Hammerheads, mantas, and more at San Benedicto!

Hi All! Jan 30, 2015.
We have seen everything on this trip until now even what really never was suspected until yesterday! Today we were in calm waters, protected against wind and swells, the dive site of the day was El Cañon, 7:00 am might be too early for some but there was plenty of day light to get our diving day started! Everyone was still a bit emotional after yesterday, we needed something to get that out of our system. The colder than usual 23.8˚C/74˚F water this morning helped to distract from yesterday, visibility was only about 9m/30ft, with no current at all! We were in search of hammer heads, we swam over pretty much all the area finding only 5 to 7 of them. At one point the place felt lonely, fish absent, no dolphins, a manta came to rescue us from that feeling, at the corner or cleaning station we found some fish, and of course some lobsters, green moray eels, white tip reef sharks, really no more than that! But it was a nice swimming to earn breakfast!
Surface interval was partially clouded, there were moments we enjoyed basking in the sun, and at some times it was windy.
The ocean is calling our name once again, so here we go for a second dive! It is always nice to have the stern line especially in conditions of low vis similar to just as the first dive.  Things right away started to get better, the chirping of dolphins changed our attitude, not 10 minutes into the dive we had those 6 dolphins at 18m/60ft of water coming into our area inviting us to join them and so we did, their dolphin faces always look like they're smiling and it makes you smile too! Especially when you have the time to check them out! As they left us we once again had a positive attitude as we continued swimming South East, following our trail a manta made us stop, she had time for every one of us! We enjoyed blowing gentle bubbles having her belly as a receptor, I can tell she was happy as well staying longer with us. We found more hammer heads they were there about 7 of them at 27m/90ft depth, one of them coming so close and being a slow swimmer posing for the cameras, we were attached to the bottom for minutes where we found lobster, green morays, lots of fish, life is coming back! Our dive computers said our bottom time was up, so we are swimming back to Solmar V at 18/60ft depth, the corner or cleaning station seemed to be lonely once again, but a bit away a school of Pacific Creole Fish was not moving much so I decided lets check out whats behind them.  As if the fish were opening a window they let us swim through to see what so much we are looking for... Hammer Heads! The amount of sharks was incredible! We know if we swim slow they stay, so we did, having no current at all really helped us to stay with them. Clearly in front we had about 20 sharks, we kept following them slowly, they guided us to a much bigger school... long story short we ended up in the middle of easily 100 hammer heads, we had them below or fins, in front as a wall, over our heads, we stayed there until the last possible minute our dive computer would let us! We treated them with respsect and they respond to that! Robust sharks came as close as 1.5m/5ft away they didn't fit in a normal camera lens! Safety stop on the stern line done, time to come up!
For the third dive we wanted to see them again, but underwater conditions had changed, with a funny current hitting the ridge from South West that made us change plans underwater. There was one or two here and there, its always good to have your own dive computer especially when you are distracted looking at anything could possibly swim by and alert you to come up time! We are gliding in the current doing flips, head down position, a really dark shadow in front made us concentrate on the dived again, a massive school of stripe bonitos encircled us. There were hundreds of them, with only 2 silky sharks chasing them, so a lot of fish for just two! We actually feel the warmer water they move by swimming so fast, they made us come up to even 6m/20ft depth, it seems we were the floater to hide under, the sharks slowed down the rhythm of action or killing striped bonitos.
The final dive today happened at El Boiler, more wind in this area, the west side of island had bigger swells but we still had the joy of using the wide dive deck of Solmar V to jump into the water, 2 black mantas kept us in the same spot the whole dive! The north face of the rock, of course was so lucky to say no current but heavy surge, cotton mouth jacks today were dressing black today, the brown color of the rock made stand the so yellow color of the trumpet fish, even some soft coral yellow color when normally are brown, once again the bad guy of the story shows up chasing all fish, yellow fin tuna, probably the same one from the last past few trips that found the gold mine of fish.
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata 
Solmar V

Baby humpback taken by orcas at Roca Partida!

Hola amigos!

