San Carlos looks way cool, how is the diving? Visibility?
The diving is midrange Sea of Cortez diving. You'll often see Stingray's, occasional Octopii, Cortez Angelfish, Puffers etc. Not a lot of big coral though - it's a rocky substrate in most areas. In the summer, the water is 80+ - in the winter you need a 7mil or drysuit. The viz can be hit or miss - at times it can be 100'+ - usually when it's cooler.
San Pedro Nolasco - uninhabited small vertical island - is about an 1-2 hrs. away by boat (depends on the boat) and there's seal/sea lion colony there. As soon as a boat pulls up several of them hit the water and come to play. It's shallow up against the island so classes are often taught there.
Surprisingly they have about 6 dive operators and a fleet of 10+ boats. SC is where dive operators from Phoenix and Tucson go for warm water diving. Several have sister operations there. On a busy weekend there can be a hundred+ divers down from AZ since you can drive there in less than 1 day. Mostly carpool but one diveop will charter a bus when they can fill it.
The other interesting thing is that San Carlos sits just off a deepwater trench so there's bigger stuff spotted there. On the boat ride to/from the island dolphins are always seen - I mean
every single time I've gone out there. There's a video on Youtube of an Orca playing in the wake of a diveboat - that was shot there. In October Scalloped Hammerheads school there before heading south. I've always managed to miss it but my LDS owner has seen them - he said there's thousands of them in an area just south of the island.
more info if you're interested -
San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico Diving From Taos cut over on I-10 thru Tucson and down to Nogales. You can also cross at Agua Prieta. Then head SW to Highway 15 in Mexico and it will take you right to Guaymas. It's actually a pretty good road. I've also flown directly from Phoenix to Guaymas on USAirways Express, it's about a 20min ride to San Carlos from the airport. We stay at Marina Terra - it's a few minutes from town but all the boats leave from the marina there - the one in my picture above.
