Cabo report Aug 9, 10 '02

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onyx

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Location
San Diego, CA, USA
hi All -

I went to los Cabos Aug 6 - 13, and did 2 days of diving while I was there. Since I heard such great things about Amigos del Mar through this board, I decided I'd do my diving with them. I sauntered over to their office the first full day that I was there, and found them friendly so committed to do 2 days with them, culminating in a trip to Cabo Pulmo. In order to dive cabo pulmo with them, though, they want you do do a day of local diving with them first to make sure that all the equipment works allright and such before driving the 2.5 hours down to cabo pulmo.

Day 1: Two dives around Pelican Rock. Nice dives, kinda crowded, but our guide was cool and good at spotting neat stuff like seahorses, rays, and octopi for our viewing pleasure. Our dive experience in the group varied pretty wildly, so he kept the dives pretty mellow. Vis was good, temp was warm, seas were pretty calm.

Day 2: 2 Dives at cabo pulmo. This was great. We piled into a taxi-van at some gawdawful early hour like 6:45 am (i'm not much of a morning person) and drove the 2.5 hours up the east side of the baja penninsula to cabo pulmo. The drive was scenic, and the van was air conditioned, which was all that really mattered since it was pretty darned hot the entire time I was in los cabos.
The only remaining live reef in the sea of cortez is located at Cabo Pulmo (as I was informed), and it was well worth the drive! It was beatiful! I saw eels galore, more puffers, huge Parrotfish, lobsters, octopi, live reef, huge schools of jacks, as well as limitless other fish that I don't recognize. Well, instead of blathering on about it, here, have a look for yourself. I've got an ofoto album that you can check out with all of the pictures that I took. I haven't edited them...and this was my first time taking my Canon S30 scuba diving, so the pix probably pretty much suck, but it was still fun. :)

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?m=74067806103.38835593503&n=257000068

and log in with username:
mock@sdsc.edu
and password:
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or for video clips see:
http://rewind.sdsc.edu/mock/underwater/caboSL-caboPulmo-aug2002/

after the dives at cabo pulmo, we were fed an awesome fish taco lunch! I nearly killed myself gorging on these! All in all, a great set of dives!
 
glad to read your trip report....I am heading down to Cabo for Labor Day weekend and plan on diving with Amigos as well. As I may dive for three or four days..would you recommend additional dives at Cabo Pulmo? I was also thinking of diving other sites around La Paz...anyone have any thoughts on sites further north or what about Gordo Banks?
 
I'd definitly try to do cabo pulmo...I really dug that.
I've also heard that Gordo Banks is supposed to be great.
If you want the email address of the owner of amigos, send me
a PM. That way you can start discussing your plans now.
I had to wait a couple of days to start diving with them because
they were full, so I'd recommend making reservations.
 
thanks for the advice...I lined up my dives with the US office of Amigos today...I took advantage of the three day package that includes Cabo Pulmo...but I can upgrade to Gordo Banks if the weather is good. How was the viz and did you encounter any thermoclines?
 
The vis at cabo pulmo was excellent. The vis at Pelican rock was ok, dpending on how far away from the rest of the divers you were. In some places around pelican rock it probably got down to like 20 or so feet.

There were very pronounced thermoclines at both locations. I wore a 3mil shorty on all the dives and was fine.

Have a great time!
 
I'm back from a great time in cabo...I was very pleased with the Amigos folks. I dove four days...two up at cabo pulmo. Hector and Juan were the two dms...both did a great job leading relaxed dives that met everyones needs. Didn't feel rushed and maximized bottom time...meaning didn't get stuck with lots of left over air! Enjoyed seeing some new creatures...first sea horse and a black with white stripe eel...can't find it in my books....also a white nudibranch and a black worm of some sort that had bright orange dashes. I enjoyed a rather large school of porcupine fish aside all the ones on the rocks. We also say some small mantas jumping up out of the water...very fun seeing them "flying"! The viz was good for three of the days and diminishing the last day...Saturday. There was a storm down south of baja that kicked up some pretty good surf by Sunday.

Thanks again for the advice...and the fish tacos were AWESOME!
 
I've heard them called variously mobula rays or pygmy mantas. Not sure if they're the same thing. The mobulas jump out of the water and do flips, they are trying to get rid of parasites, kind of a gross explanation for a cool sight!

Looking forward to Loreto in November!

Chris
 
I will be in Loreto first week of October.

Who do you use as a dive op?

BTW, you and I met on the Star on Chamber Day.
 

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