SCUBA Diving in Panama/Colon?

I came across a company that runs SCUBA trips in Panama and is offering to pick us up from the ship. It seems odd to me that I haven't seen anyone else talking about diving in Panama.

Has anyone here dove in Panama before? Is it worth doing? I live in Key West, so my standards are pretty high. We are going to dive in Belize on this trip, so maybe Panama would be a let down??

The company's web site is: http://www.panamadivers.com/

Here is the e-mail they sent me:

Thanks for chose Panama Divers as a Best option for dive in Panama. We are open for dive in Colon April 8th... We'll can pick up at 7:00 @ 8:00 waiting that you take the breakfast. We provide all: full scuba diving equipment,transportation, sandwich, sodas, water, snaks, and fruit.The window 7:00 am at 3:00 pm is excellent for dive in Portobelo.

Help me decide!

Jeff

Since no one answered this for me, I'll do it myself.

I talked to a friend right before we left on the ship about diving in Panama...he's done it and here is what he had to say:

"Don't do it without a HAZMAT (Hazardous Materials) suit. That place is a polluted mess."

So needless to say we didn't dive there. The water didn't look all that bad, even at the anchorage for the ships prior to entering the canal. I'm sure it was even cleaner at the dive site that looked to be about 45min+ away.

I live in Key West, so I'm a spoiled diver already, and didn't need to pay $100 for what probably would have been a worse dive than I could do at home for the cost of some boat gas and a tank fill. For someone who comes from the North, and doesn't get to dive much, the dive pictures I saw on the internet sure beat a rock pit in Kentucky.

I only found one dive shop on the internet that was willing/able to arrange a dive for cruise ship passengers in Colon:

www.panamadivers.com

Their e-mail communication was very fast, so if you have any questions, e-mail off the web site link. They were going to pick us up (and return us) at the ship, and provide full scuba diving equipment, sandwich, sodas, water, snaks, and fruit, all for $100/each. A pretty good deal considering normal cruise port prices.

My understanding of diving in Panama is this:

The Caribbean side has a lot of runoff from local rivers and can be very cloudy with poor visibility, expecially near the coast.

The Pacific side has better diving but is not like the Caribbean side. The draw is large schools of fish, dolphins, sharks, etc.

I'll be there in December, so I also would love any information on this, including the Pearl Islands, Isla Coiba, and the Caribbean side.

Beth