Bocas del Toro Sports & Outdoors

I took both my PADI open water and advanced open water courses here. My instructor was Carlos and he is possibly the most patient person you will ever meet. They impressed me with their absolute focus on safety, while remaining very laid back. I would recommend this dive shop to anyone.

Equipment: They have all the equipment you need.

Well, our last day of the Open Water Course, we did 2 dives at 60ft. each. We went to a site where there was a ferry wreck, with a regular visitor: a nurse shark 3 meters long! The nurse shark is inside the wreck, and you're not allowed to go in, just peek at it from the holes and openings in the wreck.

That ferry wreck was placed there, it did not suffer an accident or anything titanic-like. My friend likes to called it "the prop." ;)

Our second day of class, we found out we were going to dive. A bit surprising, since I thought we were just going to dive on the last day. Okay... then, I learned that we were actually going to dive twice in one afternoon. Okay... then, I learned that we were going to do drills underwater, 40 feet below, such as pretending your mask comes off your face, put the mask back on and remove the water. AAAHHH!!!

i have a little problem with water -- I do tend to freak out if my feet don't touch the sand when I'm at the beach, so, on shore, i don't really venture out too far. It's a love and hate relationship with water: I love it, but I am scared of it. I think my fear lies in the fact that I can't open my eyes underwater (contact lenses), so the panic starts to settle in.

If you give me a mask and a snorkel, i am good to go, after I hyperventilate for a few minutes on the boat, before I jump on the water. Yeah, I don't quite understand it myself...

Anyways, this was a great experience, and I can't wait for my next dive!!! By the way, I did the lost-mask-drill several times, and i think I'm confident enough to do it without panicking in case it really happens. =)

So, because our airfare came out to be almost nothing, we were able to afford to learn some scuba diving. We took part of the open water certification course with Starfleet Eco-Adventures. The 3-day course is very intensive, with theory and practical lessons in a confined area, 4 dives, quizzes and a final exam.

Starfleet offers the Open Water certificate course for $205 in cash, $215 for credit card payments. It also includes all gear and lunch.

We had a great instructor, Rob, super attentive, patient, and funny.

I dove through Starfleet Eco-Adventures. Its a kewl place, plus the owner must be a Star Trek fan like me :). The place is not famous for it's diving, but it is still worth it nonetheless. Diving to me is diving! I had a blast!!! I even got to see squid, real squid! When we approached them, they gave out this black ink... kewl!