GregT943
Contributor
This is a trip report on my recent trip to Cabo San Lucas. I was there from October 4th to October 11th. I stayed at the RUI Santa Fe and went diving with Manta Scuba. I did 3 days of diving in the local marine park and one trip to the Gordo Banks. This trip report will focus on the diving and the resort. It’s a touristy place and is very easy to get to so I don’t think there is any need to cover travel to the destination, and there enough info on the town of Cabo San Lucas on internet as well.
RUI Santa Fe
The RUI Santa Fe is a large all inclusive resort located right on the beach about 7 minutes outside of the main town of Cabo San Lucas (about a $10 cab ride into town). It cost me about $1,100 per person for 7 nights at this resort. The rooms were nice, all with balconies or patios. Spacious bathrooms with a free mini bar filled with tequila, rum, beer, water, and soft drinks. The resort had many bars and offered shows and entertainment in a small amphitheatre every night if you are into that sort of thing. We never watched them so I can say if the entertainment is good or not. There are two pools at the resort. Both are very large and very impressive. The infinity pools down near the beach had an amazing view of the bay, unfortunately these near the beach are where the party was. Loud music and crowds of drunk people occupied the pools down near the beach from about 11:30 AM until about 7:30 PM, which is why we referred to this pool as “The Bro Pool,” as it was mostly filled with severely sunburned drunken bros. There is another very large and beautiful pool with a swim up bar located in the center of the resort. This pool was very quiet and family friendly and great for relaxing. My girl friend is not scuba certified yet, so the mornings I went diving she found it best to lay out on the beach early, and then once things started to get loud down near the Bro pool, she would move to the quiet pool.
I have no complaint about the resort itself. The staff was friendly and very helpful. The grounds are beautiful and well kept. Cleaning service and everything was perfect. The only thing that was bad about the resort was the food. The food was generally really bad. Breakfast was good, because its pretty hard to screw up bacon and waffles. Lunch was terrible. Very limited in selection and the food was just gross. Dinner was better than lunch but still pretty bad. The quality of food just wasn’t good. It was comparable to cafeteria food. So we ate dinner in town a couple nights.
Manta Scuba
I dove with Manta Scuba for 4 days. They are located on the far side of the marina right near Senor Frogs. I was very happy with the staff, they were all very friendly and knowledgeable. I did 3 days of diving in the marine park and one day of diving at the Gordo Banks. The diving in the marine park was great. I was lucky enough to be the only one diving the marine park with them on 2 days. I was diving with a new camera and wanted to get lots of practice. The dive guide was great at finding me plenty of subjects. On sites that were better for macro he would patiently wait for me to get the shots I wanted, and search for new subjects while I was busy photographing something else. My favorite site in the marine park was the point at land’s end. The site had huge schools of fish, even saw some game fish like Dorado/mahi mahi, lots of rays down in the sand, and if you are lucky enough (which I was not) a visit from a sea lion from the small resident sea lion colony. I really enjoyed diving in the marine park.
The other dive I did was to the Gordo Banks to hopefully see some schooling hammerheads. I was really excited for this dive as I have never (and still haven’t) seen a hammerhead. It’s a long boat ride out, a little over an hour, and an even longer boat ride back as the sea tends to get very choppy in the afternoon. It’s essentially a blue water dive to a sea mount about 9 miles off the coast, north of Cabo San Lucas. The top of the seamount is at around 135 feet. To begin this dive we descended down the anchor line to about 125 feet. The visibility below 75 feet was about 40 feet, while above 75 feet it was closer to about 65. You release off of the line all at the same time and simply drift with current. We stayed down around 125 for only a short time, there we went through a seemingly endless school of skip jacks, but unfortunately no hammerheads. After a few minutes you ascend and this is where the dive becomes a blue water dive. The rest of the dive you spend floating weightless in the water column looking in every direction hoping to catch a glimpse of something cool. Luckily our group was joined by two Mobula rays flipping and circling around us for about 10 minutes. The second dive was the same as the first, still no sharks, but we did see a large marlin during our safety stop. The other two groups on the boat were unlucky and saw absolutely nothing but blue water on both their dives. The staff said they saw the hammerheads in the beginning of the season in late August, but hadn’t seen them since then. They said there will be a better chance at seeing them towards the end of the season in November. It was a cool dive, the other groups on the boat obviously did not enjoy the dive as they saw nothing. I don’t think I would do the dive again, and I would recommend people do a day at Cabo Pulmo or La Paz instead.
