Courses and destinations directory
This page serves two subjects that were originally listed as directory items: the PADI Open Water Diver course at Los Roques, and diving Isla de Margarita. Both are real content, not archive notices — they answer the questions the citing pages promised.
PADI Open Water Diver — Los Roques
The PADI Open Water Diver course is the certification that lets you dive anywhere in the world. At Los Roques, it runs over four days with five dives: confined water training at Madrisqui, where the sand slope runs to 20 m in sheltered water with no current, and open-water dives on the park's inner reefs.
Course facts
| Duration | 4 days |
| Dives | 5 (confined + open water) |
| Maximum training depth | 18 m |
| Minimum age | 10 (Junior Open Water) |
| Price (archived January 2012) | $350 |
| Equipment included | Yes — regulator, BCD, wetsuit, mask, fins |
Prerequisites
- Minimum age 10 (Junior Open Water); 15 for the full Open Water Diver
- 200 m continuous swim, or 300 m with mask, fins and snorkel
- 10-minute float or tread water
What the four days look like
Day 1: Theory session and confined water training at Madrisqui. You learn to set up your equipment, clear your mask, recover your regulator, and control your buoyancy in shallow, calm water.
Day 2: More confined water skills and your first open-water dive on the inner reef at Madrisqui or Francisqui, maximum depth 12 m.
Day 3: Two open-water dives (Dives 2 and 3) on different sites, depth to 18 m. Navigation, buoyancy control, and exploring the reef.
Day 4: Final open-water dive (Dive 4), final assessment, and certification. You are now an Open Water Diver — qualified to dive to 18 m with a buddy, anywhere in the world.
See the full Open Water Diver page on the current site for the day-by-day plan, what is included, and the FAQ.
Explore the dive sites where you will train.
See the rate card for the full archived price list.
Diving Isla de Margarita
Isla de Margarita is one of the destinations the operation has served alongside Los Roques. It sits off Venezuela's north-east coast, reachable from Caracas by a short domestic flight, and offers warm-water diving on fringing reefs and a few wreck sites. The operation ran trips and certification courses here, and the directory listing that cited this page promised information on diving Margarita — so here it is.
Conditions
- Water temperature: 24–28 °C year-round
- Visibility: typically 15–25 m, varying with season and site
- Typical depths: 10–30 m, suitable for Open Water divers and above
- Marine life: snappers, groupers, angelfish, butterflyfish, occasional rays and turtles
What the operator runs there
The operation ran Discover Scuba experiences, Open Water Diver courses, and guided fun dives on Margarita's fringing reefs. Some dives are accessible from the shore; others require a short boat ride. Margarita was sold as a secondary destination alongside the Los Roques packages — not as a replacement for the park, but as an option for divers who wanted to combine a beach holiday with some diving.
Getting there
Margarita is a 35-minute flight from Caracas. The operation arranged the flight, the diving and the lodging as a package, or diving only if you were already on the island. Current availability and pricing should be confirmed by email.
Open Water Diver course — the same course is available at Los Roques.
Dive sites — the six sites at Los Roques, which is the operation's primary destination.
Rate card — archived prices for diving, courses and packages.
Who runs this
Ecobuzos is a PADI 5-Star Dive Resort and DAN-affiliated dive operation working the reefs of Los Roques National Park from Gran Roque. This site is the operation's own record of that water: the six sites we dive, the two boats we run, the course ladder, and what each of those costs.
Numbers that come from an instrument or an operations log — depth, tank rack capacity, engine horsepower, departure times — are stated as measured, next to the figure. Numbers that come from published research name the study and its authors. Rates and boat specifications inherited from the operation's original site (archived 2002–2013) are marked archived and dated, and the date is the year of the last archived capture of that specific page — not the year the site closed.
Corrections and updates: [email protected]. Every correction that changes a published number is logged with its date at the foot of the page.
Ask the dive desk
Dive bookings, course dates, group quotes and site conditions are all handled by email — we answer from Gran Roque, usually the same day. No accounts, no forms, no tracking.