Barbados is the eastern most island in the Caribbean. One can say it is an Atlantic island rather than a Caribbean one. It is surrounded by Atlantic ocean. Geologically it is not on a Caribbean plate but a result of sediment accumulation from subduction of the South American plate under the Caribbean plate. The island is very flat compared to most other Caribbean islands and is composed of coral, 90 meters thick.
Coral reefs encircle most of Barbados. We did a few dives around the island and the video has the highlights. Reef definitely had more life than Jamaica. And as we were there at the time of severe coral bleaching across the Caribbean, reefs in Barbados seemed to have fared better with cooler water from Atlantic helping.
We dove with Barbados Blue Water Sports dive shop located next to Hilton hotel. They run a very efficient operation, gear and boat was great. It was also nice to dive with quite a few locals/regulars and not just tourists.
Exploring the island
We stayed in Bridgetown which has many hotels and excellent restaurants. We hired a car. Car rental brought the car to the hotel, very convenient. After diving in the morning, we headed across the island to Bathsheba to have a look at the (slightly) steeper, windward and rougher eastern side of the island. There are spectacular views of the coast line and cool rock formations. There are a couple of nice restaurants where one can enjoy a meal and fantastic views.
Next day we started by heading to Welchman Hall Gully. It has a nice walk through the gully with cool geological formations and jungle forest. We did not see any monkeys but were told they were there earlier on the day. A nice relaxing walk and opportunity to experience what Barbados nature was like before construction took over the island.
Our next stop was St.Nicholas Abbey. After some meandering following google map sending us to roads that were not exactly passable, we found our way with some spectacular views along the way.
St.Nicholas great house built in 1658 and its distillery offer tours with rum tasting. It is a good way to learn more of Barbados history. The site is beautiful with a carefully restored great house.
We then headed further north to Animal Flower Cave. There is a restaurant right on the cliff edge with incredible views. One can get a better sense of Barbados geology looking at that top bit of 90 meters of old coral forming the island.
Near to the cave site is the North Point with an old lighthouse and more impressive views of the coast line.
Barbados is a beautiful little island. Not only does it have excellent beaches and warm sea, it has really vibrant restaurant scene, a lot of history restored and well presented, natural sites that are easy to visit and some very reasonable diving. Barbados is also a very good connecting point for visiting other Eastern Caribbean countries with direct flights to St.Lucia, Grenada, St.Kitts and Nevis, and other islands.
Ocho Rios in the north of Jamaica is one of the main tourist areas on the island. DIving is pretty good with a nice Katherine wreck that was sunk on purpose for helping to create a reef for divers, and very impressive reef formations. Video has the highlights.
We dove it in May of 2023 and then in May of 2024. Major bleaching took place all around the Caribbean starting in August 2023. And then in winter of 2024 major storms hit the area. We could clearly see the impact of all of these events. The wreck was pushed around, some of the structures damaged and many sponges and other growth broke off. On the bright side, it was good to see that some of the coral recovered by May, though many did not make it.
Logistics
Ocho Rios can be reached in a little more than an hour from Kingston on the toll road. There are many large and small resorts along the coast around the town of Ocho Rios. It does not have a long beach like Negril and you cannot really move easily from one place to the next unless you are driving along the main road.
We dove with Garfield. It is a small basic dive shop in Ocho Rios marina. A couple of big all inclusive resorts in the area also have dive shops. One can also stay in Ocho Rios and explore some of the other dive areas in Oracabessa and Runaway Bay.
Runaway bay is a small town on the bay of the same name on the northern shore of Jamaica between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios. There is a reef all along the northern shore of Jamaica and sections around Runaway bay have a very impressive canyon, nice scattered reefs and a couple of wrecks. Video has highlights from the dives we had.
We read about strong currents (reportedly one of the reasons the bay is called a Runaway Bay). But on our dives we did not encounter currents, though to be fair dive shops avoid diving in currents. The canyon is really impressive. As in other places in Jamaica, we did not see much fish. Reef is algae dominated looking like a weedy jungle with huge sponges. In early 2024 it was slowly recovering from the bleaching in 2023, similar conditions to what we saw in Negril.
