Explore Baja Trip Report October 2024

By Mark B Hatter

If you were to look up the phrase “when the stars align” in the Cambridge English Dictionary you’d find the definition to an idiom “that means a situation is very lucky or good, or that everything has come together perfectly for something to happen”.  This is the idiom which best captures our recent Bluewater Travel Explore Baja Trip on the Rocio Del Mar.

Each fall, Bluewater Travel books guests on a special 12-day adventure which navigates the length of the Sea of Cortez, offering divers a chance to experience its riches along a 1,200 kilometer voyage, diving in what Jaques Cousteau once described as “Nature’s Aquarium”.  The journey encompasses the tropical waters in lower Baja, from La Paz south to the more seasonally temperate islands and Baja coastline north of Loreto, to the Midriff Islands.  It’s always “the luck of the draw” when it comes to weather and water visibility, especially during the fall.  Yet, for the 18 Bluewater adventurers on this year’s Explore Baja journey, the stars aligned. 

Our departure out of San Jose del Cabo was notable as the sea was smooth without even a hint of a swell.  And our first drop at the offshore pinnacle called the Lighthouse, off Isla Cerralvo, served as an omen of good things to come.  Over the course of four dives on our first day, the Lighthouse gave our divers shoals of schooling fish from blue-lined snappers to sardines to chubs feeding on the surface just before dark.  Between the schooling shoals of fish, our first of many encounters with sea lions, too, set an expectation for good things to come. 

The following day, north of the Lighthouse, we spent the day diving two local wrecks and the healthy, vibrant coral reefs off Cabo Pulmo.  The stony coral reef sites are the northernmost in the eastern Pacific Ocean.  They are remarkable in that they could not be any further from the Coral Triangle (in the Indo-Pacific), yet they reflect the same attributes of any stony coral reef formation in more prodigious regions, including thickets of coral reaching 100% bottom coverage to shoals of colorful fish.  

As the Rocio Del Mar worked its way up the eastern coast of Baja, the northernmost boundary of true tropical coral thickets gave way to more rocky reef structures with the occasional coral colony, belying the transition to extra-tropical underwater vistas.  Such is the seascape at Isla Islotes.  Here, a large resident colony of sea lions gave us an aquatic show over the course of three dives, tugging on our diver’s swim-fins and cavorting in groups of six or more against a backdrop of crystal clear water and an enormous shoal of sardines.  Had it not been for the planned “bonfire” dive just after dark for mobulas, we would have surely completed a fourth dive with Isla Islote’s sea lions and sardines.

And the mobula dive was worth the wait until dark.  A “bonfire” dive is one where a bright light is centered on the bottom in the middle of a ring of divers.  The idea is that the light attracts the small things upon which mobulas like to filter-feed, providing observers an opportunity to watch the show as they gracefully weave around the light in small schools.  It’s a difficult event to record using still photography, and a good camera with a high ISO capability is required to capture the mobulas in the very low incandescence of the torch, but the resulting images can be rewarding.  More popular, however, is recording the event using GoPros or smart phones in housings, which work exceedingly well.

Having moved north again after dark, the following morning at Isla Las Animas our dive guides gave us a special treat for the first dive of the day.  We entered the warm, clear water along a rocky slope to venture to an underwater pinnacle off the island where “a few” schooling hammerhead sharks have been occasionally reported.  With a thermocline at around 20 meters, the warm, clear, tropical surface water gave way via a shimmering transition layer, to a dark, cool upwelling, exactly the type of environment in which scalloped hammerhead sharks abound.  Ironically, the operative phase “a few,” was, if nothing, totally inaccurate!  The undersea pinnacle was ground zero for a parade of schooling scalloped hammerheads numbering in the hundreds!  Interestingly, they were all small, perhaps averaging about a meter in length.   Could Isla Los Animas be a nursery for scalloped hammerheads in the eastern pacific?  That’s a question for scientists, perhaps videos from our guests can provide clues in this regard.

With the Rocio Del Mar having made the transition from Puerto Penasco south on the Explore Baja trip just prior to our Bluewater voyage, Captain Julio recommended an exploratory day to Isla Carman as the visibility around the Midriff Islands remained poor due to large amounts of plankton fed by upwellings.  Being late in the season, the thermoclines within the Midriff Islands can be dramatic, so staying a bit south in the warmer, cleaner water off Loreto seemed to be a good plan.

After an overnight crossing to Isla Carman, the crew and guests were more than surprised by the amount of fish life the island provided on each of four “discovery dives” to sites never before visited.  So good were the results that Captain Julio will be adding Isla Carman to the future Explore Baja dive site itinerary!

As the Rocio Del Mar neared the end of our Bluewater voyage, it was time for a long dash to Bahia De Los Angeles for a swim with the resident whale sharks.  Again, as good juju would have it, the bay was smooth and the water warm and clear for a morning session with several amenable juvenile whale sharks our panga guides found for our divers.  Having completed five trips to Bahia De Los Angeles on the Rocio Del Mar over the last decade, this was, by far, the best whale shark swim I had experienced.  So “chill” were the animals, that our swimmers all had long, comfortable swims alongside these majestic fish.  Swimmers returned to the pangas only after having to be recalled by our guides to allow others an opportunity to swim with the 5-meter animals!

Check out our list of the Best Places to Swim or Dive with Whale Sharks! 

Indeed, on our Bluewater Travel’s Explore Baja voyage, the stars certainly aligned!  

If you live in North America, the Sea of Cortez is right in our backyard. It’s an amazing place to dive with something for everyone. Check out Bluewater Travel’s website for future trips on the Rocio Del Mar. 

Interested in learning more? Read all about our previous trip to the Sea of Cortez. 

Recommended Scuba Gear

• 5mm wetsuit and a hooded vest. Browse Wetsuits at Bluewater Photo
• A good mask and snorkel for whale shark snorkelling. We recommend the Cressi ZS1 & Corsica Snorkeling Package
• Anti-fog.
• Dive light/torch. We suggest Kraken NR-2000 Dive Light
• Pointer.
• Travel BCD. Read our Best Travel BCD Article
• Travel regulator. We suggest Mares Ultra 62X Dive Regulator 

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