"Rent snorkel equipment in Puerto Villamil" Puerto Villamil Things to Do Tip by MalenaN

In the southwest corner of Parque Central, on Antonio Gil, there is a small booth were you can rent snorkel equipment for $5 per day (July 2011). You can also rent snorkel equipment, and wetsuits, at the harbour. I went to the harbour to rent the equipment as I was going to snorkel at Concha de Perla, near the harbour.
I got my snorkel, mask and fins and the woman said it was $2.50 and I paid. Then I walked the boardwalk down to Conch de Perla to snorkel. There was a very big group there and many seemed to be first time snorkelers. I decided to go further out at once, closer to where we had snorkelled during the Bay Tour, so I put on my fins, lay on the back and paddled out. When I put on the mask and snorkel I realised they were both bad. It leaked water into the snorkel through the vent hole. I blew it out, but the snorkel was immediately full of water again and I couldn’t breath. I always want to have a “closed” snorkel as I think the snorkels with vents often get water coming in, but there was only snorkels with vents for rent. So I thought I had to manage without the snorkel, but could I see anything, no. The mask was very foggy and I tried to clean it several times, both with saliva and mangrove leaves (the guide on the Bay Tour had used mangrove leaves and said it was a god way to clean the mask). Nothing worked so I swam back to the board walk and went back to the store to leave the snorkel equipment. Now the woman wanted to have $2.50 more as she had told me the wrong price first. But as I hadn’t been able to use the equipment we agreed that I didn’t need to pay another $2.50.