Normally my dive trips are planned through my dive shop, but this trip started as a foursome of friends planning a trip, to a group of 10+ coming along for the fun!

The week was spent at Club Cantamar - a resort that caters to divers.  Meals are included and the kitchen staff is wonderful.  Our dive master Antonio was AWESOME and the ship's crew was also wonderful... it was the resort managers that were a little difficult to deal with.  If you go on your own, be sure to check your tanks not once, but twice and remember, you're on Mexico time!  Now, onto the adventures...

November is Whale Shark season!  Although you spend your first day following the directions of a spotter plane (the Red Pelican) and then only snorkel with the huge creatures, it was worth it.  

The water was incredibly warm and the variety of dives was nice.  I'm a Washington State/Canada diver - so I primarily dive Nitrox and with a dry suit.  La Paz was a half mil wet suit and many times I just used air.  We had a handful of deep dives - 100+ feet at the pinnacle El Bajo to see hammerheads.  The rest of the dives were about 50 feet to see a wonderful variety of sea life - the porcupine fish were plentiful and a favorite.

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My favorite dive was Los Islotes - a sea lion colony.  Of course I wish I had a video camera for the episode "When Sea Lions Attack" - take a look at the photos - these sweet looking creatures can be a little aggressive and very persistent.

As most divers know, there is not much "night life" on a trip like this - hangovers and diving do not mix!  But as the trip winds down, the beer consumption goes up. There's just something lovely about sitting next to the water and enjoying a cold cerveza with lime!  

Non-divers can find shopping in downtown La Paz - a beautiful little city with art galleries and yummy restaurants.  We had a couple of non-divers that rented a car and drove to surrounding beaches.  There were no crowds.

It was a lovely liquid vacation! 

(Special thanks to Curtis, Jim and George for the underwater pics.)