Trip Report (Detailed): Cabo San Lucas

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UnderwaterBumbleBee

Contributor
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Location
San Diego, CA
# of dives
200 - 499
A week ago we came home from back to back trips to Cabo San Lucas and the Dominican Republic. They could not have been more opposite trips in every aspect. Unfortunately we found ourselves counting down the days until our trip in Cabo would end. For the first time we thought Cabo was possibly the only place we would never want to return to. It was really a collection of disappointments that made for an overall poor experience.

Initial plans:
We already had our trip to the DR booked when my husband won a trip to Cabo from his work. They recently purchased a timeshare unit at Playa Grande Resort and decided to give the trip away to an employee. We were thrilled and couldn't believe our luck and irony that it was the week before our DR trip. I was really excited about seeing some different fish life from the typical Caribbean. We did research online on dive shops in Cabo, looking at about 3 different shops. We received good advice from people on here and felt pretty confidant about our conversations online & over the phone so we booked with Amigos Del Mar.

Airport Transportation:
We pre-booked round trip transportation with the Grey line transportation company. We knew they said to look for them outside but our first indication of how our trip would go was within the airport. We walked past what seemed like two areas inside the airport full of timeshare/activity sales people trying to convince you to stop. We walked through the first area with no problem, it was the second that threw us a little thinking where the heck do we go to find our ride. After being hounded by some guy we just kept walking and finally found the Grey line rep outside. We had to wait about 30 minutes before all their passengers were there. Of course our stop was the very last but we got to see several resorts along the way.

Playa Grande Resort:
Upon check in we were told we had to go see the "hostess" in the lobby to get a card for pool towels. Our first chance to meet the timeshare sharks. We were expecting this and had decided we would not attend a timeshare presentation. We weren't interested so why waste precious vacation time being hounded and we already had all our activities pre-booked and paid for. The "hostess" tries to tell us to sit down to which I reply that we are tired and just want to go to our rooms. She proceeds to explain the presentations and gives us a sheet of paper that lists activities that we could get for free if we attended. We tell her we are pretty booked with diving and an ATV tour so we would have to get back to her. The "qualifications" on the back of the paper state in order to attend you must be married couples over 28 and must attend with spouse, gainfully employed or retired, must have a valid id and valid major credit card (yeah right), the tour supposedly lasts 90 minutes with a meal (we heard it's more like 3-4 hours) and the best part states "Singles: Only women". Hmmm, I'm not liking their methods already. A couple times walking through the lobby (which is the only way you can exit the property) we were approached about making an appointment but otherwise they didn't bother us further. I just didn't look forward to walking through the lobby all week for the possibility that they would try to stop us and we witnessed other guests blowing off their attempts as well.

The Room & Property:
The room was probably one of the best rooms we have ever stayed in. It was a good size with a kitchenette near the entrance which included a two burner stove, fridge, microwave, etc... It also had a built in desk, sofa sitting area, a table & 4 chairs, nice comfortable bed and a decent size bathroom with tub/shower. The tile work, especially on the floor was beautiful. The room seemed very new and clean and was decorated nicely. We had a great balcony view of the pools and beach. Despite not being able to enter the ocean from the beach, the waves on the beach are spectacular to watch. The property is pretty, situated on a hill or mountain, some parts of it are grand looking. However at the end of the trip I was over the hills to/from the room and down to the main street. They have 2 pools across from each other, one with a swim up bar. They have an adults only pool which is really small but is closer to the beach and they have a jacuzzi above the other two pools. Despite having 3 pools, they are all a little small for the amount of rooms and almost all the chairs were taken. I was grossed out by the layer of sunscreen floating on the surface of the pools (visible in the corners near the pool bar) along with dead bugs.

Hotel Food:
We only ate at the hotel 3 times and every occasion was regrettable. The prices are ridiculous. It was about $90 USD for the fiesta night which was set up nicely just off the beach. There weren't that many choices and the food wasn't worth the price. I think you are mostly paying for the entertainment and booze. One night I ordered room service, bad pizza and fettuccine Alfredo which had little bits of ham in it. After that night I started having stomach cramps for about 5 days. Our last meal at the resort was Sunday champagne brunch before checking out. We had no idea how much it was until the bill came which was $60 for two people with nothing extra. The food again was just unappealing and strange choices. We just about choked at the bill, I barely even ate anything and were there for maybe 15 minutes.

