Trip Report Diving with Blue Nation in Loreto Mexico

[edurst]

I have had the privilege of diving at some pretty spectacular locations, including Utila, Fiji, Hawaii, Bermuda, Belize, The Great Barrier Reef and of course my home waters of Southern California. So needless to say, I have seen great diving and good and bad dive operators. When my friends and I decided to take a mini-dive trip with little planning we came up with Loreto Mexico as our destination and Blue Nation dive operation as our guides.


What a revelation! We took a short, two-hour flight from LA, dropped off our luggage at the rental house and headed to the marina where we were met by Monica and Yago from Blue Nation. We hopped in the green boat (Blue Nation with green boat?) and had two wonderful dives in tropical waters with abundant sea life on the same day we left LA! The next day we did 5 dives and the third day 3 and then we headed home. What a great long weekend.


If you are looking for world-class diving, then the Sea of Cortez should be seriously considered. And if you end up in Loreto then you must dive with Blue Nation. They are without question one of the best dive operators I have encountered anywhere in the world.


Great dive boat for a small party of divers.


Great Dive Master – Yago is super knowledgeable, with great safety consciousness and is wildly enthusiastic about all that the Sea of Cortez has to offer.


Monica made it very easy to arrange everything with clear and prompt communication throughout the process.


They are the only dive operation filling Nitrox and that was very important to us.


The diving was really, really good. It is not the “in your face” explosion of color that you will see in other part of the world but each rock you look at, on closer inspection, is teaming with life.

 

[cephalopod2]

Thanks very much for this report.

 

[bcaderunr]

Thanks for the info. When were you there?

 

[DeputyDan]

Heard the water was generally very cold there --- I.e. at a minimum a 5 mil and a 7 mil or dry suit would be better.

Thoughts?

 

[Fragola]

Heard the water was generally very cold there --- I.e. at a minimum a 5 mil and a 7 mil or dry suit would be better.

Thoughts?

@DeputyDan I was there over Christmas week with Blue Nation. The water was 22 C/ 72 F. I wore a 3/2 mm full suit with Sharkskin long sleeve top underneath for 4 out of 5 days then added a 2.5 mm shortie overtop for the last day, no hood. Everyone else had on a 5mm full suit +/- hood.

Those are current temps heading into winter. Summer is much warmer I am told.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I


What a revelation! We took a short, two-hour flight from LA, dropped off our luggage at the rental house and headed to the marina where we were met by Monica and Yago from Blue Nation. We hopped in the green boat (Blue Nation with green boat?) and had two wonderful dives in tropical waters with abundant sea life on the same day we left LA! The next day we did 5 dives and the third day 3 and then we headed home. What a great long weekend.
.

We met Yago and Monica last month and they are an amazing couple. Due to the flu with left Loreto early and didn't dive but plan to return soon. The general goal in Loreto seems to be to increase the number of divers, fishermen, hikers, and sightseers without turning the place into another Playa or Cabo or whatever. It sounds like a tricky job. Thanks for the detailed review--it sounds much like what we were expecting.

My general take on Loreto in the short week we were there is that many of the restaurants and other businesses cannot afford to stay open all day or all week. They need more business but nobody I met wants to turn the place into a party town. They get a cruise ship occasionally so I suppose that has it's good and bad points.

We also flew there from LAX via Alaska Airlines and it was a quick, easy flight. The airport is so small that the airport crew waves goodbye at you as the plane is leaving Our AirBnB host picked us up and took us to our casita. There is no such thing as public transportation there--supposedly you can get a taxi at the airport and at a couple of places in town but there are no buses and you could stand on the main streets for hours without seeing a taxi so a rental car is nearly essential if you are staying on the outskirts. The "main" grocery store is the Super Ley which is considerably smaller than the Casa Ley in Puerto Vallarta. Their prices seem to be much lower than the other choices. We walked a lot but intend to stay near the marina on our next visit.

The other dive ops in Loreto also have great reviews but we already consider Monica and Yago to be friends and wouldn't go anywhere else.

Looking through my old records I was planning a trip to Loreto in 1984 but never confirmed that I could even get a tank filled there so I bought a boat instead Now there are three dive ops that I know of and they need more divers!

 

[Esprise Me]

Thanks for the info! Can you elaborate a little more on the transit situation? Was having your host pick you up (and drop you off?) at the airport, plus walking, sufficient to get around, or did you end up renting a car? Can you call for a taxi to get back to the airport?

 

[Fragola]

Thanks for the info! Can you elaborate a little more on the transit situation? Was having your host pick you up (and drop you off?) at the airport, plus walking, sufficient to get around, or did you end up renting a car? Can you call for a taxi to get back to the airport?

@Esprise Me Getting a taxi from the airport is no problem although a Collectivo is cheaper. They need 4 people for the shuttle though. I missed out because they had all left by the time I got out with my luggage. To get back to the airport there are a couple of taxi stands near the main square. They are marked on the tourist maps that everyone gets and I did see taxis around. In my case, my neighbours in the B & B were on the same return flight so we had our host call for a taxi for 3 of to share.

The town is not that big. You could probably walk across town in 15 minutes. There is a car rental counter at the airport and a few locations in town. You would only need a car to explore outlying areas, e.g. the Mission, some beach areas north of Loreto, or if you are staying out in Loreto Bay. I stayed in town and it only took 7 minutes to walk to the marina. I had access to borrow bikes at my place too.

As for groceries, El Pescador is only 3 blocks away from Ley. Both are open late and there a few convenience stores. For restaurants I did not have any problems finding a place open except Dec 24. By 7pm most places were either closed or not taking in new diners because their main Christmas celebration is at night on Christmas Eve. My usual breakfast place was not open until later at 10am Christmas Day instead of its usual 7:30am.

 

[JamesBon92007]

We had a number to call for a taxi but my Spanish is such that I don't always understand everything that people are trying to tell me so I would hesitate to try to get a taxi on the phone. Our hosts, Cesar and his wife Maria, were very helpful and when we decided to leave I texted Cesar and he took us to the airport. I think, at one point, he was trying to tell me that if we needed a ride somewhere to call him but I wasn't quite understanding what he was saying. There is a sign in the casita that has their names and phone numbers and says "A Sus Ordenes" so that is a strong indication that they are available and willing to help. In places such as Cozumel and Puerto Vallarta there are taxis everywhere and ready to take you home from the grocery stores but that was not the case in Loreto. After a week there I was under the impression that you could count the taxis on one hand. We were staying on the outskirts of town but if you stay someplace near the marina you could probably get by just walking if you don't buy too many groceries at one time. We stopped in at the Hertz Car Rental place on Salvatierra Blvd and the prices we were quoted were quite high. The man behind the counter seemed a bit sleezy. Instead we booked a car through the Hertz web site and it was much, much cheaper. Our plan was to rent a car for the last few days to drive to the dive boat and drop it off at the airport (for no extra charge). On the web site there was either no airport location or no Salvatierra location (I forget which) because, as the man at Hertz counter explained to us, they were considered the same location. Monica suggested a different car rental place but we found their prices to be higher than Hertz so we must have mis-understood something. We were feeling too sick to dive so we decided to leave early and cancelled the rental car.

Meanwhile I have been studying a Spanish textbook and getting more lessons from a friend who was born in Mexico.

 

[scubadada]

Blue Nation and Loreto have been on my radar for a while. One problem is that I would be traveling alone. I hope I'm able to dive there one of these days. The operation sounds very good