfast, though.
Copamarina (Guanica, right next to Cana Gorda public beach) is about 25 minutes to the East. Very nice all-inclusive resort. Dive operator (Sea Ventures) on-site. The resort is a good way off the highway, down twisting roads. I dove with them so Ill have more later. Downside is price. Figuring what we paid, including dives, Copamarina was over twice the price. It is an all-inclusive, though so if you want to stay at the hotel it could be worth it. We were all over the Southwest so it wouldnt have been for us.
There are other small hotels nearby, some as low as $60/night, but frankly they look awful primitive. Parguera Guesthouse, across the street, looks like a trailer park. A couple of guys I dove with stayed there and said it was fine, but two guys diving around Puerto Rico is a very different situation than a non-diving wife who thinks she's on a vacation in the Caribbean
.Day 1: Sea Ventures at Copamarina
PD wasnt going out our first day, so I booked my first dives with SV. Very professional outfit. Dive Master was Bam Bam. We only had 4 divers going out and they let my wife come for the boat ride for free. Two dives at reefs about 15 minutes from shore. Easy diving, about 45-55 minutes each. Since I am still new, and it was my first dive in nearly a year, thats about all I could do on 3,000 psi air, but they werent rushing me out. I came up when I needed to. We were sitting over a small school of barracuda (about 20). Reefs here are full and fairly healthy, although the corals and fish are not terribly large. Fish are plentiful.
We returned to La Parguera and I went to the Parguera Divers shop (about a block from the hotel) to take a Nitrox class. They do the old-fashioned PADI course, with classroom and two dives. Victor did our class work. We had 4 students in the class, so my timing was impeccable.
Day 2-4: Parguera Divers
Since we didnt have to drive, I got to sleep in another half hour. PD goes out to the wall for the first dive and a reef for the second. Since this was Saturday, the boat was fairly full, with our Nitrox class (4) and about 4 other divers. Angel finished us through the class, and served as DM. I have to agree that what everyone here says is true, they are a great op. Since I am still fairly new I dont yet own my own equipment. The rental gear was high quality and in great shape.
The wall starts at around 60 feet and drops to 150 or so. Honestly, I was a little disappointed (briefly) since my only other wall was in Grand Cayman (90 feet to 6000 or so). Wasnt expecting to see the bottom of the wall. It turned out to be a nice dive with lots of interesting overhangs. Reef is pretty healthy and wide ranging with small but interesting structures, like the chimney (where you go in the small cave and come out the top) All dives ran 60-100 feet, 45-60 minutes, limited by air and NDL. Divers come up as they need to, not en-masse when the first one does. PD supplies drinks and sandwiches for the surface interval, which runs about an hour. Barring delays, the boat leaves at 8am and returns at 12:30. Still leaves plenty of time for an afternoon trip.
Having completed my Nitrox Cert I used EAN30 for the next two days. PD offers two tanks for $14 and I rented a computer for $5. Since I still use up the gas before hitting NDL I dont think I got more bottom time using Nitrox, but there was a considerable difference in fatigue. I wasnt nearly as tired after diving as I usually am. That alone is worth the extra cost since it gave me my afternoons.
Non-diving activities
My wife spent her mornings just beyond Copamarina. There are a string of nearly empty sandy beaches right off the road. You pull over, walk 15 feet, spread your blanket and youre at the beach. Fine sand and rolling waves. Few people and free. Other things to see in the southwest include the El Faro Lighthouse (set on 200ft cliffs), Buye beach (free but packed), and Cana Gorda beach (only open on weekends, $3 entrance fee, and very popular). It is about 45 minutes to Mayaguez, about the same to Ponce (to see the firehouse), and 20 minutes to Yauco (for emergency shopping).
All in all we had a wonderful trip, I got 8 dives in and my wife got her hot sand therapy.
