Before Cocos Island, Costa Rica, the seamounts of the Sea of Cortez were the place for schooling hammerheads and sea lions. The sea lions are still there, but the hammerheads are harder to predict. . . . Some live-aboards now run to Isla Socorro to find hammerheads, although it's a long ride with no guarantees of good weather or sharks. . . . Manta rays are more reliable and have the reputation of letting divers approach them for a ride. . . Water visibility and temperatures are dramatically variable. . . . In winter and spring there's a themocline with 70 to 80 water on the surface and 50 to 60 water below 30­40 feet. . . . Plankton blooms determine the visibility - in mid summer it's low (25­40 feet), but generally improves to 80 to 100 feet by late summer. . . . Winds kick up the water from December through May, making diving difficult. . . . wear a wetsuit even in warm water for protection from jellyfish. . . . Whale-watching season is from December through March. . . . With nice hotels and restaurants, Cabo is a long weekend retreat for some California divers. . . .

Cabo San Lucas

Cabo Acuadeportes/Hacienda Beach Hotel, August 1997, Lloyd Schwengel, Brea, CA. "Some repeatable dives with lots of other activities. Our group (4 divers) got two good days of diving before a distant hurricane whipped up the surf and any chance for Cabo Pulmo or Gordo Banks. Even Lover's beach was not safe to visit. Beach bars even were flooded by the waves. . . . Dive operation very good. Short boat rides to sites with back roll entry, 3000+ air fills, and equipment rental. Boats small but adequate for the short trips. Saw seahorses; divemaster did a fantastic job. No pelagics Lots of eels, crabs, nudibranchs, and fish. vis; 35-70 ft. water: 83-84 degrees. . . . Hacienda Beach Hotel clean, service good. Beautiful plants and shrubs. Rooms large and clean, plenty of hot water. Staff did a good job of making our vacation pleasant and comfortable. Hotel is in town so all sorts of food available. Hotel food was good and the happy hour was good. The package deal was best value."

Cabo San Lucas, July 1997, Ms. Mary K. Wicksten, Bryan, TX. "Drove to Cabo San Lucas from La Paz. Brought tanks, rented boat and one-man crew. Dive sites barely a city block from dock, boat cost $70/day! Long hike with gear; shore drops off precipitously, surf and currents near Land's End. Great schools of tiny fish, but no big ones. Poor vis - 15-30 ft. - could have hid anything in deeper watez. Water:!(80-82 degrees. A few corals patches, but rocks bare or with short gorgonians and tube worms. Many tropical fish, including clarion angel, Moorish idol, giant damselfish and hawkfishes, some nudibranchs. Terrible racket from constant boat traffic overhead. Area near harbor trashy, developed with souvenir shops, discos. to water's edge. Constant noise, "tacky" atmosphere."

Lands End/Plaza Los Glorias, April 1997, Terry L. Spennf|ta, Mazomanie, WI. "Best dive at Lands End. Neptunes Finger had a sea horse. The rest of the diving was not good for my group. too cold, we prefer 70 degrees or more. vis: 5­25 ft. water: 58­64 degrees. quarter inch wet suits for us is for special dives. Normally in a week we would do 12­15 dives; we did one half. . . . Gordo Banks was not taking divers out. The 3 for ATV trip to the lighthouse was a blast. I am overweight 13# lead fresh water w/skin, 20# lead salt water w/a skin. 42# lead freshwater with quarter inch Farmer John, so you can see why I limit my cold water diving. Our group included Instructor, 2 DM, two advanced open water, experience 200­300 dives, three people in 50's and two 30 year old. Got the usual room run-around from Plaza Los Glorias."

Neptune Divers, October 1996 Robert T. Robertson, Kenai, AK. "Overpriced. Followed divemaster as he knew where to see good stuff. Really good dive if most of your diving has been dry suits. One in our party was inexperienced and the divemaster was extremely helpful! Juan Beltrain divemaster/guide. Divemaster took us on two 60 ft. dives with less than 3 hours off gas time and he did another dive between ours at 80 ft. vis: 40-70 ft. water: 80 degrees. Juan made the dives enjoyable by playing with fish, wonderful "air ring" blower, very pleasant and is a funny man."

