| |||||
 |
It sounds a lot at first bite, doesn't it? It was exceptional value though, believe me. Work it out: a 2 tank dive from a dive operator in La Paz will run you around £40 for nearby locations, £70 to go out to El Bajo or Los Animas. So, for £30 - £50 more per day we got all the other activities plus accommodation, cruising, 3 meals a day and alcohol. Once you set sail you won't need to spend a penny. Well, you'd have a job to find anything to spend a penny on, to be frank! It's The Frontier, remember! The only extra cost we had was a day's diving to the El Bajo seamount which Jim arranged for us with a dive operator out of La Paz. I give you the details later. The boat is incredibly comfortable, an idyllic base for a holiday. The crew are great. Jim has forgotten more about sailing than I'll ever know and he's a mine of information if you want to learn more about it. He makes a mean Margarita, is a keen fisherman, plays the clarinet well, and has a keen, dry wit. He likes to present a captain like discipline to the kids but they soon delve through the salt crust to a soft heart of gold. He was great with them. 
Connie is a warm bundle of soft Southern charm. She is one of the best read, most travelled Americans you will ever have the pleasure of meeting. Jim and Connie are great fans of British comedy, especially classic series like Python and Fawlty Towers. So, any British visitors need not fear to resort to both irony and sarcasm - it will be happily reciprocated! We enjoyed many a good conversation whilst Jim practised his clarinet or Connie made the cake for evening dessert. We really enjoyed their company and ended up feeling we'd made some new friends. On the other hand, it was perfectly obvious that if we had wanted seclusion, they would have discreetly given it to us.
Edgar, the young Mexican crew member is an absolute treasure. He worked so hard from morning till night: serving the meals, washing up, filling the tanks, loading the diving kit, unloading the diving kit, driving the dinghy, taking the girls for water sports, ferrying us around, etc. Always with a cheery smile and a freshly ironed T Shirt! He is fast improving his English and also taking scuba courses to qualify as a DiveMaster. We had absolutely no regrets at choosing to holiday on Irish Mist and we would love to go back again. You can look at the cold facts of the holiday and it tells you something, but over and above the list I've given, what you actually get on the trip are things that money cannot buy and cannot properly be defined or pre-specified: like, waking up to find whales outside your cabin, enjoying Connie's fabulous southern drawl and great sense of humour, Jim's clarinet concerts, Edgar's indefatigable energy and patience in amusing the girls with towing and kneeboarding, spending some great family fun time with your teenagers who I guarantee will have not be bored, lying on the deck and watching the sky frost over with millions of stars and then seeing who can spot the most shooting stars, going ashore and meeting a fishing family who live on a waterless, powerless barren rock in the middle of nowhere and seem to have permanent smiles on their faces all the same, catching your own dorado and cooking it on the bbq later that night… A typical day on Irish Mist would go something like this: 8 a.m. Wake up feeling great after a cool nights sleep. 8:30 Stagger out and accept a mug of coffee before greeting the day in the shaded cockpit. 9:00 Restore energy banks by partaking of Connie's breakfast. This could be scrambled eggs and bacon, sausage, hot rolls, waffles or pancakes with maple syrup, fruit, juices, jam. 9:45 Stretch out with a book on bean bags under the awning while Jim and Edgar get the boat underway. Sail through the islands to next dive site. 11:00 First dive. Edgar has filled the cylinders and put them together with our BCs and regulators in the inflatable. We don our diveskins in the shade and hand him down our mask, fins and snorkel. He takes us to the site, provides boat cover while we dive, helps us back in, takes us back to the boat, unloads our kit and refills the tanks. 