Puerto Vallarta dive op recommendations

[Mossman]

As far as marine life goes, on my certification dives I saw (and held, guilty and gleefully at the prompting of the instructor) an octopus, a seahorse, a pufferfish, some kind of spider crab, a sea urchin, a sea cucumber, and a starfish, and there were plenty of angelfish, parrotfish, pufferfish, and other little tropical fishies toward the surface. It took a few more dives to see green sea turtles, round rays, eagle rays, garden eels, giant moray eels, nudibranchs, stonefish (no touchy!), some anemones, little corals, bioluminescent plankton, and massive underwater rock formations, big as buildings.

Yeah, our PV DM was hands on too, as were the DMs in Ixtapa/Zihuatenejo years ago. I hadn't seen a puffer puffed up by a DM since I went to Roatan, also years ago. I ignored it, so as not to encourage the DM, but he handed it to the other two divers with us. I like playing with marine life as much as the next diver, but puffing puffers is controversial as it's not well understood whether they can only puff a certain amount of times in their lifetime or whether it's harmful to them in any way. Octopi are curious and sometimes enjoy the interaction (they'll squirt their ink and flee if they're not having fun) but be really careful after handling one since they're a favorite of morays and, being almost blind, morays will bite your hand if they smell octopus on you.

 

[FuzzyNutz]

I don't know what all the fuss is about, I loved diving Puerto Vallarta! Alright, no, I wouldn't go back as a feature dive destination, but it was still awesome, and I want to go back! The boat rides were the best ever for me, there were humpbacks breaching EVERYWHERE!! I also think the town and nightlife is really fun. I dove with Vallarta UnderSea and they were awesome! Small boats, super friendly, phenomenal crew, and a very knowledgeable owner!

If you do go to Vallarta, definitely do the zip line tour that's on the old set of the movie "Predator"!! The zip lines there are HUGE... and did I mention PREDATOR?!?!?! The 'CHOPPA' is still there in the jungle!!!!! FREAKIN SWEET!!!!!

 

[Mike]

LOL, the predator set! That's funny stuff.

We dove in PV a few years ago, this was the weekend that 5 divers mysteriously died at Los Arcos dive site.

We dived the

Marietas Islands. The boat ride consisted of an open panga bouncing your butt 6 inches off the seat on every wave crest, water spraying you for 45 minutes both ways. I looked back one time and the guy running the outboard all I could see was his eyes and his nose, as he had his hooding draw string pulled so tight around his face.

The diving was freezing. Wife set out the 2nd dive she was so cold, I barely made it through the 2nd dive.

Coolest part of the whole thing was the sardine run, with millions of birds dive bombing the sardines.​

 

[retro-steve]

I am also most likely going to be in PV for the week of April 16; I'll be looking into a few of the dive shops posted here. This isn't a dive trip so much as a "all-inclusive not work for a week for under $1000" trip that I will also be diving on.