Flotsam & Jetsam: Undercurrent 03/2025

Flotsam & Jetsam

from the March, 2025 issue of Undercurrent

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Dive Venezuela? In January, a 62-year-old American, Eric Arthur, afloat in his life raft after his sailboat sunk off Venezuela, was picked up, taken to a Caracas slammer, and shackled for no apparent reason, joining innumerable other Americans arrested and detained arbitrarily by the corrupt and vicious Maduro government. The U.S. State Department says, "Do not travel to Venezuela due to the high risk of wrongful detentions, terrorism, kidnapping, the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, poor health infrastructure." Even the Caracas airport is considered unsafe. Nonetheless, in the March issue of Scuba Diving Industry Magazine, published by the Cline group for scuba businesses, a feature article praises dive travel to Venezuela's Los Roques Islands, "An Exotic Paradise." Are they nuts? Well, Arthur did get released and returned to America four weeks later. Maybe that's the price you have to pay for good diving.

Discounting That $860 Socorro Park Fee. There are ways for some divers to avoid the full pain of those surging new Socorro park fees levied by the Mexican government. If you are 60-plus, a teacher, or a bona fide student, and if CONANP (Mexico's Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas) approves documentation submitted in advance, you can get a 76 percent discount. Your liveaboard or travel agent should be able to handle this for you. Ellen Dinwiddie Smith (Edina, MN) contacted Nautilus Adventures, with which she had booked a trip; she sent her student ID card and paid $247.50 instead of the full $860 park fee for five days of diving. https://tinyurl.com/8szbexk2 Other operators can also organize it for you. https://tinyurl.com/5ae6h9m6...

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