If U Have Dived At Cabo and P.V. Cld U Please...

[cruisecrasy]

recommend good dive operators and your experiences. Be there in late Nov/early Dec. and want to try diving - likely the North Wall in Cabo & Los Arco in PV (read on this site that they were the best areas). Appreciate all replies - thanks in advance.

[Gonedownlately?]

..going to Cabo later this month...

 

PV was a suprisingly nice dive. I went with Chico's Dive Shop, mostly because they were affiliated with the hotel we stayed at. We went to Los Arcos and I enjoyed it.

 

I only had one day to dive, and rather than haul all my gear down there for just one day I rented all my gear from Chico's. Everything was in good shape; not necessarily brand new, but servicable. I did miss my Scuba Pro fins, though... Chico's has a nice-sized boat that has lots of shady space. They run scuba trips and snorkle trips on the same boat at the same time, which seemed kinda odd to me, but it worked out fine. They provided water, softdrinks, and a sandwich.

 

I was lucky in that I was the only diver on this trip -- there were about a dozen snorklers, including my wife. I literally had the divemaster-- Natcho-- to myself. Natcho did a good job in planning the dive in advance, covering safety signals, and leading the dive. I saw my first octopus, several varities of eel, and several spotted rays. The visibilty was only 50 feet or so, due to the run-off from the mainland (it's rainy season there now...). Arcos is not really a reef dive, you're there mostly for the animal life, there's plenty of that!

 

This dive was good enough that I'd go back to PV to dive again. In September I'm going to Cabo and will have more time for diving: If anybody has any dive shops and/or sites to suggest, I'd love to hear 'em...

[cruisecrasy]

..going to Cabo later this month...

 

PV was a suprisingly nice dive. I went with Chico's Dive Shop, mostly because they were affiliated with the hotel we stayed at. We went to Los Arcos and I enjoyed it.

 

I only had one day to dive, and rather than haul all my gear down there for just one day I rented all my gear from Chico's. Everything was in good shape; not necessarily brand new, but servicable. I did miss my Scuba Pro fins, though... Chico's has a nice-sized boat that has lots of shady space. They run scuba trips and snorkle trips on the same boat at the same time, which seemed kinda odd to me, but it worked out fine. They provided water, softdrinks, and a sandwich.

 

I was lucky in that I was the only diver on this trip -- there were about a dozen snorklers, including my wife. I literally had the divemaster-- Natcho-- to myself. Natcho did a good job in planning the dive in advance, covering safety signals, and leading the dive. I saw my first octopus, several varities of eel, and several spotted rays. The visibilty was only 50 feet or so, due to the run-off from the mainland (it's rainy season there now...). Arcos is not really a reef dive, you're there mostly for the animal life, there's plenty of that!

 

This dive was good enough that I'd go back to PV to dive again. In September I'm going to Cabo and will have more time for diving: If anybody has any dive shops and/or sites to suggest, I'd love to hear 'em...

 

with your time and information. Really impressed and can't thank you enough. I sincerely hope u have a fabulous experience in Cabo - just wish I cld assist u but heres hoping someone else can..Please post and tell me all about it when u return...!

 

Have very happy cruisin'!!

[TrqoisWtrs]

We just got back from a land vacation in Cabo. My husband and friend's husband dove with Manta Divers. Very pleased with the service, but diving was pretty bad. They said vis was about 40 ft, sometimes only 10 ft. Guess there was a weather system off shore that was sending in a lot of surge so everything was stirred up. They dove over three days and it didn't improve much. Just a heads up, the four of us took a snorkel trip with Sunrider and we stopped at Santa Maria Bay and got stung pretty bad with jellyfish. It was just chopped up pieces from the boat's propeller, which made it impossible to see, and which they proceeded to warn us about AFTER we had gotten in the water and gotten stung. I still have the red welts on my arm and that was 5 days ago. On top of that, the snorkeling sucked too, so not even worth the sting! :rolleyes:

[TrqoisWtrs]

Somehow this post didn't refresh when I replied last time, so am trying again to get my message to show up as new for anyone interested -

yep, that worked, even though there are 4 replies to this post its only showing 3, yet another board mystery. :)

[Gonedownlately?]

...and had another nice dive. It wasn't Cozumel, or even Vallarta, frankly, but it was worth doing.

 

I dove once with Land's End Dive Shop and had a pretty good experience. Even though the office staff (one old gal) had a hard time managing their credit card authorization process, the guys on the boat were fine. This was another case where the operator combined snorklers and divers on the same boat; and again there were no problems. Since the snorklers were my wife and a couple we were traveling with, it was actually quite nice.