As you know we stayed for a second day at Roca Partida and it was a day full of emotions.
We started the day as usual having a great breakfast prepared by chef Tony and everybody was only thinking about getting in the water with the humpback whales from yesterday that showed us how these giants can be so gentle and allowed us into their very private family moments as long as we respect them. But the day had more than that waiting for us.
So first dive, water was a little choppy but warm 77F/25C, visibility around 60ft/18m, went in the water and the whales were not around the rock so we went to play with the bottlenose dolphins - lots of them and as usual they did not disappoint, they kept 2 groups entertained for the whole dive coming and going and as always leaving only smiles on our faces! But by the end of the dive they did something that was not normal, suddenly all of them got together and swam away heading north, weird but we thought that maybe they found something to go feed on.
Meanwhile the other group went to the south of the rock where they found once again mama and baby humpback along with the male escort that showed their kindness yesterday and let us stay with them for a while taking pictures and video and just letting us be part of their family. There are no words to describe how we felt being with them. End of the dive and half of the divers were back on Solmar V, the other zodiac picking up the last two divers in the water. Everybody out and on the way back to the boat when we spot the whales on the south end of the rock so we plan to go in the water with them snorkeling before going back to the boat and just as we were ready to enter the water one of the divers shouts...KILLER WHALES!!!...yes there were two huge males. At first we thought cool more whales! But then the fight began - the two killer whales just went right at the baby humpback, mama and the escort tried to get them away trying to hit them with their tales and the escort putting his whole body on top of them, but the orcas were too fast for them and sadly we saw from the zodiac that the baby was bleading, we could even smell the whale oil mixing in the water. Only a small bite, the baby still alive and moving. The fight continued and after not even a minute we saw the killer whales leaving. We thought that the baby was safe now back with mama, as mama and the escort started swimming back to the rock, but then we realized that the baby was being escorted away by the killer whales without biting or harming it just swimming next to it. Then the sadness hit us when we saw mama come up to breath and exhale a couple of times. The sound she made was just sad. We were just shocked. We called the boat and the other zodiac came with the rest of the divers and we followed the orcas. Once they were far enough from mama and the rock one of them went on top of the baby whale and dragged it down. Being a baby it cannot hold its breath for long and after a few minutes we knew that was it, the baby was being drowned. After a while both killer whales came up and a few seconds after that the body floated to the surface. Then the orcas started feeding. They took turns taking the body down while biting it and then leting it float again. Of course this also attracted sharks, about 20 silky sharks came and they all took turns getting a piece of the baby humpback. We watched from the zodiacs and also putting our faces in the water with our masks on. It lasted about an hour and then it was all gone.
All kinds of feelings were floating around on the Solmar V. Some divers were crying for the baby and mama humpback, others were sad but felt privileged to have witnessed the whole show. Definitely it was sad to watch a baby being taken away from its mama, but it is also mother nature and the circle of life. We can feel lucky to be a witness to its power. For me it was mixed feelings, but definitely we are so lucky to be out here and see nature at its best and sometimes worst! That's why we divers come out to the wilderness, to see what mother nature has for us on any given day and there will never be two days the same. Today we saw a sad part, but we are here to learn from these magestic animals and their behaviors and we got to see a lot of that today. We learned that the dolphins reaction of leaving and going away north was because they knew there was a danger coming. We also saw, as one of our divers said, “the wolves of the oceans”(orcas) in action and got to see how strong and powerful they can be, that not even 2 huge humpback whales that easily double their size and weight could stop them. We also learned that mother nature gives and takes and it is not always going to be pretty, but it will always be something we can learn the best from.
So after all of these emotions we went back to the boat and refilled tanks for a second dive back to the rock and this time at the surface we could see mama and the escort swimming around the rock but not in the same way as before. We decided to enter the water while trying to keep our distance because we didnt know how they were going to react. But we did not see them in the first half of the dive so we went to swim around the rock enjoying the white tip reef sharks but not much else. It felt like a very lonely place. We all could feel the sadness in the water. By the second half of the dive the whales showed up but this time they passed by 4 times swimming fast without stopping to check us out. We felt mama was swimming desperately, probably still in shock. They just swam around and around the rock very fast.
For our third dive we went to the rock expecting to see mama and the escort again to say good bye as we had decided to leave Roca Partida tonight and go back to San Benedicto as the killer whales changed our plans. We headed south and had a lot of white tips swimming around there so we stayed with them while waiting for the whales to come but nothing so we kept waiting. While waiting we spotted a school of 5 huge yellow fin tunas patroling the rock and a couple of hammerhead sharks. Suddenly mama showed up swimming literally right next to the rock really, really fast and a few seconds later she was gone. We kept waiting but nothing happened so we started ascending and right at the safety stop here they came!...Mama and the escort swam together a few meters away from us, this time a lot calmer and kind of saying good bye as she slowed down for a few seconds and then they both disappeared into the blue water.
Definitely this is going to be a trip that is going to be with us for the rest of our lives. We all are going to go back home and share this story with our loved ones but sadly nobody that was not here is going to understand. We can show videos, pictures, tell the story but nobodoy is going to feel what we felt being out there in mother nature's hands - this is why we come out here and this is why we love diving!
Stay tuned because this trip is not over yet!

