Today was like Christmas day at Roca!

Roca Partida -
Today was like Christmas day according to some of our guests! During the 3 dives we did today there was not a single time with no sharks! On our first dive of the morning not even 10 minutes into the dive and we were already watching a big school of hammer heads that came back for a second glance! The rock itself on the south and northern points we found Galapagos and silver tip sharks were schooling, we were surrounded by silver tips with Galapagos sharks coming straight at us, coming up on the wall, coming out of the blue, from all directions and the! The sharks were close, not even 10' away from us! 
We also had a bit of bonitos schooling and of course silky sharks chasing them, the yellow fin tunas today were as big as the Galapagos shark, even white tip sharks were active swimming among the silver tips and Galapagos, seems everybody was out to party today!
The schooling fish were making all type of formations and spreading out letting sharks come through the school; leather bass were congregating right by the wall, we saw red and yellow tail trigger fish, creole fish, jacks, rainbow runners, and more! There was not much of swimming due a mild current from west so it was very easy to stay right where the action was! A nice and refreshing water temp got us at the depth with a 73F where it seems sharks were more active, coming up we hit a little warmer layer of 77F and for our safety stop we had an 81F even at this depth schooling hammer heads showed up. 

We had an average vis. of 70ft, and on the surface we has a bit rough conditions due to wind blowing , also clouds made this place look so remote and beautiful, as I always say one of the most unique places on earth!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

There's no other place on earth like Roca Partida, period!

Great day at Roca Partida!! Everything was here today, white tips, big galapagos and silver tip sharks,
schooling hammerhead sharks, massive tunas, silky sharks, bonito baitball, different jacks all over and if like that was not enough in the last dive a huge whale shark showed up to blow everyone`s head up!! There`s no other place on earth like Roca Partida period.
Claudio Bonato
Dive Instructor

We started our day with a school of hammerheads and finished with Pacific Giant Mantas!

We started the day diving at El Cañón with 81F-26C of water temperature and a great visibility of 80’ /24 m. Going down along the stern anchor and realized that we had the perfect eastern current that brings up good schools of Hammerhead Sharks to the cleaning station. We swam up to the cleaning station where the ridge turns and hold on a rock while we waited for some hammerheads, and yes they came! A school of about 20 hammerhead sharks approached briefly to the divers.
We did one more dive at El Cañón and the conditions where still  the same, however, this time we saw the glimpse of Manta that cruised by the dive site, though didn’t stick around. 
We moved to El Boiler and finished our dive day with 2 awesome Manta dives at El Boiler. We saw totally 2 different Mantas this time, but one of them hung out with all of us in both dives. The visibility was low, about 40’/12 m and a chilly thermocline. Another group spotted 2 Hammerhead Sharks by the corner of the pinnacle. That is how we closed our dive day, diving with some Pacific giant Mantas.. 
Tonight we will head towards Roca Partida! Stand by and wait for some Roca news.
Hasta la vista,
Erick Higuera

Bull sharks at Cabo Pulmo and massive schools at El Bajo!

Cabo Pulmo
For our first dive we did a ship wreck dive of El Vencedor!  On our first dive we were amazed to see 5 different bull sharks, we spotted the first one as we were dropping down on the net area of the wreck, it was very nice to see it from above and as we are approaching it went away
slowly so we waited there but did not come back. We went north in the same area of the wreck until we found a sandy bottom again, there was another one bull shark coming straight at me turning left when it was just 10ft from me! We also know in this area they are morning sharks! So we continued swimming just above the sandy bottom, not too far from there we had to stop because 3 other bull sharks were chasing each other in a row! 
So ,the first dive of the morning was great about sharks, the rest of dive time was just watching schooling fish like groupers, snappers, grunts, lots of garden eels, some scorpion fish, electric rays etc. Two other dives took place in the beautiful reefs called El Bajo and Los Morros with a diversity of schooling fish just like in the first dive plus a massive school of jacks swimming circles in the same area, a really mild current kept other fish swimming into it so we were able to keep up with them swimming along side.The vis was from 40 to 50ft, water temp 79°F. current during the morning was heading south and afternoon north, surface condition windy, from SE, but sunny.
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

A great day in the Sea of Cortez!

