Socorro is amazing but don’t book with Cantamar

[Rosa M S]

Revillagigedo

Diving

Without a doubt, a world class diving site. Amazing, wild, remote, unspoiled, and hopefully we will keep it that way for future generations. All my childhood dreams came true in Revillagigedo, words cannot express the feelings of awe and humbleness I experienced in the vastness of the blue.

Staff

The second star of this trip was the incredibly friendly, supportive and efficient staff. From the tenders in the dinghys all the way to the cooks and the dive masters, we cannot ignore anyone aboard. Hopefully they get the recognition and respect they deserve from their bosses and above all a good salary and benefits above the ones marked by Mexican laws.

The tenders, Pepe and El Pariente are knowledgeable people with great personalities, always willing to help and the biggest smiles. They knew perfectly well where our bubbles were all the time.

Max always working around the boat fixing this or the other or serving us our meals and drinks.

Chava and Mimi in the kitchen catered to all our needs and whims, always with a smile and a kind word.

Our captain and the chief engineer did an amazing job and always had an interesting story to tell.

Last, but not least, Mauricio and Ernesto, our dives masters, nearly stole the show. Great dive masters, I cannot recommend enough!

Cantamar

Here our problems start. I truly have no idea how many times I tried contacting someone from Cantamar. I tried almost everything: WhatsApp, phone calls and e-mails. My WhatsApps were usually ignored. My phone calls, well, they simply had no time to answer the phone, forget about my questions… never returned a phone call nor send a reply to my WhatsApps. I kept sending my payments regularly as not to lose my spot and never got a reply, forget about getting a receipt. Every time I sent a payment, I had to send 2-3 emails until I got a response, never a receipt for my payments.

Once they send me a reply, kind of rude, they told me that I had to talk to another member of my group, the one who helped us booking this trip, they clearly told me that all communications regarding payments were made through this person, they could not give me the information of what I had already paid them!!! I guess my request was truly rare, unfair and difficult for them to process, sorry, MY BAD! I sent my last payment by the end of August (my trip was scheduled for November 11th, 2024), it was only the adjustment I thought needed to be made in the exchange rate since I HAD NO IDEA OF WHAT I HAD PAID SINCE IT WAS SOOOOOOO DIFFICULT FOR THEM TO SEND ME A RECEIPT for each payment I made. I was in stitches, by mid October I received an email in which they thanked me for my payment made on August 30th, but they never specified the amount received and then forget about a receipt, impossible for them to send one!!!

By the end of July they sent me a link for the form I had to fill out. This link never worked. By the end of October I was informed that if I did not fill out this form before the end of the month, my trip was going to be canceled despite being fully paid since August 31st. I sent a few WhatsApps asking for assistance on this matter, the link that took me exactly NOWHERE. I called them on the phone several times and nobody ever answered the phone. I had to contact the other two members of my group, and one of them had to be quite firm with whoever felt magnanimous enough that day to answer the phone. ONLY THEN THEY ANSWERED MY WHATSAPPS assuring me I WAS DOING SOMETHING WRONG SINCE THEY HAD CHECKED THEIR PLATFORM AND EVERYTHING WAS WORKING FINE. I had to send them several screen shots for them to be convinced THE PLATFORM DID NOT WORK. We had to fill out the form through WhatsApp because the platform did not work.

Next time I will try smoke signs or a Ouija board, the communication might be faster.

Boat

The Southern Sport… what a trip!!! The Southern Sports in a few words HAS SEEN BETTER DAYS.

We were scheduled to be picked up in our hotel on November 11th at 8:30. The night before one of the members of my group was informed the pick up had changed to 12:00. NO EXPLANATIONS, NO REASONS. Our driver was on time and took us to the marina, unfortunately he had no idea where our boat was located and nobody was there to welcome us. The driver had to be located again so he could come and get us again and drive us to the right spot.

Finally, the Southern Sport… the hull did not look too good… the boat looked old and tired but hey, we are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime! What if the boat is “a little tired?” They took us to the upper deck where our dive masters brought us snacks and drinks, and started explaining to us they have been working on one of the engines since early in the morning, they lost an engine on the way back during the last trip. Sooooo, that meant that we were going to lose one day of diving… probably somebody did not like this but we had the right attitude, we can still do a lot of serious diving, right? Nothing was going to spoil our fun. Nobody from Cantamar ever offered an apology nor an explanation.

Finally we left San José around 22:30 that night, we arrived to the islands late the following night, on the 12th. On our first day of diving we were informed that we only had one dinghy available for two groups, we had a flat dinghy!!! We are all trying to process this information and while we were getting ready to get in the water, one of the dive masters informed us that the tenders were able to fix the second dinghy, WE HAD TWO WORKING DINGHYS!!! Needless to say they put it together with chewing gum and boogers since apparently the owners of the company DO NOT WANT TO INVEST SOME OF THEIR PROFITS IN NEW EQUIPMENT NOR WORKING PARTS. The tender kept an air tank with him to keep refilling the dinghy, just in case!!!

My toilet: my toilet did not work for the first 24 hours. Finally, when Max was able to fix it, it was hooked up to the hot water, so I had a nice steaming toilet, my butt enjoyed a nice sauna every time I had to use it. I guess I was lucky, some of my neighbors had problems with their toilets falling down.