Hasta la vista!

Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Solmar V

What an incredible and unbelievable first day at Roca Partida!

BREAKING NEWS!!

What an incredible and unbelievable first day at Roca Partida!

Just waking up and walking by the dive deck to check the last details before going for the first dive, a few whales were already showing up, kind of close to the boat. While we chatted and had the typical morning coffee, some of our guests shout that some other whales were close to the bow, so we all went up to it to see the giant mammals, but what it was to our surprise was this momma humpback whale with her calf was the same whale that had hung out for almost 2 months back in 2013! To double check it and make sure she was the same whale we confirmed it with our id photo from 2013 and yes, she was the same whale, 100% accurate.

So in our briefing we announced it that we were going to have an amazing and unforgettable time at Roca Partida with such friendly whales! When we jumped in to the water for the first dive, we met a 26C/77F water temperature, 100’/30 m visibility and beautiful blue water! We all were excited for the whales and decided to spend the dive looking for them. Not even 15 min went by when about twenty dolphins came from all directions, we tried to keep up with them for a while and while we did it, we realized they had led us to the whales! Momma humpback, her calf and even better a third whale already which was the escort was already part of the new family of leviathans, so we had three whales instead two only! And to make it even better, dolphins hung out and swam around them too! It was so really amazing, not only for the combination of humpback whales and dolphins at the same time but we were observing the same momma only 2 years after the first time. Basically we spent the rest of the dive with the whales as they just surfaced to breath and came back and stayed in the same spot without leaving.

The show was not over yet, we spent 2 hours snorkeling with all three whales that delivered incredible show and close passes specially the baby humpback to every single swimmer!

In the second dive we stop by the pockets of the rock where the piles of white reef sharks rest to show everybody the residents of the rock, very briefly we stayed, before the three whales were behind us hovering just like they had done it in the first dive. We literally spent the second and third dive and the rest of the day enjoying the marvelous moments we all lived today!

Of course, I don’t need to tell you that we’re staying another day and perhaps two more days here in this epic place, ROCA PARTIDA!Expect the unexpected when you come to visit this rocky summit in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Stayed tuned and waited for the next Roca Partida adventures with the Solmar V folks and our friendly whales!
Hasta la vista.
Erick Higuera

Humpback whale concert at Isla Socorro!

HI All! Jan 27, 2015
The hump back whale concert!
Cabo Pearce at Isla Socorro had interesting water conditions today. As early as 7:00 am we were in the water, there was a super strong current from South! On the first dive, mantas were over the cleaning station so it was a no swim dive, all we had to do was wait there, get the shot, and celebrate! The whole dive!
A second dive, we were on a mission to find some hammer heads! Being the third group to jump in, we took it easy and after 15 minutes we were at the sweet spot 26m/85ft of water, the one I like! All of a sudden the singing was on and on and on, getting louder and louder, of course we know it is a male humpback, in between our breaths we can hear it coming closer! It's a lot of work swimming into the current to go looking for hammerheads, eventually our legs get tired! We didn't find any hammerheads, but after all this effort, we looked up and saw the massive body of hump back whale crossing our sky for 10 seconds at 15m/50ft of water and swimming into the current! We almost couldn’t believe it! Visibility wasn’t that great here so in those 10 second we saw it coming at us passing over our heads and swim away, I can say from head to tail including those long white pectoral fins, so we wished for hammer heads we got in return hump back whale! Not bad at all I think! No time either to tell length of it, it was about enjoying the moment and celebrating this incredible sight we just had! We were looking at each other screaming into our regs with arms hands up! The return to shallow water was easy,  we got to play with some mantas and do a nice safety stop holding on to the rope that made us feel like flags due to a still current flowing!
Time for a third dive at call of "dive time!" As we are getting ready dolphins showed up, and once we hit the water the current dropped a lot but could not find the dolphins we saw when we were suiting up! The water temperature was 25˚C/77˚F, we decided it was going to be manta dive and so it was! The protected area was the spot with 5 to 6 of them, it was not really a big area so we had mantas coming from pretty much all directions and depths, some lucky divers got to stand vertical, doing a nice job on buoyancy and black mantas doing tight circles 5 times in a row around them with tip of wings almost touching the divers, how cool was that! Bubbles were everywhere! The mantas were happy getting their bubbling belly massage!
Our last dive of the day was around 3:30pm, after have seen a hump back whale under water of course we want more of that! But we are in search for hammer heads once again, the was still flowing but it was mild. Our descend line is a big tool here, big time! We took it easy and played it by ear. Away at the distance we can hear the vocalizations of a male, but that away at distance’ became in a short time a right here and so loud sharp vocalizations, signaling that it is heading our way!  At the edge of the reef was interesting watching all fish behavior due to current; lobsters growing so old and big, green morays, zebra eels, scorpion fish along the way, a silky shark showed up above our heads making wide circles at first then smaller and smaller circles. It's interesting how some fish take advantage of the roughness of shark skin to get rid also of something attached to their body, the melody of whale singing is fading out, we can even feel it in our chest area not vibrating so much anymore, and still no hammer heads! When we were returning to the cleaning station once again, the singing came back on really loud while 2 juvenile Galapagos shark were recognizing their territory, the reef! So we all are looking into the blue thinking the sound comes from that direction, a lonely chevron manta swims over our heads, not many saw it hopping whale would show up in front of us. The vocalizations got so loud and louder, counting 7 different vocalizations, 37 minutes of singing what a concert underwater that very few people get to attend, and the ones that do are so lucky! End of the story 2 bottle nose dolphins made themselves visible, since the whale singing was so loud they showed up quietly, and disappeared right way!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.

