The next morning we caught the dive boat and within 20 minutes were on the wall. The dives were very nice with viz that reached 100 feet. Black coral, schools of fish and an occasional shark blessed our dives. The dives tend to be deep (80+ feet) which means bottom time can be limited. The sleepy little fishing village of La Parguera was a delightful place to spend our non-diving time. Day two we again dove the lovely reefs and then raced back to San Juan to catch the ship.
A few years ago we discovered another excellent place to dive in Puerto Rico. Just off the west coast of Rincon lies a very small island known as Desecheo Island. Although the trip to the island takes about 35 minutes, and is not always possible if the waves are too high, it is well worth the effort. The reefs around the island are in excellent condition because of the constant currents surrounding the area. In my opinion the diving at Desecheo is much better than the south walls.
The problem with diving out of Rincon is that if you are only diving two days there's a good chance you won't get to dive the island. Although the reefs around Rincon are nice, the reefs off La Parguera are better. Additionally, the commute from San Juan to Rincon is brutal. Part of the way is on divided highway (toll road), but much of it is still on two-lane roads with stop lights at every town. It takes 4-5 hours to drive west across northern Puerto Rico, and the scenery is frequently city traffic instead of mountain splendor. If your flight arrives late in the day much of your trip to Rincon will be in the dark, and partly on side roads that are not well marked.
After your second day of diving in Rincon you again must race back to San Juan to catch the ship, but the journey isn't much of a race. Heavy traffic and irritating stop lights compound the stress level so that you arrive at the ship with wild hair, dripping baggage, and exhausted. Our plan now is to fly to Puerto Rico three days before the cruise, dive two days, and then on cruise day we can leave Rincon early, before the traffic hits.
I am told that the diving off of Fajardo (east Puerto Rico) is nice, and that the outer islands of Culebra and Vieques have some good diving as well. However, unless you want to spend a week before your cruise, the time involved to take a ferry across to the islands make this an impractical choice.
Top side Puerto Rico has some very nice beaches and the tropical forest is beautiful. You would not run out of things to do if you did decide to spend the week before your cruise in Puerto Rico. But for serious divers it's difficult to stay out of the water for long, especially when such amazing scenery awaits just 80' below. Bottoms up!
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