elgringoperdido
Registered
I wanted to share some reflections on diving in La Costa Brava (Catalonia, northeastern Spain).
My son and I made a three-week trip, not specifically for diving, but brought all our gear because we knew we wanted to do some Mediterranean diving. Direct flight from Newark to Orly on July 1. One week at a VRBO condo in Paris. Some sightseeing (made sure to get out long before the olympians and their fans started to show up.)
Rented a car in Paris and drove south to Carcassonne. We spent a couple of days there visiting the medieval city (I'd highly recommend it for children and teens). Then we crossed the border on the E15 south of Perpignan. Headed to Figueres to visit the Salvador Dalí museum, a lifelong goal. I budgeted four hours for that museum. You could do it in two if you're not a real Dalí geek. Then we headed to L'estartit on the coast.
We stayed at Hotel Medes II and dived with Xaloc Dive Center, about three blocks away. L'estartit is a small town, permanent population less than 4000. Locals tell me it is dead in the winter. But in July it swells. Probably 15 thousand or so tourists. Many divers. Mostly French and Spanish.
Six-pack dive is 242€ if you have your own equipment. You can spread that out over 3, 4, 5, or 6 days. We made it three non-consecutive days with two cylinders on each day. Comes with weights and cylinders. Big 15-L cylinders too, charged to about 205 bar. I had hour-long dives with plenty of air left at the end of each, so it's a generous fill.
At the end of the first day my son had a serious chill. He wore a 3 mm. The other two days they loaned him a 6 mm. For free, which was nice. They also loaned me a "torch" on the first day, because I had forgotten to bring mine, but I brought it on the other two days. You'll definitely want to have a good light on all your dives there. I wore my Cressi Castoro 5 mm and my hood and I was fine (except for hands, but that's normal.)
Shop workers speak Castellano, Catalan, French, and (some) English. Most are native Catalan speakers. Woman working there the first day checked our C-cards and DAN insurance cards. Just a glance, but she wanted to make sure we were legit. You'll have to buy daily insurance if you don't have it already. Waiver was simple. I was instructed to check "no" on all of them. On the "over 50" question I told her I couldn't very well check "no" on that one. She said to check "yes" for that and answer the questions on the back relating to that category. No problems there. I'm 57 but in relatively good health. The boy is 19 and in good health. We both wear corrective glasses but we have our own masks.
Boats can be crowded, depending upon the day. We had as many as 15 and as few as 7 on different days. All dives are "guided dives". I don't know if that's policy, like in Mexico, or just the way this shop does it. Our small group ranged from just us two with a guide, to four of us with a guide, so it never felt crowded underwater.
Visibility was not as good as the caribbean, but better than the NJ coast wreck diving. Probably around 30-40 feet when sunny, slightly less when cloudy. Temps ranged from about 75°F at the surface to as low as 62°F on our deepest descent, which was 32 m (around 105 ft).
They generally had groups of divers that spoke either Spanish or French. They indicated a willingness to go through the briefing in English, but we didn't want to make them repeat everything a third time just for us. My French and Spanish are both fairly proficient and my son had six years of French in school including AP French, so we generally listened to the French briefing and I also listened to the Spanish briefing. It was the same info in both so I didn't request English.
We visited the following spots: Illa Pedrosa (80 ft max), Les Ferranelles (50), Tascó Gros & Carall Bernat (75), Punta Salines (62), Reggio Messina (105), Dofí Sud (49). I have given their Catalan names here as that's how our crew referred to them, but you will see them in Castellano on some charts. Depths are my recorded max depths but in some spots it goes much deeper. The Reggio Messina is a long (110-meter) vessel which was sunk in 1991. It rested on its side on sand, but storms have broken it up over the years. At this point it is in about 20 pieces. We were able to penetrate the upper deck (which is on its side) and some of the lower decks through a big crack, then along a passageway, then out through a hatch in a door. On that dive there were just three of us, the DM, my son, and myself, and we're all pretty good with buoyancy so we kept the visibility. If you do penetrate this wreck don't let yourself get behind someone who kicks up silt because there is a lot of it. Some big fishes hide out in the rooms on the ship so have your camera ready.