There are a couple of very basic dive shops in the area, outside of the all inclusive resorts. One is in the FDR resort and another one is next to Sharlkies restaurant. Both are basic operations. They have dive gear for rent and basic boats set up for diving. For places to stay, there are quite a few resorts along the shore, mostly all inclusive. Runaway bay diving is also doable as a day trip from Kingston.
Oracabessa is a small town on the northern coast of Jamaica, about 20km east of Ocho Rios. This is where Ian Fleming spent his winters and wrote James Bond books. His house still exists, now part of the Golden Eye resort. There is a small marine sanctuary and a very basic diving operation. One can dive right in front of Ian Fleming’s old house. He reportedly snorkeled in the morning to catch a lobster for lunch before getting on with his writing. Reefs come right to the shore and have phenomenal swim throughs. Here is a brief video.
As elsewhere in the Caribbean, the reef is degraded and fish life is limited. But one can imagine what a spectacular site these reefs were back in the day. In 2023 reef experienced severe bleaching all around Jamaica and we have written more about this in Negril write up. It was heartbreaking to see staghorn coral nursery with little pieces of corals all pure white unlikely to make it.
Logistics
The diving is from the marine sanctuary little office located at James Bond beach. This James bond beach is not to be confused with the one featured in Dr.No famous scene when Honey Ryder comes from the sea. That beach, called Laughing Waters, is not too far away but seems to be on a private property and not obvious how to visit.
The beach is not very well developed for visiting. There is a building that used to be a restaurant or a bar also hosting events but it did not seem to be operational. The gate is locked and only because we had a dive arranged were we allowed in.
The road is a narrow gravel track off the main road. First time we were following the directions to James Bond beach down this road we were certain we were in the wrong place. But no, this was it.
The area all around is mostly resorts, including luxurious and pricey Golden Eye. There is also a growing number of condos/units being built in this very pretty bay. One can stay in one of the resorts in Oracabessa, or in Ocho Rios to dive in the area. It is also possible to dive it on a day trip from Kingston.
Port Antonio in the north-eastern parish of Portland in Jamaica has a very beautiful coast line with pretty bays and coves. Many exotic beach movie scenes were shot here over the years. There is a coral reef stretching along the coast and a marine sanctuary to protect it. Coral formations are impressive and fish life shows more hope than in other dive spots around the island. Some highlights from diving around Port Antonio in Jamaica are in the video.
Reef
The reef around Port Antonio has many impressive formations. There is coral restoration work in the area. We saw some elk horn corals. These beautiful corals used to be the dominant species around the coast but have practically disappeared in the past 30 years.
Like other parts of Jamaican reef, bleaching in 2023 affected corals badly. By march 2024 some species recovered quite well, but others did not do too well like these blade fire corals in pictures below.
We dove in Port Antonio with Lady G’Diver from the jetty in Turtle harbor. It’s a small and well-run operation. The boat takes maximum of 6 divers which allows one to enjoy diving in small groups. One can stay on the coast or it also works as a day trip from Kingston for 2 dives.
Logistics and top side
Port Antonio town, the capital or Portland parish, is a regular scruffy small Jamaican town. It was a major port for banana export back in the day and the birthplace of tourism as empty returning banana boats brought tourists from US to Jamaica. Most hotels and holiday rentals now are spread along the coast east of Port Antonio town around pretty little bays and coves. Drive from Kingston to Port Antonio is about 2 hours on a winding road through the mountains and via Annotto Bay. The route is about an hour longer by the toll road and via Ocho Rios. The road around Eastern coast of Jamaica is still a work in progress. It is passable but takes longer as of the time of writing in 2024.
From a base in a resort or rental in Port Antonio one can explore many picturesque beaches and coves and pretty Reach waterfalls. From Port Antonio going east along the coast, there is the Blue Lagoon with recently updated facilities, Frenchman Cove with refreshingly cold fresh water stream coming in, San San beach, Winnifred beach, Boston beach, Long bay beach – all of them allow public access. The coast is where many scenes from Bond film No Time to Die were filmed – including that perfect beach bungalow at the start where Bond has retired to. The house was built just for the filming and then disassembled. One can see the bay from the boat while doing a surface interval. This specific beach is a private property though and one can’t get onto it from land side.
Further along the coast past the Long Bay there is a turnoff to a paved but winding narrow road to Reach falls. There is a parking lot and a short walk away are very beautiful waterfalls.
