From time to time, we publish select comments
from our readers' travel reports to call attention to
specific destinations or discuss larger issues. Our
first order of the day?
A Royal Blunder. In January, we posted a photo
of the King and Queen of Netherlands taking a
giant stride into the waters of Saba without their masks in place. Vicky Gabriel, an instructor with
Sea Saba, was on that dive and took offense at our
snarky comments. She says she personally attended
to the Queen and her mask, even ensuring there
was no hair caught in the skirt, but that the royal
couple decided to take their masks off for the leap
into the water because it made "a nicer shot." Vicky
says, "How about you try to tell a king and queen
what to do? Plus we were very happy with them promoting our island and the importance of marine
preserves." Lynn Costanero, her boss, added that
hurricanes only affected Saba because of the resulting
poor flight access from other Caribbean islands. www.seasaba.com However, Buddy Dive Dominica
tells us they've lost all three dive boats and their
dive shop to hurricane Maria and of consequence
will be closed throughout 2018.
Chinchorro Bank is the best Mexico reef
diving I have done, surprisingly healthy
compared to most others in the Caribbean.
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The Chinchorro Banks, Mexico. It's been nearly
two decades since I reviewed diving the Chinchorro
Banks, off the southern Yucatan peninsula, and I
had hoped for another feature, but it didn't happen.
But, we've got the next best thing, since a
good friend of mine, Jeffery Zankel (Sebastopol,
CA), who has dived the world, traveled there in late
October with his dive club to visit the Banks with
Amigos del Mar dive shop and posts this report:
"Mahahual, four-and-a-half hours south of
Cancun, two hours from Chetumal, is a typical
Quintana Roo beach town built on tourism, with a
cruise ship pier and a big promenade, the Malecon,
with the ocean on one side and hotels, restaurants
and shops cluttered on the land side. My room at the Nacional Beach Club, a mid-range eco-touriststyle
hotel, like most of the rooms, was a standalone
stone structure simply furnished, comfortable
and clean, with a front porch for watching the passing
promenade. I could look out to see when La
Chula, our powerful 33-foot (10m) dive panga built
by owner Heiko Goetze, a German expat, was loading
up and slip on my wetsuit.
Offering but 45 minute dives to people who
have flown hours and put out thousands of
bucks is unconscionable.
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"The Chinchorro Bank Biosphere Reserve is a
20-nautical-mile (37 Km)-long reef system about
20 miles (35 km) offshore. Although La Chula can
make over 30 knots with her twin 140s, rough seas
stretched the trip to more than an hour. On the
calm leeward side, I descended to the Gran Muro
site in a mild current and at 55 feet (17m) was
surprised by a variety of healthy brain, elliptical,
mountainous star coral and more. Barrel sponges
were everywhere, and conch littered the seabed.
Mature yellowtails were abundant, and a friendly
nurse shark tried to kiss me. Then, off to the choppier
windward side, where the wreck of the SS Ginger Scout, an 1895 steamboat, consists mostly of
hundreds of coral-encrusted copper tubes. Schools
of yellowtail, black grunts, and blue tangs abound,
especially in the bow and boilers.
"The next day the harbormaster closed the port
due to stormy weather, and there was nothing to
do but visit the NBC bar and watch the seas from
their veranda (great Mexcal). Latea the next day,
the harbormaster opened the port for near shore sites only, so it was off to the humdrum Escalones.
To dive the Biosphere (Heiko has permits), divers
must descend and ascend in a group. Needy divers
gave us a slow start and then an early ascent. In
a mixed group, you need multiple DMs to make
this work or the more experienced divers come
up short. At 40 Canyones, I drifted across deep
canyons with fingers and saw healthy brain and
staghorn corals, as well as large barrel sponges.
Although the adult fish were not as plentiful or large as on the Bank, there were juvenile tangs and
damsels and a spotted drum, as well as eagle rays,
angels, permit, black durgon, even a huge green
turtle. Puerto Angel, about 11 miles (20km) south
of Mahahual, was a healthy reef with abundant
coral, sponges and fans, as well as medium-sized
snappers, grunts, and a few barracuda, but mainly
juveniles. We made no night dives because Amigos
claimed the sharks had gotten too aggressive on
their recent night dives.
"After Huevos Rancheros at NBC, a water view
restaurant that boasts a good cook and excellent
service, I boarded La Chula and headed 20 miles
(35km) south. By the time all 13 divers got into
the water, Heiko aborted the dive. We had drifted
so far on the surface that we missed the reef. At
Chinchoritto, a long series of patch reefs were
home to adult chub and snappers, with lots of sand
between for eagle ray sightings. We divers just drifted
in the current, parallel to the Malecon, until we
came to the cruise ships right in front of us.