Everything in the boat is in disrepair: couches, seats, toilets, showers, light switches, plugs, doors, portholes, faucets… and the good thing is that the Southern Sport was remodeled in 2023!!! Or so it claims their brochure, FALSE ADVERTISING I THINK THEY CALL IT. Everything if the boat is old and beat up… some of my diving buddies experienced problems with possible voltage spikes resulting in fried computers and dive computers.

The Souther Sport IS A SERIOUS ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN!!!

They do not pay enough to the crew and dive masters to risk their lives in this ship. The owners need to seriously consider spending BIG money on fixing it or retiring it and getting a new boat.

On our last day, we were told we were arriving to San José de los Cabos around 2:30… we arrived at 5:30. We all understood that the weather conditions were not the best, but we all have a feeling we lost and engine on the way back…

Do I need to say more?

 

[davehicks]

Hello, Nautilus anyone? A very professional and reputable operator i can recommend.

 

[JustinJRL]

Thanks for leaving this review!! Honestly there are not enough real world reviews and I feel like liveaboard.com "curates" any negative reviews. I'm planning on booking socorro for late 2025 , though nautilus is the preferred option, they aren't always available and seem to be booked over a year in advance. Glad overall it all worked out for you, despite everything.

 

[Cthippo]

Thanks for leaving this review!! Honestly there are not enough real world reviews and I feel like liveaboard.com "curates" any negative reviews. I'm planning on booking socorro for late 2025 , though nautilus is the preferred option, they aren't always available and seem to be booked over a year in advance. Glad overall it all worked out for you, despite everything.

Given how hard it is to get people to name and shame, especially when it is strongly warranted, I don't think SB has anything to do with it.

 

[JustinJRL]

Perhaps you misunderstood me, or I'm misunderstanding you, but I was talking about LiveAboard.com, not scubaboard. Many of us use that site to browse livaboards, and I'm not sure I've ever seen a negatively reviewed boat on that site. The scale goes from like 8.5 to 10.0. It's hard to take seriously.

 

[rmorgan]

From Undercurrent, September 2017:

“Based in La Paz, Mexico, Club Cantamar runs day boats and a liveaboard, and we have constantly cited problems with their operation, dating from my full review more than a decade ago. David Gere (Kent, WA) was aboard their liveaboard to the Revillagigedo Islands, and said, "Our cabin had problems flushing the marine head from day one. We talked to the staff almost every day, with little improvement. The last three days we had solid waste sitting in the bowl that the crew failed to clear, despite speaking to the crew and the fact that the owner was on board. The cabin next to us had sewage overflowing from its head and sloshing into the lower level corridor during the 27-hour return trip in moderate seas to Los Cabos." Frankly, I wouldn't dive again with them on any of their craft.”

From Trip Advisor, January 2024, a long review from titled “Don’t get on!”—recounting a similar litany and exhorting divers to “spread the word and take care of each other” about how bad this boat is.

 

[USdiver1]

Sounds like a floating colera outbreak waiting to happen.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

We went on Southern Sport last April during the eclipse. We were expecting worse, based on the reviews I read, with the engine failures, evacuations, etc. I just had to make sure my dive insurance included 'evacuations'. The boat is old, and due to its narrow beam, rocks side to side a lot. We got the dungeon room with a strong acrid smell that lingered due to the lack of ventilation, which some reviewers attributed to diesel fumes, but I attributed to a concentrated orange cleaner being used, as I got a whiff of that at a later time and it immediately brought me back to the boat.

They didn't really run a tight ship, as we got held up a few hours because we had to wait for a group of 4 swiss divers because their liveaboard just got cancelled. When they boarded, they asked 3 other passengers to swap beds with them so they can get the 4 of them (2 couples) in 2 rooms. There was a single guy occupying the suite upstairs by himself and were thinking swapping our dungeon room with him earlier, but was told by our T/A that any type of swap with him is highly unlikely due to him paying the full price. But the swiss group got him to give up his balcony suite and move downstairs to the only availble bed(which is cheaper), and share it with a woman. I couldn't believe the crew didn't care, or the other dives let them.

Roca Partida is part of the stop but we were told that the last time they went there, there was nothing. I really wanted to go there, but it seems like most of the other divers bought into 'nothing there' story so we all agreed to skip it. I read dive reports by other liveaboard from a few weeks earlier that there were plenty of createures sighted. So I think we were told that story so they can save fuel by not going there. Just like the mixing the nitrox to 29% (tricking down to 27% toward the end of the trip) while setting it to 32% on our computer, to prevent going into deco mode, with all the deep dives, instead of the machine being incapable of providing 32%. Anyway, we tried to make the best out of it. The mostly laid back easy going divers made the trip much more pleasant.

 

[Anish]

Thanks for leaving this review!! Honestly there are not enough real world reviews and I feel like liveaboard.com "curates" any negative reviews. I'm planning on booking socorro for late 2025 , though nautilus is the preferred option, they aren't always available and seem to be booked over a year in advance. Glad overall it all worked out for you, despite everything.

Yes Liveaboard does remove negative reviews. I left a realistic (not fully negative but with suggestions for improvement) on the White Pearl and it never got posted. Since then I lost faith in that platform. Now I look for reviews on sites like this one and book directly with the operator. No real advantage to the aggregator platforms.