Maria La Gorda - Pinar del Rio, Cuba     

We flew out to Cuba to join a yacht owned by my partner's parents, which happened to be anchored off Maria La Gorda, so we spent a few nights at the hotel. In relation to the diving, our party had mixed thoughts. 1. Though some in our party considered it acceptable, others including myself were deeply unhappy with the rental diving equipment. We did 5 dives and without fail the depth gauges did not work and the BCDs and regulators leaked. Two of my BCDs malfunctioned, failing to purge properly underwater. Wetsuits (2.5mm shorties) were ripped. Compasses had become demagnetised. Twice I had a pressure gauge that gave false readings. 2. Again, though there was some discussion amongst our group, I was unhappy with the protocols followed by the dive staff. There were no safety briefings and only a very vague and simplistic briefing by dive leaders. All dives ran our pressures down to 20-50 bar. Frequently as a result some divers had to surface early. On one occasion we were briefed that we were diving to 15 metres but actually dived to 27. There were often too many divers assigned to dive leaders, leading to collisions and there was no buddy system. 3. I got sick in the last days, even though I had eaten the same food as the others. There was discussion in the resort that a lot of people had been experiencing vomiting and diarrhea systems. I think this was because the rental equipment was not cleaned properly. 4. The diving itself is good for undersea life - we saw barracuda, nurse sharks, stingrays, eagle rays, huge sea fans, but the coral is by no means as good as other parts of the Caribbean and certainly no Indian Ocean/Red Sea. Having said all this, dive staff are friendly and if you take your own equipment (including a dive computer or working depth gauge, and if it were me, your own BCD and reg set) and are comfortable with diving to 30 metres, it's fine. Food at the hotel is pretty basic for lunch and dinner (pizza and toasties for lunch, basically) but the buffet breakfast was the best we had in Cuba. The log cabin accomodation is excellent, with good air conditioning, beautiful surrounds, good bathrooms and is comfortable. We also had accomodation with a sea view which was more like a motel; not great, but that's common in dive centres. I remember the accomodation in the Maldives wasn't brilliant - but you don't go to a dive resort to lounge around in your room all day. Staff are much friendlier if you tip, generally between 1 and 3 CUCs is about right.