nautilus dive center

We had 2 days of good dives with Chema, the owner of Nautilus. Two of us had been on many dives prior to this, while two of us were freshly certified. Chema gave special attention to the new divers, helping them with their equipment both on and off the boat. A storm had just been through and the water was still a bit rough, but we were still able to have a good time. The reef is in pretty good shape, but there were not as many fish as other places we have been, possibly because of the recent storm.The dive shop itself is pretty small and a bit run down, but still very functional. It not in any better or worse repair than anything else on Big Corn Island. We brought our own masks, snorkels, fins, and dive watches. The BCDs and regulators they have to rent are not the latest and greatest, but they are all in working order. It's a short walk from the dive shop to the boat, which is a panga big enough for the dive master, the captain, and about 5 divers and tanks. They hauled all our equipment to and from the boat and rinsed everything for us when we were done.We had hoped to visit Blowing Rock, but the water was still too rough from the recent storm so we wound up not diving at all the third day and just snorkeling off the north end by Anastacia's which was fairly good.Bottom line, we're not likely to visit Big Corn Island again just for scuba, but if we do wind up there again we'll probably dive with Nautilus.

My wife and I hired this company to take us to three snorkeling spots off Big Corn for $30 per person (about 2 hrs). Had our own masks and air tubes. The two guys who took us out just went through the motions. No instruction, no interest in helping us improve our technique. (We're 71 yr old novices.)After an hour or so my face mask was leaking so badly we cut the excursion short and headed back to land.Also, the stepladder for getting back in the boat was too short for my wife.

We did our PADI Open Water certification with a great dive instructor: Sandra. Nautilus was about what one should expect in a remote part of Nicaragua: rustic, functional but older equipment, and sparse. Thankfully, we had a sum total of one dive between us prior to this and didn't have any expectations.We completed our training and felt safe throughout, the diving itself was excellent (gauging against years of snorkeling).The other reviews seem to be completely accurate, simply a different attitude and expectation. Nicaragua doesn't yet rate at the same level as many other tourist destinations. With that, however, comes spectacular locations that are often completely empty.Might a trip get cancelled for lack of people, sure.Can you probably pay for the whole boat yourself? Likely (and inexpensively at that).Of course, elsewhere, you'll end up in an underwater tour of a dozen divers meandering past boring reefs with little life, and then another two dozen snorkelers on the boat. If you prefer secluded and can deal with rustic, then this (and Corn Islands) are a great choice.And, of course, the price matched the experience.We were completely pleased with our three days of learning and diving and it was a great experience.

We chose Nautilus to get our PADI Open Water Diver certification and had a great time. Though the weather didn't always cooperate, Sandi (our instructor) was patient and helped us learn all of the skills necessary to ensure we were confident in our ability to handle ourselves under water. The equipment was adequate and the support staff super helpful (two guys always accompany you on the dives to carry equipment, etc). And of course, the underwater experience was spectacular - we saw more reef and wildlife than we'd ever seen snorkeling in the past. Great choice if you're looking for an affordable (though rustic) way to get certified.

I was the only one diving with Chema. There were 2 other people on the boat who carried the tanks, my equipment and and helped me get on the small boat. His equipment was old, but very well-maintained. He was an excellent divemaster. His choice of weight for my weightbelt was precise. He kept his eyes on me constantly when we descended, reminding me to clear often and to let the air out of my BC. When we were diving at 40 feet, he looked at me once every minute and was always within my sight. He asked me 4-5x what my air was. The experience was similar to that of diving in Grenada or Dominica. I believe his low ratings are written by divers who only have experience with modern dive shops at more touristy islands known for their diving. I would dive with him again.

I went with a group of 4 adults and 5 children ages ranging from 17 to 7. The owner Chema seems to have a split personality mostly explosive one. Once we arrived at the panga we realized that there weren't enough life preservers. We decided to go ahead without them(poor choice). Water was extremely choppy. They had promised a glass bottom panga which was a joke. When we arrived at our first spot we realized that it would be impossible to snorkel because the waters were extremely choppy and without any life preservers we felt in danger. We told the person who drove us out there to go back because we were not enjoying ourselves. Only 40 minutes had passed. When we arrived back we spoke to the owner and he got very defensive and started yelling and saying that we were trying to blame him for the bad experience. He did not want to accept the fact that we felt unsafe because of the lack of equipment. I actually felt threatened by Chema. I highly DO NOT recommend this place. There are many more places where the people are exteemely nice and will do it for a third of the price. Besides this horrible experience. I loved corn island and would love to go back.