12:15 Peg out again with books/go for swim/kayak/snorkel/ sleep. Drink ice cold cokes and lie back. 1:00 Lunch on deck. Chicken salad, burritos, sandwiches, guacamole and chips. The boat may stay where it is or it may move depending on your afternoon choices. 2:30 Dive 2 or afternoon excursion or sailing or beaching. 4:00 Adults peg out again. Edgar takes the girls kneeboarding or tows them in the Baja death tube or we kayak to the beaches or Edgar takes us ashore somewhere for a visit or fishing. 6:00 (it could be earlier!!!) Jim's head appears through hatch with first Margarita offer. 7:00 Dinner. Always a great main course, like Bajan fish steaks, chicken, steak, mango salsa, and a delicious dessert like Rum Orange Gateau, Divine Chocolate Cake. 8:00 Retire to lie on the deck and watch the stars with your cocktails or listen to music (could be a cd or it could be Jim playing live on the clarinet!), put the world to rights over a drink in the cockpit, play cards/games, more reading. Our favourite was to slump replete and happy on the deck beanbags and talk while the stars rose and fell. 10:00 (Optimistic! We were often so flopadog relaxed that we retired before 9!)Stagger to cabin, try to read but fall asleep after one page. We probably sailed (motored) around 4 hours maximum a day, apart from a couple of days when we were travelling to and from our most remote diving location (Los Animas) when we travelled most of the day (6 hours). We dived every day, sometimes twice, sometimes only once depending on the other activities we wanted to do. I would recommend a holiday on Irish Mist to almost anyone. I can guarantee that you will find it so relaxing that almost overnight you will - like us - turn into human jellies moving from bed to beanbag and back again merely taking the opportunity to plunge into the warm sea a few times along the way. My husband has a very busy and challenging job and arrived in La Paz quite uptight and stressed out. Within hours of sailing, he was already happily comatose and remained that way for several days finally emerging from this stupor of relaxation a happier man looking ten years younger. We had secretly worried a bit about whether the girls would be bored in two weeks spent completely at sea on a smallish yacht. So - as it turned out - had they! When we have been on sailing holidays before, we have always put into a harbour at night, or most nights, so they could go ashore and enjoy some nightlife. This would not be possible in Baja. Once we sailed from La Paz, there were only deserted bays to anchor in. Neither could they fall back on their staple diet of TV, computers, chatting on MSN, chatting on the phone, videos…. We need not have feared. After a few days my younger daughter took me aside and confided "Mum, I thought this holiday was going to be totally boring, but it's not. I'm having a fantastic time, thank you so much for bringing us". We also enjoyed being with them, away from electronic distractions and the peer pressures all teenagers seem to feel about being seen to publicly enjoy themselves (heaven forbid!) with The Parents! What about the diving? Well, it's great, world class in the true sense of the word. I have dived many places around the world, but I still regard the more remote parts of the Red Sea as my personal favourite, so I tend to use that as a yardstick i.e. is it worth flying 12 hours to dive X when I can fly for 4 and dive St John's Reef. So, is it worth travelling the extra distance? Oh Yes! There are certainly far more fish, far more large fish, far more large schools of fish than I have seen in the Red Sea (or anywhere else) for many years, even in the most remote parts. It's not as colourful as the Red Sea. There are coral reefs but not everywhere and what coral there is, is hard coral, very little soft coral, although there are plenty of sea fans. So it lacks the colourful gardens of the Red Sea. The water seldom achieved the glassy clarity of the Red Sea - visibility was probably 100 feet at best. 