Plenty to do in Portland on the top side and there is some really nice diving.
Negril on the west side of Jamaica island has the best long sandy beach on the island and some very good diving. The reef goes along the entire famous 7 mile beach and beyond. As most reefs around Jamaica and the Caribbean, it is degraded and algae dominated with limited fish population. But Negril reef has very impressive formations with swim throughs and some fish life. Topside on 7 miles beach is excellent. We dove in Negril many times over a couple of years and video has some highlights.
Because of all the weedy jungle, we did not realize there was quite some hard coral still around as reef was slowly recovering despite obstruction by macroalgae. In the fall of 2023, because of high water temperatures, reef bleached and suddenly we saw white spots everywhere. All the little patches of hard coral trying to grow were now overheated and bleached. The extent of bleaching was similar to what we saw in Belize.
Bleaching was very extensive and lasted more than two months. Amazingly some corals were able to withstand it like on this photo below, though majority did not do too well.
In February of 2024 Negril got hit by a storm with very strong waves and big swell that damaged reefs. We were diving soon after and there was sponge rubble all around and seaweed on the reef looked battered.
By March of 2024 waters cooled a little, and some corals recovered, but many did not make it through. Sadly with all the warming keeping pace, risks of another bleaching event are high. Negril is still a worthy diving location with all its formations. Besides, with corals’ future not looking the best, one might as well catch a look of what is still there. Beach on the topside in Negril is definitely the best in Jamaica.
Even flounder pretends to be a white bleached coral on a reef rather than normal blending in color.
Logistics
Negril is about 4 hour drive from Kingston. From Montigo bay where most international flights go, it is about 1.5 hours. The main action is along the 7 mile beach – actually more a 7km stretch of nice white sand beach. The main advantage of Negril is that one can walk along the beach, unlike on the north coast of Jamaica where every resort is more or less an enclosed enclave. In Negril, large all inclusive resorts are on the northern side of the beach. The southern side of the beach and the cliffs side has smaller resorts catering to more independent travellers.
Some of the big resorts have dive shops on site and include diving in their packages. These dive shops allow outside divers (those not staying in the resort) but usually charge a day pass fee to a resort. With diving not being cheap in the Caribbean to start with, this makes it very expensive. We dive with an independent dive shop One Love Scuba. They have a very good boat and a great crew. It is the best independent diveshop (not inside of an all inclusive hotel) on the island that we found.
Beyond the beach, there is cliff side with a few resorts and restaurants. Rick’s cafe is famous for cliff jumping. At sunset there are a few catamarans doing sunset cruise. Or one can go on a more authentic looking vessel – like the one below. Definitely much going for Negril – great vibe, perfect Caribbean beach, phenomenal sunset views, and diving.
We did a 7 day liveaboard around Glover Atoll with a few dives around Turneffe in October of 2023. Here is a video from 26 dives on that trip
Our trip was on Aggressor III. Departing from Belize City we did 4 days at Glover Atoll primarily south east side, and then headed over to Turneffe for a day and a half of diving there. Aggressor as usual was a great diving boat, wonderful crew, great food, 4 dives a day plus night dive, and they let you have long dives.
We did two days of diving in Cozumel in August of 2023, after our diving trip to Malpelo in Colombia and before heading to Tulum. Cozumel is famous for strong currents and drift dives. But with all the warm water and El Nino, or for whatever reason, the currents were very weak when we were there. Diving was very nice with good visibility, warm water, incredible huge coral formations and quite a lot of fish. Cozumel Marine park was established in 1996 and conservation efforts have been successful in restoring fish populations. Here is a short vide with highlights from the dives.
We dove with Tres Pelicanos dive center. They were excellent and well organized. There are many dive shops in Cozumel. We would see half a dozen dive boats around each dive site – quite a shock after Malpelo. This was a low season and we were told that during the high season there would be at least double or triple the number of divers that we saw in August.
Logistics
We flew to Cancun and took a ferry over to Cozumel. There is an international airport in Cozumel, but it has fewer flights. The connection from the airport, by bus to the ferry in Playa de Carmen works very well. There are two ferry companies and there is a ferry going to Cozumel every our.
