(After re-reading this post, it sounds kind of like an infomercial for Puerto Vallarta and Pacific Scuba, but hey, thats how I saw it. So Ill let it stand.)
Well, I just got back from 11 days in Puerto Vallarta where I made 11 dives in five dive trips. My expectations were low due to the various negative posts about Puerto Vallarta Id read on Scubaboard. Most of the posts said that PV was not a dive destination and that I should expect low vis, strong currents, few fish and cattle boat dive boats. I personally experienced the opposite.
After reading every post I could online, making phone calls and writing emails, I chose to do my dives with Pacific Scuba (www.pacificscuba.com.mx). What a great decision! Pacific Scuba is a DIVE shop, not a multiple event tour company that includes dive/snorkel/booze-cruse trips. It is also not a load-em-up, get-em-in-and-out, all levels of divers in big groups cattle boat (which I witnessed with both Chicos and Vallarta Adventures). It is a mom&pop style store that caters to DIVERS. They have excellent equipment (although I brought my own), oxygen on board, smaller groups (I never saw more than 3 to one diver/dive master ratio, and most of the time it was 2 to 1), and they adjust dive locations on the fly based on changing conditions. Dive difficulty is adjusted based on diver experience. There were easy shallow dives for new divers; I did a one-on-one wall dive to 100 feet, and another dive with the DM and one other diver (who is a DM and instructor), which included several nice swim-throughs. Safety procedures were adhered to, dive plans and hand signals were reviewed and applied. Lunch was the same old sandwich every day because these guys are all about diving, not lunch. Also, I was able to negotiate an excellent package price before I arrived. The package was for 8 dives but I bought an additional 3 cause I was having so much fun! Great people to dive with! My wife is not a diver and they welcomed her as a passenger.
As to the diving conditions, I am sure that the reason my diving experience was so much better than what Id read was because I chose to dive during the right time of year. The high season (tourist season) is November though May and most of the PV posters dove during this time. This is also the off-season for diving. Water is murky and colder, weather is windy, visibility is low and current up. The dive season in PV is July though mid September. It only took a small amount of research to figure this out, and so my wife and I chose our vacation for July. Now this is pacific coast diving and so the 50 75 foot visibility I experienced I consider good. There was very little current (the one time it was an issue, the boat picked us up down current). The water temp was a comfortable 84-86 degrees (the same as the air temp!). There were beautiful soft corrals, colorful tropical reef fish everywhere, huge schools of various fishes (many times, multiple schools of different species) and wonderful rock formations. I saw lots of octopus, hundreds of striped, spotted and green morays, nudibranches, a giant manta ray, a white tip reef shark, turtles, sea horses and the usual array of angelfish, parrotfish, butterfly fish and tons of other tropical fishes. There were some cool swim throughs and I also made one typical lobster-filled night dive (woke up a sleeping turtle on that one). Except for the tech diver who can no longer find enjoyment in sport diving, I cant imagine anyone not falling in love with these waters. I lived in Hawaii for a year and Guam for 4 months, and this is not Hawaii or Guam diving, but what I experienced was wonderful. Different waters have different attractions. I learned to dive in southern California, and although the water is colder and the visibility less, I still consider the kelp forests of the Channel Islands a dive destination. I live in Washington State now, and many people consider THIS cold, low vis location a dive designation. PV is not Coz. Its different. But it was great.
I found the people of Puerto Vallarta to be some of the most friendly, service-oriented people in the world. PV itself is an awesome vacation destination, and it is the most returned to vacation spot in all of Mexico. Besides diving, there are many fun things to do. We went horseback riding into the rain forest, parasailing, swam with the dolphins, shopped, swam, laid by the pool, and ate seafood like pigs. The people, hotels and food are wonderful and the prices are good. There is, however, one very dangerous and hideous creature lurking in PV: The Timeshare Sales Person! Beware!!
Bottom line: If you go to PV expecting coral reefs and 200 foot visibility and you dive with a cattle boat, you will be disappointed. But if you plan your PV vacation right -during the diving season and dive with a good outfit - you can expect to have some wonderful diving in a place that is overall one of the the best vacation locations Ive ever been to.
Thus ends this long, biased commercial for Puerto Vallarta, Mx.
