Kieran Staunton

My wife and myself headed off for our 2 week summer holiday to Cuba in June 2005. We hoped to beat the beginning of the tropical storm season, see some of the country and get in some relaxed good visibility warm water diving in the Caribbean (attributes of diving not often readily available at home).

We were successful with the diving, saw some of the country (it was a much bigger than anticipated) but the timing was a little out with the tropical storms!! Caught the first one of the season called Ariel on the first weekend, endured some heavy rainfall in the middle weekend and the second tropical of the season the night before leaving, thankfully neither affected the diving itinerary as the rain seemed to coincide with traveling days.

Having done some home work before heading to Cuba through the Lonely planet and the web to mention a few; a destination for diving called ‘Maria La Gorda’ stood out as a must with many web sites claiming it as ‘the best diving in Cuba’.

As we were traveling independently we had booked a 6 night stay with a 10 dive package ( two per day) at the Maria La Gorda resort through a Cuban government authorised agency. This was harder than expected as it was impossible to send a booking deposit to Cuba via a bank in Ireland. (The reason I was given for this is that Cuba has been blacklisted as a instigator/supporter of terror on the western world by the mighty USA, hence Irish banks showing solidarity with the US will not transfer money to Cuba. That’s enough of the politics!!) As it happens the travel agent I was in contact with by email agreed to come to the hotel where we were booked in Havana on the night of our arrival, collect the deposit and issue a voucher. Cuba is as you are probably aware is a communist country; without a voucher nothing much will happen! Paperwork is king!! It takes a bit of getting used to but after a few days we had accepted it as the norm.

Getting to Maria la Gorda was an adventure in itself involving renting a car (maps aren't included and as a word of warning cars aren't very cheap approx.€45 - 60/day with air con), the bus service isn't trustworthy, breakdowns are the norm and when asking about a train the reply is usually in the form of laughter. Renting a car was the only way to be sure of getting anywhere in Cuba if intending to travel around on a deadline.

The journey was, to say the least different, involving having our back seat occupied by a number of hitchhikers including 2 policemen, a nurse and doctor trying to get to work, a number of old ladies with their shopping and a few forestry labourers tooled up with 18 inch machetes!! Conversation was difficult and short; as Spanish was not spoken by either of us and English was not returned once outside of Havana. Hitchhiking seems to be a national pastime but is due to the vast shortage of transport in the country. The country is very safe for travelers with crime virtually non existent.

I would recommend giving the locals a lift as they are the only certain way of getting to your destination by pointing or gesturing the correct directions. (conversational Spanish would have been an advantage) Another unexpected surprise was the lack of road signs in Cuba. Over the holiday we drove approx. 2500km and saw approximately 10 directional road signs, I jest not!!

We finally got to our destination 6 hours later (approx. 200 km) but that did include a forced lunch stop due to the heaviest down pour I have ever witnessed; it appeared as though black clouds were on the ground and once it started to rain visibility was reduced to 20 metres at the height of the down pour!!

Was it worth all this adventure?? I would answer; every bit of it!! we spent the next 6 days enjoying beautiful weather, a relaxed quite resort, good food by Cuban standards and to top it off the best vis I have experienced underwater!!

The resort has 36 dive sites and two hard boats to ferry divers to and from the jetty with the furthest dive site 25 mins away. It has a decent dive centre and the equipment appeared well kept ( I had brought my own gear). The diving boat left the jetty at 10 each morning , returned by 12.30 and departed for the second dive at 3pm. The dive leaders and instructors were very competent and made for very enjoyable and safe diving. At no stage in any dive was I uncomfortable, a special mention is due for Martin Miranda Hernandez (referred to as the black shark) who led each dive

On entering the water the first thought that struck me was how good the vis was, phenomenal is a word that came to mind. Diving at Maria La Gorda is a scenic diving experience to be witnessed. On most dives the reef covered with various corals and tropical fish began at a dept of 12 metres. A dive would typically involve fining along the reef and then entering a cave or gorge on the leeward side of the reef and descending through the feature to a 25 to 30 meters depth, fining along the seaward wall and ascending through another cave in the wall to the leeward side. Typical dive time 45 to 50 mins.

To my surprise on exiting the first swim through there was nothing below us but the deep blue. A feature of diving in Cuba I wasn't’t aware of before arriving is that the continental shelf is very close to the shoreline in parts with steep fall-offs to 350m.

Of the sites visited Salon Maria was probably my favorite, this involved entering a small cavern laid out like the Flintstone's front room; using imagination it had doors, a few windows and support column, all that was missing was a TV in the corner. Another event that makes this dive memorable was that after existing the ‘patio’ door of the salon maria a large shoal of what looked like snapper rose from the deep and passed all around the group of divers swimming between and coming within a foot of the divers. I was hovering in a position waiting for the fish to crash into my mask looking into their eyes as they fizzed by, it seemed to last for minutes. Other sites worth a mention were ‘Capena Misteriosa’, ‘El Almirante’, ‘El Paradiso’ and ‘El Balcon Del Caribe’.

In Maria La Gorda there are no big stuff such as sharks, however later in the season turtles are common, spotted one on the last dive. There are no wrecks, this place is for enjoyable relaxed scenic diving on a caribbean reef. Night dives are also offered extra to any package booked and are well worth the extra, however a minimum of 4 divers was required.

The second week of the holiday was mainly sightseeing and traveling to other parts of Cuba, the vastness of which I did not comprehend before arriving. We traveled to Trinidad a world heritage site on the South Coast of the Island. We managed to get in another dive at a resort in Playa Ancon again an enjoyable dive but the vis had been affected by heavy rain the day before, also their was no comparison in the volume of fish life at Maria La Gorda.

By chance we stopped for a night at a resort called Playa Luna near to Cienfuegos. Here we had what was our last and what in my opinion was the best dive of the trip. We dived a site known as La Corona. The dive leader a man called Israel Gonzalez Duran chose the dive as the best site the area had to offer. There were only the two of us and Israel in the water. The vis was amazing, fish life abundant and to top it of and intact wreck of a fishing boat lay wedged in a gorge at 20metres depth and less than 10 metres from the shelf drop off. We had a max depth of 33m and 52 minutes of the most enjoyable diving I have experienced to date.

The dive area is a bit off the beaten track but well worth the effort, the centre is a bit on the small side and the equipment a bit battered but in fine working order. Later in the year around November the area is renowned for whale shark sightings.

Although we ran out of days another resort known as playa Blanca on the North east coast is worth a mention. It has some wreck diving but for the more adventurous the party piece is feeding adult Bull Sharks.

December 2005

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