The well-known PADI 5* Instructor Development Dive Center Thalassa, based in Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia was founded in 1996 and has been run since by Simone Gerritsen, a Dutch PADI Course Director and diver for 35 years.

Since January 2013, Thalassa has expanded her service with accommodation as well, offering a 5* service for both divers as non-divers, right on the border of Bunaken National Park.

For more details about Thalassa Dive Resort, please visit our website:
http://www.divediscovery.com/indonesia/dive-resorts/thalassa-dive-resort.php

Visit Cuba’s Pristine Gardens of the Queen

Due to the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, it has been virtually impossible for Americans to legally visit Cuba and the Gardens of the Queen for more than 50 years. Now, however, you have an opportunity to see this pristine ecosystem for yourself and to do so legally. Under a license from the U.S. Treasury Department, the Washington, DC-based nonprofit conservation organization, Ocean Doctor, is now running the first-ever educational trips to Cuba’s Gardens of the Queen.

This unique educational journey examines the relationship of Cuban citizens with their natural environment, including burgeoning socioeconomic and cultural issues brought about by Cuba’s growing ecotourism industry. The exchange also represents an opportunity to explore with our Cuban colleagues important environmental issues that impact the marine waters that both nations share. Visitors will meet with Cuban scientists, resource managers, ecotourism professionals and community members.

Six days of this 11-day/10-night trip will be spent aboard a floating hotel or liveaboard dive vessel in the heart of Cuba’s Gardens of the Queen National Park, where much of the story lies underwater. U.S. visitors will accompany Cuban specialists and be able to scuba dive in one of the healthiest marine ecosystems remaining in the Caribbean. Visitors will spend four nights at a 5-star hotel in Havana, visiting a variety of Cuba institutions and meeting with a range of Cuban professionals and community members.

For more details, please visit our website:

http://www.divediscovery.com/cuba/divetours/gardens-of-the-queen-diving.php

‘Adventure fans, I want to escort an expedition to Antarctica for the 2015 season! This is for divers & adventurers interested in what Antarctica has to offer and or active folks who love photography, hiking, snowshoeing, camping, kayaking, mountaineering & shore excursions & zodiac cruises! (this is what I will be doing!) This will be onboard M/V Plancius, this amazing vessel will act as a “basecamp” where we start our various activities.

All activities will be conducted by trained expert guides.  All adventure activities are free of charge on “Basecamp Plancius” voyages and are included in the package.

*diving has an additional charge.
See the link for “Basecamp Plancius Manual” brochure for further details.

Anybody interested???  Let me know!’

Cindi LaRaia

Basecamp Plancius Manual [pdf file]

http://www.divediscovery.com/group-trips/2015/antarctica.php

For more information, contact Dive Discovery at:
1 800 886-7321, (415) 444-5100
or Email us

5 Days / 6 Nights Package
Dates: 22nd June 2014 – 19th July 2014
Location: Port St John’s, Wild Coast, Transkei, South Africa

With our base here all year round, we are ideally located to offer you a superb, fun filled trip, coupled with a highly experienced sardine run specialist team of skipper and dive guide.

We offer a boat based adventure for everyone, whether a diver or non diver. All nature lovers, bird watchers, photography enthusiasts, dolphin and whale enthusiasts, snorkellers and scuba divers will thoroughly enjoy this incredible event of nature, which has been likened to the land based “Wildebeest migration of the Serengeti” and the marine equivalent of this has since been called “The Greatest shoal on earth”.

Please take a look at our sardine run trip info and join us for an experience of a lifetime in the most beautiful and scenic place of Port St John’s, Wild Coast, Transkei, the gateway to the sardine run.

For more details, please visit our website:

http://www.divediscovery.com/south-africa/divetours/sardine-run-2014.php

Nomad Divers is a new resort on Bangka, North Sulawesi with beautiful
untouched diving, from muck diving to underwater pinnacles, from pygmy seahorses to dugongs.

There are four wooden cottages built in the local Minahasan style which all have double beds, ensuite bathrooms with western style toilet and balcony, all new for 2013.

For more details, please visit our website:

http://www.divediscovery.com/indonesia/dive-resorts/nomad-divers.php

Location: South Coast from Rabaul on the Island of New Britain, PNG

Reported by Cindi LaRaia:

http://www.divediscovery.com/trip-reports/2013/png.php

Combo Gray Whales & Blue Whale Adventure – Baja Peninsula, Mexico

February 25 – March 3, 2014 Group Trip

Escorted by: Cindi LaRaia

COST: USD 2850.00 per person twin sharing

Here is the perfect whale watching tour option for those who want to see the Baja Peninsula, but who want as little driving time as possible. Gray whales at the best whale watching location in the world, Laguna Ojo de Liebre and then blue whale watching at one of the finest locations we know of for reliable sightings of blue whales, Loreto, BCS.

For more details, please visit our website:

http://www.divediscovery.com/group-trips/2014/mexico.php