Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Our last day on the Solmar V was tremendously unforgettable!


Hola Amigos! 
Our last day on the Solmar V was tremendously unforgettable!

Back in San Benedicto, 7:30 am and already descending in the territories of El Cañón, 4 dolphins welcomed and escorted us all the way down to the anchor and leaded us to the hammerhead sharks cleaning station was, unfortunately the sharks weren’t there but in the blue, we saw the shadows on a distance and decided to go and check it out and of course they were there, a school of 30 or so baby hammerhead sharks were circling around black jacks in 40’ deep, I guess the 64F chilly thermocline was pushing them to stay shallow, above the thermocline. Even that they were kind of shy at least we could enjoy them for and instant before they swam away of us. During the safety stop a Chevron Manta swam by to check us out but didn’t stay long and disappeared in the blue.

During the surface interval while our passengers were having breakfast, we started watching in the horizon how the birds begun to built up the expected feeding dance, they had spotted something, we cheered up the people in going out and check what was going on out there, you never know what may see out there where the birds are going crazy, but we know that always something is going on, well, guess what?, something was really going on this time, we got in the water and this small red snappers that we have been seeing recently, gathered together at 30’ underneath the surface and maybe I don’t know exactly because we couldn’t count them, but there were at least 20 maybe more Sailfishes, few Striped Marlins and Dolphins feeding on this baitball, it was really an striking success, everybody got all excited, we could not believe what we were seeing, there just few places in the planet were this events happen, well here is one of those places, we kept coming in an out of the water for almost 3 hours being part of this mind-blowing moment!

We still have to do the last dive of the trip and the people was happily tired of swimming like crazy trying to keep up with the baitball, so we decided to go back to the Solmar V and do one more dive before to come back home, we did the dive and this time considering the big stuff wasn’t around, we just stayed by the reef taking photos and video of morays, octopi and lobsters that inhabit the crevices of El Cañón.

It couldn’t have been a better way to close this trip with this feeding
frenzy of sailfishes, marlins and dolphins together!

Stand by for video trip report!

Hasta la vista amigos!

Erick

Monday, May 28, 2012


Hola from Roca!

It was our last day here at Roca and we had some good diving. As we rode out to Roca on the pangas for the first dive we had dolphins bow riding. They didn't stick around for the dive, however, but they were nice to see nonetheless. On the north point we had quite a few galapagos sharks with silvertips, maybe 12 schooling together. We drifted to the south which was filled with fish. There were jacks, creolefish, and triggerfish everywhere. On the outside we watched as the school of galapagos and silvertips moved in and out of the bait.

Our second dive started with dolphins finally making an appearance. They were two juvenile bottlenose dolphins checking us out. They stuck around for about five minutes and like teenagers do, decided they had better things to do. So we waited on the outside of the bait and waited. Many sharks passed by, but the highlight was a huge baitball of skipjack tuna. They seemed to boil up from out of the blue and circled us as we got closer. We returned to the rock where we saw more silvertips in groups of three or fours.

Our last dive today had some heavy current, especially around the points where all the action was happening. There were so many fish and the school of sharks were there. This time I counted 20 silvertip sharks with 2 or three galapagos with them. They were approaching very close and coming around again and again. There were also some very large tuna 100 lb plus. They were rubbing against one another, a behavior we have just started to see. It seemed also that one would change colors and show stripes-this would be the one pursuing the other large tuna. It was quite a show with fish bigger than you are swimming circles around you.

Roca gave us some good diving this trip. We saw some things we haven't seen this season. Most remarkably the schools of silvertips. There were no silkies and the schools of galapagos seemed to changeover to this now mixed school of silvertips and galapagos. I can't wait to see what changes we see next week. Off to San Benedicto for some manta action.

Until next time...

dave valencia <(((><

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Day 1 at Roca


Hi all! From the amazing Roca Partida

    Despite the conditions due to hurricane Bud the weather has been
treating us very well at Roca! This trip we have a charter of all mexican divers led underwater by Dive Instructor Dave, Dive Instructor Erick, and myself, Daniel Dive Inst as well.
The whole day was great with a surface temp of 77F and in the low 70's with thermocline, Vis 60' and mild current from west during the morning, second and third dive mild as well from north.
The dives we did were great! Once again mother nature provided us with lots of Galapagos shark and siver tips and mixed in this school were 2 pregnant silver tips! The school of galapagos and silvertips swam from one end of the rock to the other several times during a dive, so everyone had an opportunity to observe their schooling behavior. And considering the pregnant females, hopefully we'll see a for new borns in the near future! On second dive we found about 10 hammerheads plus our many friendly white tips all over the Rock!  Out in the blue we found a school of BIG yellow fin tunas and we witnessed an interesting new tuna behavior. It was so good we're staying for another day! Stay tuned for more!
    Dive Inst Daniel Zapata
    Gracias!