On the way to the Blowing Rock dive site we were not given a safety briefing and I also realised there was no O2 on board!! I made the decision to still do the dive - this is not a decision I am proud of and is a very foolish choice. If something went wrong we would be utterly screwed and I doubt that the dive centre shop had O2 either. Advice: If a dive centre does not have O2 don't dive with them!I have 300+ dives and my own computer and was with my experienced buddy so the fact that the guide was bad was not such as issue for me, however I feel very uncomfortable knowing that less experienced divers are going out with him. He is a lovely man, but he was off in his own world, not paying attention to the group but off taking photos of eels in holes. He pushed the boundaries of our no deco limits AND our air which was unnecessary and didn't allow any room for error. The kit is poor, and old.The good? It is the only dive centre on Big Corn Island and it is much quicker to dive Blowing Rock dive site from Big Corn than Little Corn, and Blowing Rock is one of the best dive sites I have been to.... BUT it is dangerous to dive with this centre and is a good dive site worth your life??

bad choice.... very bad equipment, very unexpeienced staff, very tempered boss. the boss thinks hie equipment is in a perfect state , when Istarted working there the first thing I did was checking all the equipment together with the divemaster in training. he was the 1 that pointed the problem out before I started working. all the regulators had a problem to a life threatning situation. we brought the regs to the boss and told him very friendly to repear the regs. he went mad and said they were ok and he puts them back in the store and went back to his bed..... I packed my bag and left and never worked there..... this is from a pro point of view THE WORST DIVE SHOP EVER in my now 20 year diving traveling....

This is a locally owned small place where the equipment is old, but well maintained and repaired locally. The owner is friendly and we had very competent boys on the boat with us. The owner brought in a fabulous instructor, Sandy, to teach our boys to scuba. While the location is not PADI certified, since Sandy is PADi certified they could obtain their open water certification. It is not on the beach, but a short walk to the boat.

Overall: Chema is a very nice guy, but their equipment is unreliable--only dive there if you bring your own. We will not be diving there again.Pros: Blowing Rock is an amazing site--I highly recommend it--but you're probably better off going with a Little Corn dive shop. Chema usually only takes groups there if there's at least three people, but he made an exception for my wife and I, which we greatly appreciated. Chema also took a few good underwater pictures of our dive and sent them to us.Cons: I had air leaking from my 2nd stage hose connection, and my wife's BCD inflator malfunctioned, causing her to ascend suddenly from 50 feet (though, I should add that we were well within dive table limits and no in health danger). Because Chema was so far in front of us underwater, it was 4-5 minutes before he realized we had surfaced. Another family staying at our hotel also dived with Nautilus and had even more equipment problems than we did. Don't waste your time making reservations before arriving on the island--just call when you get there.The cons overwhelm the pros, I'm afraid. I can't recommend diving with Nautilus.

My son and I have been diving in California, Hawaii, the Red Sea, the Great Barrier Reef, Roatan, Belize, Boniare, St. Lucia, Cayman Islands and Mexico, among other places, so we have a fair amount of experience with different dive operators, which have been overwhelmingly positive. But we had some horrible experiences with Nautilus Dive Shop in Big Corn Island. I really never take the time to complain, and this is the first time I've written a review on TripAdvisor. And, although I am frustrated, I am not writing this in anger. But this shop is the most unprofessional business I have ever experienced anywhere, whether in the diving business or any other business. When I mentioned this to a dive shop on Little Corn Island, they asked what was wrong with them. I replied that there was nothing right with them. Let me explain.June 22 we took our first dive with them. We were supposed to get started at 11AM and were supposed to be able to use our credit card. When we showed up, though, they didn't have gasoline and said we had to pay cash first so they could get gasoline first. That took almost one hour. Then we got delayed about one half hour more, because the captain and one of the helpers were arguing with one another about something. They didn't ask to see our certification cards, but we showed them, anyway. The dive shop itself is run down, dirty and the worst I have ever seen. We brought all of our own equipment except for weights and tanks, but the owner refused to give any discount. In emails before, the owner promised a price of $35 for one dive or $60 for two dives, but then changed the price to $40 for one dive and $65 for two and refused to honor the promised price. They have no access to the sea, and we had to walk a long way through apparent private property that smelled like human feces and was a workplace to reach the water, where we had to go down a steep incline to a small and old boat that had poor access in and out of the water. Incidentally, the guide was a very friendly and likable guy, so I don't want to cast aspersions on him. We decided not to dive again during our stay at Big Corn, unless they were going to the supposedly best spot, which is called Blowing Rock. In the email, the owner said they needed three people for Blowing Rock and would, I believe, charge $85. When we got to Big Corn, though, we were told it cost $95 and they needed at least four persons. A couple of days after the one dive, we were called and told they had two other people to make four, so we said we would go. When we and the two other people arrived as instructed for an 8Am start, there was again a delay while they filled tanks at the last minute. After about 50 minutes, they said two more people would join us, and we needed to wait until they came. All four of us wanted to go (moreoever, I knew 6 divers plus 2 or 3 staff would be a lot of people for their very small boat), but we all agreed to wait another 20 minutes. We never had personally seen the owner at any time on any day up to that point, since everything went through the guide, but we asked the guide to tell the owner our intentions, and we waited. One of the other divers, who himself had been a dive instructor for 35 years, mentioned that all of this was very unprofessional. After 20 minutes, we said we were leaving, and then we saw the owner for the first time. He tried to convince us to stay, but said we could go if we wanted and get a refund. I tried (calmly) to explain to him why we were dissatisfied, but he kept interrupting and would not let me talk. Then he started laughing hysterically for several minutes. Now, I know, when I say he laughed hysterically, that must sound like an exaggeration, but it really isn't. Apart from being a bad businessman to lose 4 customers and only get 2 in return, I think the man is mentally unstable, not a quality you want in the owner of a dive shop.At any rate, I thought I would let other divers know about this shop, before someone gets hurt. I contacted PADI about this shop, and they said it is not a PADI certified shop, so they could do nothing. There are two PADI certified shops in Little Corn Island that seem professional and charge the same prices, including for Blowing Rock, so they might be worth trying. Overall, I would add, though, that the limited diving we saw in Big Corn was the least impressive I've seen anywhere in the Caribbean, so I don't think you will feel you've missed anything, if you don't dive here, anyway.