But, set against this is the sheer variety of fish and animal life you are likely to encounter here. You can take huge schools of jack, yellowfin tuna and other large pelagic fish for granted; you will see more moray eels here than anywhere else and more varieties of them; lobster, crab, nudibranches, scorpion fish, turtle, puffer fish, many sorts of rays including mobulas - the small variety of manta; you will probably see hammerhead, nurse and leopard sharks and possibly giant mantas and whale sharks depending on season and luck; add to this the certainty and spice of diving with sea lions and the chance to snorkel with massive schools of wild dolphin and many types of whales and you have a heady mix.Moving out from La Paz there are a variety of dive sites around the islands of Spiritu Santo, Partida, San Francisco and San Jose. These range from coral reefs to sheer sea walls, caves, arches, remote islets and rock pinnacles to deep sea mounts. The Sea of Cortez is tidal (around 3-4 feet) and current, often strong, is present at some of the exposed sites so take local advice on slack water times. I won't detail every site we visited but some of the dive sites that will long remain in our memory are: 
Los Islotes: This series of weirdly formed rocky islets just north of Isla Partida plays host to a large colony of sea lions. You could easily spend two days diving sites around these rocks. Some sides fall away to sheer underwater walls lined with small gorgonian fans and caves full of lobster and crayfish. All around the islets you will encounter playful sea lions that dive around you showing off their vastly superior water skills. At one end there is a large rock arch which extends down about 9m under the water. If conditions permit, it is a fabulous dive passing from the seaward side to the more sheltered side. A large school of fish have taken up residence inside and it is not unusual to meet a sea lion passing through. On occasion the surge can make the dive uncomfortable or even unfeasible. There is often current here and it is a good idea to carry a DSMB. If conditions were right, this would also be a great place to night dive, particularly the arch. You can pick your depth and it's also a great place to snorkel.
El Bajo: This is an isolated group of sea mounts way out in the sea, 8 NM NE of Los Islotes and perhaps the most famous dive in the Sea of Cortez. There are three seamounts close together forming an entity perhaps a ¼ mile across. The tops of the mounts range from about 60 - 120 feet in depth and the seawalls fall away in some parts to 2000 feet. Not surprisingly given its isolation, the sea mount is an irresistible attraction for many groups of large pelagics and it is very common to see large schools of hammerhead sharks here, plus jacks, Pacific Manta Rays, marlin and the occasional whale shark. The tops of the mounts are crowded with green moray eels. I have never seen so many in such a small space and I have never before seen them crowded in multiples per hole. In one hole I counted six large morays - it looked like a Hydra many headed sea monster. We had two fantastic dives here circling the seamounts at varying depths. The visibility was very good. There was current which was strong on some sides of the mount but not impossibly so. 
Jim had arranged for a dive operator out of La Paz to pick us up at a point on Isla Espiritu Santo and take us out in their panga to El Bajo as it is a long trip in Irish Mist (4 hours each way) and there is nowhere for a sailboat to anchor. It cost us £40 each for a two tank dive and I can highly recommend Baja Adventure Company which is run by Johnny Friday and the lovely Marie. We really enjoyed our dives with them - they gave a very personalised service. Amusingly, whilst we were doing our safety stop with Marie, the gorgeous French Canadian dive master, Johnny (who had been waiting on the anchored boat) free dived down frantically signalling "Shark! Shark!" We surfaced (OK - I admit it, feeling a bit nervous and looking around in every direction) to hear that a huge whale shark had been tootling about the waiting dive boats, but had sadly (for us) gone its merry way.
Las Animas: This was our furthest dive site north from La Paz. Las Animas is a remote, tiny collection of rocks/an islet north of Isla San Jose. There are a variety of dives to do here: The Pinnacles: 3 sheer rocks that break the surface and plummet straight down; the islet wall, and a sea mount just off the south side, plus Seal Rock, a single isolated pinnacle with a sea lion community. The dive on The Pinnacles stands out as one of the best dives we have ever made - and between us we have made about 10,000. It's an absolutely staggering location with a sheer wall and absolutely teeming with schools of very large fish. At times it feels as though you are flying in clouds of silver. The water clarity was superb. There was some current. We also made a dive on Seal Rock and that too was an outstanding location although the current was very strong and we could not make an entire circuit of the pinnacle as a result. For us, it was worth the entire trip to dive at Las Animas. It reminded me of diving the wall at Shark Reef, Ras Mohammed a long time ago. Breathtaking. Whale Island: An interesting and relaxing dive site nearer to La Paz. You can dive along the sheer north side of the island. Along the wall you can find great caves, lobster, many fish, arrow crabs, a small shipwreck. Just a great relaxing potter of a dive. I could go on and on. We dived every day and visited many sites, some of them in the books, some of them not. Frankly, you could more or less point the boat in any direction along the island shores, or pick your isolated rock and get a great dive. The whole place is just so undiscovered and unexplored. There are very few dive boats around and those there are always go to the same places, the famous places like the ones I've listed above. Even if we found one of the day boats on site, we could wait a little while and then have the water to ourselves. It was unbelievable. 