Guaymas

Club Med/Cortez Adventures, August 1997, Tim and Paula Pastushin, Newport Beach, CA. "I called Club Med and asked if we could dive our own profiles, were there restrictions on depth and time, could we do more than 2 dives per day? I was told no restrictions, no limits other than normal no-deco limits, could dive up to 4 times per day, they split divers according to experience, and this was a dedicated dive operation. . . . Not the case. Waited in line an hour to sign up for diving, then another hour to turn in release forms. Next morning waited an hour to check in. Could do only two dives/day and 40-50 other divers on boat. Needed to do a check out dive. Got on the boat and tried to set up on a tank; three in a row with less than 700 psi. Found one with 2400 and was told this was normal. Divemasters seemed burned out. No briefings, 20 minute surface intervals, most smoked all the time. 50 feet for 30 minutes on second dive? Geared for hangover victims. Local diving OK. Limited vis, lots of tropicals, eels. vis: 10-80 ft. water: 86-90 degrees. . . . Club was nice but 115 degrees! Air-conditioning in the rooms and restaurant was not remotely effective. $4 for a Mexican beer in Mexico? $5 for a 5 oz. rum and coke? . . .Good diving at Seal Island, 2 hour boat ride. Dove there with an operation in San Carlos, Cortez Adventures, had a blast. Vis 60-80 ft. and tons of tropicals, eels, and sea lions. No stupid restrictions. Great divemasters and boat. Diving in San Carlos was really good; Stay in town and dive with Cortez Adventures."

Cortez Explorers/Plaza Las Glorias, July 1997, Kendal Botello, Phoenix, AZ. "Water 85-90 degrees, visibility 40-70 feet. Hotel is wonderful! Staff at both hotel and boat are exceptional. Excellent for beginning and intermediate divers. Nice inexpensive destination. No hard corals, lots of eels, balloon fish, scorpion fish, angels, sergeant majors and octopi. One sea horse, tons of dolphin, a whale. Good macro."

La Paz

Baja Buceo/La Concma Resort, September 1996. Jason Doren, San Francisco, CA. "Supposedly primo time here to see hammerheads. Dove 3 days at El Bajo Seamount, saw none. Nice dives (several large eels, jackfish/snappers or tuna, large silver fish in schools) and guitarfish, abundant common tropical fish), but we came to see the sharks. Very disappointed. vis: 60­ 70 ft. water: 80­85 degrees. No diving restrictions enforced. Otherwise, fine and cheap vacation. Hotel was nice and great off season rates."

Cortez Club/La Concha, October 1996, Ari Reguicha, Manhattan Beach, CA. "Water 79 degrees (at depth) to 85. La Concha is probably the nicest hotel and rents condos. Almost no coral and vis low by Caribbean standards: 40­60 feet. Great abundance of interesting fishes and invertebrates. Did not see any pelagics at famed El Bajo. Cortez Club at La Concha has one fast boat but apparently uses it only when they have a small number of divers. We were in a large and slow boat, which, although comfortable, took 3 hours to El Bajo and 1.5 hours to the closest sites. Sites too far, boats too slow! When the wind picks up, there is limited choice of sites. Stay close in group for pick up in drift dive at El Bajo."

Puerto Vallarta

Chico's Dive Shop/Villa Pacifico, January 1997, Elizabeth Urban, Madison, WI. "Great condo located at spectacular marina. Dive operation well run and only allow advanced divers because of surge. Friendly staff made for pleasant diving, but no rinse tanks available for gear. Saw a humpback whale, dolphins, manta rays, sea turtle, and a seahorse! Schools of tuna and jacks common. At least one hour boat ride to dive sites Elmorro and Marietas Islands in 6 pack boats, limit four divers. Expensive. vis: 20­30 ft. water: 70­74 degrees."

Vallarta Adventures/Continental Plaza Hotel, May 1997, Richard K. Solomon, South Jordan, UT. "Hotel was fine but pool area was closed for renovations. Room clean, comfortable, and well maintained. Staff friendly, knowledgeable. Food in the restaurants good but expensive for the area. Beach sand like pea gravel. The beach vendors would drive you crazy. . . . I have dived for with hundreds of dive operators and our experience with Vallarta Adventures was the worst. Dive boat is actually a booze cruise boat. We went with 70 drunks and 21 divers. no tank racks and no area to don gear. Nowhere to sit or stand once you had put on gear. No predive briefing other than to tell us to stick together, do not exceed sixty feet, stay down for no more than 30 minutes or until your tank was down to 1000 PSI. We paid for rental wetsuits and were told they would be on the boat. The only wetsuits on the boat were for the divemasters and would not give us any refund. When we surfaced from our first dive, the booze cruise boat had left us with a small homemade wooden boat. We all managed to pile into the small wood boat and go looking for the booze boat. It took an hour to find it boat and then we discovered that we were missing two divers. Crew didn't seem to care and said that we would probably spot them on our way to the second dive. I could not believe these guys!!!. . . . Did our second dive and on our way back to shore we spotted the two lost divers bobbing about in the open ocean. We picked them up and they were very upset that they were left behind in the ocean for over three hours. I think they were very lucky that we spotted them on the way back to shore."

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