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Dive Review of cabo pulmo dive center in
Mexico (Western)/cabo pulmo, baja california

cabo pulmo dive center, Jul, 2008,

by greg, utah, usa ( 2 reports). Report 4268.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 5 stars
Service and Attitude 3 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 3 stars Shore Diving 1 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 2 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments Flew from Salt Lake City to San Jose Del Cabo on a direct flight on Delta. flights going and coming back were uneventful. The only thing to be prepared for is the Condo/time share people when you come out of customs, they were relentless, at least we thought so. Could've done without this hassle. We'd already reserved a rental car (dollar) and there was a shuttle to pick up costumers for the short drive to the office. All the rental agency's had a shuttle. We'd already decided on a SUV but a car would've been fine for the trip to cabo pulmo, the final 8 miles of road is dirt but it's in pretty good shape. But once you tell them where your going they will try an push a SUV on you because of the dirt road. I think there is a shuttle from the airport but cost wise it's about the same as renting a car. And with a car you can go check out other place's. It's about 1 1/2 to a 2 hour drive from the airport.

We stayed at the cabo pulmo resort. The room was comfortable and fairly good sized. It had a full sized kitchen, the dining room/living room/bedroom was kinda in one big space. And a bathroom.If you plan on cooking get supplies before you get there because there isn't any place to get stuff in cabo pulmo. la Ribera has a couple of stores that has most everything you'll need. The room we stayed in had a covered palapa that we could set under and see the ocean. We ended sleeping up there as well, it was much cooler then the rooms. They have rooms with AC but they shutdown the generator at 10:00pm so no power to run the AC. So if you go in the summer don't spend the money on the rooms with AC. There is no power to the town everything either has solar or a generator or a combo of both. if your not diving then you will be very bored. The town is very small, and not much to do after dinner. Their are 3 restaurants in town plus a good sized taco diner on the beach. The food was good at all 4 places we were pleasantly surprised. Just make sure and have pesos because a couple of them don't take credit. They will probably take dollars also. There is also some hiking trails in the hills around the town. We did the hikes in the early morning, they were well marked and worth doing if your into hiking.

We dove with Cabo pulmo dive center. The first day of diving was great but because of the weather went down hill from there. If you take a suit have at least a 5mm and a hood the water temp was 72 the first day and was 65 on the last day we dove. You meet at the dive center to check in, and then they break you up into different groups for the days dives. usually your with the same people but not always. They have a shuttle that comes from cabo San Lucas most days so diving doesn't start till 10:00am. All the diving is done inside the cabo pulmo marine park so its only about 15 mins max to the dive sites. The boats are flat bottom with outboard motors on them they hold a max of 10 people, there is no covers on them. It gets crowded with more then 6, but we had a couple dives with 8 and it was tight. When you get to the dive site you get all suited up and everyone does a backroll in at the same time. Most of the dives were slow drift dives so the boat captain follows the bubbles and is close by when you come up. The dive master leads the dives, they were 45 min dives max unless you needed to come earlier. No deeper then 60fsw mainly because thats about as deep as the reef is. To get back in the boat you take your BC off and hand it up to the captain then you haul your self over the side back into the boat or there's a small ladder on the back of the boat to climb back in, and I mean small. We used the ladder because we didn't have enough oomph to get back in from the side. But the the ladder was a challenge, if you have any kind of knee/back problems this probably isn't the place for you. Like I said the first day of diving was great, we all got in and the first thing we saw was a school of bat rays swimming under us and it just got better. I've never seen so many puffer fish there was schools of them. Big grouper all over the place,eels of all kinds, some even free swimming during the day. As we were coming up on one of the afternoon dives a pod of dolphins showed up and checked us out. The water temp the first day was 72 which wasn't to bad with a 5mm and the vis was probably around 50fsw. We had 4 very good dives that day. We did 4 dives the next day but because of a hurricane down south things started changing. The water got much colder and the vis much lower and seemed like the fish went else where. The 2 dives in the afternoon the water temp was down to 68.By day 3 it was 65 and vis was terrible. We lost the last 2 days of diving. If every day was like the first I'd rate it a 10. But it's not for eveyone.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Caymans, Palau, Bahama's, Belize, Turks&Caicos, Cozumel, Hawaii
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas choppy, surge, currents
Water Temp 65-72°F / 18-22°C Wetsuit Thickness 5
Water Visibility 50-10 Ft/ 15-3 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile no
Enforced diving restrictions Dive master led dives,most dives were no deeper then 60fsw. But that was about as deep as the reef was.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas 1 or 2
Dolphins 1 or 2 Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 2 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters 3 stars Large Fish 4 stars
Large Pelagics 2 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 2 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 3 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments Boats are not really setup for camera's. If you take one they'll hand it down to you when your in the water. But there's no rinse tank on the boats, and I don't recall seeing one at the dive shop.I'd say if your a hardcore photographer and comfortable with your equipment then it's probably not a problem. But beginner's should probably skip it.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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