Divers of any experience can enjoy the Sea of Cortez. You can pick your depth in most places, there are only a few sea mounts where the top is deeper than 18m and you just have to be aware of current. Bear in mind that our daughters went on every dive with us - they have about 50 - 60 dives under their belts.There are some shipwrecks, notably the passenger ferry, The Salvatierra. This is a great dive but definitely one that needs to be attempted at slack water. It is in the channel between two islands and the current absolutely roars through at times. You can tell by looking at the surface! Bob and I are both very experienced divers and diving instructors. Because of this, Jim felt very comfortable that we could go diving without having a qualified dive master on the boat to accompany us. Remember that some of these dives are well off the beaten track. You need to be honest about your experience when you discuss the charter with him. When he has divers aboard who are not very experienced - or at their request - he will take a dive master as part of the crew. This would currently add about £60 per diving day to the entire charter. Edgar, who has worked on several diving live aboards in the Sea of Cortez before coming to Irish Mist, is studying to become a Dive Master and obviously this will make matters a lot easier. Edgar is already a great boat handler for a diving party and also has a lot of experience in finding the sites and knowing where to put divers into the water. Let me give you some more generic diving information: the best diving season is the summer: July through September. September can be rainy and stormy. Air temperatures in the summer are in the 90s. Outside of those months, the water clarity can be anything from fair to pea soup as the plankton bloom proliferates. In the winter and spring you would need a 7mm wetsuit or drysuit - the variation in water temperature is unusually large. In summer, the sun is extremely strong. Around La Paz there is generally a good breeze particularly as the day wears on. It gets hotter and more windless as you travel north. Sea temperatures in August were a pretty constant 30°C. We took 3mm wet suits and never wore them because it was just too hot. Luckily, Jim had diveskins on board and we wore them as protection against the sometimes present jellyfish eggs/stinging plankton. Depths can be what you make them in general. Current is often present and can be very strong. I would recommend that you carry a DSMB and a reel on every dive just in case you get blown off. This is particularly important if you are diving one of the isolated sea mounts. I wouldn't fancy a long surface blue water drift in those waters. The nearest recompression chamber is in Cabo San Lucas, 200 kilometres away. Jim can supply you with whatever diving equipment you want. He includes tanks, weights and diveskins as part of the deal. He also carried spare regulators and BCs "just in case". He can arrange rental equipment for you if you don't want to bring your own kit, although he prefers that you do. He carries steel cylinders of various sizes and travels with two cylinders per diver. It's not just the fantastic diving that makes the Sea of Cortez so special though. You can see some amazing sights on the surface here too - every day. Firstly, the birdlife is unusual and prolific. The area is home to large numbers of brown pelicans and it is absolutely fascinating to watch these large birds fishing - often right around the boat. I will never forget watching them soar high in the air and then spot a fish and plummet at incredible speed down and under the water. The speed of their attack is quite unexpected because they actually appear quite ungainly. Apparently they can easily reach depths of up to 10 metres in search of their prey. You will also see many other species such as boobies, grebe and the ever circling Frigate Birds. The most spectacular animal encounter in the Sea of Cortez has to be with whales though. We hadn't really expected to be lucky enough to see whales in August. The main whaling season is in the late winter/early spring when hundreds of grey whales and other species flock to the lagoons of the area to breed. Jim told us that in these winter months they run many whale viewing trips and are often surrounded by enormous pods of the creatures. 