"My last day the weather broke, and we made it
to the Bank in an hour. The first dive was at Gran
Muro, where we drifted with schools of hunting
horse-eye jacks, chub and Nassau grouper, as well
as barracuda, parrotfish and schools of baitfish.
Fabulous diving. We motored over to snorkel a shallow reef, interrupted only by the Mexican Navy
looking for poachers, which is why these protected
reefs are so rich. On our way to Baliza reef, we were
stopped by the Park Patrol; another reason why
this Bank is such good diving. Baliza was almost as
good as Gran Muro, with the addition of green and
hawksbill turtles, tiger, black, and Nassau groupers
and many bait fish. We stopped for lunch at the
fishermen's over-the-water pole houses, just off the
impressive mangrove swamp. These fishermen have
permits to catch lobster and their own food, but
nothing else. Saltwater crocodiles were everywhere
around the fishing huts, splashing happily in the
shallows.
The guide would race from one reef/coral
head to another, tap me to follow him
when I was taking photos.
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"Chinchorro Bank is the best Mexico reef
diving I have done, surprisingly healthy compared
to most others in the Caribbean." www.nacionalbeachclub.com www.amigosdelmar.net
Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Susan Bartley
(Ripley, ON) went to Puerto Aventuras, south of
Cancun, in November and says she had a great
time. "We have been diving with Aquanauts since
2008 and still love it. It's an eight-minute walk from
Dreams Puerto Aventuras, our hotel . . . The reefs
are just a 5 to 10-minute ride. Going south from
the marina gets you deeper, with more dramatic
canyons. Unfortunately, the death of the coral in the shallower areas is heartbreaking. The fish are
few and far between. Going north gets you multilevel
dives and shallow finger formations. The fish
are more, but we have noticed the populations
decreasing. Sport fishing is not catch-and-release,
just catch as much as you can and sell the rest. Fish
populations are the best just outside the marina,
where the boats do not fish. The dive shop will let
you dive your air. No coming up because someone
blew through their air, or only a 45-minute
dive and everyone up. When the Dream Resort
dive shop found out we were diving, they asked
why we didn't dive with them. Could do a 70 to 75-minute dive. No, she says, maybe 60 minutes.
Well, if I have to pay the same amount of money
for diving ... I am going to take the longer dive." www.aquanautsdiveshop.com
Photography in Yucatan Cenotes. In our January
issue, our undercover travel writer reported that their group had been told that cameras were not
allowed in many cenotes. That raised an eyebrow
of underwater photographer Fletcher Forbes
who said that cameras are disallowed in only one
cenote, at Chac Mool and that seems to be correct. Regardless, check first with the dive business when
you book, to be sure it permits photography.
Badladz Divers, Philippines. Sixty-minute dives
are often the norm at land-based dive operations,
which I suppose we divers have come to live with,
but Robert L. Short (Colorado Springs, CO) wasn't
happy, and reasonably so, when he was limited to
45 minutes. His problem began, he said, when he
waited until the last minute to book a return trip
to Puerto Galera (last year he only got in one dive
before being blown out of the water by a typhoon)
and found the resort options were limited. He chanced Badladz Dive Resort which looked OK
and was "very reasonable (cheap)." The rooms
turned out to be a nightmare -- no water, toilets
that didn't flush -- and the weather was lousy.
On his first dive day, with only one other diver
onboard, the guide said the "dive time was 45 minutes;" the other diver and I looked at each other
like -- really? Yep, about 40 minutes into the dive,
the guide signaled to go up for our safety stop -- I
still had 1,400 psi (96bar). This occurred for all six
dives. Good thing the dives were cheap -- I paid
about $26/dive because I would have been walking
if I paid more for only 45-minute dives. One short
deep dive on a wreck in front of Sabang down to 98
feet was only 35 minutes -- came up with 1,000 psi
(70bar)." www.badladz.com/badladz-dive-resort
Offering but 45-minute dives to people who
have flown hours and put out thousands of bucks is
unconscionable. It really tells us that if one is going
to pick an unknown resort, ask about the dive times
ahead of time. Hopefully, they'll tell you the truth.
The Aggressor in Alor, Indonesia. While our
lead story marvels at the diving in Alor and elsewhere,
not everyone has the same experience, as
David Marchese (Hummelstown, PA) points out
about his November Aggressor trip. "The diving in
Wakatobi was just OK. The reefs seemed stressed,
the fish density was low, and there were few colors.
