Diving Cabo Pulmo

Yesterday we got to dive at Cabo Pulmo! If you’ve been reading this blog, you remember that I just got my Open Water certification in February.  So, I was a little nervous (and excited) for my first dive since taking the class.

Cabo Pulmo is about 60 miles from where we currently are in San Jose.  Because Cabo Pulmo is Baja’s only coral reef and is a national protected marine park, you cannot anchor there.  So, really the only way to dive it is to go through a local dive shop.  We found the Cabo Pulmo Beach Resort which would actually pick us up in San Jose and take us to Cabo Pulmo.

We got picked up at 7:30 a.m. for the 90 minute ride through winding roads in the mountains. The last six miles are really rough dirt roads that take you back to the Coast.  So, I’m really glad we didn’t have to drive it!

The dive resort is a really nice facility with a restaurant, pool, dive shop, etc. There are even bungalows where you can stay.  When we got there we met our dive master Roy and boat captain Jose.  There were five of us diving with Roy.  He got us outfitted with any additional gear we needed, and we put everything in the panga. This was a two tank dive, and they really took care of getting all of the gear in order for the dive.

We walked over to the beach where the panga, on a trailer, met us.  The trailer was backed up on a gravel path to the beach and we hopped in.  The truck literally just backed the trailer through the surf and off we went!

After a short boat ride, we got to our first dive site, Las Casitas. We got on our rigs and did the backward roll off the boat – my first time! I was a bit nervous on the first descent, about 30-40 feet down, but Roy got my down there.  Once I was down there, it was great!

Las Casitas is some giant boulders with coral growing on them.  We saw schools of fish everywhere.  Some of the divers even dove under and through the large boulders.  So fun!

At the end of the first dive, we got back in boat and headed to the second dive spot, the pinnacle.  Here, the star of the show was the bull sharks!

We descended down the pinnacle, which is a large triangular rock formation that sticks up out of the water.  Around the side of the rock formation, about 60 feet down, there is a long sandy bottom.  We all got down on our knees in a tight group and waited, scanning the sand at the edge of visibility, waiting for the elusive sharks.

Finally, Roy made the sign for shark and pointed off to the right.  Sure enough, we could just make out the shadow of a large shark.  He moved out of viewing range, but a minute later he returned and a second shark appeared.  The sharks were probably 6-7 feet long.  They just skimmed the bottom, cruising maybe 6 inches off the sand.

Neither of the sharks came closer than 10 yards away from us, but they were amazing!  I thought I would be scared or nervous to see the sharks, but I wasn’t at all.  I felt like I was in the middle of a Discovery Channel show.

We then headed up to check out the rest of the pinnacle, where we saw turtles, rays, lots of schools of fish and moray eels! I was seriously on cloud nine after the dive and can’t wait to go again!