Luck must have been smiling as we motored out of Partida Cove, a shallow anchorage between Isla Partida and Isla Espiritu Santo, on our very first morning. Edgar spotted a pair of Finback Whales right off the boat in fairly shallow water. It was an amazing sight. They were huge: easily seventy feet long and swimming at some speed near the surface. We followed them at a respectful distance for forty five minutes just marvelling at the sheer size and grace of these huge creatures. We were stunned - even Jim and Connie couldn't believe it. Later in the week we found ourselves amidst a very large group of pilot whales - maybe 30 of them. They stayed around us for a long time, jumping high in the air, cavorting, scooting around the boat - generally showing off! At one point a very large male specimen appeared behind the yacht, making straight for the stern like a submarine at attack speed! That line from Jaws came immediately to mind. "We're going to need a bigger boat!" Again a most amazing sight and one we will never forget - the girls were spellbound. Dolphins both Common and Bottlenose were so often with us on voyage that it almost became ho hum! I was used to seeing a small pod of say three or four play in the bow wave when in tropical waters. I have never before been in a pod that numbered perhaps nearly 100. Connie told me that earlier that year they had been in a super pod that ran into maybe 3000. In the end, we always kept the cameras charged and ready on deck. You never knew what would come jumping out of the water next. It's the sort of place where you could see anything. Nothing would surprise you. Exciting as hell. No wonder they call it The Frontier. Don't leave it twenty years before you visit. Getting There: Baja is not the easiest place to reach from the UK, but it's not that difficult either. We flew from Heathrow to Los Angeles and then picked up a flight to La Paz with AeroCalifornia. The flight to LA with Virgin cost £345 return and the flight to La Paz cost £140 return. There are other options. You can fly to La Paz from other American international gateways, notably Phoenix and Dallas/Fort Worth. You can also use other airlines such as AeroMexico and America West. You could fly to Mexico City and then route to La Paz. You can also fly into Cabo San Lucas, the largest tourist settlement, which is about 2.5 hours away by road. That opens up more airlines including American Airlines, Alaskan Airlines (really), Air France and sometimes direct routes out of the UK with United Airlines. We broke our journey in L.A. The AeroCalifornia flight was fine and we had no problems at all with baggage or weight restrictions even though we were carrying two huge dive bags (full kit for 4 divers), a large soft sports bag, a very large hardshelled suitcase (this was part of a larger trip), 3 surf boards and hand luggage. They don't serve food on many of their departures so you might want to bring your own. La Paz airport is small but modern and up to date and we were quickly through. You need to fill in a tourist card which the airline give you and it is kept with your passport whilst you are in Mexico. Jim had arranged for Dean a retired California Highway Patrol Officer to meet us in a van and transport us to and from the boat. Needless to say, he was an excellent driver. When booking your transatlantic tickets, ask at that time if the airline will issue tickets for AeroCalifornia or AeroMexico flights. Some transatlantic carriers can issue tickets and some can't. Virgin for instance cannot. Air New Zealand can. If your transatlantic carrier can issue tickets, it makes it a lot easier. If not, you will have to find a ticket agency in the U.S. (probably) that can issue the La Paz air tickets because neither of these airlines have ticketing agencies in the UK and neither of them have web based ticket facilities. I list below the contact details of the Miami based ticket agency I used. They were fine - I had the tickets couriered to me within days. If you fly to Cabo San Lucas direct with an international carrier, it is also simpler, but you then have a drive (quite pleasant) to La Paz. Jim can arrange to pick you up from there and take you back. You can also arrange to stay on the boat the night before sailing if it suits your flight arrangements better. Observations: I took the opportunity to watch some of the other dive operators who were on site with us whilst