Instant Reader Report
on Manta Reef Lodge / [same] in
Africa / Pemba Island, Tanzania on
2003/04
by
J. Allen , NY, USA
Report Number 030520164904874

 Bali, Sulawesi, Caribbean 

Dive Conditions

[Unspecified]Note--no rating of corals, fish, etc., as they could not be
seen.  

[None]  

Overall Rating

I do not recommend diving at Manta Reef Lodge.  The owner gave highly
misleading information about the dive conditions and facility during our
exchange of several dozen rather detailed emails.  Based on that exchange,
I decided on a dive package of 10 dives, to include 2 night dives, and I
prepaid for the package to avoid a surcharge for payment upon arrival. 
Upon arriving I was told that my dive package would not be possible and
that it might not be possible to dive at all. At best, due to the tides,
one dive per day might be possible, though not daily.  Night dives, and
even night snorkeling, were out of the question. The hotel staff and the
dive master said that I would have to wait, day by day, to see what might
be possible.  Staff was unaccomodating and the dive master was rather new.
Dive master told of going out in a boat a few days before and having great
difficulty, due to the surge, getting a young and able couple out of the
dive boat, which is kept in the bay.  Dive master also told of taking a
diver out recently to see whether something could be seen in the water
only to find that it was necessary to hold on to the anchor line or be
swept away, and that almost nothing could be seen due to sand and mud
particles. When I told the key staff person that waiting day by day to
determine whether it might even be possible to go out in a boat to
consider diving where there might be zero visibility was scarcely the
stuff of a dive holiday, much less the conditions of my dive package, he
responded that one can dive in 1 meter of water and with zero visibility
and that he was not responsible for my arrangements with the owner. In our
correspondence the owner had stated that visibility on Pemba is
"fairly consistent" with "50/100 feet minimum."  This
patently is not true. The owner refused to speak with me while I was at
the lodge and later sent an email in which he refused to reimbuse me. 
According to the taxi driver with whom I, along with four snorkelers who
were similarly disappointed and who felt that the conditions at the lodge
had been misrepresented, road to the airport after staying only one night,
there has been a turn over in dive staff at the lodge and many people leave
early. Now, I have missed a dive vacation, I am out payment in full for the
dive package, and I must wait for Visa or my travel insurance, Travel
Guard, or the Tanzanian Embassy to intervene. I might add that PADI has
contacted the lodge to remove its PADI logos and list of PADI courses,
since the lodge is not currently certified by PADI. 

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