In Cancun one can stay in the main town or in one of the resorts along the shore. We stayed in town in one of the many small hotels – ours had 4 units in it. Since we were only there for a couple of days, we did not hire a car. We walked around the main town and its shops and restaurants. And one afternoon hired a motorbike to explore the island.
Even during the low season in August there were two or three cruise ships in Cozumel every day.
On one of the days, after finishing diving we hired a motorbike and went around the island. There is a road that makes a loop around the southern part of the island. I tis a very good paved road with not many vehicles on it once you get out of the town itself.
Along the eastern shore there are several beaches. It was quite windy and the water was pretty rough when we were there. There was also fair bit of sargassum washed up on the shores. The beaches are sites for turtles laying eggs. There is a large turtle conservation program on Cozumel and sites were all marked. There are also special tours where one can help conservation program.
We drove through the Punta Sur eco beach park. The road inside of the park is not paved but it is a good compacted road and two wheel drive or motorbike works fine.
On the main road, next to the entrance to the Punta Sur eco beach park, there is a Bob Marley Bar – also known as Rasta Bar and Reggae beach bar. Having lived in Ethiopia and Jamaica we were very determined to make it there for a drink. Unfortunately, we did not read the sign and did not realize it closed at 5pm. By the time were done with Eco beach park and ready for a sundowner, it was closed. Maybe for the next time then.
The next day we headed to Tulum to try diving in cenotes and explore Maya ruins.
Bonaire is a Dutch island in the Caribbean sea close to the coast of Venezuela. It is known as a shore diving capital of the world. We dove around Bonair for a week in early August 2022 before heading for another week of diving in Curacao.
The video below has highlights of what we saw on our dives. We did 17 shore dives on Bonaire and 2 boat dives around Klein Bonaire – a smaller island next to Bonaire.
August is a hurricane season in the Caribbean, but Bonair, Curacao and Aruba (ABC islands) are located south of the hurricane belt, and generally do not get much rainfall all year round. During our trip the weather was good even though we had occasional short showers in the afternoon. We were able to dive every day and explore top side too. Visibility was excellent about 20-30m. Water temperature was C27-28.
Getting there.
There is no ferry service between ABC islands. We arrived to Bonaire by a small plane from Curacao. In 2022 two airlines operated flights between Curacao and Bonair. We flew on Dividivi air and there was also EZAir. Because of the small size of the plane there is a strict maximum 23 kg luggage weight limit. Water temperatures were warm C27-28 and we did not bring wetsuits with us. We were able to get our bags with full dive gear just under the limit.
Accommodation.
There are hotels, dive resorts and private rentals all around the small island. We stayed a bit out of the main town in one of the smaller private rentals where one could just walk out of from the door and shore dive.
Scuba Diving.
Shore diving is the main attraction of Bonair. You hire a car (pickup truck), then hire the tanks, drive to the dive site, gear up, walk in, dive, finish a dive or two, go back to the dive shop to swap the tanks, repeat. The advise is not to leave anything in the car when going diving, not to lock it, and leave windows open. We followed the advise. Most of the time we would see at least another couple of cars parked with people diving, arriving or packing up and felt absolutely safe all around the island.
There are quite a few dive shops on the island where diving seems to be the main tourist activity and tourism – the main industry. We rented our air from VIP diving. We dove on nitrox to extend bottom time and did 3 dives most of the days. There is an option to have a guide, but we dove without one. There are several books with very detailed descriptions of all Bonair dive sites. We have used a paperback version of 2018 addition of Reef Smart Guides Bonaire: Scuba Dive. Snorkel. Surf. The book has the most detailed and clear dive site descriptions we’ve ever seen, even with 3D drawings. Because entry points are rocky and have sharp reef areas, one needs to dive with booties (no open toe fins), and the thicker the sole on the booties the better.
Sites are marked by yellow stones from the main road and there is also a yellow buoy in the water usually where the reef starts. Most dive sites are slopes covered with soft and hard corals. It is easy to just swim out to the marker, go in one direction along the reef and then turn around and come back. Definitely need compass. While some sights have easy entry and a sandy beach, most do not. Rocky shore, waves and swell can make entry a bit of a challenge. Most sites had clear marking on the best entry point – also with yellow stones. And then there are other divers coming in and getting out so it is good to observe before heading in.
