Travel Notes

Castle Comfort still rates high with readers for reasons you can read below. The 32-room Anchorage, just a couple of doors down from Castle Comfort, is another of the pioneer dive operations on the island. They get high marks for their dive operations and whale watching knowledge. The Lauro Club and East Caribe Dive are newcomers to the island.

Castle Comfort Lodge/Dive Dominica (January 1997) -- Castle Comfort Lodge is very friendly and clean but very small. If you are stuck in one of the back rooms, noise from street will assure that you get very little sleep. Ask for an ocean-view room and hope one of the neighboring resorts isn't having a party the night you want to sleep. [Editor's note: Savvy divers will try for rooms 8 and 10.] For this reason I would probably stay at the Evergreen next door, larger and with a pool, for a better chance of getting a room away from the street.

Dive Dominica is a first-class dive operation: great boats, lots of room, and working heads. From 3 to 12 divers on a boat, divemasters open to where you want to dive that day. Saw seahorses at Champagne dive site (a must) and saw orange ball anemones on shore dive in front of resort, lots of spotted drums, eels, stonefish, an octopus. Whale watch with Dive Dominica is a must; our first day out we saw no whales but were in a school of 300-400 dolphins who really put on a show for us. Went out again after whales were spotted that morning and saw about a dozen sperm whales. Got within 50 feet of one pair; they popped up beside the boat while we were watching others farther out. We were with them for over an hour and a half, saw them breach, fluke, and spout, and listened to them communicate under water with the hydrophone -- really awesome. (Best season for sperm whales is October-May. Other species sighted include short-fin, pilot, pygmy humpback, orca, pseudo orca, and dwarf sperm whales.)

The whole staff, from Derrick on down, was great. No biting bugs!

Gloria Davis
St. James, Missouri

Anchorage Divers, Anchorage Hotel (January 1997 -- Overall, consistently good diving for Caribbean; divemasters Miguel, Corney, and Mikael were all excellent -- patient with our group, helpful, found the good stuff for us, and where else will divemasters rinse all of your gear, insides of BCs, and wash with soap your wet suits? Food was good and varied, hotel staff nice and helpful, rooms comfortable. Bring current converter -- dive shop has one 110V outlet, so you'll probably use your room's 220V.

Peter Hartlove
Longmont, Colorado

Lauro Club/East Caribe Dive (February 1997) -- Gunther Glatz of East Caribe Dive runs a first-rate dive operation -- personalized service. He takes care to find the best sites; profiles are flexible, done by computer and tailored to the desires of individual divers. Diving is also varied and includes walls and dropoffs. Few large fish, but some schools of smaller fish and excellent sponges. Coral is healthy and undisturbed. There are many frogfish and seahorses. The Lauro Club offers comfortable cabins, all with kitchens. Island is beautiful with friendly people, well worth the trip for both diving and exploring the beauties of nature.

William S. Ritter, M.D.
Kansas City, Missouri

Between the Anchorage and Castle Comfort is the Evergreen, a hotel that I've reccommended in the past. Stay there and have a choice of diving with operations on either side.

J. Q.