Cabo Pulmo Diving, Baja California, Sur
Though not mentioned as often as other Sea of Cortez dive destinations, Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park is a mostly undiscovered jewel for the adventurous travel diver. If you are looking for cocktails around the pool and ESPN on the satellite flat-screen over the bar, look elsewhere. If you want amazing diving with immense masses of diverse sea life, where "getting there" (offshore to the dive site) can entail an adrenalin-rush not unlike a pretty good coaster ride in an amusement park. Where sitting in a beach-side cantina after a day of remarkable underwater experiences sipping a Corona is the standard practice, then You must consider a trip to this out of the way gem.
Though there are several dive operators the serve Cabo Pulmo and we have tried most of them, the best we have found is Ms Pilu. She runs a one-person shop and offers the dive service and support that you ask for. Her knowledge of the park area and the piscatorial inhabitants is encyclopedic and her excitement about each trip is contagious. She keeps her dive groups very small and intimate, with just one other buddy pair (four of us) the largest group we've ever had and often it was just Pilu and us. Conditions at Pulmo can vary as with any offshore diving venue, but conditions are mild, visibility ranges from 30-feet (the worst we've ever encountered) upwards to 100-feet. Critters run the gamut from massive schools of jacks to huge grouper to sharks (Bull & hammerhead), eels, rays and even the occasional whale shark. The fun part is you can do two dives, same site, back to back and encounter entirely different residents each time.
Knowledge, support and the nicest divemaster/guide you will ever find is the reason we always try to schedule our Cabo Pulmo dives with her, but because she is so much in demand sometimes we have to choose other options.
