There are scores of inhabited and uninhabited islands off the northern Caribbean coast, with reef characteristics similar to Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire. Los Roques has excellent virgin reefs, Margarita, the main resort island, has average reef diving. . . .

Los Roques

Sesto Continente, February 1997, Mary Jo Martin, Seattle, WA. "Spent three nights in Posadas and diving for 3 days. We flew in to Los Roques from Margarita (good wind surfing) and flew on to Caracas. The village is charming and the waters around the archipelago azure are lovely. The dive operation Sesto Continente was well run by Saul (who let me use his regulator when we found that mine had broken). Our divemaster, Eddy, was excellent. The boats are as Ben Davison described: open boats (a sun canopy is used on the way out to the site) with a bumpy ride of 30­45 minutes to most dive sites. Although getting back into the boat was difficult (no ladder in fairly heavy seas), the two man crew were great with help. They were also great navigators, both in getting to the sites and picking us up after drift dives. Surface intervals were spent at different islands on lovely beaches, enjoying our picnic lunches. When we dived Dos Moquise, we spent our lunch picnic time seeing the turtles hatchery/farm. All reefs were healthy and lush with coral and sponges. The fish life was incredible, mostly very large schools of small reef fish, with occasional larger fish like barracuda and grouper (none over 3­4 ft.). Several lobster, 2 huge! . . .Favorite dive was at The Rock of the Jewfish, a seamount only 10­15 minutes from the dock. Swirls of fish constantly in sight and corals were gorgeous. Average vis: 50­75 ft. . . . Posadas were clean and comfortable. The first room they put us in had no windows, so we were given another room, one of 3 in a small posada which was perfect. We took all of our meals at the Vistalma as did most other people from what I could tell. The food was served buffet style and was OK. We booked our trip through Dive Tours in Houston. Deena Smith, the manager, had dived in Los Roques, so she was very helpful."

Margarita Island

Bandido's Divers/Comfortel, Hector Buffa, Miami, FL. "Comfortel is located at the center of Porlamar (main town of Margarita Island). Nice city, but it is far from Margarita's beaches. Comfortel's rooms and suites are good, but services are awful. Bandido's Divers is a new dive operator. Francesco and Lawrence (Bandido's owners) are experienced divers and they know very well "Los Frailes", the best Margarita's diving site. vis: 30­60 ft. water: 24 degrees C. All the crew was very friendly. They must improve security conditions, but I and my friends remember them nicely because they had offered us their best efforts."

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