July 2009    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 24, No. 7   What's this?

La Parguera, Puerto Rico

an okay dive destination close to home

from the July, 2009 issue of Undercurrent  

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Dear Diver:

It might not occur to some hardcore divers that there are plenty of others who are content with just a few dives and a lot of topside exploring. On some vacations, I’m one of those and I recently found that Puerto Rico, a long weekend non-stop trip from many U.S. airports, is a good choice and easy on the budget.

I rented a car at San Juan’s airport and after negotiating afternoon rush-hour traffic, it was an easy two-and-a-half-hour drive through lush emerald mountains to Ponce, then alongside the Caribbean until I reached Lajas, a village on the southwestern coast. My pleasant room in the Villa Parguera, the largest and best hotel in town, was $100 a night, with two queen beds. My little patio was 30 feet of garden along the sea wall with a view of the bay and the mangroves.

I showed up at Paradise Scuba at 8 a.m., put my gear into their truck and walked a block to the boat dock. By 8:45 a.m., our crowded boat of eight divers was heading out to the wall. The first three miles were protected from the wind and surf by mangroves and barrier islands, but the next three were wet for anyone not under the cover. Black Wall, thickly dotted with shrubs of silvery black coral, is one of La Parguera’s signature sites. I followed the mooring line down through swarms of durgeons hoping for scraps. I went over the lip of the wall into endless blue, then cruised at 85 feet. I checked out a green tube tunicate while Cachi, the divemaster, pointed out a green moray in the open. My partner, upside down peeking into a hole, pantomimed a drumbeat to signal a black drum but it turned out to be a highhat. A large queen angelfish buddied up alongside me. Nice, but it was the largest fish I saw on this dive. The snappers, groupers, jacks, even the big parrots are fished out (not unlike some other Caribbean destinations). ...