Dive Review of
Taino Divers in
Puerto Rico/Desecheo Island

Eastern Pacific, Western Pacific, Caribbean

Dive Conditions

A DM went down on each dive, but you could ask to do your own thing if you
wanted to I think.  

[None]  

Overall Rating

We spent about a week in PR in late June. The southern part of the island
was off the tourist trail and interesting. It looked a lot like a typical
Caribbean island, with lots of stray dogs running around, chickens, little
road-side shacks and so on. The interior mountains were very nice. We
encountered nice beaches on the west side of the island, from Boqueron up
to Rincon. We spent most of our time at Rincon which is a mecca for board
riders in winter when the swells get up. We stayed in one of the Punta
Villas condos that was nice except for the lack of hot water – a good thing
the cold water was at least tepid.

I went diving with Taino Divers in Rincon for 3 days. I had met the
co-owner, Carson, on a live-aboard on the GBR in Australia in September in
2006; we stayed in touch. We went to Desecheo Island each day for a two
tank trip. It is about 40 minutes in their small twin outboard boat from
Rincon. The boat holds up to about 12 divers. Part of the fun is the
loading process – all customers and crew help lift tanks and gear off a
truck and shuttle it along a human chain over to the boat that is beached
alongside. The reverse procedure applies when you get back home. The boat
does not have a head and does not offer a lot of shade. Pick the starboard
side for the ride home to avoid a thorough salt spray soaking.

Each dive is led by a dive-master. Photographers would be advised to ask to
dive as a separate pair so that they could have more time to observe and
shoot. In fact, this suggestion was made, post-dive, by a divemaster to
some photographers. The visibility was great – at least 100 feet on each
dive. Conditions are great for all levels of divers. We encountered
significant current on only one dive that made an ascent up the anchor line
advisable. Depths ranged from about 25 feet to about 70 feet.

All the dives take place close to the island. There are many swim-throughs
and small caverns that make for interesting underwater topology. There are
some corals but they are not abundant. On the other hand, we came across
several unexploded bombs that were left over from the US military use of
the island. They add an element of interest to dropping the anchor. The
fish life was good in some areas, lacking in some other sites. I saw one
turtle, one barracuda, but no sharks at all, over my 3 days. The rest of
the fish included the usual characters – parrot fish etc. So although the
conditions were excellent, I could not say that the fish life was as
abundant or varied as other dive locations that I have seen (Fiji and
Cozumel spring to mind).

Taino Divers did an excellent job of taking care of us. The dives were well
organized, customers were treated well, the dive-masters were
knowledgeable, enthusiastic and courteous. In general, a very nice group of
people to spend 3 days diving with. 

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