Trip Report for last weekend in La Bufadora, Mexico
My dive buddy Billy (not Empty V) and I left L.A. at close to 11pm, and arrived at casa de Mr. Fringehead at about 12:45. Intros were made, and we caught a few Z's, waking again at 5:30. Ugh! We loaded the car to an absurd degree and departed for La Bufadora at approx 6:30.
Mexican Toll Booth
One border crossing, 3 toll booths, and 2.5 hours later, we rolled down the dirt road to the campsite at about 8:30am. Side note: Count your change from the toll workers! We were blatantly ripped off at the first booth, and didn't notice until we were short at the second toll booth!
Penny makes friends while the rest of us gear up
Anyway, upon our arrival we saw Scottfiji's car and tent, but no Scottfiji. Where could he and Penny be, we wondered? In the water, snorkelling around while waiting for us, of course. I told you that guy never fully dries out.
We finally got ready, and waited for our driver to bring the panga up to the rocky beach. This was quite a production, as it's essentially a heavy, wooden, overgrown rowboat, and it has to be hauled up onto the rocks in just the right area, and held stable by volunteers from our group while everyone else frantically loads tanks and gear. But eventually we were on our way to the first dive site, mysteriously known as the "sunken pinnacles".
Waiting for the panga
Holding the panga for gear loading
The mystery soon cleared up, as it turns out the TOP of the pinnacles are 10 feet below the surface, making it essentially invisible from the boat. We arrived at the spot where Manuel thought they were, and I volunteered to jump in and make sure we were on top of the site. Naturally, we weren't. I was joined by Cabezon, and we both took turns swimming around in various directions, and free diving below the surface to see if we could find it.
Eventually we both found it at about the same time. We returned to the boat to gear up, and most of us took to the water, only to discover that we had drifted while getting ready, and lost track of the site! This time we all joined in the search, but it proved even more elusive than before, and we all searched for quite a while before the site was stumbled across again.
Finally, we dove down, and what a site it was! Massive schools of bait fish bolted this way and that, providing a dramatic backdrop to quite good visibility (compared to what we were used to, at least). Life was abundant everywhere you looked. This was the favorite site of everyone who dove it.
Schooling baitfish
Kelp in strong surge
White Spotted Porostomes munch on Gray Moon Sponge: "Come here often?"
Archidoris odhneri nudibranch, laying eggs
Gopher Rockfish
Blue-Ringed Top Snail
Green Anenome
Green Anenome and Bread Crumb Sponge
We saw lots of these fish with yellow tails, but I don't know what they are. Not a great shot, but they were really skittish.
There were vast fields of aggregating anenomies, giant green anenomes, and ochre starfish
To be continued...
My dive buddy Billy (not Empty V) and I left L.A. at close to 11pm, and arrived at casa de Mr. Fringehead at about 12:45. Intros were made, and we caught a few Z's, waking again at 5:30. Ugh! We loaded the car to an absurd degree and departed for La Bufadora at approx 6:30.
Mexican Toll Booth
One border crossing, 3 toll booths, and 2.5 hours later, we rolled down the dirt road to the campsite at about 8:30am. Side note: Count your change from the toll workers! We were blatantly ripped off at the first booth, and didn't notice until we were short at the second toll booth!
Penny makes friends while the rest of us gear up
Anyway, upon our arrival we saw Scottfiji's car and tent, but no Scottfiji. Where could he and Penny be, we wondered? In the water, snorkelling around while waiting for us, of course. I told you that guy never fully dries out.
We finally got ready, and waited for our driver to bring the panga up to the rocky beach. This was quite a production, as it's essentially a heavy, wooden, overgrown rowboat, and it has to be hauled up onto the rocks in just the right area, and held stable by volunteers from our group while everyone else frantically loads tanks and gear. But eventually we were on our way to the first dive site, mysteriously known as the "sunken pinnacles".
Waiting for the panga
Holding the panga for gear loading
The mystery soon cleared up, as it turns out the TOP of the pinnacles are 10 feet below the surface, making it essentially invisible from the boat. We arrived at the spot where Manuel thought they were, and I volunteered to jump in and make sure we were on top of the site. Naturally, we weren't. I was joined by Cabezon, and we both took turns swimming around in various directions, and free diving below the surface to see if we could find it.
Eventually we both found it at about the same time. We returned to the boat to gear up, and most of us took to the water, only to discover that we had drifted while getting ready, and lost track of the site! This time we all joined in the search, but it proved even more elusive than before, and we all searched for quite a while before the site was stumbled across again.
Finally, we dove down, and what a site it was! Massive schools of bait fish bolted this way and that, providing a dramatic backdrop to quite good visibility (compared to what we were used to, at least). Life was abundant everywhere you looked. This was the favorite site of everyone who dove it.
Schooling baitfish
Kelp in strong surge
White Spotted Porostomes munch on Gray Moon Sponge: "Come here often?"
Archidoris odhneri nudibranch, laying eggs
Gopher Rockfish
Blue-Ringed Top Snail
Green Anenome
Green Anenome and Bread Crumb Sponge
We saw lots of these fish with yellow tails, but I don't know what they are. Not a great shot, but they were really skittish.
There were vast fields of aggregating anenomies, giant green anenomes, and ochre starfish
To be continued...