mohave_steve
Contributor
Hey Everyone!
Thanks for the recommendations for Dining & Diving. We very much enjoyed our trip in spite of some very troublsome events.
We flew Alaska Airlines from Pasco WA to Cabo. We drove to Pasco the night before and stayed the night as we had to be at the airport at 5:00am in order to sit for four hours and watch other people leave before they finally changed our flight status from "delayed" to "canceled". The airline staff at the airport was useless. I wound up calling the reservations line and after an hour on the phone we finally worked out a revised flight. We arrived in Cabo but none of our luggage made it with us. I then spent 45 minutes in the lost luggage office and left angry & not having any clue if we would see our luggage again. I then got yelled at by the shuttle driver for making them wait.
Arrived at our hotel about 8:00pm. Hotel Finistera. Beautiful place. Friendly & accomodating staff. I would stay there again without hesitation.
Sunday found me up bright & early wearing yesterdays clothes for a trip to Walmart to purchase clothing & toiletries. Upon returning to the hotel I asked the conceirge to call the lost luggage desk at the airport on my behalf. She spoke for several minutes in spanish with the conversation gradually getting louder & louder. Finally she hung up rather abruptly and called the "Lost Luggage Lady" a bad name.... Still no clue as to if or when we would see our luggage. I also emailed Alaska Airlines customer service and received an automated reply stating that it may take up to 30 days for them to reply.
Thankfully our luggage appeared Sunday night and we were able to make our Monday dives.
We dove with Lands End Divers. Carlos, the owner, was very nice and Roberto, our dive master, was knowlegable and very accomodating. I was quite impressed with him. Unfortunately when we hit the water my opinion suffered somewhat.
I had explained to him that this was my Wife's first dive since completeing her O/W as well as her first salt water dive. The first two dives were ok. We dove at Pelican Rock & Lands End. We enjoyed the dives but would likely have enjoyed them more at a little slower pace. It was nice to be in the water & we saw a fair number of fish.
Tuesday we made the treck to Cabo Pulmo. Roberto picked us up in a very comfortable Suburban and we had a very comfortable drive to Cabo Pulmo.
Upon arrival we assebmled our gear and put it in the panga. There were four divers plus the DM. During the briefing Roberto told us that the current was rather strong and that we would be doing a drift dive. Well it wasn't quite so. We spent a fair portion battling the current and my wife had some difficulty keeping up and I stuck with her. We did see a few lobster, eels and a number of puffer, surgeon, angel & pipe fish. The visibility was not what I had hoped for and having to work to keep up with the DM kept us from focusing as much as I would have liked. When we ended the dive Roberto gently scolded us for not keeping up... My wife decided she was done diving for the trip
On the second dive I mad a bad assumption. In the past when I had been on DM led dives and we had an odd number of divers one of us would buddy with the DM. I assumed that this dive was the same. Not so. This again was to be a drift dive with the boat following us for pickup at the end. Roberto instructed us to make our entry with no air in our BCs and head straight for the bottom. The current was raging. We flew along the reef waqtching the scenery go by. My mask began to leak and when I looked up to clear my mask Roberto dropped into a narrow canyon. I blew right past.
I turned and tried to swim back to the canyon but it was futile. Finning as hard as I could and moving further away. I considered ascending at that point but decided to give one more try. I turned 90degrees and tried to swim across the current and to the place I hoped he would exit the canyon. I made it and met him there but was exhausted & my breating was out of control. I caught hold of his tank band and let him tow me until I settled my breathing. After we ended the dive and went back to the beach. When I had a moment alone wtih Roberto I voiced my concern at having been left on my own and he pointed out that it was not his responsibility to stay with me but he did feel that I had made the right decisions considering the circumstances.
Note to self: Communicate expectations CLEARLY before the dive.... I dive with a buddy and I STICK WITH MY BUDDY....
No diving on Wenesday. We spent the day lounging by the pool and sampling the swim up bar.
No diving on Thursday. More pool time and a bit of shopping. I couldn't resist though...
Stopped at Amigos del Mar and spoke with Gary(?) Decided to give them a try on Friday.
Friday: Two fantastic dives with George (Horhay?). We dove Middle Wall and took our time. I saw more sea life on this dive than I did on my past four dives combined. No kidding we saw a Moray Eel that had to have been over 8 feet long. As my wife was not diving I buddied up with Jason form San Fransisco. Jason has quite the eye for picking out the life in the rocks & crevices. I am still going through my pictures trying to identify all of the life we saw. Water was warm (84-86) Viz was 40-50ft and the current was mild.
Well I am running out of time to finish this post. I'll be back later and edit/finish.
This was my first ocean diving with a camera. Pictures are not to great. Any tips would be appreciated.
http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee201/mohave_steve/Cabo/
http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee201/mohave_steve/Cabo/cabo pulmo/
Thanks for the recommendations for Dining & Diving. We very much enjoyed our trip in spite of some very troublsome events.
