Instant Reader Report on Diving
Amigos Del Mar/La Esperanza in
Mexico (Western)/Baja California in
2002/08

 British Virgin Island, Gorda with Dive BVI in Leverick Bay.
Ambergris Cey, various dive shops, we stayed with Victoria House. 

Dive Conditions

The only dive restriction we were given was at Gorda Banks where we were
told to not go deeper than 110'.  

There weren't any accommodatios to speak of -- fresh water buckets were not
provided on the boat for the cameras after diving.  

Overall Rating

Overall, based on our two previous dive trips the experience was fair. 
What really made our trip tolerable was that we stayed at the impeccable
Esperanza Resort and Spa (Cabo San Lucas).
The marine life that made our trip worth taking were the following:
Manta rays, a friendly sea lion that swam with us, a few sea turtles,
plethora of spotted, zebra, and pacific green moray eels, tons of sea
cucumbers and puffer fish, other tropical fish and the beautiful buttercup
coral.  
From all accounts from fellow divers, diving in Laretto and La Paz are far
superior to Cabo San Lucas – this is what we wished we knew in advance. 
What little reef we observed was in poor condition and the pelagics are
over fished.  We even encountered a barbaric fishing outfit that proudly
displayed a juvenile silky shark they caught on the dock, need I say more

We made our trip arrangements six months in advance based on the urgency
to do so by the dive operation, Amigos Del Mar.  They were hosting a dive
festival and we needed to reserve a space as they were expecting droves of
divers, the implication was we would have difficulty finding a dive
operation to dive with if we hadn't -- we also had to pay for the entire
trip 5 mo. in advance (payable by check through US operation).   We were
told that all of our diving instructions would be waiting for us at our
hotel upon our arrival and what we found was a half explained diving
itinerary and after several phone calls we were told that we would get our
complete itinerary the following day at the dive shop.

Our first dive was fairly uneventful; the second local dive of the day
produced a friendly and playful sea lion that showed off for us as he took
a liking to our group.  Our second day we had difficulties with our dive
master, this was never resolved as a result the comfort ability of our
experience was compromised.  Because of our early complication with the
dive master he refused to assist us with our equipment or answer any of our
questions that day.  This guide ignored one diver when he informed him that
he was low and air and in turn the diver had to buddy breath to the
surface.  These mishaps continued the 7 days of diving.  

From copious amounts of complaining by the staff of the insurmountable
work they had for the festival, I was left with the belief they were
understaffed for such an undertaking. I told my husband that if we wanted
to be abused and pay for it we should have stayed in NYC. We are aware and
grateful that we’ve been lucky to have good and informed dive operations on
past trips.  My suggestion to any diver who encounters a similar experience
is to get your money back and dive with another dive shop
 

Questions?
Send an email to the author of this report

Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. It is presented here to provide Undercurrent readers with timely information on dive operations worldwide. The material may contain errors, typos, ... Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above. An edited version of this report will likely appear in the next Travelin' Divers' Chapbook, which will be sent to newsletter subscribers and published online for Online Members.