Cabo Pulmo/La Paz vs. Socorro liveaboard

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Just read through this thread...I'm heading out to Socorro in December (my second liveaboard trip to Socorro). I'm staying a day in Cabo and have time to dive. Should I try to do the Arch/Seals in Cabo San Lucas? Or is it worth it to book Cabo Pulmo? I'm going solo on this trip and don't want to make the trek to Cabo Pulmo alone. Thanks for your suggestions and sorry if this isn't posted correctly. I've been a member but don't get on the board much!
 
Just read through this thread...I'm heading out to Socorro in December (my second liveaboard trip to Socorro). I'm staying a day in Cabo and have time to dive. Should I try to do the Arch/Seals in Cabo San Lucas? Or is it worth it to book Cabo Pulmo? I'm going solo on this trip and don't want to make the trek to Cabo Pulmo alone. Thanks for your suggestions and sorry if this isn't posted correctly. I've been a member but don't get on the board much!

Several LOB I've been on out of Cabo to Socorro, et al... do a dive at the Sand Fall/arches... on the last day. You might check the itinerary. If I only had a day in Cabo I'd go do a dive locally in the morning and find a nice bar to drink Negra Modello the rest of the day. Cabo Pulmo is a long day. My 2 psi.
 
Just read through this thread...I'm heading out to Socorro in December (my second liveaboard trip to Socorro). I'm staying a day in Cabo and have time to dive. Should I try to do the Arch/Seals in Cabo San Lucas? Or is it worth it to book Cabo Pulmo? I'm going solo on this trip and don't want to make the trek to Cabo Pulmo alone. Thanks for your suggestions and sorry if this isn't posted correctly. I've been a member but don't get on the board much!

I absolutely love Cabo Pulmo. I prefer it over CSL.
However with just a day, I'd stick to a local dive site - or even a trip to Gordo Banks in case the hammerheads are around for sure. (But then you'll probably see them on your LOB anyway).
Do a nice local dive or two, and just like Scuba Lawyer said, enjoy the evening in town. There are also very good restaurants and local cheap eats all over the place which is one reason why I don't mind my CSL visits sometimes!
 
I’ve been to the Arch/Seal once, Cabo Pulmo 3x, Socorro once. You don’t want to miss Cabo Pulmo.

If you go with Nautilus, it starts very late in the day, ~ 6pm, so you’ll pretty much have 2 days in CSL with 2nd night will be sleeping on the boat for 24 hour ride to San Benedicto. If I were you, I’d go to Cabo Pulmo.

Regardless your dive location choice, I would recommend: Kraken Divers (Cabo San Lucas) - 2019 All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos) - TripAdvisor with Gabby & Renée twice in CSL & Cabo Pulmo and quite happy with the service.

You won’t see these kind of fish in CSL

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To add, one of the reasons why I do not suggest going to Cabo Pulmo is because you are going to be limited in a variety of ways.
First of all, the dive shop you will use will be based out of CSL. You will have a decently long commute to and fromt Cabo Pulmo - about 3+ hours each way. That CSL dive shop must have a guide that can lead you into the park - many do now. Otherwise they will contract with another local CP dive guide to do so.
Then you have to check to see what dive sites are available. Dive sites are closed after a certain number of boats/divers visit them each day and each week. Some dive sites will close down after a few days and remain closed until the new week's cycle. For open sites, your guide will speak to the marine tower as you get to the actual beach/entry area. The dive sites are not something you can select in advance.
The reason why this is important is that there is one site - El Vencedor - where the bulls love to hang out. Most people want to get there and hang out with the sharks. There are also a couple of other popular sites that seem to fill up faster.


As I mentioned previously, I absolute love CP. I travel there at least once a year, sometimes 2x (for almost a decade now). But I would go when you can make the time to stay there and enjoy the slower pace of life. You can get a local dive company and put your money into the local community too.
Plus, they'll need a bit of money flowing in after Lorena's visit. Hopefully no more hurricanes come through this season.

That said, I will be back in Cabo Pulmo from Nov 25 - Dec 4 . :-D
 
Just read through this thread...I'm heading out to Socorro in December (my second liveaboard trip to Socorro). I'm staying a day in Cabo and have time to dive. Should I try to do the Arch/Seals in Cabo San Lucas? Or is it worth it to book Cabo Pulmo? I'm going solo on this trip and don't want to make the trek to Cabo Pulmo alone. Thanks for your suggestions and sorry if this isn't posted correctly. I've been a member but don't get on the board much!
I was in your same shoes last year (December 2018). I went on the Nautilus Explorer to Socorro and had pretty much 2 full days before heading out. I was very keen to go to Cabo Pulmo on one of the days and like you didn't want to go on my own in a rental but none of the dive shops in CSL were offering a day trip out there since it wasn't the peak "season" for Pulmo and it is a loooong day of driving and they need at least 4 people to even think about making the trip worthwhile. So I decided to do Gordo Banks as an alternative. Most shops require that you dive somewhere else with them first before they take you to Gordo (I had over a hundred dives at the time with some good experience with depth/currents etc and it still didn't matter - sadly, a father and son died there just a week after I had gone so I can understand the concern for divers' abilities before going on) so I did a 2 tank dive in CSL, including out to the arch where we had some lovely sealion encounters. It was a nice enough warm-up for a long week of diving but not much to write home about and I found the water really cold! (It was around 22 degrees when we went out in mid-December whereas Socorro was more in the 24-26 range at the same time, some thermoclines around 22) We then went out to do a 2 tank dive at Gordo hoping to see some schooling hammerheads. No luck. I don't think we saw much of anything really! Its one of those hit-or-miss type of places.

I ended up going back to Cabo in March, rented a super cute jeep straight from the airport and drove out to Pulmo myself (super easy) and stayed at Baja Bungalows where Kumi Monster and the gang like to hang out (I had my own amazing little private bungalow for about USD$80 a night which was great, even with the rat traps...). The diving was fantastic - waaaay better than the CSL stuff (but for me, doesn't come close to comparing with Socorro). Water in March was soooo cold (for me - 18-21 degrees) but we saw the biggest schools of fish EVER (ie sitting underneath a school of big eye jacks passing for 25 minutes and then having to cut through it to leave as the school just kept on going....) and we had very close encounters with the bull every time we went to El Vencedor dive site. Plus the vibe in the town is amazing and I loved hitting up Tacos and Beer on the beach for lunch every day to, you guessed it, enjoy some delicious and very reasonably priced tacos and beer.

If you can get yourself a day trip up to Pulmo, go for it - it will be a long day - but the diving is great. Otherwise, enjoy yourself - Socorro should be amazing!
 
we saw the biggest schools of fish EVER (ie sitting underneath a school of big eye jacks passing for 25 minutes and then having to cut through it to leave as the school just kept on going....)

Like this? My buddy had to tunnel through the schooling big-eye jacks. :D

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