Puerto Vallarta advice?

[Sharkdiver_Mac]

I'll be in PV in 2 weeks and want to get some diving in w/ my brother-in-law (wives go to the spa, boys race to the dive shop). I've heard positive things about Pacific Scuba, but I'd like to know more about the dive sites themselves.

Any experience out there with Los Arcos, Marietas Islands and/or Chimo? I've read that mantas can frequent Chimo this time of the year - anyone experienced that in the past?

Thanks for any help & advice.

 

[Chocoholic]

I'll be in PV in 2 weeks and want to get some diving in w/ my brother-in-law (wives go to the spa, boys race to the dive shop). I've heard positive things about Pacific Scuba, but I'd like to know more about the dive sites themselves.

Any experience out there with Los Arcos, Marietas Islands and/or Chimo? I've read that mantas can frequent Chimo this time of the year - anyone experienced that in the past?

Thanks for any help & advice.

The dive sites are quite aways from PV. Los Arcos is about 30 min ride from Los Peines Pier where the dive boats are kept. Marietas Islands are about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours ride out. I dove Los Arcos - ok vis, fair amount of fish, but the valley/gorge area there had lots of fish in it. Las Marietas islands was cool - lots of fish, pretty good vis, a few corals, lots of little swim throughs and a pretty area to hang out for the SIT. I also dove El Morro and that had good vis, lots of fish and some coral but was almost 2 hours out from the dock, [they mentioned that they had seen mantas earlier in the week]. The diving isn't as good as east coast Mexico diving but it's worth diving. Have fun. Choco

 

[torrey]

I'm curious about Puerto Vallarta too, as I may be there this summer. Are there places to rent equipment and just shore dive? I would rather just do something shallow for photography without worrying about anybody else.

 

[leslieinpv]

Hi, I live in Puerto Vallarta, if your looking for specific info on temp, vis and other things drop me a line i will help you out. I just joined this site, Vallarta has great diving. there is alot of life at all the dive spots. sometimes the visability is not the best, but if you go slow and look around you can see many things.all the dive sites are a little different. which is nice for the diversity. los arcos has a wall dive that is nice , drops down 1600 feet. also in the shallows of christ , is a nice small reef that varies from 30 feet to 80 feet. usually alot of night dives is done there. marietas is volcanic in nature. has some nice swimm thrus. some at 30 feet and another area has some at 50 feet. i see alot of diversity of sea life there cause there is a reef that jets out from the island and then there is lot of sand , so you get sand life (guitar fish, one sided fish, stingrays) and reef life( sea horse,turtles mantas,fish. chimo is beautiful, there are alot of different dive sites in that area. one in particular is so big that you do one dive one direction ,second dive the other direction. one side seems to go down forever and you feel the depth, and you go the opposite direction and stay 60 feet with lots of beatiful rock formations and abundance of fish octopus and sea life. thats just one of the spots in chimo. el morro is also an advanced dive, just outside the bay. there is a tunel that opens up at about a hundred feet, huge entrance then you follow your way and exit out about 60 feet. great moray eels inthere, enveloped by shrimp all around them. about the mantas. spring time is there mating season here in vallarta. so there are lots of mantas. you can see mantas almost all year round at chimo and el morro. but when they mate you can usually get a chance to see them at any dive locaiton, even los arcos. if you want more specific informaiton send me a message.

 

[ocgrant]

I dove Los Arco's many times last July, it was great. I am going back again this July and plan to get a lot of diving in. I beach dive right off of the condo we stay in at Playas Gemelas, I deal with Chico's dive shop and they bring tanks and pick them up right from my condo its great.

 

[travel2sunshine]

I have dove several operations in PV. Going from Cattle Boat operations to small private groups. All the good dive sites besides out at the island are at the south of the bay.

For equiptment rental and shore dives, it will be hard to do unless you use a shop down in Mismaloya and try and swim out to Los Arco's or go out of Boca de Tomatlan and hike to the next cove. You could also try doing a private rental of a panga but at that rate, you might as well use the dive shop boat as they are better set up for holding the tanks. If you hike to it Colomitos is a good 30 minutes.

Check out www.bocadivers.com for dive sites. I have used Karla several times and have been very pleased with the service and small operation. We always take the bus out of PV first thing in the morning and get off in Boca and then walk the last block to Boca Divers. The trip is rather fast and I really enjoy the view along the way. I am not always great on boats so with Boca being close to the dive sites, I have less time on top of the water and I don't feel as sick. Morning diving is great but diving in PV in the afternoons the wind seems to always pick up and the water gets higher swells.

I have also used Pacific Scuba, they are the ones right down from the marina. They were good but I found their equiptment was not in as great of condition as Boca Divers. We had several dives that our regs had issues with the depth gauge and it did not work and they did not have an extra on the boat. We were lucky as my buddy had the dive watch and we swapped the regs on the bc's and we were good to go again. Our dm was Leslie and she was great. I just checked their website and she is still there. If they still do things the same way, you will have to meet in the marina each morning. There is an entrance fee and if you are depending on bus, the walk down from the bus stop is a short 10 minute hike into the marina. Not to bad, just a small additional fee to consider. I think it is around 1-2 dollars.

We did try diving Chimo once, and have not tried it again. I think it would have been spectacular but the viz that day was almost zero. We used Boca divers again and after trying twice to get some viz we picked up and went to another site. Karla is great on making sure you have a good dive even if it means going to another location.

PV is one of our favorite places in Mexico to visit. We love the town and people, diving is good but not as great as the carribean sea... I guess it is just personal preference.

Marsha

 

[edgrappler]

I am going to PV this week. I am looking forward to do some spearfishing during my visit. Do you have any information on who or where I can arrange a spearfishing trip?