Le matériel est un peu vieux, mais l'accueil était charmant et la plongee intéressante. Toute l'équipe a travaillé de manière professionnelle. Très bon souvenir de plongee avec la rencontre d'un requin nourrice très attachant! Merci Chema

Contratamos un tour para hacer snorkel una familia de tres adultos y 4 niños (de 3 a 9 años) estuvo excelente! La lancha tiene piso de vidrio lo cual tenia a los niños y a nosotros los adultos fascinados por ir viendo las bellezas abajo de la lancha.. La parada para hacer snorkel en los cañones y en el barco hundido fueron espectaculares, el guía con paciencia y muy amable ayudo para que todos los niños se tiraran al agua para hacer snorkel, todos estábamos asombrados de lo mágico que fue! La parada en la virgen hundida fue bien movida (esa unica parada no la recomiendo si van con niños pequeños, mar muy bravo y los niños definitivamente no disfrutaron esa única parada) todo lo demas buenisimo! Recomiendo tomar ese tour de 9am a 11am porque la lancha no tiene techo y el sol es fuerte, yo lo hice de 10 am a 12am hubiese preferido adelantarlo una hora...

Très bon contact avec le patron la veille. On se met d'accord sur un tour de 2h avec 3 points de snorkelling pour 30 dollars par personne, la moitié pour ma fille de 8 ans. Je trouve ça cher mais je veux faire plaisir aux enfants. Le jour même, 1h environ de préparation, trouver les palmes (nous avons nos propres masques et tubas) attendre le bateau... nous arrivons à un premier spot, je me mets à l'eau, déception, des coraux morts et 2 poissons gros qui se courent après. Je remonte sur le bateau, je suis habituée à mieux. On reste 15 mn sur ce lieu puis on va sur le spot d'un gallion espagnol qui a coulé. C'est beaucoup mieux. Sympa à voir et quelques jolis poissons. Je me dis que finalement le tour est peut être bien conçu et va aller et qualité croissante, avec un 3 ème lieu encore mieux. Le guide nous rappelle on remonte un peu à regrets dans le bateau et... il nous ramène à midi pile à nautilus center, soit environ 1h de sortie et 2 sites sur les 3 promis. Frustrant. Le prix est resté entier. On nous avait dit de ne pas prendre d'eau que c'était compris mais c'était pour les guides. Ils ont bu mais ne nous en ont pas proposé. L'après midi j'ai emmené les enfants sur la plage sally beach, ils ont vu plus de choses. Des raies, des poissons de toutes les couleurs. Inutile de payer ce tour.

Con Sandy abbiamo fatto la nostra prima immersione nel mare dei Caraibi! È stato fantastico! Sandy è davvero simpatica e molto preparata! Ci ha guidato per i fondali per quasi un'ora e abbiamo visto tantissime cose molto belle!Vi consigliamo vivamente di provare questa fantastica esperienza (anche perché è a buon mercato ;-)Grazie Sandy!!!Bea e Tita