Thursday, May 24, 2012

Greetings from San Benedicto! Despite reports of a storm several hundred miles away, we had some pretty great weather and some amazing dives today..
We Started the day with two dives at El Boiler. Even before jumping in the water we had dolphins surrounding the boat. We quickly jumped in and had three dolphins zipping here and there. They seemed so excited they would go straight from 50 ft. and leapt out of the water and would come back down again. Soon they disappeared. So we checked out the many green morays, octopus, and scorpionfish. Then during the last 10 minutes of our dive they dolphins came back, this time with more dolphin friends and in a more playful mood. They swam in a tight group and swam around us many times. They were keeping a bit of distance away from the rocks in the blue, which was really nice for our photographers. The dolphins kept playing but it was time for our safety stop and they followed us all the way to the swim step.

In between dives we spotted a few mantas staying close to the surface and hoped it would be a good sign for our second dive. It started slow with my group checking out the pinnacle to the east, hoping to entice some mantas there, but to no avail. Instead we checked out more eels, octo, and scorpionfish. We made our way around the rock and spotted many creolefish away from the rock so we followed them into the blue. There I spotted 1 silky shark, then another then we saw saw a small school of 15 silky sharks come in and out of visibility. We were straying from the rock so we turned back and there was a manta leading the way. As we arrived back on the boiler antoher manta showed up and we knew our manta sightings from the surface was a good omen. These mantas played with us all for the last 30 min of our dive.

While all our guests were having lunch Dani, our lead divemaster, was sighting for birds on the horizon. He spotted lots of birds and dolphins maybe two miles away. This has been our new obsession since the baitball action has been so good. So we got everyone suited up and headed out for a blue water adventure. Dolphins greeted us as we got close to the tornado of birds. Upon jumping in, however, we didn't see any bait. Too bad...only dolphins and silkies, so we jumped in anyway. There was a marlin sighting early in the encounter, lots of silky sharks, and a pod of over 20 bottlenose dolphins. Everyone snorkeled in the blue watching dolphins play underneath among the many silkies. The longer we stayed, the more silkies accumulated. It's difficult to estimate, but by the end we had a school of over 100 silky sharks. They were acting as a school as well. They made a wall and if you held your breath and dove down, they would approach very close. They were swimming in a large circle around all of the snorkelers in the water. It's a good thing we weren't shipwrecked. 

San Benedicto was good to us today. Looking forward to another great one here in San Benedicto tomorrow.

Until next time...

Dave Valencia

Sunday, May 20, 2012

San Benedicto had one of it's incredible surprises waiting for us!


When you have to describe what we saw today, words just can't do it justice, you will have to come see for yourself!
To start the day we went to dive in El Cañon. Water around 71 degrees and visibility around 50 ft with a strong south - south east current. The conditions were the perfect combination to find a big Tiger Shark close to the Hammerheads Cleaning station, a gentle Chevron Manta and some Hammerheads hanging around in the dive site.
After this dive we decided to move to El Boiler, where we did our second dive of the day, with soft currents, clear and warm water. The highlight of this dive was the incredible school of Pacific Creoles surrounding the area and the gentle presence of an small school of Jacks. Now, when everything was going according to plan, San Benedicto had one of it's incredible surprises waiting for us.
After the second dive, coming back to the boat to have lunch we saw a lot of birds over a bait ball so we decided to take our snorkeling gear and go in a Panga ride to the bait ball to see what was going on, and A LOT was going on there.
We jumped and we found that at least 100 Silky Sharks, hundred of tunas and wahoos were feeding in the bait ball, and we where right there, with our cameras enjoying one of the mos incredible moments in nature. Just when everything was already a NatGeo moment, many dolphins came to join the party, and 8 Marlins show up too.
With all this incredible moment going on, more sharks came to the area, and we could spot Black Fin and some Galapagos sharks joining the action with the uncountable number of Silky Sharks, and of course again the dolphins and more dolphins...and when everything was just perfect, a Mobula Ray peacefully crossed through the middle action.
After that what else can you ask?? Well San Benedicto had another gift for us in our last dive. When we got in the water, soft currents and warm water made the perfect place for a huge school of big eyes Jacks with at least 7 or 8 silky sharks chasing them, making our last day in Socorro Islands quite memorable.
Now we are heading back to Cabo San Lucas with the feeling that we where in the middle of one of those special nature moments, and we deeply know that this kind of things will probably not happen again to us, so we are still having the images of the day going trough our minds and anywhere you look in the Solmar V you will find a big big smile and happy eyes.
Adios from paradise
Ricardo Tamaño
Dive Instructor

