Scuba Caribbean

This is the guidebook I wish I had when I first dived the Caribbean. Peachin, who also wrote The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Sharks, wrote Scuba Caribbean for traveling divers to find the best destinations for their skills, interests and pocketbooks. In her 30 years as a globe-trotting diver, she has visited nearly every Caribbean dive destination. And as an Undercurrent subscriber and contributor, she used Undercurrent articles and reports as a source for this book. She knows where the truth lies.

Each chapter includes the destination’s history, some topside geography description and basic travel facts. In the “Where to Descend” section, Peachin lists her top dive site choices, preferred dive operators (liveaboards aren’t featured), and a relevant dive tip, from Cozumel’s drift dives to Cuba’s sketchy dive regulations. In the “Where to Hang Your Regulator” section, she names her favorite diver-friendly accommodations. The text is pretty neutral commentary, although Peachin doesn’t neglect important need-to-knows, like the rules to follow viewing whale sharks at Holbox Island. Don’t expect a critical review of destinations (she leaves that up to Undercurrent), but she does throw out a few zingers like, “Belize’s Blue Hole is considered a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience that a diver only wants to do once.”

Whether you’re new to diving or new to Caribbean diving, Scuba Caribbean is a great resource. While divers who’ve been there, done that, may be familiar with what Peachin has written about, it will still be a useful addition to your library..

You can buy Peachin’s new book, plus her past one on sharks at Undercurrent, and you’ll get it at Amazon. com’s lowest price. Plus, our profits from your purchase of this or any dive books we list – as well as anything you buy from Amazon through our website -- will go directly to projects that help save coral reefs. (239 pages, 16 pages of photographs, paperback, $25 list price.)

- - Ben Davison