The final diving trip of the year was once again San Carlos, Mexico. I was originally going to head down with my usual dive shop but they cancelled the trip due to some military-like skirmishes between drug cartels and the Mexican army between Nogales and Hermosillo. So I went with another group who provide transportation via a motor coach. It was very nice not to have to drive.

The checkpoints looked about the same with the exception of the small artillery units with Hum-V’s equipped with grenade launchers. I hadn’t noticed those before on other trips down. Also, because we were a group in a bus, we had to disembark every time so they could go through our stuff. It all went pretty fast though, and the gentlemen with the semi-automatics were friendly and cheerful.

For our entertainment the operators provided violent guy flicks to watch, so I saw Ironman, Indiana Jones, Get Smart, and Deep Blue Sea. I was saturated with explosions, fighting, car chases, loud gunfire, and scantily clad women. I would have paid extra to watch something mellow.

We got to the Best Western Tetakawi (Matt, our 14 year old advanced student, thought it was Teriyaki almost the whole trip) and I found that I had a room all to myself! I not only got to ride down in comfort, but had a room all to myself. I couldn’t have been happier if I were twins. I got settled and headed down to a restaurant called Bananas where some of the group was having dinner and libation that evening. I sat with Matt and his father Todd, and then was joined by Suzanne, John, Steve, Steve, and Brian. Bananas boasts of the best hamburgers in San Carlos, so I decided to try one. I never sampled the burgers anywhere else in San Carlos, so I had nothing to compare it with, but it was good as long as taste and quality were not an issue.

The next day I was on the early shift and we left dock at 7 am sharp and headed out to the island of San Pedro for our hammerhead shark sighting dive! How exciting, I have always wanted to see a hammerhead shark in the wild. Now was my big chance. I buddied up with Suzanne, and we were going as a group out to the point where we would hopefully see some sharks. The water was somewhat chilly, but that was nothing compared to the quality of visibility, of which there was none. We descended and hit about 78’ at the most heading out to the point where the sharks were supposed to be schooling by en masse. Well, no sharks made it that day. They must have been taking the day off.

For the next dive we moved to the other side of the island where all the sea lions were. They were really excited about us being there, they love to play with scuba divers. There were a couple of big bulls there but they didn’t seem to mind us. The water was much clearer heading off the bow but was murky back in the cove, so we headed off the bow. There was one sea lion who was very interested in us. She was black with a tan snout, very unusual. We named her Mathilda. She followed up everywhere and hovered around so we could get some good shots. I thought she wanted me to pet her. We were down there a good hour before coming back to the boat.

I was really tired after that and went back to the hotel, got cleaned up and went across the street to Charly’s Rock restaurant with Suzanne and Yrena (don’t really know the spelling, but that’s how the name sounded). Yrena ordered something called seafood soup, and that is exactly what it was. They must have chopped up everything they could scoop out of the ocean that morning and put it in the soup. There were eyeballs and tentacles with suckers and all sorts of things I would deem cat food in there. She said it was good and I will take her word for it. Those two were going on the night dive and I bade them farewell after lunch and I proceeded to go back to my room and pass out.

I signed up for an extra dive so I was back at it the next morning. The seas in port were deceivingly calm but once we got out to open water the ocean started rolling. The Sea of Cortez is like a huge bathtub and if there is some weather at the end of it on the Pacific, it can wreak havoc. The waves were like swells, big rollers. The boat captain floored it and was hitting the swells head on and causing a very rough ride. I think it was the same boat driver as I had in Rocky Point on my whale ride (See blog Whale Riding in Rocky Point). I was every bit as nervous as I was for that ride. I moved to the front of the boat and held on to a pole with a grip of steel. At one point I started to cry. I looked around and everyone else was laughing and hanging around casually like nothing was wrong, yet this ride was seriously damaging my calm. Some of the staff was asking me if I were okay, if I was getting sick. Even as I write this I feel like I am rocking on the boat. The skipper turned the boat into a cove and anchored at Deer Island, much to the disappointment of Matt, who wanted very much to see the sea lions. I was just happy to get out of the maelstrom. I began to think they changed course because I was in such a state, and that made me feel bad because of Matt wanting to see the sea lions, and the outer island of San Pedro is better diving. We had to go back out to the rolling ocean to give Matt his deep dive for his advanced certification, and then we came back in. The dives nearer San Carlos are never as good as at San Pedro, but we did see some interesting things, such as a starfish with only four arms, a starfish with a jillion arms and a very weird sea urchin.

I went out on the afternoon dive as well. We stayed local and I was glad as I was getting pretty chilled at that point. On my Christmas list is a “Boat Coat”. I would like it in black, please, extra large so it will fit over me and all my gear. On the last dive it was getting dark ergo we brought flashlights. It was a quasi night dive. There were zillions of stinging feather hydroids all over the place and at one point I broke my “don‘t touch nothing” rule and went to pick up a beautiful shell, and grazed one of the hated ‘droids and it stung like an SOB. My thumb still itches. Therefore the “Don’t touch nothing” rule is back in effect. You never know what is going to sting the crap out of you down there.

We left the next morning bright and early, and got through the US border pretty easily. It was like going through the airport as we had to get off the bus, run our bags through a metal detector and x-ray machine, then we were free to enter the US and A.

For a full pictorial catalog of this adventure, check out this link.

Till we meet again,

The ScubaJedi