Friday, May 18, 2012

Today was absolutely breathtaking.


If I had to sum up today's diving in one word: Wow! If you have not been to Roca Partida before, you need to experience this. Today was absolutely breathtaking.

To start, Roca emerges from the ocean like a monument to the past. There's nothing but birds on the rock and all the life in the water. There's a quietness here like you're in some sort of sacred place. This is what it must have been like everywhere before people effected it.

As the sun rose this morning, the breeze dwindled and the sea calmed. Roca was good to us these last three days and even more so on this last day.

As we arrived by panga to roca this morning we saw dolphins. They were bow riding the pangas, excited for our arrival. We all jumped in and had the entire dive with approximately 12 bottlenose dolphins in the blue. They swam in and out of the group and teased everyone with their favorite game.. That is, falling to the depths to see if you will follow. They know exactly where the recreational dive limit is (130ft.) and they will put you to the test.  After 30 minutes of playing we decided to head back to the rock and found many silvertips, silkies, and galapagos sharks. There was virtually no current so we just hovered and watched. The dolphins even followed us back to the rock and we saw a couple mating. For some, it was their first time with dolphins.

The second dive started slow. We had a school of 12 or so Galapagos sharks patrolling the north point. There were also quite a few tuna and silky sharks spotted. We drifted all around the rock looking for the action, but didn't find too much. Until the last 5 minutes. Once we made it around to the north point again we saw the 12 Galapagos sharks again, but this time with 12 hammerheads. They were all schooling together. They circled around three or four times and split. We made our way more shallow on the edge of the bait and watched a large school of 30 wahoo pass very close by. As we surfaced from the dive, Pancho, one of the pangeros, told us that there was a whale shark circling the Solmar V. So we got our gear on board as fast as we could and headed to the boat. Sure enough a juvenile whale shark ~15ft (5m) circled the boat. Everyone, and I mean everyone, jumped in and snorkled with the little guy. It was a blast! She stayed on the surface and allowed close approach. Never did it show any signs of nervousness or annoyance with all the people in the water. This was our third whale shark in three days. The whale shark stayed until all were exhausted.

Our final dive at Roca today sta rted quite mello. We saw some Galapagos sharks and a silvertip shark here and there but they were not getting close and not in big numbers. We had a rare sighting of a chevron manta. It took a look at us and slowed but didn't want to play. We kicked to the south point where a lot of action seemed to be happening. On the outside we started seeing silky sharks and Galapagos. There were three silky sharks in particular who were following eachother in a line and circling eachother. The approached all divers very close. We enjoyed this show for ahile and kicked back to the north. Here we watched some LARGE yellowfin tuna hit the surface. They were obviously hunting, but they rarley pass between a diver and the rock and this time they were allowing divers to get close. These tuna were over 100 lbs and more than 4 ft in length. They were larger than some of the silky sharks. I even observed one tuna rub itself against a silky shark a few times. This is interesting because we have been seeing a lot of this inter-species behavior: Galapagos sharks rubbing on Whale shark, rainbow runners rubbing on silkies, and now tuna on silkies. Something is in the water and things are getting exciting here at Roca. Finally, we ended the dive watching 40+ sharks circle beneath us.. A school made of Galapagos, silkies, and Silvertips.
 
Today was absolute magic. It just goes to show the true potential of this place. The water has changed here since the first week of May and hopefully it's a sign of more amazing things to come. Off to San Benedicto for tomorrow.

Until next time....