(The attached picture is one of my dive logs. The pictures were taken from the boat by my wife. The one with the diver is me at 38 feet as seen from the boat.)
Well, I just got back from 11 days in Puerto Vallarta where I made 11 dives in five dive trips. My expectations were low due to the various negative posts about Puerto Vallarta Id read on Scubaboard. Most of the posts said that PV was not a dive destination and that I should expect low vis, strong currents, few fish and cattle boat dive boats. I personally experienced the opposite.
After reading every post I could online, making phone calls and writing emails, I chose to do my dives with Pacific Scuba (www.pacificscuba.com.mx). What a great decision! Pacific Scuba is a DIVE shop, not a multiple event tour company that includes dive/snorkel/booze-cruse trips. It is also not a load-em-up, get-em-in-and-out, all levels of divers in big groups cattle boat (which I witnessed with both Chicos and Vallarta Adventures). It is a mom&pop style store that caters to DIVERS. They have excellent equipment (although I brought my own), oxygen on board, smaller groups (I never saw more than 3 to one diver/dive master ratio, and most of the time it was 2 to 1), and they adjust dive locations on the fly based on changing conditions. Dive difficulty is adjusted based on diver experience. There were easy shallow dives for new divers; I did a one-on-one wall dive to 100 feet, and another dive with the DM and one other diver (who is a DM and instructor), which included several nice swim-throughs. Safety procedures were adhered to, dive plans and hand signals were reviewed and applied. Lunch was the same old sandwich every day because these guys are all about diving, not lunch. Also, I was able to negotiate an excellent package price before I arrived. The package was for 8 dives but I bought an additional 3 cause I was having so much fun! Great people to dive with! My wife is not a diver and they welcomed her as a passenger.
As to the diving conditions, I am sure that the reason my diving experience was so much better than what Id read was because I chose to dive during the right time of year. The high season (tourist season) is November though May and most of the PV posters dove during this time. This is also the off-season for diving. Water is murky and colder, weather is windy, visibility is low and current up. The dive season in PV is July though mid September. It only took a small amount of research to figure this out, and so my wife and I chose our vacation for July. Now this is pacific coast diving and so the 50 75 foot visibility I experienced I consider good. There was very little current (the one time it was an issue, the boat picked us up down current). The water temp was a comfortable 84-86 degrees (the same as the air temp!). There were beautiful soft corrals, colorful tropical reef fish everywhere, huge schools of various fishes (many times, multiple schools of different species) and wonderful rock formations. I saw lots of octopus, hundreds of striped, spotted and green morays, nudibranches, a giant manta ray, a white tip reef shark, turtles, sea horses and the usual array of angelfish, parrotfish, butterfly fish and tons of other tropical fishes. There were some cool swim throughs and I also made one typical lobster-filled night dive (woke up a sleeping turtle on that one). Except for the tech diver who can no longer find enjoyment in sport diving, I cant imagine anyone not falling in love with these waters. I lived in Hawaii for a year and Guam for 4 months, and this is not Hawaii or Guam diving, but what I experienced was wonderful. Different waters have different attractions. I learned to dive in southern California, and although the water is colder and the visibility less, I still consider the kelp forests of the Channel Islands a dive destination. I live in Washington State now, and many people consider THIS cold, low vis location a dive designation. PV is not Coz. Its different. But it was great.
I found the people of Puerto Vallarta to be some of the most friendly, service-oriented people in the world. PV itself is an awesome vacation destination, and it is the most returned to vacation spot in all of Mexico. Besides diving, there are many fun things to do. We went horseback riding into the rain forest, parasailing, swam with the dolphins, shopped, swam, laid by the pool, and ate seafood like pigs. The people, hotels and food are wonderful and the prices are good. There is, however, one very dangerous and hideous creature lurking in PV: The Timeshare Sales Person! Beware!!
Bottom line: If you go to PV expecting coral reefs and 200 foot visibility and you dive with a cattle boat, you will be disappointed. But if you plan your PV vacation right -during the diving season and dive with a good outfit - you can expect to have some wonderful diving in a place that is overall one of the the best vacation locations Ive ever been to.
Thus ends this long, biased commercial for Puerto Vallarta, Mx.
(The attached picture is one of my dive logs. The pictures were taken from the boat by my wife. The one with the diver is me at 38 feet as seen from the boat.)