We had a GREAT day in the Sea of Cortez!
Our first two dives were at LA REINA, near Cerralvo Island.  At this site we found a massive school of green jacks, there were so many that they literally were blocking the sun light when we were under them. Around were bonitas, bull jacks, barracudas and cormorans diving for their daily snack. In the afternoon we moved to LOS ISLOTES to dive with sea lions and it was so much fun that I ended up doing a dive that lasted 100 min! Yes, one hour and forty minute dive with the most playful sea lions in the all world. Water temp was 27C/79F, with visibility around 18m/60f, the weather was sunny and with calm seas.
Claudio Bonato
Dive Instructor

What a day at Isla San Benedicto!

What a day at Isla San Benedicto!
The day started a little dreary with some dark weather on the horizon and some rain, but the mantas pulled us through and we had an unforgettable day.
Our first dive was at one of our favorite sites, El Canyon. The visibility was great and no current. The hammerheads were hoping to see didn't make an appearance but there were a lot of octopus and eels! We decided to move to the Boiler and this was a smart move, it turned out. We had multiple mantas on the last three dives of the day. The last dive was the best. From the moment we entered the water, we had three mantas circling us. Two of the mantas were chasing each other over and over again. Twirling, Circling, and diving together. It was a rare behavior to be able to observe and they went like that for an hour straight. The mantas were very playful and allowed us to blow bubbles underneath them going from diver to diver. Everyone came up with smiles. It was a great way to end our trip here in the Revillagigedos. Now back to civilization...
Until Next Time,
Dave Valencia

Great diving at Roca!

Hola amigos,
We had great diving at Roca Partida. We found lots of hammerheads, white tip sharks, galapagos and silver tips. Even a big green turtle. Conditions were great, with 30m/100ft visibility, water temp 27c/79f and really calm sea. We are staying here until tomorrow, looking forward to seeing more sharks. And if we're lucky maybe even a whale shark!
Claudio Bonato DM

It was a day of "Manta-Mania" at Socorro Island!

Greetings Solmar Fans!
Wow!...What a great day at Socorro Island. It was a day of Manta-mania. Non-stop manta action at our favorite Soccoro site! The day started early but it was worth it. There were three dives in the 79 degree F (26 C) with a visibility of 60'+ and varying current. Dolphins greeted us right away, curiously swimming by. As we approached the cleaning station we spotted mantas right away. There were at least four individuals and two stayed with us the entire dive. Circling and interacting with all the divers. Everyone got their time. There were lots of other interesting sightings too. One group even spotted a Tiger shark in the distance. Dives two and three were also amazing. Without a doubt, some of the best manta action we have had for a very long time. Tonight, we're off to the fabled Roca Partida!

Until Next Time,
Dave Valencia

Our first checkout dive back and San Benedicto!

First dive of the season at San Benedicto Island was really nice, we saw a turtle, some juvenile silver tip sharks, some pacific electric rays and lots of white tip sharks! Water temp was 27c/79f, visibility around 20m/70f. and calm sea!
Claudio DM

Whale shark day in the bay of La Paz!!!!

Whale shark day!!!!
So today we spent the morning in the bay of La Paz snorkeling with whale sharks, all of our guests were so excited and happy to be in the water with them. At times even 2 sharks, with a total of 5 different ones we could identify in the area, but we are sure there were more! They were actually feeding on plankton and not afraid of snorkelers at all, they kept coming back and forth swimming right through the group of snorkelers, the smallest one was about 15ft in length being also the biggest one of about 20ft, so the feeding happened in vertical an swimming position and so close to us that we could hear the sucking up of water, they made circles swimming around us, most of them were females!
In the afternoon we decided to do some diving at Swany Rock, a really nice and shallow dive site, we were only at about 40' below the surface. The shallow dive allowed us to stay under water for an extended amount of time, each dive was at least 70 minutes long! There was mild current from west, water temp of 81°F, mild wind from west also which cleared the sky making for another beautiful sunny day! Underwater was as enjoyable as it was on the surface, with visibility of over 60ft lots of soft and hard coral beautiful tons of browns and greens, garden eels every were, lots of spotted porcupine fish! One of our guests had good eyes of one of our clients found an elusive frog fish!! The reef itself was covered with tremendous schools of Mexican barracudas, spot tail grunts, some barred pargos, scorpion fish, sea lions and so many other types of fish that formed a wall where you could not see your dive partner on the other side! Everybody was so happy !
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

A beautiful day El Bajo, a sea mount known for pelagic animals!