We flew Alaska Airlines from Pasco WA to Cabo. We drove to Pasco the night before and stayed the night as we had to be at the airport at 5:00am in order to sit for four hours and watch other people leave before they finally changed our flight status from "delayed" to "canceled". The airline staff at the airport was useless. I wound up calling the reservations line and after an hour on the phone we finally worked out a revised flight. We arrived in Cabo but none of our luggage made it with us. I then spent 45 minutes in the lost luggage office and left angry & not having any clue if we would see our luggage again. I then got yelled at by the shuttle driver for making them wait.
Arrived at our hotel about 8:00pm. Hotel Finistera. Beautiful place. Friendly & accomodating staff. I would stay there again without hesitation.
Sunday found me up bright & early wearing yesterdays clothes for a trip to Walmart to purchase clothing & toiletries. Upon returning to the hotel I asked the conceirge to call the lost luggage desk at the airport on my behalf. She spoke for several minutes in spanish with the conversation gradually getting louder & louder. Finally she hung up rather abruptly and called the "Lost Luggage Lady" a bad name.... Still no clue as to if or when we would see our luggage. I also emailed Alaska Airlines customer service and received an automated reply stating that it may take up to 30 days for them to reply.
Thankfully our luggage appeared Sunday night and we were able to make our Monday dives.
We dove with Lands End Divers. Carlos, the owner, was very nice and Roberto, our dive master, was knowlegable and very accomodating. I was quite impressed with him. Unfortunately when we hit the water my opinion suffered somewhat.
I had explained to him that this was my Wife's first dive since completeing her O/W as well as her first salt water dive. The first two dives were ok. We dove at Pelican Rock & Lands End. We enjoyed the dives but would likely have enjoyed them more at a little slower pace. It was nice to be in the water & we saw a fair number of fish.
Tuesday we made the treck to Cabo Pulmo. Roberto picked us up in a very comfortable Suburban and we had a very comfortable drive to Cabo Pulmo.
Upon arrival we assebmled our gear and put it in the panga. There were four divers plus the DM. During the briefing Roberto told us that the current was rather strong and that we would be doing a drift dive. Well it wasn't quite so. We spent a fair portion battling the current and my wife had some difficulty keeping up and I stuck with her. We did see a few lobster, eels and a number of puffer, surgeon, angel & pipe fish. The visibility was not what I had hoped for and having to work to keep up with the DM kept us from focusing as much as I would have liked. When we ended the dive Roberto gently scolded us for not keeping up... My wife decided she was done diving for the trip
On the second dive I mad a bad assumption. In the past when I had been on DM led dives and we had an odd number of divers one of us would buddy with the DM. I assumed that this dive was the same. Not so. This again was to be a drift dive with the boat following us for pickup at the end. Roberto instructed us to make our entry with no air in our BCs and head straight for the bottom. The current was raging. We flew along the reef waqtching the scenery go by. My mask began to leak and when I looked up to clear my mask Roberto dropped into a narrow canyon. I blew right past.
I turned and tried to swim back to the canyon but it was futile. Finning as hard as I could and moving further away. I considered ascending at that point but decided to give one more try. I turned 90degrees and tried to swim across the current and to the place I hoped he would exit the canyon. I made it and met him there but was exhausted & my breating was out of control. I caught hold of his tank band and let him tow me until I settled my breathing. After we ended the dive and went back to the beach. When I had a moment alone wtih Roberto I voiced my concern at having been left on my own and he pointed out that it was not his responsibility to stay with me but he did feel that I had made the right decisions considering the circumstances.
Note to self: Communicate expectations CLEARLY before the dive.... I dive with a buddy and I STICK WITH MY BUDDY....
No diving on Wenesday. We spent the day lounging by the pool and sampling the swim up bar.
No diving on Thursday. More pool time and a bit of shopping. I couldn't resist though...
Stopped at Amigos del Mar and spoke with Gary(?) Decided to give them a try on Friday.
Friday: Two fantastic dives with George (Horhay?). We dove Middle Wall and took our time. I saw more sea life on this dive than I did on my past four dives combined. No kidding we saw a Moray Eel that had to have been over 8 feet long. As my wife was not diving I buddied up with Jason form San Fransisco. Jason has quite the eye for picking out the life in the rocks & crevices. I am still going through my pictures trying to identify all of the life we saw. Water was warm (84-86) Viz was 40-50ft and the current was mild.
Well I am running out of time to finish this post. I'll be back later and edit/finish.
This was my first ocean diving with a camera. Pictures are not to great. Any tips would be appreciated.
http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee201/mohave_steve/Cabo/
http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee201/mohave_steve/Cabo/cabo pulmo/
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