Caribbean Travel Blog

This was a very typical moment while diving in Antigua this kind of sized Barracuda would come in close sometimes with a friend. Am glad I managed to get some video up about it, can't wait to try out my go pro as you can see this is not taken with anything near as sophisticated for todays market.

Here is a cool post on what might be happening when a barracuda follows you- https://xcalakmexico.com/snorkeling-barracuda/

You can see some of the settings I used in Photoshop here to achieve the result (ignore the bottom two layers and know just one of these is your photo OR video)

The layers will be as shown above the first (bottom) 2 but you may get away with fewer - just make sure to have the two shown selected in the images here. Any problems and you can ask me from commenting below. I will help you set up your photoshop files for you.

Barracuda

What I like about this video is that it accurately shows the quality of diving that the Caribbean and Antigua in particular has to offer. 

eagle ray

Had a couple of tanks with indigo diving today and was very impressed with their levels of service and the boat. The diving - how was it ? Well we saw all manner of tiny critters from blennies to flamingo tongues and peterson shrimp and pistol shrimp sharing a flat = corkscrew anemone. But what was a real treat was the black tip reef shark ! it was also a pleasure to dive with Steve and Nishi and Pat from Indigo divers. All very good divers and that made for a great two tanks. Nishi is blogworthy as she is an expert on SQUID! She even found 3..So the site was Double Dip and we got no deeper than 18m for the first dive, lobsters, one king crab and a very healthy sized barracuda. The second dive was in the vicinity and forget the name if it had one. The second was where the shark cruised on by. 

The official hurricane season for the Caribbean is from 1 June until 30 November.

For Antigua the period 15 August - 15 October is considered the active period peaking middle of September.

The last three hurricanes to hit the island directly were 1995, 1998 and 1999.

The official exchange rate is US$1 = EC$2.68 with variations based on the bank (currency code: XCD)

Info kindly provided by indigo divers Antigua.

Today I went out with Jolly Dive for a couple of tanks. The first dive (Dive 1) was at Cades Reef - a firm favorite here as it provides a good dive almost every time. My dive was no exception - Nurse Shark, Octopus, Ray, and then some smaller stuff flamingo tongue - sea slugs. Paul took the effort to point out the various unidentifiable for me using his slate. The purple patches of Sargent Major eggs for example that the other fishes were taking bites out of ! The vis was good but apparently it wasn't I was told we could see 20ft ! A good torch and the ability to look into all the crevices pays dividends here and at this Paul and Connie the dive masters are excellent.

The second Dive (Dive 2) was a shallow 30 ft max dive on Bluff Cut. The vis was again not to the normal high standard for Antigua and this was due to slightly wet weather systems around. I am always confused as to the poor reviews given for Antigua Diving and I have to imagine that is is the first impression of steep dropoffs or walls isn't there - but the diving and fish life are equal to many other islands. See the videos here on this site for tiger sharks !

The weather is a bit off and on this time of year but it was in fact very enjoyable for us in total for 2 weeks there may have been 3 hours of rain at the most and it was refreshing along with the ever present winds.

Related Links and further reading

Book Tours in Antigua and Barbuda