In October 2004 Ingrid and myself spent a ten-day holiday on the wonderfully picturesque island of Cuba. We greatly enjoyed visiting this unique place, meeting new people, exploring the culture and sampling both the local Bucanero beer and the world famous Havana cigars (well I did at least). But without a doubt the highlight of our stay was the 4 days we spent diving off of the Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth).

Discovered by Columbus on his second journey to the New World, the Isla de la Juventud is a tropical paradise. It is located 80 km southwest of mainland Cuba and covered in white sandy beaches. With a total area of 3,056 km² it lies almost directly south of Havana and has a population of about 100,000 inhabitants.

Like most divers visiting the island we stayed in the Hotel Colony (on the west coast), which is situated conveniently close to the marina. This colourful, retro-styled hotel was built in the 1950s, when there was a huge push to bring foreign tourists to the island. Unfortunately however, we found the place to be rather run-down and to have a ghost-town-like atmosphere due to the lack of other visitors. For example, on the first night of our stay only six of the seventy-seven rooms were taken (also by other divers).

We got to meet our fellow divers the following morning on board of the noisy old boat which ferried us to the dive site. There were two couples from Frankfurt, as well as a guy from Dessau and two Swiss guys. The dive site was located at Punta Frances on the west of the island and the journey there took about 40 minutes.

Once we had arrived and were kitted up we were split into two dive groups. Ingrid and I buddied each other and were in a group with the guys from Frankfurt and one dive guide. Until this point I had been under the somewhat mistaken impression that the first dive would be relaxing, not too difficult and an opportunity to experience the competence (or otherwise) of our dive guide... Think again! ... Upon entering the water we descended through a magnificent underwater canyon to a depth of 35 metres, passing on the way a huge tarpon which was, quite literally, just hanging about. We also saw both green and spotted moray eels, shoals of squirrelfish, shoals of grey snappers, as well as various nudibranches and other crustaceans on the canyon wall. The dive lasted for 45 minutes, which I guess was a coincidence, as when I was getting back out of the water I noticed that our guide hadn't even been wearing a computer! So much for deco diving!

And so it continued. Four wonderful days and a total of seven dives at different dive sites. The underwater landscape proved to be rich and varied. Some dives were in areas containing dense and colourful corals, gorgonians and sponges. Others, as just described, were where the drop-off fell sharply with all kinds of caves, passages and tunnels to explore. The kind of fish varied from one site to another. We saw tarpons, spadefish, jacks, grunts, schoolmasters and yellowtail snappers. We also saw nassau groupers, black groupers and shoals of barracudas, as well as turtles, and eagle rays. The guide told us that one can sometimes find sharks there too, but on this score we were out of luck.