The dive center is well equipped and organized with three boats offering three dives per day (and sometimes a night dive). This is the most professional dive center I have seen in Cuba, and it was elected several times as one of the best dive centers in the Caribbean by a German dive magazin. Sometimes the groups diving with one guide are a little bit large for my taste, but diving is still excellent and they try to group the divers according to their experience. There are approximately 40 dive sites, which means enough for several weeks of diving. The underwater landscape is spectacular with caverns, canyons, and a wall that goes down infinitely. The water is dark blue with excellent visibility which makes a beautiful contrast to the colourful sponges and reef fish. My favourite dive site is “Paraiso Perdido” (Lost Paradise) which is truly outstanding. It is the most distant site the boats go, directly in front of the Cabo Corrientes. Here you can find turtles, large groupers, lots of barracudas, and an incredible amount of other fish.

July 2011. Visiting Maria la Gorda again, and diving at the wall is still spectacular. Clear, blue water and perpendicular drop-offs. However, I was shocked to see the reef in the flat areas. Here, the corals are essentially gone! Where large, healthy brain corals had been two years ago there are now only small patches left over and algae and other plants are everywhere. According to the local divers this damage was mainly caused by a strong hurricane two years ago. Probably the dying of the corals is caused by a multitude of influences such as global warming and over-fishing (thus removing important members of a healthy reef ecology) with the hurricane finishing the disaster up. In the Havana area, where the coral structures are smaller anyway, I didn’t see a similar devastation. I fear that we will have to wait many years to see a healthy coral reef in Maria la Gorda again.
The quality of the hotel and especially of the service was considerably lower than the years before. After visiting this place five times I have the feeling that people in Cuba are more and more busy organizing their daily lives and fighting for the really necessary things in a collapsed economy. There is also quite some constructing activity going on which will more than double the hotel capacity of this place. The charm of Maria la Gorda is its completely isolated location surrounded by nothing than nature. I hope that this will not be lost and replaced by Varadero like tourism.

Despite saying this, the dive center is still very professional, and the guides are friendly and doing a great job. Normally three dives are offered daily, at 8:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. On one early morning I was the only guest on board and they still took me out to a spectacular dive! So, really nothing to complain here.