Villa del Palmar. Loreto, Baja Mexico
So far we have had 5 dives including a night dive. The conditions are OK. Certainly not the best diving but, like some things in life, even the worst of it is wonderful. Visibility is about 30 feet the water temp varies between 75 and 95 and the Marine life is abundant. We have seen the typical assortment of angle fish, puffers, needle fish, stars and urchins. There are also moray eels and last night we saw sea cucumbers and an unusual bottom fish called a guitar fish (Rhinobatidae). It looks like a cross between a ray and a shark. The one we spotted was about two feet long and grey in color.
Dawn was a little spooked before the dive but she had suited up and did great. We stayed down 54 minutes and went to 55.
This was the shallowest dive of the trip. It's interesting how much deeper we dive these days. On both of the two tank dives we hit 100+ feet and it was no big deal. Twenty years ago that would have been huge. All of our dives have been off Corinado Island North West of Loretto.
The most notable thing about diving here is the dramatic changes in temp. There must be a serious upwelling from deep water. The current has been consistently 2 to 4 knots and its like going from a warm bath to an ice chest in the blink of an eye. Certainly it was warmer near the surface but even at 50 feet you could go around a rock and find the water 20 degrees warmer or colder.
The sea lions were found in groups of 10 or 20. They were on there backs with their flippers in the air. I didn't know what I was looking when I saw what appeared to be clumps of black bird wings sticking above the surface.
There is only one serious PADI Dive Shop in Loreto (Dolphin Dice Center) and even they use a panga instead of a big expensive dive boat. The pricing is about the same as anywhere else. $120 for a two tank dive and lunch and $65 for a night dive.
So far we have had 5 dives including a night dive. The conditions are OK. Certainly not the best diving but, like some things in life, even the worst of it is wonderful. Visibility is about 30 feet the water temp varies between 75 and 95 and the Marine life is abundant. We have seen the typical assortment of angle fish, puffers, needle fish, stars and urchins. There are also moray eels and last night we saw sea cucumbers and an unusual bottom fish called a guitar fish (Rhinobatidae). It looks like a cross between a ray and a shark. The one we spotted was about two feet long and grey in color.
Dawn was a little spooked before the dive but she had suited up and did great. We stayed down 54 minutes and went to 55.
This was the shallowest dive of the trip. It's interesting how much deeper we dive these days. On both of the two tank dives we hit 100+ feet and it was no big deal. Twenty years ago that would have been huge. All of our dives have been off Corinado Island North West of Loretto.
The most notable thing about diving here is the dramatic changes in temp. There must be a serious upwelling from deep water. The current has been consistently 2 to 4 knots and its like going from a warm bath to an ice chest in the blink of an eye. Certainly it was warmer near the surface but even at 50 feet you could go around a rock and find the water 20 degrees warmer or colder.
The sea lions were found in groups of 10 or 20. They were on there backs with their flippers in the air. I didn't know what I was looking when I saw what appeared to be clumps of black bird wings sticking above the surface.
There is only one serious PADI Dive Shop in Loreto (Dolphin Dice Center) and even they use a panga instead of a big expensive dive boat. The pricing is about the same as anywhere else. $120 for a two tank dive and lunch and $65 for a night dive.
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