Continued Below...
 
Restaurants (In Town):

We did our research mostly on TripAdvisor for Cabo restaurants and this was one of the best parts of the trip. We were a little irritated that most places we went to had someone try to talk us into more timeshare presentations or activities. At Soloman's Landing we raved to who we thought was the manager. We were having a great conversation until we realized all she was trying to do was get us to go to a timeshare presentation for another property. On our last day we were walking down the main street when we heard a woman yelling something across the street. Upon turning her direction I realized it was the woman from Soloman's Landing trying to get our attention. Annoying and comical at the same time. Another irritation was mariachis, which my husband declared he was sick of after this trip. They are nice once in awhile but there are so many restaurants across the street from each other and there would be 2-3 different groups of mariachis roaming from one place to the next. We tipped a couple but it got old having to tell many of them we didn't need any songs played at our table.

Salvatore's Italian: Our best meal in Cabo. Every aspect of the meal was great, you could split everything with 3 people and have plenty. Great calamari, spinach salad, lasagna, tiramisu and strawberry mojitos. Service was excellent and almost everyone in the place checked on us throughout the meal.
Wicked Pizza: Great crust, good pizza and good mango margaritas
Crazy Lobster: Great lobster & steak & good prices
Maro's Shrimp House: Fun atmosphere, great staff, good food & Bulldog drink is good. Maro visited every table and was very nice.
Gordo Lee Lee's Taco Stand: Tiny hole in the wall place with spectacularly flavored tacos and super cheap.
Soloman's Landing: On the marina, great for lunch after diving. Really good beef burritos, shrimp tacos.
Mama's: Good breakfast, popular place. Decent prices.

Now to the good stuff....

The Diving:

Day One
Amigos Del Mar is located just down the hill and across the street from Playa Grande. We booked four days of diving with them. Our first day of diving was the "local" dives and we went to Pelican Rock near Land's end which is literally just outside the marina. I don't think it's even a 5 minute ride. I think we had about 6 divers or so on our boat. They have a couple beaches here which attract sunbathers, loads of snorkelers, jet-skiers, para-sailing and loads of dive boats. The cruise ships come in really close to this area so it seems to be a popular excursion. There are lots of people, boats and other aquatic equipment in a small location and it seems like a recipe for disaster. First thing we found interesting was that they told everyone to come up with 1,000 PSI in your tank. Why such a short dive for being so close to shore and not going too deep, seemed extra conservative? We had our 3 mil wetsuits on, mine is 5 years old and pretty compressed and we thought the water was going to be in the mid to high 70's. It was much colder than we expected, more like high 60's to low 70's with huge thermoclines at 40-50 feet. The visibility was not great, maybe 20-30 feet. The fish life was pretty cool though and there were lots of schools.

In between dives we had almost no surface interval, they simply took us over to see the arch which was too choppy to dive near so we got back in the water not far from our first site. We were following the divemaster but the thermoclines were too much for me so we stayed about 10 feet above the divemaster. Within maybe 2 minutes or less we couldn't see them anymore. We've never lost the divemaster before but we weren't worried. We just continued on at the same depth and in the same direction for awhile and then we turned around and headed back towards the boat. We never came across our group again and after our safety stop we cautiously surfaced to try to figure out which boat was ours. We located the boat and descended about 10 feet to swim back, staying out of the way of any traffic, we made it back on board with loads of air left.

