Last weekend, I went to San Carlos, Mexico to scuba dive for the 4th time this year. Read on for a recap of the trip.
Day 1: Getting There
Though my last trip was an impromptu solo trip, this one was planned long in advance and was with a group of four other divers. Two started the drive down from Tucson early Friday, and I left Tucson with the other two at noon on Friday after we had wrapped up our work obligations.
There’s still some road construction on the way down, but every time we go down more of the new (wider) freeway is complete. This time, the drive took 6 hours and 20 minutes. There was some weird traffic right after crossing the border into Mexico, which was strange and something I haven’t encountered before. Still, the rest of the drive was pretty smooth.
The route from Tucson to San Carlos. Note how little construction there is now!
We were hungry by the time we arrived in San Carlos, so we went straight to Don Lalo’s for some tacos. We got some ice cream after, but I was in bed by 9. I still hadn’t recovered fully from my work trip to Jordan and Iraqi Kurdistan a week earlier.
Day 2: Local Diving
Typically, we dive in the morning, but this time we were boat diving and the boat was only available in the afternoon. This is different than I’m used to, but the slow start was kind of nice. I had a chilaquiles breakfast with a local friend at Rosa’s Cantina. I had a little more downtime after breakfast before we headed to the Marina as well.
San Carlos has recently had a few storms come through, which unfortunately meant the water was chilly (75F) and murky. On the first dive, we went to Shangri La, which is usually one of my favorite dive sites there. Unfortunately, the visibility was only about 8 feet. When vis is that low, it makes sense to take it slow and look for little things, since you can’t see anything big anyway. Unfortunately, my buddies on the dive didn’t seem to realize that and were zipping around at a pace I wouldn’t even try in good conditions. I aborted the dive after 30 minutes because I just wasn’t having fun.
Pretty much what the whole first dive looked like.
The second dive was better; it was at St. Nicholas and the visibility was around 15 feet. That’s still not a lot, but it is SO much better than 8 feet. I also changed buddies; this time I dove with my friends Cyndi and Erika. They dive at a pace that’s a much better fit for my diving style. We found some cool things – several eels, tiny shrimp under sea stars, and four speckled flatworms.
Tan sea star. That’s its butthole in the middle (theirs is on top cause the mouth is on the underside!).
Speckled flatworm.
An orange sea star does a balancing act.
Anemone.
We went back to the house for showers before heading out for dinner at JJ’s taco shop. I’ve been there a ton of times and it’s reliable but nothing special. We did grab some more ice cream before going back though – sadly, that was probably the highlight of my day.
Day 3: Relaxing and Getting Home
Though the plan was originally to stay close and do local diving Sunday morning, due to the visibility the decision was made to go out to San Pedro Nolasco Island instead. I enjoy the island, but after traveling overseas so recently and knowing that we had a long drive home that afternoon, I just wasn’t feeling the 1.5+ hour boat ride in each direction.
I stayed back and slept in (till 10!), read a bit, and prepped my classes for the next morning. The other divers had left before 7 and didn’t return until around 2, so it was definitely the right decision for me. Sometimes when I travel it’s hard to slow down because I want to squeeze everything in. Something I’ve been working on, though, is balancing that with the need to also use my time off to rest and recharge. I did a good job of that Sunday, prioritizing rest over experiences.
Border Trouble
The ride back was uneventful, until we reached the border. All three of us in the car have Sentri membership, or so I thought. This lets you take the fast lane at the US border, which can save 1-2 hours. Unfortunately, it turns out my card wasn’t activated (??), even though I had paid, done the background check, used Global Entry at airports etc. My mistake, apparently.
Even more unfortunate is that the simple act of trying to go through the border with a Sentri card that is not activated (even if it matches your passport!) means you are “referred.” Referred where, you ask? To the same line as the people being checked out by ATF, DEA, etc. Yikes. Our whole car was searched, and we were locked in what was essentially a group cell while they did the search. Plus, they confiscated my card. Strikes me as a big overreaction to a seemingly small mistake. I was even able to activate the card online while we waited in the car but that didn’t make a difference.
We did get back to Tucson eventually, although it was much later than we should have been back if I had activated my card properly. Hopefully next time I’ll have a new card and things will go more smoothly.
Up Next
Up next: Washington DC and Hawaii! In December I’m going to accompany my dad to some fancy architecture dinners in DC. Soon after, a few friends and I are going to head to Kona to dive. Once we’ve had our fill, I’ll go to Honolulu for a couple days to see some friends who live there before heading to my dad’s house in Albuquerque for Christmas.
Dives this trip: 2
Total dives: 171
Note: I did 3 dives at Lake Pleasant, AZ between this trip and my trip to Lembeh. I was with some friends working on their PADI Advanced Open Water certification. So that’s where the gap in dive numbers comes from in case you wondered 🙂
Share this Post