Dive Review of Rocio del Mar in
Mexico (Western)/Explore Baja

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Rocio del Mar: "Amazing trip in Baja", Oct, 2022, by Alice Ribbens, MN, US ( Contributor 19 reports with 21 Helpful votes). Report 12093.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	First of all, the Sea of Cortez has different terrain than what most think of when they envision tropical diving. There is very little coral. Most of the sites we dove including boulders and rocks going down to sandy slopes. If you're only interested in diving on pretty coral reefs, this is not for you. We were on an "Explore Baja" itinerary which started in Puerto Penasco and ended near Cabo. We dove a number of sites in the Midriff Islands and then worked our way south. It was really interesting to see how the biodiversity changed from north to south. Some sites had tons of fish (like ridiculously huge schools of grunts or snappers or pompano) and others were more sparsely populated. We got buzzed by sea lions at a number of sites, but if you ignored them, they tended to just leave. (One woman on our boat was bit by a sea lion on her arm. She said the bite was completely unprovoked so be careful when you dive there.) They offered a chance to snorkel with whale sharks in Bahia de Los Angeles. I had done this when I was on the boat in 2012--or rather, I was in a panga that drove around the bay for 2 1/2 hours looking for whale sharks. A number of us opted to stay on the boat and do another dive. The head DM assured everyone else that they had a "99% success rate" of snorkeling with whale sharks. Unfortunately, that did not pan out and those that opted for the snorkeling excursion did not get to snorkel with whale sharks. We did a night dive with Munk's mobulas that was much more successful. They set up lights to attract plankton which attracts the mobulas. Munk's mobulas are small (1-2'). They sort of look like mini-mantas. Very fun to watch the school of 50-100 of them swoop up and down while feeding. The boat is very comfortable though set up a little oddly compared to other liveaboards. Rooms are mostly on the main deck and the dining room is downstairs. Rooms are not big but are very comfortable. The dive deck is also set up in kind of a weird way. Most of the dive stations are based on benches and divers get a storage bucket underneath. However, some of the stations are "stand-up" stations with shelves above. These stations would not work for anyone that is short. (I'm 5'8" and I felt like I was barely tall enough to get my BCD on.) Also, they told us not to store anything on the shelf during crossings because it could get blown off, but didn't give us another storage option until I complained. The camera charging table is on the dive deck--which would be fine, except that the place that wetsuits get hung up after diving is right next to the camera table. It didn't seem all that safe to me to have a bunch of wet dripping gear hanging next to the only place where they want you charging cameras and lights, etc. Dive staff and the entire crew is top notch. We had 18 divers and were divided into 3 groups of 6. Groups take turn being the first group in the water. Our DM quickly figured out the kind of diving we wanted to do and we had a fantastic time with him. The chef and kitchen staff made incredible food and handled everyone's food issues amazingly well. And the rest of the staff was always available to help with anything you needed. We mostly didn't see other divers for most of the trip, which was great. They did give a heads up when there were other divers or snorkelers or boat traffic in the area. All in all, it was a really great trip with some very interesting diving. But don't expect coral or the kinds of biodiversity you see elsewhere in the Pacific or the Caribbean. Also, in case you were thinking that the liveaboards are supposed to go to Cabo Pulmo, the rules at Cabo Pulmo have changed and made it virtually impossible for liveaboards to go there. If you want to go to Cabo Pulmo, you'll have to do a special trip there (which you can do as a day trip out of Cabo San Lucas if you don't want to stay there). Don't expect any of the liveaboards to go there.
Websites	Rocio del Mar
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Komodo, Raja Ampat, Banda Sea, Philippines, Maldives, Palau, GBR, Fiji, British Columbia, Monterey, Puget Sound, Hawaii, Bonaire, Turks & Caicos, Caymans, Honduras, Belize, Cozumel, Akumal, Sea of Cortez, Lake Superior, Solomon Islands, St. Croix, St. Vincent, Socorro, Cuba, Lembeh etc.
Closest Airport	PHX	Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	75-83°F / 24-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	25-75 Ft/ 8-23 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	60-70 min dive times (depending on site); don't go into deco
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	> 2
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals	N/A	Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	I only dive with a point and shoot so can't speak to considerations for big camera rigs. There is a dedicated rinse bucket only for cameras and electronics on the dive deck.

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Dive Review of Rocio del Mar in Mexico (Western)/Explore Baja

Rocio del Mar: "Amazing trip in Baja", Oct, 2022,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Rocio del Mar in
Mexico (Western)/Explore Baja