Dave Valencia

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

No words are enough to describe todays dives at Roca Partida!
We arrived early in the morning and with a crystal clear water that was a refreshing 75 degrees F in the surface and still 73 at 60 ft, we started the day with too many white tip sharks to count, over 20 Galapagos Sharks, some Silky Sharks and millions of Pacific Creoles, Jacks, all that in the middle of a gentle current coming from the north west of the island.

Our second dive was promising from the start when we face a massive school of black jacks chased by around 7 big Galapagos sharks, The current was a little bit more demanding in this dive, but still easy to go trough, what made the dive very enjoyable for every diver. Visibility and temperature remained the same all day long!

On our third and last dive of the day, we had the visit of our big friend at Roca Partida! A curious whale shark stayed with us at 30 to 20 ft of water, for the entire dive giving our photographers the chance to keep him in their lens as long as they needed it. Big Tunas and Wahoos in the background added to best dive of the trip so far!


- Tomorrow we will look for our friend again before heading back to San Benedicto for the last 2 days of our trip.-

See you soon,
Ricardo Tamano
Dive Instructor

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

What a day at Isla San Benedicto!


What a day at Isla San Benedicto! We have a fantastic group aboard this week and we were all treated to a great first full-day of diving.

We spent the first three dives at El Canon. This morning we didn't have the best visibility. However, throughout the day it improved. As soon as we hit the chilly 71 degree (F) water, we had a black manta playing with us. This was the same manta from two trips ago, who happens to be very friendly. It enjoyed swimming over the bubbles of every single diver in the water. When I took my turn, the manta enjoyed the bubbles so much it seemed to stop swimming and rested all its weight directly on my head pushing me to the bottom. Don't worry, the manta was gentle and obviously enjoyed the interaction. With the manta in tow, we kicked over to the corner hoping for some hammerheads. We saw one's and two's but no school. There we had dolphins. Clicking and chirping they chased the jacks above our heads. They even swam around our group a few times making us dizzy. After the dolphins grew tired of us we rounded the divesite in the blue. I spotted a large school of 40 or sohammerheads, but most in my group couldn't get a visual because the visibility was barely 30 ft. Not to worry, it was only our first dive of the day and lots more exciting things to come.

Our second dive had similar conditions, but this time we had a large hammerhead waiting for us next to the descent line. It made a close pass and even came back around to take another curious look. We revisited the corner and spotted a two silvertip sharks among all the fish. They were swimming back and forth protesting that we took their spot on the cleaning station, so we moved on. Again we spotted a single hammerhead here and there, but no close passes. Then a different black manta apparated from the blue and played with us for the last ten minutes of our dive. This one was very curious, although didn't present the same behaviors as the manta in the first dive. Everyone waited as the manta inquired closer and allowed some great photo ops.

The visibility cleaned up a little on the third dive at El Canon to maybe 40ft. There were lots of green morays, scorpionfish, and octopus. We even took some time checking out the large congregations of little balloonfish.. This is an interesting detail that te balloon fish just started grouping together the last four weeks. Now we find them in large groups of 20-40 individuals. It obviously has to be some sort of behavior for spawning...it sure makes it a lot easier to find a mate! The rest of the dive was spent drifting with the current and spotting different animals on the rocks. It was a nice change of pace.

Our fourth dive took us to El Boiler. Visibility was suffering a little today maybe due to the light wind or a strange current. It was definitely coler in the water than normal at 71 degrees (F). Lots of Jacks surrounded the boiler and we checked every nook and cranny for Lobsters, Eels, and Octopus. We visited the pinnacle to the east and found two octopus mating. Once we realized what we interrupted, we covered our eyes and swam away. On the west side of the boiler, we swam out into the blue and found a huge cyclone of Jacks. It was huge! I looked back to find only half of my group there to share in the amazement. After a few kicks back to the rock, we found the rest of my group interacting with a nice size chevron manta. They were swimming underneath and blowing bubbles. The manta came around again and again until we had say our goodbyes and head to the surface.

Isla San Benedicto was good to us today. Tomorrow we head to Roca Partida..

Until next time...

Dave Valencia

Saturday, May 12, 2012


Here we are again!

What a way to end or trip, with a baitball that lured Bottlenose Dolphins, a bunch of Silky Sharks and 7 Stripped Marlins!

