mastakebob
Registered
Trip report for 3 days of diving with Panama Divers in Portobelo, Panama from 11 Sept through 14 Sept 2009. Went solo as I was in Panama on business. Diving Panama with Panama Divers
Overall impression: Very relaxing environment, excellent staff, fair to good diving
Panama Divers is located about 3 miles outside of Portobelo on the Caribbean coast of Panama, about 1 hour away from Panama City. They will provide round trip shuttle service between the City (airport/hotel/whatever) and their location for $40. Panama Divers is owned by an American named Clay Jorgensen (sp?) but seems to be mostly operated by Ray, a really friendly native Panamanian who lived in the states for a while.
The actual dive 'lodge' is an old spanish villa type of house that is called the Octopus Garden. Has about 10-12 rooms, each holding between one and four beds. Because I arrived friday morning before everyone else, I got one of the better single rooms with a pretty nice view overlooking the water. Each room has its own bathroom (hot and cold water, shower) and AC (gets downright chilly with the AC on). The villa has a large patio extending over the water as well as a pretty well stocked bar on the second floor. The house is right on the water so when you sit on the patio/second floor deck, you get a very postcard-ish view of the caribbean. Rooms are $60/night for one person, I think each additional person in a room is $10. They have a kitchen on site to with a pretty good menu. Dinners are between $8-12, breakfasts ~$5.
Note that the house is pretty remote. Not walking distance to any place of interest, so you should expect to enterain yourself during your non-diving times.
Onto the diving. September is during the rainy season in panama, so visibility wasn't as good as it could have been. Probably maxed at 35', went down to 15-20' the morning after a pretty good storm. Water is bathwater warm. Went down to 100' for my AOW deep dive in shorts and a rashguard and never felt chilled. even on a moving boat in the rain, never felt cold. Unfortunately, the diving sights didn't wow me. Your basic caribbean dive. Coral (which was pretty silted over in places) with your generic caribbean fish. Not any big fish either. I saw more and bigger fish while snorkeling in Barbados. Saw a good number of lobsters on my night dive. Dives were $50/each.
The dive crew was great. Only half of them spoke English, but I never once doubted that they all knew exactly what they were doing. Actually did my navigation dive with a guy who spoke next to no english, and I speak next to no spanish. made for fun times.
They have 2 boats, one smaller, one larger. The smaller one can only hold a few divers equipment (like 4 max), but the larger one can hold about 20 tanks or so.
So in review:
Pros:
Easy to get to
Relatively cheap
Nice accomodations/living environment
Really friendly staff/crew
free wifi
Cons:
Not the most exciting diving the world
Not a whole lot to do when you're not diving
Buying food and booze and diving and accomodations from the same place adds up quickly
Would I go back? Yea, if i was already in Panama and had limited vacation time. If you have more vacation time than I did, would suggest hitting up Bocas del Toro or Coiba (both of which are a 5 hour drive out of the city)
Overall impression: Very relaxing environment, excellent staff, fair to good diving
Panama Divers is located about 3 miles outside of Portobelo on the Caribbean coast of Panama, about 1 hour away from Panama City. They will provide round trip shuttle service between the City (airport/hotel/whatever) and their location for $40. Panama Divers is owned by an American named Clay Jorgensen (sp?) but seems to be mostly operated by Ray, a really friendly native Panamanian who lived in the states for a while.
The actual dive 'lodge' is an old spanish villa type of house that is called the Octopus Garden. Has about 10-12 rooms, each holding between one and four beds. Because I arrived friday morning before everyone else, I got one of the better single rooms with a pretty nice view overlooking the water. Each room has its own bathroom (hot and cold water, shower) and AC (gets downright chilly with the AC on). The villa has a large patio extending over the water as well as a pretty well stocked bar on the second floor. The house is right on the water so when you sit on the patio/second floor deck, you get a very postcard-ish view of the caribbean. Rooms are $60/night for one person, I think each additional person in a room is $10. They have a kitchen on site to with a pretty good menu. Dinners are between $8-12, breakfasts ~$5.
Note that the house is pretty remote. Not walking distance to any place of interest, so you should expect to enterain yourself during your non-diving times.
Onto the diving. September is during the rainy season in panama, so visibility wasn't as good as it could have been. Probably maxed at 35', went down to 15-20' the morning after a pretty good storm. Water is bathwater warm. Went down to 100' for my AOW deep dive in shorts and a rashguard and never felt chilled. even on a moving boat in the rain, never felt cold. Unfortunately, the diving sights didn't wow me. Your basic caribbean dive. Coral (which was pretty silted over in places) with your generic caribbean fish. Not any big fish either. I saw more and bigger fish while snorkeling in Barbados. Saw a good number of lobsters on my night dive. Dives were $50/each.
The dive crew was great. Only half of them spoke English, but I never once doubted that they all knew exactly what they were doing. Actually did my navigation dive with a guy who spoke next to no english, and I speak next to no spanish. made for fun times.
They have 2 boats, one smaller, one larger. The smaller one can only hold a few divers equipment (like 4 max), but the larger one can hold about 20 tanks or so.
So in review:
Pros:
Easy to get to
Relatively cheap
Nice accomodations/living environment
Really friendly staff/crew
free wifi
Cons:
Not the most exciting diving the world
Not a whole lot to do when you're not diving
Buying food and booze and diving and accomodations from the same place adds up quickly
Would I go back? Yea, if i was already in Panama and had limited vacation time. If you have more vacation time than I did, would suggest hitting up Bocas del Toro or Coiba (both of which are a 5 hour drive out of the city)
