Well, where to start with this one. A gang of divers flew out to La Paz in Ocober 2002. They flew Heathrow -> Paris Charles De Gaul -> Los Angeles -> La Paz using Air France for all but the last leg. Air France managed to leave their luggage in Paris but promised it would follow on!

They were staying at Club Cantomar, about 15 miles from La Paz. After arriving late and after a long trip "food" was ordered in the hotel restaurant. Not exactly inspiring! Apart from breakfast that was the only time the group ate at the hotel. One american visitor walked in for breakfast, took one look at what was on offer and was heard to mutter "salmonella city". We never saw him eat there again...!

The first day in La Paz was spent shopping for essentials rather than diving! Part of the baggage turned up two days into the holiday with the rest of it turning up after four days. Despite their promises Air France did not have the baggage delivered to the hotel and the group had to fetch it themselves. Worse, they had been told ALL the baggage was there after two days. It wasnt, resulting in wasted trips for two of the group.

The diving? Well, it was disappointing. They basically have three dives, sea lions, mantas and hammerheads. The sea lions were great and so were the mantas but with ten days diving booked and three dives a day, there are only so many times you want to do these dives. The hammerhead dive is an all or nothing dive. A swim into a fair head current in 50-60m of water and just hover there on the off chance something will pass. It didnt! The group didnt waste any more effort on this dive. Why the boats didnt drop the group off further up current and let them drift onto the site is beyond me - and apparently them too!

The other dive sites are quite plain. Think something like the far side of stoney in the boulder field and with about as much life!

The boats? Quite a few of them and a couple of nice ones too. Some of the smaller ones weren't so clever. One was apparently an ex Vietnam war river patrol boat. Flat bottomed and didnt ride too well when there was anything resembling a swell. Dug in a few times which pitched the boat alarmingly over to one side.

About half way through the holiday around 50 americans turned up for a long weekend. No problem with them but the place is not really geared up to deal with large numbers like that. Enough rooms sure but breakfast was a bit of a nightmare as was space on some of the boats.

The fun continued on the groups return with Air France paying all costs and compensation to some in the group, and minimal costs to others in the group that did not even cover costs incurred.

All in all a pretty shabby turn of events and i doubt any of the group will entertain using Air France again.

Despite all this the group didnt have too bad a time. They went out there with high expectations but the place did not live up to its reputation for the two weeks they were out there. Concensus at the minute is that none will be returning!