For the third time in 3 months, I went south to San Carlos, Mexico for a long weekend of diving. In August, I did my Advanced Open Water (AOW) certification and in September, I wrapped up my Rescue Diver certification.
This time, though, I didn’t have any training to complete. It was a recreational trip in the fullest sense – a couple days of diving just for fun and nothing else!
The trip was organized by a Tucson dive shop, Planet Scuba. They organize a trip to San Carlos at least once a month, and I love their owners and staff. Usually, there are at least a few novice divers on the trip, but this time everyone was pretty experienced, so the trip had a different vibe to it.
Day 1
Now that I’ve gone on a few trips to San Carlos, I’ve met some other people from Tucson who also like to go down for a fun weekend. This trip, I carpooled with two of them, Erika and Cyndi. We left a bit later than I usually do, at noon rather than 8am, due to Cyndi’s work schedule. This was perfect, because frankly I needed that extra time to get things at home sorted out and to get packed.
Here’s a map of the drive, because maps are fun:
Tucson to San Carlos.
As you can see, there’s some construction along the way. Still, the ride was pretty smooth (easy for me to say – I wasn’t driving!), and we made it to San Carlos in time for dinner.
After some snacks and drinks with the group, the three of us headed to a taco stand called Don Lalo’s, which is cheap and awesome. We went there a lot this trip.
We finally made it to our hotel (San Carlos Plaza) around 9. It’s a beautiful hotel, with it’s own private beach and a pool, but I barely spent any time in it the whole weekend.
With Cyndi and Erika at Don Lalo’s taco stand.
Day 2
We met at the boat at 6:30am and departed for San Pedro island at 7. It takes about 1.5 hours to get there, so I took a nap. It’s not easy sleeping on a smallish boat in waves, but I’m starting to get pretty good at it.
San Pedro island has quite a few dive sites, and the captain usually picks the ones to go to based on the conditions. This time, we did 3 dives: Las Cascaditas, Rocas Grandes, and La Playa.
The water was significantly cooler than in August and September, but it was still plenty warm at 78-80F. That’s the temperature most competition pools are kept at, so I was right at home!
We had about 40 feet of visibility at the island and saw flower urchins, sharpnose puffers, a lobeskin puffer, panamic fanged blennies, giant hawkfish, several types of sea cucumbers, arrow crabs, and a sea lion (among many other things, of course).
Not sure what this is, but it was tiny! The head was smaller than my pinkie finger nail.
Brown-cheek blenny (smaller than a pen cap!).
Crab.
Panama graysby.
Pacific mutton hamlet.
We didn’t return till close to 3pm, so Erika, Cyndi, and I went straight to JJ’s Tacos y Cosas for a quick lunch. It’s almost as cheap as Don Lalo’s, and unlike Don Lalo’s, is actually open during the day.
Several of us had some interest in doing a night dive, but not enough of us to justify taking the boat out. Instead, we decided to do a shore dive from one of the beaches in San Carlos. After lunch, we stopped at El Mar Diving Center to pick up some tanks before going to the hotel for a quick nap. By then, it was already 5 so we didn’t have much time to rest. At 7, we went to the beach to set up our equipment.
Tucson is pretty good for stargazing as far as cities go. There are a lot of observatories nearby, so local restrictions are do a decent job keeping light pollution down. However, on the beach in San Carlos, I was reminded of just how much you can see when there is nearly no light pollution at all. Frankly, if we decided to just sit on the beach looking at stars for 2 hours instead of doing the dive, I would have been perfectly content.
But we did do the dive, and it was incredible. Night dives always are, since you see an entirely different set of creatures than you do during the day.
This time, we saw eels everywhere, sleeping parrotfish, spiny lobsters, a shame-faced crab (see pic below), these strange creatures called synaptid cucumbers which are about 6 feet long (also, see pic below), a really cool type of urchin I hadn’t see before (guess what – there’s a pic below), loads of hermit crabs, and, most impressively, a scorpionfish trying to eat a balloonfish.
The balloonfish (also called porcupinefish) had inflated itself as a defense mechanism, and the scorpionfish’s jaws had dislocated. I’ve included pics of this too in case you don’t believe me. It reminded me of a video I’ve seen of a boa constrictor eating an entirely too large deer. Just incredible.
Last but not least, bioluminescent plankton were all over the place. As soon as we turned off our lights, we could see them sparkling anywhere we disturbed the water. It felt like I was Harry Potter – I simply waved my hand and green flashes of light appeared all around it.
Scorpionfish eating balloonfish.
Another angle of the scorpionfish eating the balloonfish.
Cool urchin with irridescent blue spots. I think it’s a fire urchin (astropyga radiata); anyone want to confirm? By the way – that eyeball looking thing in the middle? That’s an anal sac.
Green moray eel.
Synapted cucmber (euapta godeffroyi). For context, it’s about 5-6 feet long!
Shame-faced crab.
We finished up around 9, grabbed a few tacos at Don Lalo’s, and headed to bed. It was a pretty good day!
Day 3
On Sunday, we just did two local dives because we had the long drive back to Tucson in the afternoon. Some people think San Pedro Island is far better, and pooh-pooh the local dives (by the way, who doesn’t love the word/phrase “pooh-pooh”!?). They like the sea lions that the island offers, as well as the higher visibility.
I, however, am just as content with the local dives as I am with the island. In fact, I think I prefer the local dives. I tend to notice and enjoy little things, both when I’m diving and when I’m on land, and those don’t require 40-ft visibility. I also like skipping the extra 3 hours on the boat.
Our first dive was at Punta San Antonio. If you’re going to see seahorses in San Carlos, it will be here. We looked, but unfortunately didn’t find any. We did, however, see an octopus, several stingrays, a few eels, a gulf sun star, and loads and loads of Christmas tree worms.
Jewel moray eel.
The second dive was at Shangri La, a site I hadn’t been to before. It was incredible, and along with the night dive, was one of my favorite dives of the trip. I stayed under for a bit over an hour, and saw 2 speckled flatworms, a spotted snake eel burrowing itself tail-first (see video below!), and dozens and dozens of small stingrays (again, see video!).
Shangri La dive site.
Speckled flatworm (pseudobiceros bajae).
Incredibly successful underwater selfie.
Swim-through at the Shangri La dive site.
Anemone.
I don’t know what this is, but it’s beautiful!
Spotted snake eel looking for food.
Partially buried stingrays.
We got back to the marina at noon and grabbed some tacos and ice cream before heading back to Tucson. Erika was a champ doing all that driving. Erika – if you’re reading this, thanks!
What’s next
Next up: I’m going to Australia! I’ve signed up for a Divemaster course with Diver’s Den in Cairns and will be squeezing it in over my winter break. I’ve already started the course online. I’ll be traveling the whole break, so I’ll do all my teaching prep for next semester remotely. We’ve all heard about the legendary Great Barrier Reef and I’m excited for the chance to see it myself!
Dives this trip: 6
Total dives: 48
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