who to dive with near San Jose del Cabo???

[cougar]

My daughter and I are sneaking a few says of diving between a marine mammal conference and Solstice. We'll be in San Jose del Cabo from Dec. 16-20. Since we arrive at noon on the 16th...we could even get in an afternoon dive. I've read some of the comments and threads on Cabo..but they don''t tell me what dive shops operate near San Jose del Cabo. We probably won't have a car and since CSL seems to be about 20 miles away...we either need someone close, or someone who doesn;t mind fetching a gorgeous 25 year old and her diving mom. Daughter is particulairly thrilled with the idea of seeing pinnipeds (she's in vet school with a strong interest and fair experience with pinnipeds)

What operators would be good for where we are staying??

 

[WaterWayne]

Interesting dilemma -- I'm not aware of any dive shops in San Jose, because AFAIK there aren't well-known dive spots quite near, unlike CSL. The good news is that you've got a 30-minute head start on getting to either/both the Gorda Banks or Cabo Pulmo. (The former is a relatively advanced dive, the latter is quite easy.) I think you'll just have to negotiate with the CSL shops regarding logistics. Three-plus days should allow for some good packaging, especially since they're in the slow season. You really should dive CSL's Pelican Rock and Land's End if you haven't done so before. For alternative transportation, there are buses that run along the Corridor between Los Cabos, which will be much cheaper than taxis. Before you leave, drop by a San Jose liquor store named "Los Barriles de Cuervo" (The Barrels of Cuervo), and pick up some ambrosial Don Malaquias tequila, directly from the good Don himself.

 

[cougar]

Thanks WaterWayne...BTW what's AFAIK....acronyms aren't my forte:>)

 

[WaterWayne]

Glad to help, little as it was. AFAIK stands for "As Far As I Know". There are entire lists of these cuties in cyberspace and on this board. The other ones I generally use are "FWIW" (for what it's worth), and "HTH" (hope this helps). You may also see on this board "IMHO" (in my humble opinion). BTW, hand-typed smileys aren't my forte, but they can be cute.

--Wayne

 

[capybara]

We were just in the Sea of Cortez last week, on the Nautilus Explorer liveaboard. We dived one day in Cabo Pulmo, which is north of San Jose del Cabo. It's a marine sanctuary and supposedly one of only a couple reef systems on the Pacific side of Mexico. It was nice, lots of schools of fish like large groupers, pufferfish and Panamic porkfish. More fish than the other regular sites we dove, which shows how much overfishing there is. There was a moderate current. Didn't see any pinnipeds there but swam with the sea lions at some sites near La Paz like Las Animas and El Bajo. At Cabo Pulmo we had to take local panga boats to the dive site, and the pangas were from a shop called Cabo Pulmo Divers (http://www.cabopulmodivers.com). Their website says they will pick you up from your hotel for a fee. The panga operators didn't dive with us, so I can't tell you about their diving services, but they seemed nice, a family operation. We also took an evening tour with someone from the turtle sanctuary to see the turtle eggs on the beach. Didn't see any turtles but saw the eggs and fresh baby turtle tracks on the beach.