Dive Review of Avalon in
Cuba

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Avalon: "The Best in the Caribbean", Mar, 2019, by DONALD MCCOY, OR, US ( Sr. Reviewer 9 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 10878 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Our greeting by the crew was very friendly as we boarded the boat. Since we were the first on board, we could choose our own room, but most of the rooms are the same, so it really didn’t matter. The rooms had a double bed below and a single above. The beds were a little cramped even for us. We are 5’4 and 5’2. One of the Germans on board was 6’4 and I don’t know how he did it. The toilets were marginal. You couldn’t put your toilet paper in the bowl (normal for a lot of boats), but often you had to flush it 4-5 times before it would flush. Kind of made you worry about overflowing. The food was great. They tried to accommodate my lactose intolerance and my wife’s vegetarian diet and succeeded most of the time. There were usually several choices of meat and we got lobster quite often. I heard that there is a lobster farm, so that made me feel better about eating them. A famous saying in Cuba is that beef is for the young, the old and tourists. There was plenty of beef served, along with chicken and pork. The Caribbean is a long way from Portland, Oregon. It takes a day to get there and the diving has to be pretty good for me to go back. We were there two years ago and came back because of the diving. One lecture on board (a requirement for “People to People”) mentioned that most of the Caribbean life is only 17-18% of what it was. Because of the protection, the Garden of the Queens is about 50% of what it was. They blame overfishing and pollution on most of the degradation. Since the Garden of the Queens is 50 miles offshore and fishing is restricted to catch and release, they have been able to protect that resource. In addition, they restrict diving to 1000 divers a year. They have noticed a reduction in US divers in the last two years as travel to Cuba has become more restricted. I saw Caribbean Reef Sharks on most dives and often saw Silky Sharks under the boat. We saw Tarpon in many places and many schools of Snappers of different varieties. The Groupers were impressive and we did see one Goliath Grouper who followed us around the whole dive. I did REEF surveys on all the dives and saw between 20-40 species on a dive. Overall, the diving was as good as I remember it. The divemaster (Yordy) spoke very good English, helped me to find critters I may not have seen otherwise and was especially helpful to the one photographer in our group.
Websites	Avalon
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Canada, Washington State, Sea of Cortez, Cocos, Socorro, Dominica, Cayman, Belize, South Carolina, Hawaii, Indonesia, Palau, Cuba
Closest Airport	Santa Clara	Getting There	From Portland, OR we had to fly through Ft Worth, stay overnight in Miami and fly the next day to Santa Clara. Two years ago, I felt better received in Havana. They grilled me in Santa Clara wanting to know where I was staying and on the way out, took my shave cream and razor.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, no currents
Water Temp	81-83°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	30-50 Ft/ 9-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	We always had a dive guide with us and most of us were done in an hour.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters	N/A	Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Avalon in Cuba

Avalon: "The Best in the Caribbean", Mar, 2019,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Avalon in
Cuba