Day Two
We were off early to for a trip to Cabo Pulmo. Amigos Del Mar had rented two suburbans to drive the 2 hour ride. They make one stop along the way at a mini supermarket which had the BEST homemade empanadas. It was a good chance for me relax after a nail biting ride during which our driver, already driving fast would accelerate around corners in mountain driving conditions and then hit the breaks. Once at Cabo Pulmo you set up your gear, they load it in a panga boat, a truck backs it into the water and you hop in. It was maybe 10-15 minutes by boat to our first dive site. We had a very poorly explained dive briefing, I don't recall him telling us which direction he was planning on going (we should have clarified) and again wanting us to come up with 1,000 PSI. We all hopped in the water, there were 6 of us including the divemaster. I had my camera which I was clipping to myself and adjusting so we descended last, following the last two people in front of us. Instantly we could see the visibility was terrible, about 10-15 feet. We stuck with the two people in front of us who we assumed we following the guide and the other diver. At about 40 feet and within minutes of starting the dive I could see one of the divers in front of us look at her buddy and and then gesture that she didn't know which way to go. I look at my husband and we just shake our heads and signal to surface where we find everyone is gathered. I remark how bad the visibility is to which the divemaster says "it's not bad visibility" and proceeds to say that we didn't follow the group. This pissed me off and my remark back was that the "group" at that point consisted of me, my buddy and the two divers we were following which was 4 people compared to his 2. In addition to the vis I felt the group fell apart because he didn't wait or check to see if all the divers had successfully descended before heading off and he did not check to see if people were following him. We end up hooking all of our arms together while the divemaster holds onto the boat and the captain tows us back to the divesite. Attempt #2 my husband and I successfully stick to the DM like glue but we loose the other three divers within 5 minutes. We assume they have surfaced and the captain has picked them up and we continue on the dive, just the two of us with the DM who seems almost completely absent from the dive. Despite the poor vis, we did see some cool stuff. Schools of puffers flying in formation, tons of krill (no whale sharks, Darn)...

Again we have almost no surface interval between dives and at some point during these dives the DM says that a safety stop and surface intervals are not really necessary. The 2nd dive goes smoother, we didn't loose anyone and the visibility is a little better. The DM points out more things on this dive. We ate at the restaurant on the beach which was good but they were busy and took a really long time to get the food despite having ordered before our dives. Overall our trip to Cabo Pulmo was disappointing and the fish life was better on our local dives. Once back at the shop, Kevin the owner, had heard about our experience and said last week the conditions had been much better there.

Day 3
We were up and ready for shark diving at Gordo Banks until we got on the boat which was about 1 to 1 1/2 hours by boat on a small boat sucking in diesel all the way there. You couldn't escape the fumes and my husband was sick several times over the side of the boat once we got to Gordo Banks. The conditions were pretty good and this time we had Jorge who was a nice guy and the best DM we had with Amigos. He gave a good dive briefing which he told us to descend down the line and stop at about 90 feet and then we would let go of the line and swim towards open water searching for hammerheads. We had about 6 divers in the water including the DM again. I went down the line first, pulling myself down it and stopped at 90 feet. The current was impressive, I was perfectly horizontal holding onto the line. One woman above me let go of the line and struggled to grab hold of it, I had to pull her back to it. This is where my computer read about 68 degrees water temp. I was so cold on most of the dives I couldn't have peed if I tried, my body was so clenched from the cold. At this point, two divers continue past me and descend well below 100 feet to the sea floor (probably around 130 feet). The DM tries to get their attention and he has to swim down to get them to ascend when we finally let go of the line and swim out to open water. We hang out for awhile, we finally see two hammerheads (maybe 6 foot)swimming together about 25-30 feet away from us. Nothing like 30 or more like we heard had been seen but at least we saw some. It was cool to check out all the different jellies and other invertebrates floating through the clear water.

This time we had a suitable surface interval along with snacks and drinks. We saw some nearby fisherman real in a Mahi Mahi and some excitement from a turtle flapping at the surface. Dive #2 was similar but we only saw one hammerhead. We saw more invertebrates and little bio-luminescent fish twinkling in the water. There were four of us left in the water just waiting to see something when a swordfish swam right past me, about 15 feet away from me. I tried to get the other people's attention but they were all looking away and I was the only one that saw it. I got a crappy photo but I did see it! Really cool. Overall I was disappointed we didn't see a school of hammerheads but at least we saw some and it was interesting diving and I'm glad we did it.

Day Four
Our last day was supposed to be "across the bay" and we had tried to ask for Jorge again but he was off. We did get a different divemaster but he wasn't much better than our original one. We were told by Kevin that it would just be my husband and I and even though it would normally cost us more money to have our own boat that they were going to honor the reservation since they didn't have anyone else sign up. Frankly I could have just done the local diving again so I didn't really care and for all we knew "across the bay" meant just on the other side of the marina. It was more like 30 minutes away and we were back on the old diesel smelling boat. One really cool thing is the little jumping mantas which we had never seen before. We saw them several times every time we left the marina. Our first dive had okay visibility. During our surface interval they took us into a little bay where there were snorkelers on another excursion. In the bay there were mantas jumping out the water all over the place on one side of the bay. At one point our captain had to grab a quart of oil from another dive op (Manta) for our boat. For our second dive we were dropped not too far from our original site but the plan was to drift down the coast. I think we saw some cool eels and more colorful fish on this dive, lots of sea fans. When we surfaced there was no boat nearby. We weren't too far from land and the conditions were pretty good so we just hung out waiting for the boat. The DM made some jokes about the movie Open Water and we all laughed. A boat started to approach and it was Manta who spotted us in the water and came to check on us. The first thing they mentioned was Open Water too and we laughed. Then we finally saw our boat which must have been in the bay, not sure if he had engine problems or was napping but he finally showed up. The DM proceeded to get out first, put his gear down, started stripping his wetsuit off while the captain was on the radio and I'm sitting there thinking a little help would be nice taking my camera and helping me on-board.