Back in San Benedicto, we started our last day of this trip diving at El Cañón, 7: 15 am and we were descending over the ridge of this famous dive site, the water temp was in the low 70’s and the vis haven’t got better yet, it was still like 30’ max; we headed to the usual cleaning station corner and found a dolphin chasing one of the Bigeye Jacks but that was briefly because both disappeared in the deep, so we kept moving to the next corner expecting to find some hammers but no success, however this previous dolphin came back with one of his friends to keep chasing more jacks, so while we watched this pursuit of the “cat and mouse”  several young Silvertip Sharks starting showing up like in the search of food, that was good!, everybody knelt down on the bottom and started taking stills and video, our bottom time ended with one more time the cat and mouse game. On our way up to the safety stop a group of 5 Mobula Rays entertained one of the diver groups and a finally a schooling hammerheads that showed up from deep entertained another group, unfortunately they were to deep for us at the moment and we couldn’t go back down due our air supply.

We did a second dive at El Cañón but the visibility had got worse and we couldn’t see the sharks properly, but we knew there were hammerheads because we could see at least the silhouettes, probably when the current picks up will bring up clearer water.

Then we moved to El Boiler to end our trip there, while we were heading to the place some of the guys spotted birds gathering together like a mile away of the island, so we got one of our panga ready for onle 10 people that were up for it, the others wanted to play one more time in the trip with Mantas at El Boiler.
So the group of ten that adventured to the horizon got lucky, during all the way out to the point were the birds were going crazy dolphins were guiding the panga to there, showing jumps and bowriding plays.
Once we got up to where the birds were, jumped right away to the water and the first thing we encountered were this dolphins that have been riding with us all the way here, later Silky Sharks starting showing up and gave us a non stop action and a great opportunity to take hundreds of pictures.. Of course the action moved away of us that we had to go back to the panga and try it again and good idea we did again, as soon as we got in 7 Striped Marlins were underneath the boat, that was astonishing, jaw dropping! We could not believe what we were watching, everybody got thrilled to have watched this unique moment! Thumbs up for Crazy Luis our panguero at the moment.

Of course the group that didn’t come had a private manta dance with 2 individuals that had stayed the entire dive with them, dancing and swimming over their heads.

The 4th dive was pretty much and easy going dive, that mantas were not there any longer but there were hundreds of other stuff to watch, massive schools of Black Jacks, Burrito Grunts, hundreds of Green Morays that hide in the ledges of El Boiler and of course a countless Octopuses that inhabit this beautiful site.

Bueno amigos, this is all for this trip, we have to go back to Cabo and get the SolmarV ready for our next trip.

Hasta la próxima

Erick Higuera



Thursday, May 10, 2012

It was Roca Partida take two today.


Greetings from Roca Partida!

It was Roca Partida take two today. Yesterday was so fabulous we had to do it again. And today didn't disappoint.

Our first dive today gave us a slight current with 150'+ vis, it was beautiful. On the north point we found lots of sharks. One or two silkies patrolled the area, but on the outside we found a school of approx. 30 Galapagos and 4 Silvertip sharks coming in and out of the blue. The school circled again and again allowing us to see their numbers. A few split from the school and circled on the rock behind us getting cleaned by a few of the  barberfish. As soon as we would approach, however, they would move out of the area. After enjoying the show for awhile, we drifted along the east side of the rock checking the caves for whitetip reef sharks. White tips were everywhere some were even swimming along the wall moving from one cave to another. We saw a few Galapagos here and there, but it wasn't until we hit the south end that we had a large school of 20 circle in front of us three times. They got very close and my group got some great pics. After drifting around the south end we spotted another 5 Galapagos circling near the wall and we called it a dive. Yellowfin tuna graced our safety stop and we all finished the dive beaming.

On our way to the second dive we spotted dolphins so we got geared up. We entered the water far from the rock but were drifting towards it. We had a pod of twenty or so cruise through. Only four were in the playing mood. They swam circles around all of us and put on a pretty good show for about 10-15 minutes. Follwing the interaction, we made our way back to the rock and found the school of Galapagos. The water column was also filled with jacks of all kinds and tuna continued to swim by the outside.

On the final dive of the day we started on the north point. A few Galapagos were here and there. Lots of fish were everywhere, there were waiting lines for the cleaning stations. We said  our goodbyes to all the whitetips in the caves and got some last minute pics. We drifted and saw the school of Galapagos again and again. Out of nowhere we even spotted a very rare mobila making an appearance. We ended the dive observing the yellowfin tuna feeding on the baitfish on the surface right in front of us.

