Sea of Cortez

[AzSnake]

Diver-K once bubbled...
Is anyone familiar with the Sea of Cortez diving or snorkeling. I was considering a trip to Puerto Penasco (the northern part of the Sea of Cortez in early April. I assume it isn't nearly as good as the East side of Mexico. Anyone been there? What's the water temp like then?

Rocky Point is a pretty poor dive destination.
The Tidal Shifts make the vis pretty low all year long. The locals have over fished the area heavily and they bottom trawl (big shrimp industry up their) a lot and have destroyed a bunch of good habitat.
If your thinking about Rocky Point head to San Carlos instead.
It's just a few hrs south and 100x better than Rocky Point.

 

[gregpsych]

Water temp will vary from high 80's in the summer to low 60's in winter. Have been there twice. Best dive trip is to Bird island ($95 for two tanks). Lots of sea lions and birds. OK visibilty. WE had about 25 feet at thanksgiving after several days of high winds. 30 sea lions came in the water with us and performed for us--one let my son pet him (rare). Hotels are so-so. The best Western was ok--Last time we Stayed at the Plaza Las Glorias--OK--but a bit expensive. The Vino Del Mar is an older hotel, but you can do pretty good shore dives from there parking lot. Just as good as the local boat dive. The shop to arrange dives can be found at http://www.sun-n-fun-divers.com/index.htm. Nice and helpful. I live in Colorado. The advantage is that you can drive there from here in a day and 1/2. It is only 6 hours from Flagstaff and 4 from Phoenix. Be sure and get Mexican Auto insurance (lots of places sell it on the way there in Arizona, or you can buy it online.) It is a felony in Mexico to not have Mexican Auto Insurance (you don't want to spend time in a Mexican Jail).

Good luck--enjoy the sea lions. You can learn more about the dive boats there at www.lobadelmar.com.
Greg

 

[Murphdog]

I live and Los Angeles and my dive buddy and I drove to the Bay of Los Angeles in Baha Mexico which is on the east side. It is about 400 south to Tijauna. The spear fishing and diving was great. There is one place to get fills and the cost's $10 each. We hired a guy with a small boat to take us out at $135 per day.

We tried to get fishing liscenses in a US border town before crossing into Mexico but were told. You don't need not &*$#* fishing liscenes in Mexico. We got the same response from our boat captain.

If you drive to through Baja heres my advice.

Don't do it at night. We did and it was a mistake. The one road is very small and windy. We saw at least 8 cars smashed on the side of the road. There are also road side memorials everywhere. We drove back during the day and it was great. Baja is beautiful place, except for the multitude of dead dogs and cows that are on the roadside.

You go through numerous Federally Road blocks. Sometimes they wave you through and sometimes they don't. I would not want to get busted for drinking or pot down there.

To get to the Bay of Los Angeles you have to get off the main road and drive 40 miles east. The first 20 miles is a newly paved road which is great. The last 20 miles is the worst road I have ever been on. You need a 4 wheeler, truck or SUV. The town has about 400 people and there are a few small hotels which are decent. The rooms are about $35 a night, meals are $3-$5 each. There are a couple of stores that sell everything from beer to shovels. You can buy gas from a guy who keeps it in a 50 gallon drum. The hotel owner can hook you up with a boat which is bascially one guy and 15 foot boat.

The diving there was great. We had the entire ocean to ourselves. We saw at least 20 whales and huge schools of dophlins. We shot some grouper and El Dorado. There is a place where they do research on Sea Turtles and you can help clean them.

This link has some good maps of Mexico and Baja.

http://www.maps-of-mexico.com/