Dive Review of go dive bayahibe/Viva Wyndham Dominicus Palace in
Dominican Republic/Bayahibe

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go dive bayahibe/Viva Wyndham Dominicus Palace: "tub water", Dec, 2019, by Michael Joest, Kehl, DE ( Top Contributor 49 reports with 30 Helpful votes). Report 11397.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Dom. Rep. Bayahibe South For more than 30 years the Dominican Republic was sleeping in one of my drawers in the file Caribbean for the poorer tourist. However since I started to look for places to hibernate from a cold winter in Germany, my travel agent suggested this destination. Well, one of these days I have to slow down, so I thought why not try this place with some lazy easy diving in warm water. My departure collided with the worst time of strikes in France concerning public transport (the Government wants to increase the age for retirement). I was booked on the fast TGV train, nothing worked there, took my first flixbus (6 h ) to Paris one day prior to departure with overnight there to get plenty of space to reach CDG airport. I prebooked a cab, which they could not confirm, due to disaster in all streets in and around town – could not sleep, worried I might not catch the plane. At 2 a m I found a bus from Gare de Lyon – Le Bus – to CDG airport. Well it was delayed for 35 min due to truck drivers slowing down traffic to support the strikes. Got there in time for my Air France flight directly to Punta Cana on a triple 7 plane. Meals were served with wooden cutlery, wouh, a first tiny effort to reduce waste, well all else was plastic and it seems this was a once only thing. I chose Viva Wyndham Dominicus Palace one of these huge all inclusive resorts. There are a couple of dive centers in town, I picked go dive Bayahibe run by a German couple Iris and Mark. It was the most expensive one but they advertise with “guests chose where and how long they want to dive”. Rates ran from 365 to 495 $ (go dive B) for a ten dive package, I booked 20 already from Germany for which they offered a discount which was reduced again when I managed only 16 down there. Go dive has a wooden hut in a corner of Cadaques Resort. Their medium sized boat “Bubble” was planned by Mark the owner himself, has a ramp on the bow to lower down for easy entry with giant stride. First day we did two shallow dives in around 14 m cruising through some nice typical Caribbean coral sponge garden with some fish life around. It was too slow lazy shallow tame kicking around for me. My idea was, I´m either not old enough for that or still too young and in too good a shape for this kind of diving. It was okay but just not enough for me or I´m maybe pampered by the many awesome dives I´ve done in my life so far. Water had 28 C too warm for the coral at this time of year, vis on the second dive around 5 – 8 m maybe due to being rather close to the beach. Day 2 Mark asked me doubtfully “ you want to dive ?, there are only two beginners booked”. Well, this is what I came here for! A young couple with less than 20/50 dives, he had brought all his new equipment which he never had tried before. The regulator was leaking, the pressure gauge stayed on zero. Mark exchanged that with his spare one. On the second dive the guy could not equalize, I waited in 12 m with his girlfriend till Mark signaled abort for him. This all took time and for 2 dives I was more of a babysitter. Will try to get these two free of charge (got one). We saw moray eels, puffer, lobster, some lion fish, small reef fish, a couple of small brown spotted sting rays, a big hermitage crab, up on the surface a bunch of small Garfish were circling, their bodies glittering in the sun, lovely picture that. In sandy patches they installed old guns with cannon balls, some monuments and statues and a construction were new coral growth is attached. Day 3 brought some serious diving at last, we went to the St. Georg wreck sitting in 43 m on sand. Funny, Mark said 30 m max on the briefing, we pulled down on the buoy line with Brenda a local dive master. Around 20 m you could see the wreck, in 30 we hovered still above the superstructure holding onto the rope with a bit of current running. Brenda took us deeper to touchdown in the sand, I loved that, she did a great job. We once swam around the whole body of the wreck in great vis. Some part of the hull still intact and a bit of penetration possible. Good fish life around, 1 huge barracuda hovered above the wreck, 4 lion fish around a winch, found 2 species of angel. Second dive shallow again in low vis cause lots of red algae stuff was floating around. Day 4 We dove the Princess a smaller wreck, there is not much left, sits in 12 m but cruising once all around is worth it, some good coral garden around and a turtle took off when we came down. Second dive again poor vis but we found 4 squid hanging around above the reef staying in place, my first really good shots of these normally extremely elusive guys. In the distance an eagle ray flew past. We did the St. Georg again, this time in choppy seas strong wind and current to fight again downstairs. There was amazing fish life around this time, a bunch of small fish dancing in the current, two groups of small and good sized jacks chasing among them, again the lonely barracuda at the bow. Time went away too fast for this impressive performance all around us. Saw bubbles coming out of the hull, later a group of divers joined us on safety stop doing their deco, I wonder where they´ve been inside and how long. Dive 2 shallow at Guaraguao 2, much better vis here than the last few days, a fantastic gorgonian sponges coral garden was waiting for us, for me the best shallow spot here. This site can easily compete with any other Caribbean destination. Choppy seas, we couldn´t bring the boat to the jetty and had to disembark with full gear without tank close to the beach in shallow water. Day 5 Choppy seas again, when we surfaced the boatman could´t see us or looked into the wrong direction, took a while for him to spot our SMB. We encountered two big American sting rays and a humongous barracuda which allowed us to get close. St Georg a third time with no current at all and much less fish around only in the far blue a group of medium sized spade fish. Viva shallow quite nice but with 8 m just not enough. I had heard of some fresh water caves here and asked if it´s possible to go there. Bad luck, their cave instructor was in Egypt at that time, Mark himself was not certified to bring guests in for a sneak dive, a pity. With some discover scuba guys we tried to identify some of the fish we saw out of a Caribbean booklet : squirrel, trumpet rainbow runner barjack palometa yellow snapper grunt goatfish butterfly queen angel rock bearty french angel sergeant mayor creole wrasse surgeon cero peacock flounder file fish. Most days were sunny with scattered clouds, temperatures running between 24 – 27, some light rain during the day, some heavy rainfall during the nights. info@godivebayahibe.com [godivebayahibe.com link]
Websites	go dive bayahibe
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	worldwide more than 100 destinations, mostly South Pacific and Asia, Africa and Caribbean
Closest Airport	Punta Cana	Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, cloudy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	27-29°C / 81-84°F	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	5-30 M / 16-98 Ft
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	do deco
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	no
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of go dive bayahibe/Viva Wyndham Dominicus Palace in Dominican Republic/Bayahibe

go dive bayahibe/Viva Wyndham Dominicus Palace: "tub water", Dec, 2019,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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 go dive bayahibe/Viva Wyndham Dominicus Palace in
Dominican Republic/Bayahibe