Roca lived up to its reputation this visit. It was one of the best visits to roca in a long time. Off to Isla San Benedicto tomorrow.

Until next time...

Dave Valencia

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Hi everybody out there!!!
It was a great day at Roca Partida, just to start I have to tell you that we had a beautiful sunny day all day! A great contrast with a super blue water all day long!
    So we had 3 groups in the water starting in different points of Roca, conditions were: mild current from northeast, vis 120ft(+), water temp 71f, Dive Guides: Eric, Dave and Dani.
    On The First dive one group started on the north point a bit away from it, locky guys spotted a school of about 30 hammer heads, then as getting closer to the rock at depth really counting them 12 Galapagos sharks and some silver tips sharks, on the other hand the other 2 groups started the dive using the protected east side, very nice lost of white tips, lots of fish also and along the wall heading to north point the silver tips and Galapagos sharks were also welcoming us so we spent the whole dive watching sharks, 50 minutes!! isn't great!!
    After a nice break we all started the second dive on the east side but one group at the time, so funny to say that while one group was watching white tips at 40 ft of water the other group just behind the first one was watching a 20ft in Lent MALE WHALE SHARK!! The water was still so blue and whale shark so close to us that we could see every single white spot on it!! So the 50 minutes dive ended up with a friendly whale shark swimming among the 3 groups!!
    So exited about the second dive we go for the third one, lost of sharks like the first dive, Galapagos, Silver tips, White tips but no hammer heads and of course we missed the friendly whale shark too! 
     The diving day ended up on the bow of the beautiful Solmar V watching also the colors of incredible sunset drinking delicious margaritas prepared by Luis Savina the steward.
    So we hope you enjoy hearing from us, now come join us!
    Dive Inst. Daniel Zapata.


Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Que onda amigos! Playful mantas and a baitball at San Benedicto!


Que onda amigos!

Well today the visibility didn’t treat us well at El Cañon but we had a great dive with this single Manta that found us at 90’ deep and by the time we had seen it our bottom time was getting over so we had to start swimming up but this Manta followed us all the way to the safety stop! And followed us to the pangas! When we were going onboard of the pangas the Manta was still playing underneath of one of the pangas, so we continued to play with it, it kept coming toward our heads and once it was passing over us, it did loops! Dave and I shared time in swimming over its belly, we did at least like 5 times until we ran out of air..

We did the second and third dive in Cabo Fear, even that the visibility wasn’t neither good here, we got to see quite of few Mantas that were cruising by and only 3 stand by to play the bubbles game.

By the 4th dive of the day we decided to go back to El Boiler and end our day, unfortunately the visibility wasn’t even better, though there were 2 Mantas a Black and a Chevron one that made our last dive incredible.

We came back to surface and watched how like in 1 mile away the birds were flying all together and going crazy like if sometime was going on, so “let’s check it out" is what one of the divemasters said, we got out there jumped to the water and he was totally right, sometime was going on underneath the waves, a baitball! It was a small bait ball I would say these fishes were like baby Red Snappers but even if they were to small it lured the predators in, Bottlenose Dolphins and Yellow Fin Tunas were in the action, we had an amazing time with this once in a while event of the Nature.

Tonight we’ll go to Roca Partida. Stay tuned up and don’t miss the Roca
dive report!

Erick Higuera


Sunday, May 6, 2012

We had a manta fiesta today at the Boiler


Happy Cinco de Mayo from Isla San Benedicto!

It was our first full-day of diving and we had a manta fiesta today at the Boiler. The water warmed up a little from last week to 75 degrees (F)and we had 40+ ft of visibility for most of the day.


As we were setting anchor this morning, dolphins eagerly awaited our first dive. The dolphins proved impatient andwe found mantas waiting for us instead. Two chevron mantas circled the cleaning station again and again the entire dive.

Dive two was more manta action, but the mantas called for reinforcements. Five different mantas were identified and three were spotted at one time. The hypnotized divers as they swam back and forth. There was even a large Galapagos shark patrolling the bottom. 
Our third and forth dive had even more mantas to be seen. The mantas today were very friendly and could be seen following one another in formation. This seems to be a mating behavior as the males pursue and compete for position for the female. In addition the mantas allowed us to approach and interact very closely. It made for great photos and video.

It's been a great day here at the Boiler and we are looking forward to
even better diving tomorrow at El Canon.

Until next time...

Dave Valencia