Dive Review of
Ocean Sports/San Carlos Mexico in
Mexico (Western)/San Carlos

Guam, Palau, Pohnpei, Yap, Australia, Truk, Flower Gardens, Bonaire,
Bahamas, Texas

Dive Conditions

none  

The boats only had a salt-water rinse bucket - no table for setup since
they used the only table for food.  

Overall Rating

This was a trip set up by our local dive shop and overall information about
the specifics were lacking.  I wished I had known that the Hotel Fiesta
that we were staying in was under construction.  The restaurant was closed
except for breakfast. Jesus, our waiter was a bright spot in our day
greeting us on the terrace with coffee and juice and a full american
breakfast while we watched the dolphins playing in the ocean. After finding
that the restaurant had no hot tea, I asked for a cup of hot water on the
2nd day and brought my own tea bag, after that Jesus made sure I had my hot
water without asking every morning. The construction crew made messes of
our balconies during the day while our clothing, gear, etc was drying.  The
dive company (Ocean Sports) could only think about making money.  The first
day, we had pre-ordered nitrox and had to send the crew back to the shop to
bring it to the boat. Therefore, the boat was late pulling out of the
harbor.  After completing our first dive, we were informed that we could
shorten our surface interval or shorten our 2nd dive, but the boat was
returning to shore in one hour due to the fact that we were late leaving. 
Some of our group had only 35 minute surface interval and chose to go ahead
and do a 2nd dive that soon since they had paid $85 each for a 2-tank dive.
On our 2nd day using this company, again no pre-ordered nitrox on the boat
and the crew had to seek it out.  After putting 23 divers and 4 crew on the
boat, they proceeded to load 19 tourists.  There was no safety briefing and
now the boat was overloaded.  I talked with the crew about my concerns and
they put me on the phone with the shop manager.  He informed me that they
could handle 38 people on that boat, I told him there were now 46 and he
stated "it was business".  At the end of the day, the manager met
our boat and offered a free night boat dive due to all of our groups
problems and concerns.  We did have a very positive experience with the
playful sea lions at San Pedro Island - they posed and played with anyone
that would play with them or had a camera. Also saw lots of torpedo rays. 
The following day, some of our group sought out other dive shops.  We found
a super alternative to this shop.  The name of that shop is Surface Time
and they met all of our needs including safety and comfort. For the same
price, they took no more than 6 divers on their larger boat.  We booked a
smaller boat and they took just the 2 of us(husband and I) to do some local
dive spots.  On our way out to the dive sites, we were able to troll and
catch fish.  Our boat captain made lunch with our fresh catch while we were
doing our first dive.  After completing our 1 hour surface interval, we
trolled to a new site and completed our 2nd dive of the day as very happy
divers. 

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