Honeymoon Pt. 6 – Scuba Diving in La Parguera

One of the last stops of our honeymoon brings us scuba diving on La Parguera Wall in Southwest Puerto Rico. Come check out the video!

Welcome to our video series chronicling our honeymoon! Departing from our home in nearby St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, we decided to stay and explore Puerto Rico for one adventurous week! Check out all our other videos during our trip:

• Exploring Old San Juan
• Swimming in Natural Pools at Angelito Trail
• Discovering the Beaches of Rincón
• Hiking to a Lighthouse in Cabo Rojo
• Trekking to a Waterfall in the Tropical Rainforest
• And our honeymoon summary, including the best adventures in Puerto Rico!

Scuba Diving in Southwest Puerto Rico

As avid scuba divers, we ventured to La Parguera, a small town on the mangrove shoreline in southwest Puerto Rico, for some world-class diving. The local dive shop in La Parguera is Paradise Scuba, a reputable establishment with a small fleet of boats frequently making trips to the La Parguera Wall.

The Wall is an underwater cliff, as the ocean floor plunges thousands of feet into the Puerto Rican trench – the world’s second deepest point. The dive was one of the best we’ve ever done, with quick sightings of Caribbean Reef Sharks, diverse reef fish, and one massive hawksbill sea turtle!

Our second dive was on Chimney Reef, which was significantly shallower than the Wall. It was the perfect second dive with swim-throughs, beautiful ledge structures, and one massive hogfish roaming the reef. 

Head to this link to check out our full guide on Scuba Diving The Wall in La Parguera!

Scuba Diving in La Parguera: Photo Gallery

Scuba Diving in La Parguera: Video Transcript

Below is the video transcript I produced for my YouTube video above. Enjoy!

Exploring La Parguera in Southwest Puerto Rico

Halfway between Cabo Rojo and Ponce is La Parguera – a small fishing and tourist town in the southwest corner of Puerto Rico. The entire community is nestled along a mangrove shoreline and is most famous for its snorkeling trips to the bioluminescent bay. 

Scuba Diving The Wall in La Parguera

But that’s not why we’re here. We’ve decided to station ourselves here for three days as we hike to waterfalls and lighthouses while returning to what we love most: scuba diving.

Most of the south shore of Puerto Rico parallels the Puerto Rican trench, the second deepest ocean point in the world. In many cases, the beginnings of these drop-off points are within scuba diving limits, and La Parguera is no different. These dive sites are called “Walls,” and this will be our first experience diving one.

Paradise Scuba

We’ve hopped aboard a local dive charter called Paradise Scuba. They were the only ones in town, so we didn’t have much choice, but we were happy with their rental equipment, personable staff, and dive site selection. 

The Wall

The first dive site is called the La Parguera Wall, with beginning depths of 60 feet. Here, we’ll swim along channels of coral until we get to the main event: The Wall. At about 70 feet, the Wall plunges to thousands. It’s incredibly easy to lose your sense of depth, so periodically checking your depth gauge is essential.

Encountering Sea Turtles

The first megafauna we run into is this gorgeous Hawksbill Sea Turtle. These species of sea turtles are one of three found in Puerto Rico – the others being green sea turtles and leatherback sea turtles, which are incredibly rare to see while scuba diving. Next up is a distant reef shark, unfortunately, these misunderstand creatures tend to be a bit shy and keep a safe distance.

More Marine Life

Incredible marine life frequently appeared during the rest of the dive, including crustaceans, tropical fish, invasive lionfish, and rare species of coral. I won’t go into detail on each one, just see for yourself and enjoy.

Preparing for a Rough Sea State

Going 100+ feet with air accumulates a lot of nitrogen in your bloodstream, so our surface interval has to be lengthy. This is where I’ll caution you if you’re considering a dive here: if you’re susceptible to seasickness, prepare. 

The typical sea state in Puerto Rico is rough. The eastern trade winds rip through here continuously, so it’s almost always wavy with little to no protection at the deep dive sites. If you’re unfazed, grab a snack and hop back in one hour later!

Scuba Diving Chimney Reef

Without using Nitrox on a deep dive, visiting a significantly shallower site for the second dive is essential. Paradise Scuba chose one called Chimney Reef. The structures differed with more ledges, diverse marine life, and one large swim-through, otherwise known as “The Chimney”.

Hogfish Goes Camo During Second Dive

Since moving to the Caribbean, I was always surprised to see a lack of hogfish inhabiting the reefs. It was surprising to see such a large one change color right before my eyes – such a neat camouflaging defense mechanism. 

Back in South Florida, these suckers were everywhere despite being a delicacy to spearfishermen all over the state. It was a lucky day if you got your hands on a large one during hunting season.

Sighting Butterflyfish in La Parguera

If you’ve watched any of our videos in the past, you know we love filming butterflyfish. These are Laura and I’s favorite species as they seem to be the only monogamous fish in the sea. 

Once one butterflyfish chooses another butterflyfish, they won’t depart the others side no matter what – a fitting representation of our loving marriage.