Dive Review of Dive Bequia/Ijeoma House in
St. Vincent and the Grenadines/Bequia

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Dive Bequia/Ijeoma House: "About as good as it gets in the Carribean", Feb, 2022, by Hugh E Aaron, FL, US ( Sr. Contributor 26 reports with 20 Helpful votes). Report 11872 has 2 Helpful votes.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Cathy and Bob have been running Dive Bequia for a long time and it shows. They run a top notch operation. No stress, but everything works like it should. We spent about 10 days on Bequia including our arrival and departure days. The first full day we relaxed in the morning and did the 2:30 afternoon dive. On all the other days, except our last full day which we took off to off-gas, we did the 9 am dive and the 11:30 am dive. All of the dive sites are within about 20 minutes of the shop. Some are as close as 10 minutes. It was mid-February and we never experienced any rough water or bad weather so the boat trips were enjoyable. Dive Bequia has two boats that appear very similar. The boats are basic but comfortable with plenty of shade. Entry is by back roll. Re-boarding the boat is easy. Hand your fins to the crew and come up the ladder to the swim platform. The ladder has great ergonomics including plenty of handholds. Neither of us (both 60) ever had any problems re-boarding despite my wife’s challenging knees. There was always a captain and Max, the lead dive master, on the boat. If there were any students or nervous/inexperienced divers they dove separately with Cathy. The boat had oxygen on board but the diving is so relaxed that I suspect problems are few and far between. There was no camera table or rinse bucket. That was not a problem for my GoPro knockoff. I suspect that Max would make accommodations for more serious photographers upon request. We handled our own gear for the initial set up. After the first dive, the crew transports your gear to the boat, sets it up, and at the end of the day, rinses it. We left our gear at the shop for our entire stay. Diving with Max was a pleasure. His pace (relaxed) was perfect for us and he always found things we missed. I’m pretty sure he is on a first name basis with most of the fish. Most dives were about 60 feet max. Typically Max had four to six divers in the water including the two of us. But on more than one occasion it was just the two of us and Max. That was luxurious. We only repeated two dive sites all week. We were pleasantly surprised at the overall health of the reef. We expected Bequia to look like much of the rest of the Caribbean with a lot of dead coral due to stoney coral tissue loss disease, bleaching and other environmental problems. Instead we found a lot of heathy coral, including some elk horn. However, there is still quite a bit of macroalgae cover at most of the dive sites, as there is almost everywhere else in the Caribbean. After the 9 am morning dive, the boat returns to the shop for a surface interval. The shop is located on the harbor in a beautiful spot next door to the Gingerbread bakery. So our daily routine quickly became dive, a treat at the Gingerbread, second dive, lunch in town and then back to our apartment at Ijeoma house for a swim in the pool and to review the day's photos. Ijeoma house is a luxury villa with four large studio apartments. The apartments all have a basic kitchen and dedicated outdoor space. The second floor pool deck and infinity pool are shared by everyone. We enjoyed hanging around the pool in the afternoon with the two other couples staying at the house. The view is spectacular. Some days we went back into town for dinner and some days we made dinner at "home." The Ijeoma house is so nice that it was often hard to get motivated to go back out. The Ijeoma house is about 4 km from the harbor/dive shop, with several hills. It would be a long walk, especially after two dives. We opted to rent a small jeep. We mostly used the car to go back and forth into town, although we did use it to explore the island. We were glad we opted for the Ijeoma house and the rental jeep. However, staying in town would also be a nice option and would negate the need for a rental vehicle. Check with Cathy at Dive Bequia before you book anything. She seems to know most of the properties on the island as she has lived there for many years. Whatsapp is a good way to reach her. Bequia is a wonderful place for a vacation. The people are friendly. The island is small enough to feel quaint but big enough to have everything you might need including a couple of grocery stores, a cell phone store and many restaurants. The beaches are beautiful and uncrowded. There are no large hotels on the island, just a few boutique hotels and a lot of vacation rentals. Don’t miss lunch at the Firefly Estate and the guided tour of the grounds (with an extensive fruit tasting) after lunch. Call before you go to make sure the grounds manager is available to give you a tour. Also make time for a visit to the turtle sanctuary, where one of Bequia’s old timers raises baby Hawksbill sea turtles. Finally, we recommend that before your trip, you like What’s On Bequia on Facebook and start following the post for island happenings. That way, you will not miss who is playing, barbecuing or cooking something special.
Websites	Dive Bequia Ijeoma House
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	USVI, BVI, California, Hawaii, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Caymans, Curacao, Dominica, Roatan, Belize, Saba, St, Barths, St Kitts, Nevis, Saint Martin, Culebra, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Bahamas, Bonaire, Thailand, Australia, Egypt
Closest Airport	St. Vincent	Getting There	Nonstop from Miami to S. Vincent and then same day Bequia Express ferry to Bequia
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, no currents
Water Temp	79-80°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	30-50 Ft/ 9-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Back on the surface in about 50 minutes
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	no
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	There was no camera table or rinse bucket on the boat. That was not a problem for my GoPro knockoff. I suspect that Max would make accommodations for more serious photographers upon request.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Dive Bequia/Ijeoma House in St. Vincent and the Grenadines/Bequia

Dive Bequia/Ijeoma House: "About as good as it gets in the Carribean", Feb, 2022,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Dive Bequia/Ijeoma House in
St. Vincent and the Grenadines/Bequia