I was there. Most of them use small Bajan Pangas. These are fibreglass skiffs with cross seats, a bimini and a large outboard motor. They travel at varying speeds, some very fast. The ride is not the most comfortable and you should consider whether you would find a long trip (2+hours each way) every day in one acceptable. Ask questions about the boat, the speed of the boat and the entry and exit facilities before you book. You need one that is fast enough to reach the sites in the shortest time without giving you a bruised bum or whiplash on the way. You might also want to consider whether bouncing up and down like this is most appropriate sort of ride home if you are diving intensively and deeply over a period of days. You also want a panga with a robust diving ladder that does not attempt to implode on itself when you are half way up it! I'm sure you know the sort of ladder to which I refer: one of those fold up ones. I saw a few of them… We visited El Bajo with Baja Adventure Company. Johnny and Marie are passionate about scuba diving, run a great operation and are to be recommended. Sound as a sixpence - they really know what they're doing. Their panga is fast and has a great ladder. In the winter they run a whale watching camp up in one of the lagoons. If you are going to be based on the land in La Paz I would really recommend you look them up. They are small enough and passionate enough about the sport to really care and give you great individualised service. Club Cantamar seem to run some much larger day boats which look comfortable. However, they also carry quite a lot of divers on them. Do you mind diving with 20 other people? I saw two diving liveaboards: The Don Jose and the Solmar 5. I wouldn't recommend the Don Jose. It was extremely badly rusted, hadn't been painted in a very long time, listed and was a very sorry sight. I heard that the interiors were just as bad and that the food was awful. The Solmar 5 looked top class and would definitely be the way to go if you are looking for an all out dive your socks off liveaboard holiday. All IMVHO of course. La Paz A lovely sleepy resort town with some great calm beaches and a couple of good looking hotels. There are a couple of first class marinas. The town itself has some decent and reasonable shopping and enough restaurants to keep you satisfied for a few weeks at least. Meals are extremely reasonable. You can find a lobster dinner for about £7 or a fine steak for about the same price. Mexican food is excellent and starts at £1 for something like fish tacos and goes up to about £4 for a mixed plate. Mexican beer is superb and you can find both light and dark kinds. Tequila shots are another good choice. Cocktails are very popular, particularly Margaritas in various forms and Daquiris. Cocktails are about £1.50. We suffered no ill effects from food or drink at all during our weeks in Mexico. You have to exercise common sense. On Irish Mist all the water has been purified and is safe to drink and brush your teeth in. There is also bottled water. In most hotels and popular restaurants this is also true (but check). If in doubt, ask for bottled water. Pick restaurants that are recommended in the Guidebooks or are clearly popular with locals. There are food carts selling snacks on the street and I would personally treat these with caution although they seem to be very popular. Taxis are cheap and very plentiful. You can hire a car in La Paz, all the major rental agencies are present but unless you plan on doing a lot of touring it is probably cheaper and better to use a taxi. There are very few tarmac roads outside of the town and the main north-south highway. If you can spare the time, a week spent in either La Paz or Cabo before or better still, after, your charter would be extremely pleasant. Vaccinations/Health Matters: No vaccinations currently required. It is as well to take some Immodium in case of holiday tummy. This is likely to be caused by unfamiliarity with spicy food rather than food contamination (as long as you observe common sense). Some regular visitors swear by Pepto Bismol. They begin taking it the day before they arrive in Mexico and keep up the dosage through the first few days. Others say that they just take it as soon as they feel a twinge. Currency: Mexican Peso. There are currently around 20 pesos to the Pound Sterling. US Dollars are also commonly and routinely accepted. There are