Today was another great day in paradise. We started the day off with a 9am dive to the best site Santiago De Cuba has to offer, the Maze. It was a 25minute boat ride out. I passed the time chatting with the dive guide where he gave me a lesson in natural navigation, explaining to me the landmarks they use to make sure we are near/at the dive site. Today we were using an Antenna located on the top of the hill, which sat on our right. On the left, they used a white house that peaked out around one of the bays once you are far enough out. He explained that the white house is where the farmers bring all the coffee picked from the mountains before it heads off to the factory for processing. It was very interesting to hear how they make do without the use of GPS using surrounding landmarks. He also explained the various colours of the water give an indication as to depth. The shallower, the greener. The more blue being the deepest.
We geared up, splashed into the water and started our decent. What an incredible dive it was. It was similar to the dive site Paradise, but unique in its own way. Giant coral reefs shot up from the bottom of the ocean floor like pillars holding the deep blue ocean. The reef was very healthy, but still lacked a lot of fish. It’s clear there is an issue with the fish population in Cuba. Others have mentioned the treaties Cuba has with China and now Japan for fishing, which leads me to believe there may be an issue with overfishing. On the way out I asked Manuel, our dive guide, if they have turtles as we have yet to see one. He explained that the fishermen hunt them so it is very very rare to see a turtle. We swam along the reefs hitting a max depth of 99ft. I ended up going a bit into decompression due to the deep depth. I didn’t plan for it but thankfully I burned off all my deco on the way up so it wasn’t anything too serious. On the way to the surface, I practiced holding my safety stops in preparation for my upcoming Cave 1 training. The better control I have of my buoyancy, the more confident I will be in the water. There was a bit of current on this dive. It made swim throughs a lot more challenging. The sway of the ocean could still be felt all the way down at 99ft, which is a new experience for me.
We headed back to the resort, switched out our tanks, snacked on a piece of bread and then headed back out to our second dive site called Mountain Reef. Well, the name is a pretty good translation as to what it looked like. It was as if it was an underwater mountain range filled with a garden of various corals. It was very beautiful and made for a great relaxing dive. At this point, all the reefs are starting to really look the same. I find now I’m more diving for the sake of being in the water and focusing on air consumption, being relaxed and having a great time floating with the surge of the waves.
By the time we got back to the resort, I couldn’t be bothered to get out of my wetsuit to head to lunch. Instead, I tried out the Ecological Restaurant. It was located in the forest near the beach. A lush garden and palm trees surrounded it. On one side it had what looked like a farm (based on the boar roaming) and the other sides were all trees and flowers. Despite how fancy this sounds, I only ordered a burger as I didn’t have any way to tell the time and knew I was on a tight deadline. During my wait, I kept hearing ambulance sirens off in the distance. Another guest informed me that they had been going for a while so there must have been a big accident. I enjoyed half of my burger before grabbing it to go and heading back over to the dive shop. It was a nice change of scenery and would like to get back to it at some point. I spoke to Manuel about the passing of Castro and he was explaining that the city is very quiet, not many people are on the street due to the 9 days of mourning. I told him I’d be doing the city tour tomorrow and he said hopefully they will make a stop off at the Cemetery. Castro started off in Santiago De Cuba so on December 3 they will be having a huge ceremony and on the 4th he will be buried at the cemetery. He said they are preparing the cemetery so it would be a unique sight. Hopefully, the tour makes a stop or at least passes by.
Our 3rd dive of the day was Conch Reef. It was a very nice reef with great swim throughs. It was a lot shallower, about 60ft max due to it being our third dive of the day. It was a great change and this reef offered a lot more marine life. Again, the reefs were very healthy making for a nice sight and comfortable dive. I still can’t believe the strength of the surge at depth. I watched the fan corals sway with the surge as if they were leaves blowing in the wind. Timing your fin kicks was an important point when it came down to being efficient with your movement and reducing your air consumption. I saw lots of lobsters and various fish. One thing I’ve noticed overall on this trip is that the fish are all very young. There are very few large fish. Near the end of the dive, I noticed the anchor (a cinder block) had been caught inside the reef. It wasn’t intentional as the dive guides do their best to avoid hitting the reef. I pointed it out to the dive guide, as I didn’t want it destroying the reef on the way up. We both swam over and pulled the anchor away from the reef and dropped it in a location that would cause no damage to the reef. I also blew my SMB for some practice as I wanted to keep on top of my skills – even on vacation…
Upon arrival back at the resort, the rest of the group informed us that the sirens I had heard during lunch was due to a bus for the Mud Bath Spa tour sliding off the road and falling down the mountain. At this point we are all unclear of the details. It’s been a giant game of telephone. From what we know, 6 people were lost in the crash with the tolls rising. It is unclear if it was from our resort. There are rumors that the bus stopped at multiple resorts so hopefully some more details emerge tomorrow. I seriously hope no one was actually killed or seriously injured. I feel like so much has happened on this trip. It’s crazy! There is no Wifi so I haven’t been able to contact family although I imagine news won’t reach them for a while.
In the meantime, I’m heading to bed as I’ve got an early start for my city tour of Santiago De Cuba. Stay tuned!
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Justin Steele
The Green Ranger