where to dive in Brazil

My friend and I are planning a trip to Brazil this upcoming dec--jan, where we'll be going From Salvador (where his family lives) south to Rio. Both of us love to Scuba dive and so I was wondering if anyone had suggestions of where to dive, quality, etc..
would love to hear about others' experiences diving in Brazil!

If you are travelling south from Salvador to Rio, the best diving is found at Abrolhos Marine Park, with trips departing from Caravelas in Bahia state (same state as Salvador). You can also dive at Cabo Frio/Arrial do Cabo between Vitoria (in Espirito Santo state) and Rio. In the state of Rio a ways south of the city, there is diving at Angra dos Reis.

There's diving at Paraty and Ilha Grande, as well.ç

However, the best diving I experienced in Brazil was in Fernando de Noronha... unfortunately not on your route!

Ihle Grande has some decent diving. If I remember correctly diving towards the north of the island is good and the south is rubbish. They have a helicopter wreck you can dive on, find out which direction that is in and ask to dive the other way. The helicopter is a tiny 2 seater in about 8 metres. After, oh and 3 seconds its a very boring dive.

If you really want to make a memorable dive then take a bus to Bonito and do a cave dive. Its one of my top 3 of all time! It takes 2 days, day 1 training in the river which is great fun, day 2 two fives in Gruo Mimoso, a huge cave with the clearest water and most amazing formations. Its a decent but safe penetration into the pitch black. Truly incredible

Check out the pics here

http://www.submundodive.com.br/ft_mergulho.htm<a href="http://Gruta Mimoso">Short Description of URL Content</a>

Well worth it!

I didn't do a good job if the link.

Take two

Gruta Mimoso Pics

thanks for all the info!

I'm also planning a trip to Brazil for a friend's wedding in early May in Brasilia. I'm going to take maybe a month or so to take in Rio, the Amazon, the Pantanl and Foz Iguassu. I'd also like to get in some dive time. At first I was thinking of Ubatuba (not just because I like the name), then I was thinking Ilhabela might be better. But my friend says some of the best diving in the world is in the northeast. Maybe that's Recife? I don't really know. I'm having a really hard time find info about dive sites in Brazil online. And there doesn't even seem to be any dive operations that advertise on the net. I'd be willing to fly to Recife from Brasilia, for instance, to do a liveaboard. Or should I just do Ilhabela, or what? Any info, including links to websites will of course be appreciated.

Thanks.

It's out of the way and not inexpensive to get to (not to mention the pretty modest posadas), but Fernando de Noronha has some of the best diving I have ever experienced. I was there last October and went diving with Atlantis dive shop, and I very, very highly recommend both the site and the company. Turtles, dolphins, whales singing, couple of species of shark, the biggest morays I've ever seen, rays, etc., etc. All in a remote, practically untouched paradise. Trust me, it's worth the hassle/cost to get there.

I try to dive in Brazil whenever I go home for a visit--going in November again, but since it will just be for a week, I may only get to the Sao Paulo coast since the family live in the capital....

Brazil's best ocean diving is indeed at Fernando de Noronha. It's very good, but IMO nowhere near 'some of the best diving in the world' (as queried by # 6). There are nice underwater geological formations at the more advanced sites, frequent turtle and dolphin sightings, and the water is warm compared to the water temps at other dive destinations in Brazil. So Anjru, if you are traveling to Brazil from abroad, get an airpass that lets you have a certain number of segments, get yourself to Noronha (it takes one segment to get to Recife or Natal, and another to get to Noronha), and take a lot of money! Everything on Noronha is expensive. Diving costs about double what it does here in Thailand, and food and lodging are similarly pricey.

To DanGen77 from a diver who loves both her home country and her adopted ones, come dive in Thailand sometime ;-)