 

Along with the dive master there was one other diver. He was of about the same skill level as I, so it was a nice little group. I rented a BC, reg, and tanks. The BC was a fairly recent Mares in good shape. The Mares regulator was a little hard to pull on, but was by no means a problem. The inflator hose had a small leak, but not enough to be concerned about. The DM took it back to the shop during the interval and tinkered with it, but it still leaked when he returned. A little annoying, but not a saftey concern.

 

What was a safety concern was that the DM did not perform a safety stop at the end of the first dive. We were down as deep as 80 feet with a total dive time of 40 minutes. My own computer called for a stop, and I performed one on my own. The DM and the other diver went straight up. The DM looked at me kinda funny when I surfaced 3 minutes later, but didn't say anything.

 

Both dives were essentially the same. Visibility was poor; maybe 30- to 40 feet. We dove at a couple sites near the rocks that form Land's End. The underwater rock formations are very cool, and we saw some interesting animal life (several eels, octopus, spiny lobsters, scorpion fish, large schools) and the remains of one wreck. We experienced some mild currents, but nothing to be concerned about. Some spots were rather turbulent as this is where the Pacific ocean meets the Sea of Cortez.

 

The operator had a nice boat with plenty of shady spots. The crew spoke English well. During the interval they dropped us off at Lover's Beach -- a spot accessable only by boat. It was lovely! Fantastic rock formations and high cliffs surround the beach. Lover's is worth seeing (water taxis can get you there from the nearby marina in just a few minutes) even if you don't dive or snorkle. The crew provided water and soft drinks, but I found myself wishing for a beer and a sandwich on the ride back to the marnia...

 

All in all, I'm glad I went. And I'd probably do another dive with Land's End again. But truth be told, I had more fun reeling in the 90-pound marlin and 100-pound mahi mahi I caught (and released!) the next morning while fishing...

 

By the way, we stayed at the Fiesta Americana and liked it immensely. It's a beautiful property with outstanding ocean views...

 

We'll go back to Cabo; probably when the whales are running next Spring...

[cruisecrasy]

...and had another nice dive. It wasn't Cozumel, or even Vallarta, frankly, but it was worth doing.

 

I dove once with Land's End Dive Shop and had a pretty good experience. Even though the office staff (one old gal) had a hard time managing their credit card authorization process, the guys on the boat were fine. This was another case where the operator combined snorklers and divers on the same boat; and again there were no problems. Since the snorklers were my wife and a couple we were traveling with, it was actually quite nice.

 

Along with the dive master there was one other diver. He was of about the same skill level as I, so it was a nice little group. I rented a BC, reg, and tanks. The BC was a fairly recent Mares in good shape. The Mares regulator was a little hard to pull on, but was by no means a problem. The inflator hose had a small leak, but not enough to be concerned about. The DM took it back to the shop during the interval and tinkered with it, but it still leaked when he returned. A little annoying, but not a saftey concern.

 

What was a safety concern was that the DM did not perform a safety stop at the end of the first dive. We were down as deep as 80 feet with a total dive time of 40 minutes. My own computer called for a stop, and I performed one on my own. The DM and the other diver went straight up. The DM looked at me kinda funny when I surfaced 3 minutes later, but didn't say anything.

 

Both dives were essentially the same. Visibility was poor; maybe 30- to 40 feet. We dove at a couple sites near the rocks that form Land's End. The underwater rock formations are very cool, and we saw some interesting animal life (several eels, octopus, spiny lobsters, scorpion fish, large schools) and the remains of one wreck. We experienced some mild currents, but nothing to be concerned about. Some spots were rather turbulent as this is where the Pacific ocean meets the Sea of Cortez.

 

The operator had a nice boat with plenty of shady spots. The crew spoke English well. During the interval they dropped us off at Lover's Beach -- a spot accessable only by boat. It was lovely! Fantastic rock formations and high cliffs surround the beach. Lover's is worth seeing (water taxis can get you there from the nearby marina in just a few minutes) even if you don't dive or snorkle. The crew provided water and soft drinks, but I found myself wishing for a beer and a sandwich on the ride back to the marnia...

 

All in all, I'm glad I went. And I'd probably do another dive with Land's End again. But truth be told, I had more fun reeling in the 90-pound marlin and 100-pound mahi mahi I caught (and released!) the next morning while fishing...

 

By the way, we stayed at the Fiesta Americana and liked it immensely. It's a beautiful property with outstanding ocean views...

 

We'll go back to Cabo; probably when the whales are running next Spring...

 

the great information and your experiences..thanks so much for posting!!

 

Happy cruisin' & diving!!