Hi everyone and welcome to my dive blog at dive buddy dot com. I joined a little while ago having stubbled on this site quite by accident and I`ve just now decided to participate more fully to the community here. I`ll give a little blurb about myself so you all can get to know me a little. My name is Nicolas and I am presently 37 and will be 38 on the 16th of March. I was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I have also lived 2 years in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (86-88) and 5 years in Victoria, BC, Canada (89-94). I learned to dive at age 18 when I was in the Canadian army (3rd Battallion Princess Patricia`s Canadian Light Infantry 3PPCLI). I did some diving in BC but for years I did very little diving other than when I lived in the Dominican Republic for a time. Since 2005 I have been diving at least twice a year and all of those times have been in Cuba. For Canadians Cuba is a very nice and economical caribean destination and most of the diving areas are very nice and if you dive a lot individual dives can cost you as little as 20$ (including tank and weights). This past september I did one of my best dive trip to Cuba to a place called the Jardines de la Reina. The Jardines are an archipel of islands 70 km south of Jucaro a port on the caribean side of the island. It is the largest marine preserve in the caribean and there has been no fishing there for over 15 years apart for some lobster fishing at the edges of the park. The corals there are very healthy and there is an overwhelming abundance of aquatic wildlife. I spent a week on a liveaboard boat and although it was the most expensive dive trip I`ve taken it was well worth it. There is a 350 diver maximum annual quota at the Jardines which is great cause it means even less pressure on the marine environment from human presence. I was able to see 5 species of sharks while I was there (Silkies, Caribean Reefs, Nurses, Black Tips and Lemons). The only sharks I didn`t get to see that I wanted to were the Hammerheads (the water was too warm) and the Whale Sharks (we missed one by a week). I did 16 dives in 6 days and It was fantastic. Of course as always it was to short. My only regret for this trip was that the waters visibility was not ideal for taking pictures.