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Sorry for the delay in posting this.
I travelled to Cabo San Lucas in May 2019, three days early, before boarding the Nautilus Explorer for a trip to the Revillagigedos. I decided to take advantage of the local diving opportunities. I found the Cabo Dive Center on the Nautilus website, as they offered a free warm up dive for divers scheduled on one of their liveaboards. Since my visit, the dive operator has been renamed See Creatures, following a merger with the former dive shop, Amigos del Mar. The location is the same, just outside the main lobby of the Tesoro Hotel. The warm up dive is still offered by Nautilus.
Reservations: I made my airline reservations directly with American Airlines. Reservations with the Tesoro Hotel and Cabo Dive Center/See Creatures were made directly.
Travel: I flew from Philadelphia to Los Cabos, with a stop in Phoenix. Transport to and from the hotel was with Terramar, recommended by Nautilus, worked seamlessly. It’s something like 45 minutes from the airport to Cabo San Lucas.
Accommodations: The Tesoro Hotel is located on the marina. I had a quiet, comfortable, deluxe marina view room with a nice balcony. Breakfast was included, I ate at the Lighthouse, just across from the dive shop. I ate most lunches and dinners at Vista Roof restaurant, good food and variety, moderate cost. There is a large pool overlooking the marina.
Diving: For my three days of diving, I had planned to do one day in the Cabo San Lucas Marine Park, one day in the Corridor, and one day diving Gordo Banks. Unfortunately, seas were high, it was quite windy, and conditions limited diving to the marine park. We were not even able to dive at Land’s End, as the conditions would not allow. We ended up doing a dive at Neptune’s Finger, 3 dives around Pelican Rock, and 2 drift dives either starting or ending at Pelican Rock. We met each morning at the dive shop and made a short walk to the boat. We had only 3-5 divers and a good DM, Luis. He did a very good job dealing with a group varying from quite experienced to rank beginner. Unfortunately, due to the diversity of the group, dives were short, averaging about 40 minutes (25-46). I dived air for all six dives. Current and surge were moderate, greater at times, Visibility was 20-30 feet, water temperature was 70-73, maximum depths were 67-84 feet. I was perfectly comfortable in my 7 mm full suit and hooded vest I brought for the Revillagigedos. Others, with less exposure protection, got very cold. Despite the less than optimum conditions, there was an abundant variety of sea life, including a couple of sea lions, large schools of snapper, spotted and golden Guineafowl Puffers, many Balloonfish, Porcupinefish, some large Broomtail Grouper, a Guitarfish, Reef Cornet, Chinese Trumpet, Threebanded Butterflyfish, Barberfish, Green Morays… The dive shop did not charge me for my 2 tanker on the last day, the day I was scheduled for the Nautilus warm up dive.
So, despite adverse conditions, I had a pretty enjoyable time diving before my liveaboard trip. I was not able to experience the full spectrum of diving Cabo San Lucas has to offer. In addition, See Creatures offers a day trip to Cabo Pulmo, done through a local affiliate. I doubt I would choose Cabo San Lucas as a primary dive destination, but it is certainly a fine place to spend some time if you are going out on a liveaboard from that location.
I travelled to Cabo San Lucas in May 2019, three days early, before boarding the Nautilus Explorer for a trip to the Revillagigedos. I decided to take advantage of the local diving opportunities. I found the Cabo Dive Center on the Nautilus website, as they offered a free warm up dive for divers scheduled on one of their liveaboards. Since my visit, the dive operator has been renamed See Creatures, following a merger with the former dive shop, Amigos del Mar. The location is the same, just outside the main lobby of the Tesoro Hotel. The warm up dive is still offered by Nautilus.
Reservations: I made my airline reservations directly with American Airlines. Reservations with the Tesoro Hotel and Cabo Dive Center/See Creatures were made directly.
Travel: I flew from Philadelphia to Los Cabos, with a stop in Phoenix. Transport to and from the hotel was with Terramar, recommended by Nautilus, worked seamlessly. It’s something like 45 minutes from the airport to Cabo San Lucas.
Accommodations: The Tesoro Hotel is located on the marina. I had a quiet, comfortable, deluxe marina view room with a nice balcony. Breakfast was included, I ate at the Lighthouse, just across from the dive shop. I ate most lunches and dinners at Vista Roof restaurant, good food and variety, moderate cost. There is a large pool overlooking the marina.
Diving: For my three days of diving, I had planned to do one day in the Cabo San Lucas Marine Park, one day in the Corridor, and one day diving Gordo Banks. Unfortunately, seas were high, it was quite windy, and conditions limited diving to the marine park. We were not even able to dive at Land’s End, as the conditions would not allow. We ended up doing a dive at Neptune’s Finger, 3 dives around Pelican Rock, and 2 drift dives either starting or ending at Pelican Rock. We met each morning at the dive shop and made a short walk to the boat. We had only 3-5 divers and a good DM, Luis. He did a very good job dealing with a group varying from quite experienced to rank beginner. Unfortunately, due to the diversity of the group, dives were short, averaging about 40 minutes (25-46). I dived air for all six dives. Current and surge were moderate, greater at times, Visibility was 20-30 feet, water temperature was 70-73, maximum depths were 67-84 feet. I was perfectly comfortable in my 7 mm full suit and hooded vest I brought for the Revillagigedos. Others, with less exposure protection, got very cold. Despite the less than optimum conditions, there was an abundant variety of sea life, including a couple of sea lions, large schools of snapper, spotted and golden Guineafowl Puffers, many Balloonfish, Porcupinefish, some large Broomtail Grouper, a Guitarfish, Reef Cornet, Chinese Trumpet, Threebanded Butterflyfish, Barberfish, Green Morays… The dive shop did not charge me for my 2 tanker on the last day, the day I was scheduled for the Nautilus warm up dive.
So, despite adverse conditions, I had a pretty enjoyable time diving before my liveaboard trip. I was not able to experience the full spectrum of diving Cabo San Lucas has to offer. In addition, See Creatures offers a day trip to Cabo Pulmo, done through a local affiliate. I doubt I would choose Cabo San Lucas as a primary dive destination, but it is certainly a fine place to spend some time if you are going out on a liveaboard from that location.