Puerto Vallarta and Cabo in April

[Robinhood]

I'm going on a cruise next week and will be hitting Puerto Vallarto and Cabo. I've seen alot of posts that the diving is okay and the temps can be pretty cold, but I didn't see a whole lot about this specific time of year. How is the diving at both locations in early April? Is it worth it or should I just sit back and drink Tequila on the beach? BTW, I was not going to take a trip off the ship..I was going to hook up with local shops of which I have a bunch of recommendations.

Thank you ahead of time for your advice

 

[pablovi]

I don't know about Puerto Vallarta but in Cabo you will have very limited visibility and very cold water! The diving season starts in June in Cabo. and even then, you have cold water, the best time fo the year to dive there is early Agust to late november.

But you can check with the local shops, I wouldn't pay to go there to dive this time of the year, but if you're already there it can hurt to ask about the conditions when you arrive.

 

[ItsBruce]

I've done both PV and Cabo in April. It is chilly. But, I've really enjoyed the dives. (On the other hand, I've enjoyed just about every dive I've ever done.) My logs show fair visibility and between 68 and 72 degrees for PV for April. They show a low of 61 and a high of 68 for Cabo for April.

 

[bluesbro1982]

I just finished my last contract on a ship (Musician) for 4 months of MX riviera where I learned to dive. We dove cabo about 4 2-tankers with Underwater Diversions. The DM's were great.

Visibility was about 35-ish feet. The water is cold if you are used to the tropics. for the 2-15-06 dive the coldest temp we had was 68F, warmest 74 degrees 10 days before. A full 6-7mm suit is nice, but we didn't use hoods and we were all pretty comfy.

You see a bunch of nice stuff. If you dive lands end theres a nice little channel by the rock where the sea lions hang out, a nice second dive at about 35-40 feet. The sea lions are used to divers and will come out and play. In there is a crevice with about 10 huge lobsters just hanging about. very good stuff.

I didn't get the chance to dive PV because of a passenger medevac out the prev night, but the shops in PV are adamant that they are "the best" on the pacific side. Let us know if you dive both cabo and PV which you like better

Zihuatenejo / Ixtapa is OK, but I didn't think it was nearly as good as Cabo. we did about 4 tanks on 2 different occasions and both times the vis for the first deep water dive was garbage. In Zihuatenejo there's a nice italian restaurant called Il Mare up the hill from Playa Ropa. Excellent food and good people. Best bet is to sit on the beach at playa ropa, drink margaritas and veg out.

Acapulco was where i did my cert, and there are a few nice places including an open wreck, but the pollution has taken its toll.

Hope that helps. What line are you on? you might be able to scare some of my friends who are still going to be on the ships

Happy Diving

Adam

 

[Kaitlyn1521]

Heya,
Just back from PV in early March. ST was apx 69 deg. Visibility is allright if you get out early, before the OW students get out there to stir things up. hehe!

While I didn't have the oportunity to do any of the isolated sites I would have liked, I did check out Las Marietas, Mahauitas and LosArcos.
IMO the best of the sites being LosArcos- impressive wall/dropoff <- Made the site more than worthwhile.
Bit more of a boat trip, but I hear ElMorro and Corbetena are quite nice as well (on next year's agenda for me)

 

[glcoley]

I'm going on a cruise next week and will be hitting Puerto Vallarto and Cabo. I've seen alot of posts that the diving is okay and the temps can be pretty cold, but I didn't see a whole lot about this specific time of year. How is the diving at both locations in early April? Is it worth it or should I just sit back and drink Tequila on the beach? BTW, I was not going to take a trip off the ship..I was going to hook up with local shops of which I have a bunch of recommendations.

Thank you ahead of time for your advice

My wife and I go to Cabo every April.
everyone says it's too cold, but cold is relative to what you're used too...
mid 60'sF to mid 70's F is not really cold to us,
we dive New Mexico fresh water lakes and Calif Pacific waters from 62F down in the 40'sF, mostly dry, but I dove 4mm this weekend in 62F New Mexico lake to 86'
In Cabo we dive Cabo Pulmo a must if you can
and in the Cabo bay area, etc. - not too cold to dive
shops all rent wet suits

 

[jsheffer]

Your already gone but for any others - definitely get out to El Morro for the deep dive. Vis was great - temp was okay with a full 5mm. The hour plus ride to the sites were a blast and the food/drinks were great. Marietas was an interesting dive - the dm we used from Vallarta Adventures was a biology major and pointed out many tiny creatures e would have missed. First sea horse I've run across. Night dive at Los Arcos - hefty current. Make sure you're in an experienced group with multiple dms. We almost had to call the dive because divers were getting separated in the surface current and inexperience played a huge factor for one dm to keep it all safe.