Back in August, I went to San Carlos, Mexico, one of my favorite places to dive. I certified a couple friends as PADI Advanced Open Water divers on the trip, and also had time for a fun dive at the end. Here’s a quick recap of the trip.
Day 1: Getting There
San Carlos is about a 6-hour drive from Tucson, and the construction to widen the road is almost complete. There’s a beautiful new bypass around Hermosillo (bypassing even the old bypass road!), the only part of the drive that I’ve ever found frustrating. It’s a toll road, but DEFINITELY worth it.
We drove down on a Saturday, a change of pace from my usual Friday drive. We left early, which gave us a chance to check into the hotel, grab some tanks from El Mar Diving Center, and get to Piedras Pintas for an afternoon shore dive the same day we arrived.
Pregnant stingray.
A chunky nudibranch.
Advanced Open Water Course – Day 1
The main purpose of the trip was to certify two of my friends as PADI Advanced Open Water Divers (AOW). I also did a refresher for one of their friends who hadn’t been diving in a few years.
On the day we arrived, we did the AOW Navigation dive as a shore dive. We also got lucky and saw an octopus, several stingrays, and a bunch of hairy lobsters in holes.
That evening, we returned to the same dive site for the AOW Night Dive, the second of their five required dives, and one of the three they got to choose (navigation and deep dive are required for everyone). Night brought out the eels and synapted sea cucumbers, as well as a couple pregnant sting rays.
After the night dive we headed out for a quick taco dinner – we were pretty tired after traveling and two dives!
A type of nudibranch I haven’t seen before.
Brown-cheeked blenny, about the diameter of a pencil.
A spotted moray eel.
Advanced Open Water Course – Day 2
On Sunday, we did a 3-tank boat trip. Unfortunately, conditions didn’t allow for us to get out to San Pedro Nolasco Island as planned, so we did three local dives instead. Actually, I kind of prefer the local dives sometimes because the boat ride to the island is so long. But I have to admit, it is fun to dive with sea lions, and they are only consistently encountered out at the island.
Anyway, we started out with our AOW Deep Dive at Deer Island, where we saw another octopus and some cool nudibranchs. Our second dive was our AOW Boat Dive at Punto San Antonio. Here, we found a bunch of staghorn crabs, little hermit crabs that use a very particular type of live coral as their “shell”.
Conditions were warm – 87F at the bottom. It was so warm that honestly it was kind of refreshing getting out of the water!
The stars of the weekend were staghorn coral crabs like this one.
Another staghorn coral hermit crab, wearing the living coral as its shell.
Flower urchin close up.
Green moray eel – pretty common in San Carlos.
Advanced Open Water Course – Day 3 and Fun Dive
On our third and final day, we again did two boat dives. The first was the last dive of the AOW course, Peak Performance Buoyancy. I think this is the most beneficial of all the advanced dives – having good buoyancy helps with being comfortable underwater, air consumption, protecting the natural environment, photography, and many other things. We did this dive at Eagle Island, and after completing the AOW skills we found over 20 staghorn hermit crabs, angelfish, and a tiny spotted eel in a wall.
We had one more dive, and since the AOW course was over, it was a fun dive for all of us! I finally got to take out my camera, and all the photos on this post are from that one dive. This was at Aquarium, and we found some nudis and lots of nudi eggs, angel fish, and even more staghorn hermit crabs. It was a busy time of year for the crabs!
Our drive back to Tucson was quick and uneventful, and because we returned in the middle of the day on a weekday the border wait time was pretty tolerable compared to my usual Sunday evening return.
A very nearly invisible shrimp – can you see it?
Chocolate chip sea star close up.
I think these are some sort of snail?
Summary
I had a look at my log books and this was my NINTH trip to San Carlos. Just like all the others, I had a great time. It’s a perfect place to go for those of us living in Southern Arizona when we need a quick ocean fix. Not too expensive, great food, and great diving if you’re patient and know how to look for things that like to blend in.
Unfortunately this turned out to be my only trip to San Carlos in 2019, after four trips in 2018. Hopefully I’ll be able to visit more in 2020!
Dives this trip: 6
Total dives: 236
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