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