Weekend in La Bufadora, Mexico

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CompuDude

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Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
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Location
Studio City, CA, USA
# of dives
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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.

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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!

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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".

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Waiting for the panga

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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.

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Schooling baitfish

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Kelp in strong surge

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White Spotted Porostomes munch on Gray Moon Sponge: "Come here often?"

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Archidoris odhneri nudibranch, laying eggs

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Gopher Rockfish

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Blue-Ringed Top Snail

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Green Anenome

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Green Anenome and Bread Crumb Sponge

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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.

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There were vast fields of aggregating anenomies, giant green anenomes, and ochre starfish

To be continued...
 
I had to return to the boat eventually. :( During our surface interval, we cruised to our second dive spot, two pinnacles known as "Candle Sticks".

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Candle Sticks

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Blue-Banded Ronquil

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California Sea Cucumber

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Mussel Lunch for this Bat Star!

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Coonstripe Shrimp

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Noble Dorid and Orange Cup Corals

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I've never seen a Rock Scallop this clean!

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Usually they're more covered, like this one. Plus a cute White Spotted Porostomes eating a Gray Moon Sponge, as usual.

We returned and played tourist in town for a bit, after lunch/dinner at Celia's, a local restaurant. We also played tourist in the shopping district, and checked out the blowhole, "La Bufadora" from the viewing platform.

After our formal debriefing, we returned to the campsite and roasted marshmellows around the campfire. Stories were told, and a good time was had by all.

La Bufadora, Day Two:

The next morning came far too early after the previous evening's fun, but we were still eager to get out there. This time we headed in the other direction, and were able to see La Bufadora itself from the boat on our way to Eagle Rock, our first dive site.

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La Bufadora

To be continued...
 
Eagle Rock had a huge wall that was nudibranch heaven. I've never seen so many, of so many varieties, in one place!

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White Spotted Porostome nudibranch (Doriopsilla albopunctata)

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San Diego Dorid nudibranch

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Clown nudibranch (Triopha catalinae)

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Spanish Shawl nudibranch

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Three Lined Aeolid nudibranch (Flabellina trilineata)

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Yellow Spotted Cadlina nudibranch (Cadlina flavomaculata)

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Porter's Chromodorid nudibranch (Mexichromis porterae) on Lacy Bryozoans

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Noble Dorid nudibranch

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There were a number of Blue-Ring Top Snails. These babies were eating a Lacy Bryozoan.

During our surface inverval, we continued to our final dive spot of the trip, Little White Rock. Unfortunately, I had some fogging issues early on in the dive, but they cleared up later in the dive.

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Unknown Sculpin (Snubnose?), very cool, shame about the lens fog.

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Yellow Edged Cadlina nudibranch (Cadlina luteomarginata)

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White Spotted Porostome nudibranch (Doriopsilla albopunctata) on a Gray Moon Sponge

After it was all over, we debriefed at Celia's and packed up for home.

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Apres-Dive Lunch at Celia's, overlooking La Bufadora's bay

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One last view from the tent before packing up...

It was a long haul, especially since the border crossing from Tijuana was closed and we were forced to divert to Otay, about 45 minutes away. After 7 hours in the car, however (including dropping off Sean in San Diego), Billy and I arrived back home in L.A.

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The road home

Just to add it up, I saw:

1) White Spotted Porostome
2) Noble Dorid
3) San Diego Dorid
4) Clown nudibranch
5) Spanish Shawl
6) Three Lined Aeolid
7) Yellow Spotted Cadlina
8) Porter's Chromodorid
9) Yellow Edged Cadlina
10) Archidoris odhneri

TEN species of nudibranchs in one trip. That's definitely a new record for me!
 
Neat, Good to see it again..
I used to go for dive camp-outs back in the 80's, camped in the (then?) vacant dirt lot just above the entry point to the boat launch. There was an American running the diver Hut... and a restaurant on a hill... then vendor stands on the way to the Blow hole... heheh.. good to see the place again...
 
kapula:
that blue ringed top snail and green anemone are award winners! Magnificent shots! Absolutely stunning detail. What is your camera rig?
Thanks! :D

I'm using a Canon PowerShot S80 in the Ikelite housing. Internal flash only, with the diffuser, until I can afford a strobe.
 
fpoole:
Neat, Good to see it again..
I used to go for dive camp-outs back in the 80's, camped in the (then?) vacant dirt lot just above the entry point to the boat launch. There was an American running the diver Hut... and a restaurant on a hill... then vendor stands on the way to the Blow hole... heheh.. good to see the place again...
Yup, it's a little more organized now (but not much), but Dale still runs the dive shop, after nearly 30 years. He's the one with frizzy hair standing in the back of the Panga while we held it, in the 3rd and 4th shots in this post. He's quite a character!
 
Hell yeah, road trippin is the way to go :D Great post!
 
Just the kinda dive I like!!!
Nice!!!
 
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