Derek’s Dive Domain

Another lovely day dawns, and after coffee and breakfast around the pool at the Orlando, we kit up and ship out to todays first divesite, at El Paraiso.  This is the site where we saw the rays last time we were here, but we’ve been hearing rumours that they have buggered off to the fish farms.

El Paraiso is a strange place, in that to get to the beach you have to walk down 60-odd steps in full dive gear, but having negotiated that, to the serenading of some local pub singer at the nearby hotel (Take my wife… no, take her!) we walk in down the slipway and enter the sheltered cove.  It is a nice leisurely surface swim out to the edge of the cove, and then we drop down, and swim out into the bay, before up and over the volcanic fissure.  There are pencil urchins galore, as there are in many parts of the island, and I also see wrasse, damselfish and one small ray.  We get over the fissure, where a couple of Black Moray Eels live, and drop down into the basin.  There is no sign of the rays, they are definitely not here today.  Never mind, we have a look around the basin, and enjoy a leisurely look around on the fissure, before taking a long slow swim back up to the beach and out.  My air consumption compared to earlier in the year is surprisingly much better, something which repeats itself on most dives of the trip. 

We eat our dinners whilst listening to the pub singer and generally taking the mickey, as he is still droning on despite us being in the water for over an hour, and then we move on to our second location at the old Tuna factory at Mar Azul.  This is the place which “tried to kill us” last time we were here, and you can see the nerves in a few people.  I was fine with it, as I had seen the divesite as you would expect to see it, so didn’t expect it to be like that again, and it wasn’t.  We arrived to see beautiful blue water, and we kit up and drop in from the jetty.  We gently fin down the slope in search of the rays which occasionally appear down at around 21 metres, but again they are eluding us.  Lots more fish, far too many to mention all the names here, but we have a very pleasant 40 minutes or so, before coming back to the exit area around the jetty walls, where we spend another 20 minutes in about 5 metres, just looking into all the nooks and crannies in the small cove shaped area.  I spent some of the time practicing my buoyancy, trying to get used to the idea of hovering and controlling everything with my breathing.  After 63 minutes it is time to get out, and we stow the kit and head back for a beer around the pool at the Orlando, before going back to Abades for the evening.  More beer followed in the Blue Bossa with Michael and Rebecca.

 Dive 3 (97)  Max Depth 20m, dive time 60 mins

Dive 4 (98)  Max Depth 21.5m, dive time 63 mins