So there is a lot to review here.
I will start with Tamara who arranged my transportation from La Ventana to Cabo Pulmo and back, accommodations, and scuba/snorkel trips. She was FANTASTIC and extremely responsive to all my inquiries and needs!!!
Shuttle - the driver was on time! He didn't speak too much English, but that was okay, I just watched movies on my kindle for 2 hours anyways. He drove a bit faster than most, which made for an adventurous drive.
Accommodations - The unit was a spacious studio very close to the beach and the scuba center. It had a full kitchen, seating area, comfortable bed, and warm shower. There is no public power in Cabo Pulmo, everything runs off solar, so you can't use anything that takes a lot of power, like a blow dryer. Everything here was comfortable and clean, I would happily stay here again!!
Scuba trip - This is a no-frills scuba company. You will sign the waivers then wait outside. They will help fit you up for a wetsuit and accessories. All the wetsuits have holes in them, so if you get cold, you might want to wear layers underneath. Then you wait around until they have loaded all the gear onto the boats. The guides didn't really socialize with the participants, the participants ended up introducing themselves to each other. We get a short brief on where we will go and some simple rules they have in the park. The boats are brought down to the beach and you will walk about two blocks to meet the boats. They take you out to one of the many sites to start the trip. Once they stop we suit up, I turned on my air and it started to leak out at the air pressure gauge. Why was this not checked before they loaded it onto the boat??? They didn't have a spare, so luckily this was a two boat trip and they went over to the other boat to see if they had a spare, great they did, if not I wouldn't have been able to dive and it would have been a huge disappointment. Unfortunately, not in their control, the visibility was not very good on the trip. After the first dive, they do a tank change. When I went to suit up the second time, I of course check both the regulator and the secondary. The guy showed slight irritation that I was checking to see if the air was flowing out because he just wanted me to get in the water. The guide doesn't offer much information about the sealife nor did she really socialize with the group. They only offer you water on the boat, nothing else. After you get back, you dunk the wetsuit in a solution for a quick second and hang it, it isn't very thorough and that is probably why they are a little smelly. The coolest thing on the trip was hearing the whales (which we did not see) while scuba diving, their songs are beautiful.
I originally planned to dive a second day but due to poor visibility, I had Tamara arrange for me to snorkel instead. The snorkel guide had a similar demeanor, but the snorkel trip seemed rushed. We would stop at a location maybe 15-20 minutes and then move on. There were a total of 3 stops. Again no-frills, just water. However, I saw a ton more sea life on this trip. I swam with the sea lions, sea turtle, and schools of fish.
As long as you know what to expect out the trip and are safety conscious and maybe bring your own wetsuit, you will really enjoy all the sea life Cabo Pulmo has to enjoy!!! read more