currently around 11 Pesos to the USD. Confusingly the sign for the Peso is $ as it is for the USD. If you see this sign used in Mexico it invariably refers to the Peso. They will print USD if they mean that. Language: Spanish. Many people speak English but an attempt to converse in Spanish is very welcomed and clearly appreciated. Tipping: Expected for most things. Around 10 - 20% is usual. Souvenirs: There are many types of tequila (a spirit made from the Agava plant) to choose from and at varying prices. You should differentiate between rock bottom swigging tequila which may give you a dreadful hangover, decent cocktail base tequila (Jose Cuervo Gold) and a "sipping" tequila which is designed to be enjoyed alone. There are other Baja/Mexican spirits and liqueurs which make a good souvenir. Mescale is a type of tequila which traditionally has a worm in the bottom of the bottle. It is considered great luck to get the drink with the worm in it. Controy is the Mexican version of Contreau and an essential part of a real Mexican tequila (not Triple Sec as in Europe). Damiana is a Bajan liqueur, not unlike Contreau but drier, used to make a Baja Margarita. It comes in an interesting bottle shaped like a pregnant woman's torso. This is of great significance as it is renowned in the Baja as a powerful aphrodisiac. Visas: As stated, you only need a tourist card to enter Mexico. However, if you are transiting through the U.S.A., you will need to clear Customs and Immigration there in both directions. This means (currently) that you will need a Visa Waiver form (green) which will be given to you on the transatlantic flight. This is true even if you are immediately transferring to your flight to Mexico. Leave at least 3 hours between your flights in order to deal with this. Tell the U.S. Immigration official that you are going to spend some of your vacation in Mexico and ask them to make your U.S. stay long enough to incorporate your return. When you leave the U.S. to go to Mexico keep the green form that the U.S. Immigration officer staples into your passport - do not let the airline official remove it. This will save you having to fill in another green form when you are transiting home. Medical Help Mexico has a form of NHS much as the U.K. If you become ill or have an accident whilst you are there, you can go along to the local hospital for treatment. You will have to pay so ensure you have adequate insurance. There are many American retirees living in Baja. Because of this there are various American Clinics which will also treat you privately and where the staff are guaranteed to speak English. You may prefer to go to one of these. You will find them listed in the Yellow Pages or in the tourist newspapers distributed around the hotels and restaurant. Please feel free to contact me if you need more information. Alison.boler@bsactravelclub.co.uk Contacts: Baja Seafaris: Jim Hughes Operations Manager www.bajaseafaris.com 011 52 612 348-5899 captainjim@bajaseafaris.com Ticket Agency for AeroCalifornia: ABS Travel and Tours, 8550 W. Flagler Street, Suite 109, Miami, FL 33144 Phone: 305 223-9820 or 1-800-445-9820 Fax: 305 223-1755 online@abstravel.com www.abstravel.com Baja Adventure Company (Johnny and Marie) U.S. Address: 603 Seagaze Drive #732, Oceanside, CA 92054 U.S. Toll-free: 877-560-BAJA (2252) Phone: 760-721-8433 • FAX: 760-433-9863 E-mail:info@bajaecotours.com Web Site: www.bajaecotours.com Guidebooks Moon Handbooks: Baja by Joe Cummings. I used this guide and it was excellent. Lonely Planet: Baja California Mexico main page | ||||
HOME |
WHERE TO DIVE |
SPECIAL OFFERS |
TRIP PLANNER |
TRIP REPORTS |
BSAC CENTRES |
AIRLINES |
OPERATORS
LIVEABOARDS | GREEN TRAVEL | FORUM | NEWS | SOURCES | PHOTOGRAPHY | TRAVEL SHOP | |||||
Whaling Away in Margaritaville!
The water conditions provide a unique environment that has allowed a greater diversity of marine life to develop here than anywhere else on the planet. In the winter, the sheltered water is cool and green with plankton making it an attractive winter location for many types of whales and other plankton eaters. The clear warm summer water brings huge schools of pelagic fish, dolphins, hammerhead sharks, mantas, turtles, marlin, dorado and whale shark. There are also year round sea lion colonies at various locations. Long renowned as one of the greatest sport fishing grounds in the world, it is also a paradise for divers. 