Where to start.. we booked this week-long dive trip through PADI travel. The attached resort, to be reviewed separately, VIK Hotel Cayena Beach, was included in the package. We paid for 12 dives, all rental gear included (although I always bring my own), to be completed as 2 per day over 6 days.
The first day we arrived at 7:30am as instructed so my partner could get gear fitted. Ocean was fairly rough and wind was breezy. I questioned how the visibility was and what we would see underwater. When Dave didn’t really address visibility (even though he was out the afternoon before) and only mentioned a couple of fish species, we should have known it wouldn’t be good. The small boat ride out for about 20 min was rough and the “captain” seemed to be more interested in reducing travel time than increasing paid passengers’ comfort. Numerous swells caused this little 20′ boat to bounce around and almost lift us off our seats. We got to the dive spot, got in, then realized viz was only about 5-8′. On top of that, the things you could see weren’t really worth seeing. Although we all had over 1700 psi in our tanks, we surfaced after about 40 minutes to stay under their 45 min max dive time. No problem.
On the small boat we switched tanks, moved a little down the “reef”, and entered again. Visibility was worse and nothing really worth looking at. I always have my GoPro and only took 2 short videos total, instead of the usual 30+/- I usually capture. But wait, there’s more! Back in the boat, we started back to the shop. Sea was a bit rougher, so most captains would slow down, but not this one. Even though it was only the two of us as passengers, along with our guide and captain, we were flying..literally. More than once, our bow crashed down from a crest so I nearly hit my head on a tank in front of me. (Tanks were lined up in the middle and bench seat is along the sides so you face the middle or turn your head/ body to face forward). Then one big swell caused us to be airborne then I was slammed back down on the seat. This caused serious compression of my spine, aggravating an old car accident injury that had not surfaced in a decade. The boat was finally slowed a bit the final 5 minutes to the shop.
Once there, it was turned around and the surf brought us towards the beach. Without warning, we were grounded and my partner, who was sitting on the back ledge facing forward, was suddenly thrown back onto the gas tank behind and below her. Doing so cause her feet to fly up and one of her toes hit an object, possibly a tank or the holder for them, and badly bruised her toe. Later we thought it might have been broken, but luckily it was not.
After all of this, no apologies or even acknowledgement that there was an issue. We told them we did not enjoy this dive or boat ride and if conditions do not improve then we would probably not go out again. Best part of the day is the sunrise pic I took at 7:30am.
The next day, Dave, our guide, and Javier, we believe the owner, found us at the pool and offered to trade some of our dives and $30 for two days of diving on the other side of the island where the water is calm. We agreed since the entire week was forecasted to be windy and rough on our side. We later found out that the trade was 4 of our dives into 2 on the other side, 2 days of dives into 1 day. Our first day on the other side was the following day and Javier was our guide, for just the two of us again. All went well and it was a good day of diving, including a good wreck dive at 120′, and I don’t usually care for wrecks. We thought, great, they recovered well and our next dive day would be good too..
The final day we piled into a larger van, drove to a large catamaran and waited on board as approx 80 more people crammed onto a boat with a capacity of about 65. It was a mess, not well organized, and not safe. Dave was very negative at lunch and seems to not like dealing with people needing help. I do not recommend diving the Atlantic side at all – via 
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