scubalex - Bluewater Dive Travel

scubalex

scubalex

scubalex's picture

My Dive Map

  • Tips for using My Dive Map
    • - Click on the map to "pin" where you have dived
    • - Type in the name of the dive location, e.g. La Paz, Baja, Mexico
    • - Click on the plus sign to zoom in on the map
    • - Click, hold and drag to move the map around

Reviews (5)

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Bahamas

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I have only been to Nassau on Providence. But there are many other island to explore, some only by accessible by boat. A liveaboard trip would be highly recommendable. Water temps were 81 in July and i have seen higher in September where you don't need any cumbersome wet suits to wear. A rash shirt or skin is sufficient. Any type of mm wetsuit is overkill. Visibility is Ok, in the 50ft range with some green algae clouds it seems, so the deep blue water is probably better away from all the development. The island has seemingly an abundance of reef sharks and a shark feeding dive will offer pictures of a life time. But, there are turtles and a big diversity of fish to be seen. Stuart Coves is the number one dive outfit on the island. They have top of the line dive boats, are well organized, offer pick up service, have a fully stocked dive shop and professional crew. But they are a big company. Bahama Divers is smaller and more personal and also offers pick up service. There was some wave action off Paradise Island. The Bahamas are exposed to weather from the north and storm that bear down the east coast of the US can and will affect the Bahamas at certain times. There is some good shopping in Nassau, great restaurants, plus the Fish Fry market near town has restaurants offering a wide variety of conch dishes ranging from burgers to salads. Beaches are beautiful offering plenty of picture opportunities.

Visited on 07/2013 - Submitted on 02/07/2014
Feeding the Reef Sharks
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Belize

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I stayed in San Pedro on Ambergis Caye. Easy short flight on single engine prop plane from Belize City. The reef is close by and the marine park has an abundance of marine life. Further out on the atolls is where the real action is with amazing diving. People are friendly, dive operators on every corner, cool bars and restaurants, picturesque, and and overall great dive experience.

Visited on 09/2011 - Submitted on 02/07/2014
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Cayman Islands

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Grand Cayman offers everything from amazing underwater visibility to diverse marine life. There are so many dive sites on the island and the reef is fairly close to shore. One of the added attractions is the Kittiwake wreck, which is a large ship, easy to access, plenty of marine life and thanks to the awesome visibility offers wonderful picture opportunities. Add, Stingray City with hundreds of stingrays looking for food and "flying" by gracefully in 20 ft of water with sandy bottom, making it another excellent photo opportunity. Topside, there are many restaurants, bars and great shops. The island is safe and people are friendly. Diver operators are professional and most of them have top end dive boats.

Visited on 11/2012 - Submitted on 02/07/2014
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Cozumel Diving

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Cozumel is a must. Diving is much better than 20 miles away in Cancun, or Play del Carmen; except if you want to do cenote cavern diving; but you can take the ferry to the mainland and do that there, making it a great day trip. Playa del Carmen diving does not compare with the diversity of the Cozumel marine park. The size of the many Queen Angel fish makes them a great photo opportunity. And I even took some of the best shorts of turtles feeding on sponges. The marina park gives sanctuary for crabs and lobsters to grow to their full size. I mean some of the crabs I saw there were huge!!! Wate rwas clean and warm (77) and visibility outstanding 80-100 ft. Plenty of fish from big to small. Saw a few spotted eagle rays, many turtles, lobster and crabs everywhere even in daylight. Cozumel has a wide variety of small hotels and larger all inclusive. Even though most of the all inclusive resorts are a star or so below the ones on Cozumel, they offer nice rooms, plenty of drinks and great staff and pleasant grounds. You will encounter more experienced divers in the hotels there than on the mainland. The people serving you in hotels and restaurants are hard working, friendly and hospitable. the island is laid back and a divers paradise. Some of the hotels are right in the town of San Miguel, where the airport and ferry terminal is located. There are of course many restaurants and bars close by to explore during the day and night. Some of the all inclusive resorts are about a 20 or 30 minute drive further south. There you are self contained at the resort and you will either take a cab or rent a car if you want to go back to San Miguel and do sightseeing and shopping. Other than that the island is mostly undeveloped. Circling the island by rental car is fun and offers you to see the Atlantic coast side, which has some nice wave action. The roads are as usual better than in Los Angeles.

Visited on 02/2013 - Submitted on 02/07/2014
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Roatan Diving

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Roatan never disappoints. Except, maybe the 1st time I went there over Thanksgiving and the rains, but the topside activities, mainly having drinks with divers from allover the world at the bars, made up for for the storms. But fast forward to May, where conditions were superb. No rain for 5 days, calm waters, perfect temperatures (above and below) and low humidity.
The diving is close to perfect: Water temp. 82, visibility 80-100 ft., marine life has the usual players from large turtles, tons of spiny lobsters (many were in clusters), frequent groupers, large porcupine fish, etc. Of course there is the shark dive on the other side out of Coxen Hole featuring a dependable showing of at least 30 large reef sharks, and some large groupers attracted to the bait, then there are the night dives ( I took 2, one with just me and a guide that lasted and hour and 15 minutes) with gazillions of urchins, common octopus, crabs galore, banded shrimp, many spotted eels and then some. There is actually an excellent downloadable Roatan reef life book (written be a long term Roatan expert) that can also be downloaded for a few bucks and pretty much features everything that can be seen underwater. On the West End the scene is basically dive shop, bar, hotel, dive shop, bar, hotel and so on. Nice people, down to earth, cheaper than other Caribbean islands, no mega resorts, but many simple cheap and clean hotels.
Roatan has a multitude of excellent dive companies offering any type of certification. Overall, a great destination for beginners and advanced divers since one has a diverse choice of shallow sand bottom dives to deeper wall dives.

Visited on 05/2014 - Submitted on 09/03/2014
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