We spent about three days diving Wakatobi,
and all guests were bored, so we asked to move to
Alor, where the Boardroom was one of the most
beautiful, healthy reefs I've ever seen. Fish density
was fantastic, and the main color of the reef was
purple. Unfortunately, the next dive was a muck
dive (Mucky Mosque), where we saw mostly garbage.
Most guests complained, and we were told
that the currents were too strong to dive the nice
reefs. We dove Mucky Mosque five times when once
was enough. Overall, this trip was a letdown. Based
on all I've read about Wakatobi and Alor, I can only speculate that the crew just didn't know the area
well enough (or understand the currents) to take
us to the best sites."
A question comes to mind. In our lead story,
our writer talks about the need to be highly experienced
to handle these currents. Did the Aggressor dodge the currents because of the divers' skills,
or did they avoid them for other reasons? One
would hope that divers who come to areas known
for currents are experienced enough to handle
them. If not, they spoil the trip for those in the
know. We do know that liveaboards don't vet divers'
experience, unfortunately, so you can end up
with people who just can't handle the conditions. www.aggressor.com
The Damai in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. While
the Damai liveaboards get good reviews, one of our readers' experiences raised a question for all the
pricey liveaboards in Raja Ampat and elsewhere.
When a customer is paying $6200 for a dive trip, as
did Regina Roberts (Alameda, CA), the liveaboard
must be obligated to resolve easily resolvable problems.
Roberts, who has made more than 1000 dives,
raved about the boat and the diving, but not her
guide. He "would race from one reef/coral head
to another, tap me to follow him when I was taking
photos and left me to surface alone in a heavy boat
traffic area while he explored a reef on his own. I
asked the cruise director, Silven, not to assign him
to me anymore. He agreed after condensendingly
talking about how Adri was his best guide, [but
I found that] the other guides were wonderful.
I thought the issue was settled until the last dayand-
a-half, when they again assigned him to me. To make a long story short, I contacted the owner,
Alberto, who was worse in his response than the
cruise director." www.dive-damai.com
These kinds of guides have always annoyed me,
even at inexpensive places, and surely the need is
to understand that the guide's role is to please his
customers, not himself, while keeping them out
of harm's way. Could it be that he got reassigned
to her because everyone else objected as well? She
speculates that the male customers might not have
been treated similarly. And we've seen plenty evidence
of that in the scuba industry.
Roatan Aggressor, Honduras. We reported in
November that a lot of divers like this boat, but
Gail M. King (Port Orange, FL), aboard in August,
points out that "The cabins were small ... two of
us shared one drawer and small cabinet. The top
bunk was a small single and too close to the ceiling
... uncomfortable even for a small person. The
cabin is really suited to one person only. Glad our
trip was at an introductory, greatly reduced price." https://www.aggressor.com/roatandivesites.php
Palau Aggressor, Micronesia. And, speaking of
reduced rates, the Aggressor offers all sorts of
deals on their website, but those who sign up early
and pay the full ride aren't always placated. Bobby
Munno (NYC) was aboard the Palau Aggressor in December and said it was the best of the three
Aggressor trips he has taken, though "the boat is
showing its age." He does, however, raise an interesting
issue about pricing. The Aggressor Fleet
aggressively offers deals on boats that aren't filling
up, so people who book far in advance are usually the highest-paying passengers on the boat, as
Munno found out. "Trip costs varied greatly among
passengers, and I felt penalized by booking early.
I received special offers ($500 off) from Aggressor
after booking, which I was denied when requested
to have applied, only serving to alienate. Nitrox at
$100 per week, per diver, seemed onerous after initial
high cost of the trip."
As departure dates approach, the Aggressor
Fleet offers a lot of deals on their website to entice
late bookers, who find they can save hundreds
if not thousands of dollars. Yes, would be nice if
the Fleet adjusted the fare discrepancy between
the advance planners and the late arrivals, but it's
not going to happen, just as it won't happen for
airlines, cruise ships, or Broadway plays. Planning
well in advance may mean one will pay more than
last-minute bookers, but early bookers can tie
down their flights and side trips and then relax.
If price is important and you're traveling on the
Aggressor, wait as long as you can for the bargains. But, recognize that while you watch the prices, that
trip just might fill before you pay (you can stay in
touch with them to find how many slots remain).
Furthermore, making flight reservations late in the
game may cost you more and you may end up with
an inconvenient itinerary requiring more stops and
layovers. Since we really can't fault a provider for
charging less to attract more customers -- even
Uber has variable pricing based on demand --
keep in mind what my mother said. "You can't win
for losing." www.aggressor.com
-- Ben Davison