Our overall experience with Amigos was the worst we have ever had with a dive op. The pretty basic level of customer service & safety orientation just was not there (lack of briefings, disregard to safety stops & intervals). We don't expect all dive ops to help with swapping out our tanks but they didn't offer even once. There are some DM's that seem to do it more as a job rather than because they love it and we seemed to have that DM type for the majority of the trip. They wanted everyone on almost all dives to come up with 1,000 PSI (sometimes the second dive they would say 800 PSI). I believe this is likely due to having mostly inexperienced divers and many discover scuba groups. The DM blamed us instead of poor conditions for the group surfacing even though we were at the back of the bus. We honestly wished we had booked with Manta Dive Op which had much nicer boats and was just around the corner from Amigos Del Mar.

We were so disappointed & irritated about the whole trip that we vowed we would not likely return to this destination. Now that I have cooled off from the trip I would consider going back but most likely on a liveaboard possibly to Socorro Islands or within the Sea of Cortez for some more serious diving. The most important factor is the fish life and it was pretty incredible and different from the Caribbean. I would get myself a thicker wetsuit and research the heck out of the dive op. Ironically we had the exact opposite experience in the Dominican Republic a week later. We had one of the best Dive ops ever, our own private boat for all 4 days at nearly the same exact price as cabo and surprisingly good diving and healthy coral.
 
My Cabo photos: CABO SAN LUCAS - bumblebeeimages' Photos | SmugMug

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Some nice pictures there. I dived with Amigos twice last year and they were great, but I know they have a couple of new DMs since my last trip in November. I hope you told Kevin at Amigos about the negatives of your DMs.
 
tell us about the dominican republic diving, this is great info, cabo & the dom rep are at the top of my next places to go list !!!
 
UWBB got to the DR one first: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/greater-antilles/347336-trip-report-dominican-republic-la-romana.html

And my real quick $.02 on cabo:

Just prearrange your transportation from the airport and walk directly outside. Grayline worked well and they were one of the cheaper ones I found.

Originally we had though of playing the timeshare game, but decided it just wasn't worth wasting vacation time on it for a free dinner or something. We had overheard others talking about it, and heard it's more like 4 hours with the expected high pressure sales pitch. Someone said they make your 'cry or buy'.

ATV'ing was cool, and probably the best day we had.

As for diving, like UWBB had said, we read mostly good things about Amigos Del Mar, which is why we used them, but our experience with them was way less then stellar. Diving is diving, so obviously we can't fault them for the bad vis or lack of schools of hammerheads that we had heard about, but what we can fault them for is the lack of safety, oil burning boats (first time I was actually hanging over the side), and general lack of interest in diving from DM's. Like she said, it seems like it was just a paycheck for them and they really didn't want to be there.

I noticed UWBB didn't mention a couple of other issues; we're not high maintenance divers, but things like grabbing the camera & fins so we can get out of the water and actually having a boat around when we surface are a couple things I expect. Yes I realize safety stops are optional with rec diving, but honestly, why skip it... I think that's just bad practice. All of 5 minutes for a surface interval... yes we dive with computers and were fine, but why push things like that?

Overall our experience with them is two thumbs down.
 
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Too bad you did not like PG. We have been there 4 times and love it. We do the time share thing every time and we are out of there in less than an hour with the free breakfast. Never had a hard sell. Did my OP last spring and had a wonderful time. We plan on going every other year.
 
Great pics Bee! Thanks for letting us know about the poor service with Amigos Del Mar.
The billfish in your pic is a Stripped Marlin, by the way.
Get Wet!
 
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