La Parguera by Sarah

La Parguera, 1999
Author: Sarah

We went to Puerto Rico over Memorial Day weekend and stayed at a parador in the village of La Parguera. We dove with Parguera Divers - owner Efra, and boat captain and dive master/instructor Angel. I highly recommend both Efra, Angel and the diving in La Parguera! http://netdial.caribe.net/~divepr/

We flew into San Juan and drove about an hour and forty-five minutes to the village of La Parguera, which is diagonally opposite San Juan, in the far southwest corner of the island. It was an easy drive on both large and small highways and gave us an opportunity to see a bit of the countryside.

La Parguera is a small village with several restaurants, hotels, grocery, drug, video and surf stores & a straw market at the waterfront. Several boats companies on the waterfront offer trips to Phosphoresent Bay or boats for rent. Posada Del La Mar is the hotel right next to La Parguera's dive shop and boat. The hotel is clean and pleasant with wonderful (albeit pricey) a restaurant on the premise and a very small pool. Our room was on the third floor with a view of the ocean which was very nice - don't get a poolside room - too noisy and too much direct sunlight. Our room was small but had a/c, a small refridgerator stocked with snacks, soda, beer and wine and some nips on the "bar" above the fridge. Additional food and beverages could be purchased at the local store - about 5 minutes away on foot. Also in that shopping plaza was a decent restaurant...and not very expensive at all, also a deli with an ice cream shop. Buffet breakfast was included in the package price and served outdoors each morning. It was very pleasant sitting at the picnic tables by the waterfront..just watch out for the very daring starling who wouldn't hesitate to steal unattended scrambled eggs or French toast from your plate!

The diving was terrific! and the pace was relaxing. The boat departed between 8:15 and 8:30am and returned after two dives, about 2pm. It's about a 45 minute to 1 hour ride out to the dive sites and we were fortunate not to have choppy seas while we were there. Efra doesn't run a cattle boat - only 8-10 divers on a trip, so it's not crowded on the boat or in the water. There are separate rinse tanks for cameras and masks on deck,a cooler for food and oxygen on board. Most of the dives are deep in the Parguera area, as the wall doesn't start until 50-60 feet. For safety, a 5 to 8 minute safety stop is recommended after every dive and they have 2 regs and a bucket of weights on lines in case either air or additional weights are needed on your safety stop. Our surface intervals included lunch (delicious sandwiches made by Efra, fresh fruit, water and sodas). We saw a couple of turtles, lots of green eels, beautiful corals, plentiful marine life and the highlight of the trip was on the last dive: a school of 150-200 Atlantic spadefish! Each was about 1 foot in length and it was a sight to behold!

One of my favorite dive sites was Fallen Rock, which has a huge boulder at about 110 feet encrusted with corals. The water temp was in the mid-high 80's and visability was 60-70 feet on most dives. If you have a chance, a visit to the mangroves should be included in your trip. Here you can snorkel all around the roots of the mangroves and see all the juvenile fish, including baby barracuda, grunts, angels and tangs. It was really a wonderful snorkeling experience. You could hover over a piece of coral and watch the green crabs eat - watching out for spiny urchins below your body!

Black Coral Wall, Lost Buoy, the Canyons and the Chimney were excellent dive sites as well. There were lots of Black Durgeon fish at Lost Buoy (an abandoned scientific research site). The Coral Gardens was my favorite "shallow" reef dive (max depth was 56ft.) with lots of fan corals, complete with Flamingo tongues and a tiny crab feeding on some spiral coral.

If you go to Puerto Rico - it's worth the trip to dive in La Parguera! Efra and Angel are the best!

Sarah