In general, there were lots of rays every day. On one dive I counted 7 eagle rays. Big black "mero" (grouper) as well. Some jacks (or that's what I call them, it's a relative of the tuna). Many schools of long barracuda. Mmmmm. We didn't hunt any of them but I tasted some at a local restaurant there. Small reef fish too. Colorful wrasses especially, various species. Some big prawns in crannies, but they tended to dart away quickly. A couple of octopuses, even in the day. Urchins. Crabs. Lots of red, white, and grey coral. Both soft and hard. I'm not an expert on naming coral, but there was a nice variety.
Lots of restaurants and hotels to choose from. Bigger places have English speakers. In the smaller places be prepared to practice your Castellano, Catalan, or French. Those three languages seem to be spoken by everyone. If your Castellano and French aren't too rusty, you might surprise yourself by understanding a good bit of Catalan. It seems to be a hybrid. For example, good day is "Bon día" (Bon as in bonjour and día as in buenos días.) Thanks is "gràcies", which is similar to castellano, and please is "si us plau", which is a lot like French.
Spicy food is hard to come by there. There is a "mexican" place on the main drag, Avinguda Grècia, and I ordered the spicyest item on the menu and it was was hardly spicy. Luckily I found an Indian place. In fact, two of them, both on Avinguda de Roma. I had the chicken vindaloo in one and the rogan josh in the other, and they both brought tears to my eyes. Just the way I like it.
Good wine is cheap. A 750-mL bottle of Campo Viejo Rioja, for example, is around 5€. Punal and crianza are similarly priced. Well, you can pay more, but you can get a drinkable wine for a decent price. Even a glass at a restaurant is cheaper than US. Around 2.50€ will get you a glass of decent red. US-style IPA is harder to come by, but I found one called Sant Jordi which is excellent. That was at a little bar on the river Onyar in Girona, about 30 minutes inland. Can't remember the name of the bar.
Tapwater is potable. I drank it in L'estartit, Figueres, and Girona, and had no ill effects. In fact, it tasted better than the tapwater back home in southeastern PA.
We returned late last night. Wanted to post this while it was fresh in my memory.
Happy diving and happy trails.
My son and I made a three-week trip, not specifically for diving, but brought all our gear because we knew we wanted to do some Mediterranean diving. Direct flight from Newark to Orly on July 1. One week at a VRBO condo in Paris. Some sightseeing (made sure to get out long before the olympians and their fans started to show up.)
Rented a car in Paris and drove south to Carcassonne. We spent a couple of days there visiting the medieval city (I'd highly recommend it for children and teens). Then we crossed the border on the E15 south of Perpignan. Headed to Figueres to visit the Salvador Dalí museum, a lifelong goal. I budgeted four hours for that museum. You could do it in two if you're not a real Dalí geek. Then we headed to L'estartit on the coast.
We stayed at Hotel Medes II and dived with Xaloc Dive Center, about three blocks away. L'estartit is a small town, permanent population less than 4000. Locals tell me it is dead in the winter. But in July it swells. Probably 15 thousand or so tourists. Many divers. Mostly French and Spanish.
Six-pack dive is 242€ if you have your own equipment. You can spread that out over 3, 4, 5, or 6 days. We made it three non-consecutive days with two cylinders on each day. Comes with weights and cylinders. Big 15-L cylinders too, charged to about 205 bar. I had hour-long dives with plenty of air left at the end of each, so it's a generous fill.
At the end of the first day my son had a serious chill. He wore a 3 mm. The other two days they loaned him a 6 mm. For free, which was nice. They also loaned me a "torch" on the first day, because I had forgotten to bring mine, but I brought it on the other two days. You'll definitely want to have a good light on all your dives there. I wore my Cressi Castoro 5 mm and my hood and I was fine (except for hands, but that's normal.)
Shop workers speak Castellano, Catalan, French, and (some) English. Most are native Catalan speakers. Woman working there the first day checked our C-cards and DAN insurance cards. Just a glance, but she wanted to make sure we were legit. You'll have to buy daily insurance if you don't have it already. Waiver was simple. I was instructed to check "no" on all of them. On the "over 50" question I told her I couldn't very well check "no" on that one. She said to check "yes" for that and answer the questions on the back relating to that category. No problems there. I'm 57 but in relatively good health. The boy is 19 and in good health. We both wear corrective glasses but we have our own masks.
