Aruba & Puerto Rico

Author: Al

Diving in Aruba&Puerto Rico: Just got back from two weeks in the Caribbean, and thought I would share my newbie experience with folks.

I spent 10 days in Aruba, receiving PADI Open Water cert while there, and then went to PR where we drove the perimeter of the island, finding some good snorkel sites (my non-diving wife and 14 yr..old son were with me).

Here's what I can relate:

Aruba

Great beginners dive island, though I'm sure there are many spots for advanced divers. Since it is a multi-recreation resort island, it really caters to us beginners. I went through the PADI with Red Sail sports, the largest dive co on the island, but heard good things about many of the other shops as well. You can find relatively cheap lodgings on the island, and if you haven't gone there once, you should. The island is arid, yet the nonstop trade winds blow 20 knots solid day and night, to keep the island at a perfect 80 degrees (f). Low humidity, locally distilled drinking water and low unemployment due to some rudimentary growth management has kept this a nice place to visit.

The leeward side of the island has many dive boats that go out, and there are numerous wrecks that are easy to dive to (many at surface to 50 ft.) Actually, I have to admit that I saw more fish at snorkel dives than at depth. This alone made it a great trip for my family, since they were easily able to participate and feel that they had a real dive experience.

In asking the pros where they dove, I got a couple of answers. One was the windward side of the island, where the rough seas and currents make it a "macho" dive, as one instructor told me. I believe that he was referring more to being a dive for strong divers, both male and female. In traveling to the windward side, it was plain that the seas were at minimum 4 to 6 ft, on a good day. This diver told me that there were much larger sea life over on that side, many more fish, and some great 50 to 90 ft. dives. Not many dive shops seem to run trips there, from what I could gather. Not sure why. (Insurance?).

Anyway, the other site was, of course Bonaire. The diver that told me this said that he stayed under till the last possible minute when he first dove there, because it was so incredible. While I didn't have the time to swing over to Bonaire,it is going to be high on my list of next dive trips.

Best dive tip from a novice... take the dive boat to the Sonesta plane wrecks, and after seeing the planes, come in very close to the breakwater at the beach. We snorkeled there within twenty yards of the breakwater, where the average depth was ten feet, and saw an incredible amount of fish, both small and medium size. (schools of parrotfish and the clouds of a type of black angel fish maybe the french angelfish?). Also nice coral heads there. Since we were staying at the Sonesta I would snorkel out when a dive boat would moor off the wrecks, and watch where they took the divers. Most were kept farther out from the shore, and so missed some of the great close in reef action.

Puerto Rico

We didn't have much time there, so rented a car and took off east from San Juan to drive the island. There are *lots* of dive sites in Puerto Rico, but the short story is that we ended up down in South West PR, in a town called La Parguera. This area is full of mangrove cays, and is a great area to dive, snorkel, and kayak. It is very protected from the sea, and we spent a wonderful day snorkeling with the Paradise Scuba Center. The owner, his son and their divemaster, gave us all a full days worth of fun, along with lunch. I highly recommend them if you are in the area. (787-899-7611)

I would go back to PR again, since, once outside of San Juan, the island is very nice, with good people and lots of sweet resorts right on the ocean. We did a three day swing around the island with no particular stops in mind. This led us to Caribe Playa near Patillas on the first night. This is a nice spot, two story motel like resort, thirty yards from the beach, with breakfast in the morning. The owner said that there was a "virgin" reef just off their beach, but when I went out the turbulence was too great to see much, since it was raining the previous evening and a bit in the am. We went to Ponce next and by days end were in Parguera by nightfall. The beaches on the southwest side, just east of Paraguera are spectacular, to say the least. I'm sure there is good shore diving there. Paraguera at night on the weekends is really hopping, since it is a small resort town, and lots of folks weekend there. There was music and dancing till around 1am, and everyone,young and old,were having a good time. There is a phosphorescent bay near here, and the locals run quick 45 minute boat trips out to it after dark. For $5 US, you can have a fast ride in an open boat with 20 other people, and then swim in the bay after dark. Be sure to get your tickets in the afternoon. I recommend the "Johnny" boat, or it's other boat, who's name I forget.

The PR native food, heavy in fish is really good. Try the rellenos,which are not like the US/Mexican variety. I had a great rellano that was in a deep pineapple shaped bowl, with shrimp and tomato based sauce, topped with mashed plantain. It was delicious. We stayed right in town, in the Nautilus motel, which was very clean and pretty modern (cost was $89 US for a room with two beds). If you are going to go there, you might want to make reservations in advance. There are many good smaller motels there. One tip, a friend of mine at work, who was born and raised in PR, told me that "motels" are for hourly lovers, and "hotels" are for vacationing. So even if someplace looks like a US motel, it might be a "hotel" in PR. You can also find good cheap accommodations in the "paradores", which are sort of government sponsored b&b's or like US motels. Since the locals use these, you need to book ahead, because they tend to fill rapidly. We found them very clean, if not very small rooms. Good if you are on a tight budget.

PR is reachable as a continental US frequent flyer spot. It is as far as you can go in the continental US on FF miles. A great use of a free round trip.

Have fun! Al in Seattle