Our top three dive sites were Salt Pier – for all the fish life and just really beautiful diving around pylons, HIlma Hooker wreck – for a cool reck and also lots of fish life and huge tarpans hanging around it, and Margate with beautiful reef and loads of fish life. But to be fair, all dives were good and each site was offering something different.
Bonaire National Marine Park includes all waters around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire down to the depth of 60 meters. It was established in 1979, is one of the oldest in the world and is considered one of the most successful. Fees paid by divers and other visitors finance the management of the park. Reefs are in very good condition with generally healthy soft and hard corals and huge sponges. Stony coral tissue loss disease unfortunately has reached Bonaire and at the time we were diving, two dive sites were closed off trying to contain the spread. All dive shops also were adding disinfectant when rinsing dive gear.
We saw a few lion fish while diving. These are invasive species without natural predators in the Caribbean. It is allowed to spear them to help protect the reef. The conditions for spearing are strict, requiring a license or diving with an authorized operator and only using marine park authorized spear (provided by a dive operator). Dive shops also require anyone wanting to spear to take PADI lion fish hunting specialty course.
Reef renewal foundation of Bonaire is trying to find ways to improve coral growth around Bonaire. They have several nurseries where pieces of corals are grown and then transplanted to the reef.
All manner of critters and other macro lens candidates were alive and well on the reef. We even found one little orange frog fish hiding in a sponge at appropriately named Something Special site.
Exploring top side
There is plenty to see on the top side of Bonaire. There is cute little old town with a few bars and restaurants, scenic drives around the island, rum distillery, iguanas, flamingoes and other birds.
On the last day before flying out we spent a day exploring the island driving all around it first heading down south, through the old town, past the salt pier, flamingo sanctuary (you can watch them from the road but cant go closer), then along the shore on the east side of the island, then inland via town and north towards Rincon (and its distillery), then loop through Washington Slagbaai National Park, and back to Rincon and back to town. The permit for diving in Marine National Park also includes the price of entry to the national park so you only have to pay once.
After a fantastic week in Bonaire we flew back to Curacao, for one more week of diving and exploring the Dutch Caribbean ABC islands.
Curacao is one of the three Dutch Caribbean islands close to the coast of Venezuela – Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao known together as ABC. We went diving in Curacao for a week in August 2022, combining with a week of diving in Bonaire.
The video below has diving highlights from 14 dives during our week in Curacao.
While it is possible to do shore diving in Curacao, it is not as easy as in Bonaire. The terrain of Curacao with little lagoons and rocky cliffs limits the number of sites one can easily reach from the shore. Diving is good though and a Curacao Bonaire combo trip worked out well for us since we in any case needed to fly to Curacao to get the small plane to Bonaire.
We based ourselves on the western side of the island in Westpunt and were diving with Go West Diving. We mostly dove from a boat and only did a couple of shore dives near the jetty, at Lagun, and on Go West excellent house reef Alice in Wonderland. Westpunt is the quiet end of Curacao, without big resorts and is about 1 hour drive from the capital Willemstad. There are a couple of smaller dive resorts and private rentals in Westpunt. There is no big supermarket so all the major shopping must be done in Willemstad. There are a couple of ok restaurants in the area. We were in a self-catering accommodation right on the cliffs with beautiful sunset views and our own barbeque which worked out perfectly for us.
When not diving we explored the island. The capital of Willemstad has many nice restaurants, the famous bridge and cute old town with colorful dutch style houses. There is the distillery that makes the famous Blue Curacao liqueur worth a visit. We also liked maritime museum in the old town.
There are two national parks on the island in its northeastern part. On the last day before flying out when we could not dive, we did both parks in the morning and then had a nice late lunch and walked around Willemstad. Shete Boka park has trails along the barren sea cliffs with striking views over the rougher side of Caribbean coast.
Christoffel national park is next door and has both rugged coast and forested area with nice views. There is a loop drive with a fully paved road to see the park. It is possible to do the hikes in the park, but we were there in the warmer time of the year and were not tempted to hike.
All in all Curacao was a nice trip. Good easy diving in warm water with good visibility, lots of things to explore on top side, good restaurants and friendly locals. Curacao Bonaire combo makes good sense if one makes it all the way down to this corner of the Caribbean.