I was long overdue a visit to Cuba since 1999 and I have just returned from 3 glorious weeks there. I had all the best intentions of diving a few spots around the country but only managed a single wreck dive off the coast near Trinidad and 7 dives at Maria La Gorda, the first of which was a disaster due to my camera getting loose and me ending my dive early and safely.
I did try and get a dive off of cayo levisa in the pinar del rio province however their equipment was away in Havana. I didn't get to Isla de la Juventud due to Cuba being awesome to see in itself and time issues however.

Maria La Gorda

The diving here is mostly walls and canyons with no wrecks that were able to be dived, due to boat numbers or other ? So it is likely that you won't be diving a wreck either. The coral is pretty healthy and there are no corkscrew anemone with pistol shrimp and peterson shrimp, I wonder why that is. There is plenty of black coral and in general the reef is healthy, though I'm not expert enough to notice if it is bleached. It's a good job that there are a variety of dive sites as the fish life is really quite poor, though turtles are frequent and of course barry cuda. I have to also say that you should bring your own gear and if you were that serious I would also say maybe try Isla de la Juventud, which is longer boat rides (45 mins) but better diving I'm reliably informed. I would also recommend a computer the divemaster was not using one and according to my mares nemo went into deco, diving to 30 + meters on the first and second dives is also normal. The equipment is not well serviced but a quick tap of the air pressure reveals more air ? stay close to another source of air is my advice . There is no decompression chamber here, and you will have a 4-5 hour ride to havana at best. So take extra care and don't stay deep for too long and don't rely on the divemaster !!!!

The Resort
The resort can be booked through various agencies (click contact us to advertise here) but you can also turn up - but low season it was almost full some nights so that is risky. There isn't any camping to my knowledge.

Why dive Cuba ? The obvious answer to this is that you should dive and visit combine it like I did with a visit to a unique country that is simply stunning to look at at times and at others exciting and full of character.
I feel Maria La Gorda is either for an opportunistic dive while visiting Cuba or for couples that will be less bored in the evening than I was ! There really is a lack of things to do here outside of diving. There is only this resort though you will probably encounter divers, and I did many. I did enjoy my time here and it was a great introduction to Cuba. If you want to know how that is then check out the full article here http://www.landed.at/content/view/85/1/ and please send this link to anyone you know might like this article.

check out some of my photos here on flickr http://flickr.com/photos/27380840@N03/

To contact the hotel and dive shop :

comercial@mlagorda.co.cu
mlagorda@mlagorda.co.cu
http://www.gaviota-grupo.com