Boats can be crowded, depending upon the day. We had as many as 15 and as few as 7 on different days. All dives are "guided dives". I don't know if that's policy, like in Mexico, or just the way this shop does it. Our small group ranged from just us two with a guide, to four of us with a guide, so it never felt crowded underwater.
Visibility was not as good as the caribbean, but better than the NJ coast wreck diving. Probably around 30-40 feet when sunny, slightly less when cloudy. Temps ranged from about 75°F at the surface to as low as 62°F on our deepest descent, which was 32 m (around 105 ft).
They generally had groups of divers that spoke either Spanish or French. They indicated a willingness to go through the briefing in English, but we didn't want to make them repeat everything a third time just for us. My French and Spanish are both fairly proficient and my son had six years of French in school including AP French, so we generally listened to the French briefing and I also listened to the Spanish briefing. It was the same info in both so I didn't request English.
We visited the following spots: Illa Pedrosa (80 ft max), Les Ferranelles (50), Tascó Gros & Carall Bernat (75), Punta Salines (62), Reggio Messina (105), Dofí Sud (49). I have given their Catalan names here as that's how our crew referred to them, but you will see them in Castellano on some charts. Depths are my recorded max depths but in some spots it goes much deeper. The Reggio Messina is a long (110-meter) vessel which was sunk in 1991. It rested on its side on sand, but storms have broken it up over the years. At this point it is in about 20 pieces. We were able to penetrate the upper deck (which is on its side) and some of the lower decks through a big crack, then along a passageway, then out through a hatch in a door. On that dive there were just three of us, the DM, my son, and myself, and we're all pretty good with buoyancy so we kept the visibility. If you do penetrate this wreck don't let yourself get behind someone who kicks up silt because there is a lot of it. Some big fishes hide out in the rooms on the ship so have your camera ready.
In general, there were lots of rays every day. On one dive I counted 7 eagle rays. Big black "mero" (grouper) as well. Some jacks (or that's what I call them, it's a relative of the tuna). Many schools of long barracuda. Mmmmm. We didn't hunt any of them but I tasted some at a local restaurant there. Small reef fish too. Colorful wrasses especially, various species. Some big prawns in crannies, but they tended to dart away quickly. A couple of octopuses, even in the day. Urchins. Crabs. Lots of red, white, and grey coral. Both soft and hard. I'm not an expert on naming coral, but there was a nice variety.
Lots of restaurants and hotels to choose from. Bigger places have English speakers. In the smaller places be prepared to practice your Castellano, Catalan, or French. Those three languages seem to be spoken by everyone. If your Castellano and French aren't too rusty, you might surprise yourself by understanding a good bit of Catalan. It seems to be a hybrid. For example, good day is "Bon día" (Bon as in bonjour and día as in buenos días.) Thanks is "gràcies", which is similar to castellano, and please is "si us plau", which is a lot like French.
Spicy food is hard to come by there. There is a "mexican" place on the main drag, Avinguda Grècia, and I ordered the spicyest item on the menu and it was was hardly spicy. Luckily I found an Indian place. In fact, two of them, both on Avinguda de Roma. I had the chicken vindaloo in one and the rogan josh in the other, and they both brought tears to my eyes. Just the way I like it.
Good wine is cheap. A 750-mL bottle of Campo Viejo Rioja, for example, is around 5€. Punal and crianza are similarly priced. Well, you can pay more, but you can get a drinkable wine for a decent price. Even a glass at a restaurant is cheaper than US. Around 2.50€ will get you a glass of decent red. US-style IPA is harder to come by, but I found one called Sant Jordi which is excellent. That was at a little bar on the river Onyar in Girona, about 30 minutes inland. Can't remember the name of the bar.
Tapwater is potable. I drank it in L'estartit, Figueres, and Girona, and had no ill effects. In fact, it tasted better than the tapwater back home in southeastern PA.
We returned late last night. Wanted to post this while it was fresh in my memory.
Happy diving and happy trails.
