mushymom:
We are perhaps thinking of taking a dive trip to San Carlos Mexico (also known as San Carlos Rey) perhaps in December. We are wondering if it is worth diving there in December or not. Also if anyone has gone, is it cheaper to fly down that way or drive down from Tucson? Any info you guys can come up with is greatly appreciated!
I take it you haven't priced the flights...It's about $550 Tucson to Guaymas (closest airport to San Carlos) And it's a connecting flight, it goes North to Phoenix before heading to Guaymas. So it's 3-1/2hrs. plus driving time to San Carlos. Add in pre-boarding time and you can drive from Tucson to San Carlos faster, it takes about 6hrs.
Everybody from here just drives. Several of the Dive shops run buses down there pretty regularly. Be aware that you might have difficulty renting a car in Tucson to take to Mexico, so you'd probably want to drive over from Santa Fe.
I haven't been there in a long time, so links to people who know:
The Dive Shop in Tucson goes there monthly.
http://www.azdiveshop.com/travel.htm
Try contacting the R-Team(Raytheon) scuba club in Tucson, they go there monthly.
http://www.vancesystems.com/scuba/
Also our AZScuba club has members who've been there this summer, in fact it's a current topic of conversation on our Yahoo group board:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/azscuba/
You'll have to join to post but it's free...
And I have a vague recollection of a conversation I recently had with one of our group who goes there regularly, I think he mentioned something to the effect that most people
Don't dive San Carlos in the winter due to the tidal surge or algae clouding up the water, so I'd check with someone who knows. It's not the clearest water to begin with so if it was cloudier than normal, it would be a wasted trip.
You could also call El Mar Dive/Travel here, they run a bus down to San Carlos and their sister outfit is in San Carlos, they're great people and I'm sure they'd answer any questions you have.
www.elmar.com
hth,
Steve