Overall I had a great time with Manta Scuba and definitely recommend them. Cabo was awesome and I would definitely consider returning there in the future. Below are a few pictures that I took while there.
RUI Santa Fe
The RUI Santa Fe is a large all inclusive resort located right on the beach about 7 minutes outside of the main town of Cabo San Lucas (about a $10 cab ride into town). It cost me about $1,100 per person for 7 nights at this resort. The rooms were nice, all with balconies or patios. Spacious bathrooms with a free mini bar filled with tequila, rum, beer, water, and soft drinks. The resort had many bars and offered shows and entertainment in a small amphitheatre every night if you are into that sort of thing. We never watched them so I can say if the entertainment is good or not. There are two pools at the resort. Both are very large and very impressive. The infinity pools down near the beach had an amazing view of the bay, unfortunately these near the beach are where the party was. Loud music and crowds of drunk people occupied the pools down near the beach from about 11:30 AM until about 7:30 PM, which is why we referred to this pool as “The Bro Pool,” as it was mostly filled with severely sunburned drunken bros. There is another very large and beautiful pool with a swim up bar located in the center of the resort. This pool was very quiet and family friendly and great for relaxing. My girl friend is not scuba certified yet, so the mornings I went diving she found it best to lay out on the beach early, and then once things started to get loud down near the Bro pool, she would move to the quiet pool.
I have no complaint about the resort itself. The staff was friendly and very helpful. The grounds are beautiful and well kept. Cleaning service and everything was perfect. The only thing that was bad about the resort was the food. The food was generally really bad. Breakfast was good, because its pretty hard to screw up bacon and waffles. Lunch was terrible. Very limited in selection and the food was just gross. Dinner was better than lunch but still pretty bad. The quality of food just wasn’t good. It was comparable to cafeteria food. So we ate dinner in town a couple nights.
Manta Scuba
I dove with Manta Scuba for 4 days. They are located on the far side of the marina right near Senor Frogs. I was very happy with the staff, they were all very friendly and knowledgeable. I did 3 days of diving in the marine park and one day of diving at the Gordo Banks. The diving in the marine park was great. I was lucky enough to be the only one diving the marine park with them on 2 days. I was diving with a new camera and wanted to get lots of practice. The dive guide was great at finding me plenty of subjects. On sites that were better for macro he would patiently wait for me to get the shots I wanted, and search for new subjects while I was busy photographing something else. My favorite site in the marine park was the point at land’s end. The site had huge schools of fish, even saw some game fish like Dorado/mahi mahi, lots of rays down in the sand, and if you are lucky enough (which I was not) a visit from a sea lion from the small resident sea lion colony. I really enjoyed diving in the marine park.
The other dive I did was to the Gordo Banks to hopefully see some schooling hammerheads. I was really excited for this dive as I have never (and still haven’t) seen a hammerhead. It’s a long boat ride out, a little over an hour, and an even longer boat ride back as the sea tends to get very choppy in the afternoon. It’s essentially a blue water dive to a sea mount about 9 miles off the coast, north of Cabo San Lucas. The top of the seamount is at around 135 feet. To begin this dive we descended down the anchor line to about 125 feet. The visibility below 75 feet was about 40 feet, while above 75 feet it was closer to about 65. You release off of the line all at the same time and simply drift with current. We stayed down around 125 for only a short time, there we went through a seemingly endless school of skip jacks, but unfortunately no hammerheads. After a few minutes you ascend and this is where the dive becomes a blue water dive. The rest of the dive you spend floating weightless in the water column looking in every direction hoping to catch a glimpse of something cool. Luckily our group was joined by two Mobula rays flipping and circling around us for about 10 minutes. The second dive was the same as the first, still no sharks, but we did see a large marlin during our safety stop. The other two groups on the boat were unlucky and saw absolutely nothing but blue water on both their dives. The staff said they saw the hammerheads in the beginning of the season in late August, but hadn’t seen them since then. They said there will be a better chance at seeing them towards the end of the season in November. It was a cool dive, the other groups on the boat obviously did not enjoy the dive as they saw nothing. I don’t think I would do the dive again, and I would recommend people do a day at Cabo Pulmo or La Paz instead.
Overall I had a great time with Manta Scuba and definitely recommend them. Cabo was awesome and I would definitely consider returning there in the future. Below are a few pictures that I took while there.