Spiny lobsters, sea turtle, diamond sting rays, silver tip sharks, and more on our checkout dive at Las Cuevas!

Hola amigos!

Yesterday we left Cabo San Lucas at about 4pm, the crossing to the islands was a little rough with some big swell, specially last night, but this morning it was a little calmer, started as a cloudy day but the closer we got to the islands the better the weather was!

So at about 2pm after filling all the tanks, setting weights and getting the cameras ready, we could see the island in the horizon... by 4pm we started the first dive of the trip!

The dive site we picked for our check out dive was “Las Cuevas”, we anchored the boat and set the stern anchor as a descent line and noticed a quite strong current coming from the north, so we did a quick buoyancy check, and descended holding on to the line, at 50ft/15m, visibility was not very good, around 40ft/12m, with a water temperature of 76F/24C. So once at the anchor we used the big boulders to cover us a little from the current and we went into the first swim trough and we found 2 white tip reef sharks laying on the sand, big spiny lobsters and as we were getting out, a big male sea turtle showed up! It kind of tried to get away at first then it stopped and checked us out before realizing it was only silly divers and it swam slowly away. Then 2 groups stayed around that area just picking on the rocks and one other group decided to drift a little south, on our way south we found a lot of life, more white tips on the other swim trough, huge lobsters and on the sandy bottom at about 80ft/24m we found diamond sting rays, giant electric rays, spotted tiger snake eels, 3 juvenile silver tip sharks that would get closer and closer very curiously to check us out, then we hit a little corner just full of creole and trigger fish, and we were going to start our ascent when a huge probably 300lbs. Yellow fin tuna showed up! Shimmering colors and getting close to the schools of fish probably on the look for prey, it was very exciting to watch! We finished by doing a safety stop drifting and back to the Solmar V on the zodiac.

Now we are heading to Socorro island as there was another 2 boats in San Benedicto and one more arriving tonight so we are going to a less crowded area and we are crossing our fingers so we can see as many dolphins as we saw in our last trip at “Cabo Pearce”, so stay tuned to know how the dolphins, mantas and sharks treat us in Socorro island!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor

As the sun rose we could see it was going to be a great day at Roca Partida!

Hi again,
Today we woke up at Roca Partida after a very smooth ride overnight from Socorro. As the sun rose we could see it was going to be a great day, the ocean was completely flat and there was almost no wind a clear sky only with some clouds in the horizon making it a beautiful start to the day.
We started the dives after breakfast and underwater it was no different than in the surface, just perfect with no current, temperature of 25C/78F and 100ft/30m visibility! All the action was on the south side of the rock today, hundreds of steel pompano, lots of big eye and black jacks from the surface all the way to 100ft/30m.
The firs dive was when we saw the hammerheads! This time a school of about 40 to 50 of them, they were a bit deeper than us about 130ft/40m but a couple of them were more curious and came to check us out around 100ft/30m. There were also some curious Galapagos and Silvertip sharks that came close to us in between all the steel pompanos and of course the usual residents of Roca Partida the hundreds of white tips that like to pile up on each other on several ledges that can be found here.
Once again we had some whale action today, there were two humpbacks going around the boat and sometimes getting close to the rock, they were moving around a lot, but a bit before our second dive they stayed for a while on the surface so we decided to go out on the pangas to try to have a closer look. We did see them from the pangas but were not able to see them underwater. At the end of the day as we were checking out the sunset, one of the whales surprised us and breached right next to the stern of the boat, so close that the noise woke up the ones that were taking a nap at the sun deck!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor

Cabo Pearce, a symphony underwater!

Hi All!  Jan 20, 2015.
Cabo Pearce, was a symphony underwater.
Starting early this morning we had humpback whales showing off!   We were not in the water yet, but we can tell there is a gorgeous visibility today! 
The first dive of the morning we had zero current, 24m/80' vis., water temp 25.5˚C/78˚F. As we were descending on the rope the reef was covered with lots of fish, the pale purple color of the rocks look so clean, at some point it feels as if we were diving in the air with lots of fish are flying around all of us! That is how I can describe the visibility at short distance in front of us, adding to the "underwater flying fish" during the whole dive we counted about 10 mantas in a very small area which is the cleaning station at 12m/40ft of water.  The whole reef was very active, it seems the loud singing of male humpback whales woke everything up! Each fish had the desire to be happy for the joy of all divers underwater at this time, and I can say we are happy too! From now on that singing will keep reminding us that we've got a chance to see those gigantic whales! We know it means it's mating season, and the singing will soon bring female hump back whales!
Our surface interval was really a whale of excitement when the massive whales swam by the stern of Solmar v several times, even jumping very close to the boat!
We stayed at Cabo pearce for the second dive and had the same underwater conditions as our previous dive, the mantas were there as well, with happy whales singing, lots of fish and dolphins chirping, clicking, all together on the 50 minute dive! So the symphony of these two mammals made us swim into the blue, kind of following the trail of sound, we know that is kind of impossible but he singing was so loud it seemed like they were just a few feet away from us the whole time! We think whales and dolphins like to hang out together, we have seen that happen before. We found 2-3 hammer heads on our search for the whales, but even with as big as they are, we weren't able to find them!
The third dive started a little slow, some of us were wondering where did all that life go in the 1:30hrs of our surface interval? Then a current from the South started to blow, so we went exploring along the reef once again from shallow water 12m/40ft to 24m/80ft of water, and soon fish started to show up, a rock packed up with lots of barber fish, yellow trumpet fish, flounders, we were facing the current a bit hoping for some hammer heads but they did not show up. We made our way back to shallow water and got intercepted by 3 extremely playful dolphins, one of them really curious one of our lucky divers was circled for several minutes by this playful dolphin! At the end of the dive we couldn't hear the whale singing but this one dolphin made up for it with its chirping in the absence of the whale singing! Just like the three musketeers these 3 dolphins got together, excited, happy, swimming circles, showing their bellies, more dolphin singing, went up for fresh air and came back down to play more! They left the area leaving some mantas by the descent line which we really enjoyed while doing a long safety stop.
The last dive to finish the day happened by cleaning station with one then two mantas. It was an incredible day of diving including a 3m/9ft long approximately tiger shark, the sunset is on it's way, and the reef is already spawning! Within minutes it was covered with eggs making it look blurry, so lucky to be in the right time and place to eye witness such an incredible event of mother nature.
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V

Mantas all over the dive site at Socorro Island!

Hola amigos!

Last night we left San Benedicto island and came to Socorro island,the crossing was very nice and smooth.
Our dive site today was “Cabo Pearce”, where the water was excellent today, last trip visibility here didn't treat us as well as we're used to, but today it was great! Blue water and 80ft/24m visibility with a water temperature of 77F/25C and pretty much no current, couldn't ask for anything else! And the action was also very very good!

Mantas were all over the dive site, we had mantas at 15ft/5m, 50ft/15m and 100ft/30m, we saw them on the shallow area of the dive site, both north and south ends, down in the deeper area there were more mantas! They were just everywhere today! The clarion angel fish also did their part, they were at all of those depths and doing a great job cleaning them once again! The mantas will take turns getting cleaned making sure to take some time to come and play with us, we had at least 10 different mantas, both chevron and black mantas, different sizes and all of them kept coming and coming and coming and coming, we only had to hover and wait for them to come to us to get their bubble bath!

