destinsharks

There are plenty of dive ops on Caulker but I'd be pretty leery of getting there, on a dive trip, and back via ferry. Highly recommend a land trip to Caulker - great, inexpensive place to hang out and access to some of the best diving we've done anywhere in the world.

I use daily disposable contacts, I haven't had a single case of loosing them underwater so far even without my mask during various drills and training - but something everyone should determine for themselves. In any case, I see good enough without them, even underwater to function - I just won't be nearly so good at spotting critters.

Uber and Free Now both worked well for us in Lisbon in July as long as your cell phone will work in Portugal. Only catch is in some busy places in downtown they have designated pickup spots (but they can drop off anywhere). If your hotel is in one of these zones, a taxi out will be a better option if you have lots of luggage. Bairro Alto is the center of Lisbon night life. You can easily walk that entire area and the adjacent Praca de Commercio / Rossio districts. Sintra / Pena Palace / Moorish Castle are some of the very best Portugal has to offer. If you feel like your last trip checked those boxes, then I might concentrate more in Lisbon itself. St George Castle, Geronimos Monistary, Royal Carraige and Naval Museum, Belem tower, wandering around the Alfama old town. Weather in January may be wet and cold which could affect your touring plans in terms of outdoor activities. If it wasn't winter, Evora is a two hour train ride and is a walled city dating back to Roman times complete with Roman temple and intact medeival city walls. It's very much a pedestrian experience though and liable to be very cold in January. I lived in Portugal previously, it's a wonderful place.

We rented for the 1st time in a long time everything but mask/fins/computer on a short Cozumel stop a couple months back. That convinced us to reconfigure our personal gear for smaller packing for our next cruise -- rental gear is almost always safe and serviceable but rarely 'top shelf'. We have travel BC's. To lighten the regulator sets, I'm running all myflex low-pressure hoses and using wireless pressure transmitters to eliminate the SPG and high pressure hose. ScubaPro Mk17 EVO regulators which are compact but bulletproof with mid-tier plastic ScubaPro 2nd stages to save on weight. Debating on the wetsuit. We both get cold easy (spoiled by summer FL waters).

Never too late to start diving! We're fortunate to live in the FL panhandle with great diving right off our coast but still love diving new places anytime we travel. Adding Grand Cayman and Roatan to our lists hopefully on a NCL cruise next month.

If you caught sea horses in Bonaire you're both very fortunate and had a good guide! We found one once two trips ago on the north end of the island but got skunked on our last weeklong trip. All my interactions with Dive Friends staff have been positive on island, even as a non-customer. Glad to hear they also treat cruise visitors well.

After I lost my 2nd $300 prescription scuba mask in under 2 years (albeit over almost 300 dives), I switched to daily use contacts a few year ago and haven't looked back. Unfortunately, I might need to add some reader inserts to my mask soon for reading my dive computer - age is doing a number on my near vision - but those inserts are a lot cheaper than a prescription.

Diluted baby shampoo is the industry go to on scuba boats. That said, if you regularly use a dive mask with commercial defog, it can very much get to a point where it's 'seasoned' and will rarely fog even without coating it before each dive.