Hola Solmar Fans! 
We had another beautiful day in the Sea of Cortez. The sky was clear and the water was warm at 80 degrees F. We were at El Bajo today, a seamount that is known for pelagic animals. We did four dives today and saw hammerheads on almost every dive. Our first dive the hammerheads caught us by surprise as a trio came out of the blue and circled in front of us two times. A third came around for one more look and they went about their day. We drifted around one of the seamounts and spotted a few turtles  and there were a ton of fish. Visibility was around 40-50ft (14m) for all dives. It was a different kind of diving today with strong currents and all our divers rose to the challenge. It was a lot of fun and a nice day of diving. We`re definitely making the best of our time out here in the Sea of Cortez. Gotta go....another amazing sunset in the making!
Until Next Time,
Dave Valencia

La Reina was epic today!

Hola Solmar Fans,
La Reina was epic today! Even though a storm was nearby, we had and incredibly massive school of Scad Jacks that hung out at the spot the whole day. This time of the year is when this fish species likes to hang out at La Reina.  The whole school was being attacked by a group of about 30-40 Pacific Crevalle Jacks and some Skipjack Tunas, the entire event was so impressive that all we did is to pick a boulder to sit on and enjoy the wild amazing event of Nature. Of course, besides this action, we also had some playful Sea Lions and a countless amount of reef fishes.
We're planning to dive El Bajo tomorrow, hopegully we´ll find a lots of Hammerhead Sharks!
Stay tuned,
Erick Higuera

Sea lions, barracuda, morays, and more!

Today we all had a lot of fun doing 4 dives with juvenile sea lions! They were there every single dive starting first one early in the morning last dive of the day! They were all over us with as many as 20 to 30 little ones pulling on your reg hose, your hair, fins, mask, on your hands, they just want to play! Not to mention they have such a  smooth hairy skin, just one dive with them and you want to take one home with you! We did a bit of swimming on our dive and found a good sized  of Mexican barracudas, about one and a half to two ft long, swimming though and underwater arch was also fun! You just take the ride in the surge! We didn't have to swim far to find a giant jaw fish! We saw two other jaw fish and one of them had lots of eggs in it's mouth, so more are on the way!
You have to keep your eyes open and look very closely on the reef to find sea horse and with a little searching a brown one, that we could barely discern because it blends in so well with it's surroundings.  Scorpion fish are also able to blend exceptionally well into their environment, so we were extra careful while looking for them. We took our time to swim around in each dive to see other things like snappers, groupers, green morays, king angel fish, Cortes angel fish and more… every dive was over an hour!  Water temp 82°F, with visibility of over 50'.
What else can I say? We had a great day of diving!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

We're back! Our Socorro season has officially started!

Greetings Solmar V Fans!
Well, this is our first trip of our Socorro season and we had a bit of weather forecasted for the week. The Solmar V headed into the Sea of Cortez and hoping for some great diving. Today was our first day and we ran up to Espiritu Santo Island and did some wreck diving. Our first dive was a nice wreck of more than 100 ft long ex-mexican-military ship. The water temp. was warm at 82 degrees F (27 C) and 40ft (13m) vis. This being our check out dive we took it slow and observed a ton of the sponge growth. Surrounding the wreck were tons of garden eels. Most of us enjoyed doing a few of the swim-thrus and getting in the water for the first time
in a long while. Our Second wreck was the Fang Ming, a large Ferry boat. This wreck had more schools of fish and growth. The highlight, however, were the five turtles that continually swam around the wreck. The turtles were unafraid of divers and were chasing each other around. It was great! Although we were in the Sea Of Cortez, we`re making the best of it and looking forward to more great diving.
Until Next Time,
Dave Valencia