Dolphins came to play today as well, they showed up in between the mantas and the divers first kind of looking at us like strange things in the water, but once they saw that it was only silly divers they started playing, swimming around us several times, slowing down and then speeding up at times, it was awesome! The dolphin action lasted for a while and you could see the smiles of our divers even with their regulators in their mouths! And it got better! 2 dolphins went to a buoy that hangs at about 60ft/18m and started playing with it, taking turns to hit it over and over, then when they got tired of that they went to a manta and started teasing it giving little gentle bites on its tail, many times until the manta got fed up and left, it was quite funny to watch! Then they came back to us and swam in between us very slowly looking at us and doing a few twists and turns and then left us playing with the mantas, that followed us all the way up the surface, we were even getting back on the pangas and the mantas will pass right underneath us kind of saying please don't go!

Now we rest next to this majestic island and tomorrow we are diving here again, so stay tuned because we hope it is going to be as good or better than today!
Hasta la vista!


Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor

A great start to our latest trip at San Benedicto!

Today was our first full day of diving of this trip and it was a great start as usual! We spent all day at San Benedicto island at the infamous El Cañon, the conditions didn’t changed much through out the day we had about 45ft/14m visibility and the water temperature was around 25C/76f with mild to zero east current.
The first dive was very good, with Giant Pacific Mantas from the start! While going down the anchor line they were nearby, they were not that playful on this dive but they were around! The highlight of this dive was a very curious bottle nose dolphin that came in the middle of our group of divers and stayed there posing for the pictures while we were waiting to see if any hammerheads were around! As soon as the dolphin left, we saw some hammerheads but from a distance. As we made our way up to the safety stop back on the anchor line we had once again some mantas around us!
On the next two dives we tried to go to where we saw the hammerheads again to see if they would came a bit closer and they did. There was a school of around 20 of them that came very close. Still we did not pay much attention to them because this time the mantas were all over the place and very playful! From the second dive on it was manta day at El Cañon. At one point we saw six of them together and almost all of them were very playful and were enjoying the diver’s bubbles on their gills.
On the surface interval before the last dive of the day we had a lot of action close to the boat, with lots of dolphins and tunas jumping around and lots of birds following them, something was being chased for sure!
The fourth and last dive of the day was a bit different, once again we had the mantas all over but this time we saw some silver tips and silky sharks along with a couple of dolphins and some big tunas around. We ended the day once again with a beautiful sunset creating great colors and shadows over the volcano on San Benedicto. Now we head to Socorro Island planning to do four dives on Cabo Pearce tomorrow!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Master

We're back at the archipelago!

Hola amigos!

We are back at the archipelago!

Yesterday we left Cabo at about 3:30pm and had a very very smooth and fast crossing, the current helped us to get to the San Benedicto Island a little faster than normal and we got to our first dive site, “El Cañón”, for our check out dive at 2 pm! By 2:40 we were already in the water!

The temperature out of the water was 27C/80F, warmer than last trip, and the water temperature was 25C/77F, what made the dive very comfortable, the visibility was not very good, about 40ft/12m, but still, we had lots to see.
The weather was nice and calm so we set the stern anchor and we dove off the Solmar V swimming platform, a giant stride into the water and down the descent line we went!  Once in the water we noticed a mild current coming from the northeast, so we decided to go check out the east cleaning station of the dive site, but first as we made it to the end of the line, there was a black manta that came to say "Welcome to Revillagigedo Archipelago" to our divers!  It only checked us out and left, so we started swimming along the edge of the rocks and the blue waters, on the way out to the cleaning station we found several hammer heads, a couple swimming right above us, another small group of about 6 swimming out in the blue, another singles checking the rocks getting mixed with the bunch of white tip reef sharks and juvenile silver tips that made their way out to the cleaning station with us!
Once at the cleaning station we just laid on top of the rocks and enjoyed the show, we had schools of creole, trigger, butterfly fish, big eye trevallies, and of course all the sharks that accompanied us to the cleaning station, it was great just sitting there! Right before we started heading back towards the anchor line a huge very bulky hammer head showed up! Then time to head back and start the ascent, it was a very impressive dive as a first dive of the trip! Everybody is just waiting the time to get in the water tomorrow morning!
We are spending the night here at “El Cañón” and we will dive here again in the morning, so stay tuned because there is more action to come!

Hasta la vista!

Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor