6 different species of shark, playful dolphins, and more wahoos than we can count on our 2nd day at Roca!

We had excellent morning dives.  A group of 6 dolphins escorted us to the Rock, and when we rolled in they were waiting for us!  The dolphins continued to swim and play with our divers as we made our way to the rock! 

We spotted Galapagos, silver tips, silky sharks, white tips, and schooling hammerheads throughout the day, along with yellow fin tunas and more wahoo's than we've ever seen! During our safety stop we got an extra special treat when we spotted a 12' long whale shark! This large fish passed by our divers numerous times, making passes that were only 3' away from our divers!  

Dive two and three were just like the first dive, except we didn't get to see the young whale shark for the rest of the day. Instead, we found 2 mobula rays, but one was much bigger than

usual! We have one more day at Roca Partida, the place where anything can happen! Stay tuned for our 3rd day from roca! Water temp was 75F with 60'+ visibility.

Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

Whale shark at Roca!

Hola amigos,
Our first day at Roca Partida was GREAT!! We had as always lots of white tip sharks, silvertips, hammerheads, silkies, galapagos and a 20ft/7m WHALE SHARK!! Yeahh! also there were giant tunas and wahoos everywhere. Weather is good and we are gonna stay here another day. Yeahhh again!!! Water temp was around 73ºF/22ºC, and air temp is 79ºF/25ºC and a little overcast with no much wind. If it stays like that we may be here for 3 days!
Claudio Bonato

Divemaster

Snappers, turtles, and sharks on our checkout dive at Las Cuevas! Now off to Roca!

Buenas Tardes from Isla San Benedicto,
It`s our first day of the trip with a mixed group of nationalities from all over the world!They are all here to see the best the Revillagigedos has to offer! Today the seas calmed and as we approached the island the water was glassy. We didn`t waste any time and had our first dive at Las Cuevas. The visibility was moderate at more than 40 ft. and the temp was warm at 75 degrees F.
My group was the first in the water and as we entered the first cave there were large snappers everywhere. The large amount of fish almost distracted us from a sleeping green turtle in the corner. Of course, we didn`t see it at first, but we obviously woke him up. He slowly swam through our group wagging his fins at us for rudely sneaking up on him. In the back of the cave a lone white tip reef shark rested and seemingly not bothered at all. On our way to the shallows we found another cave with four white tips resting. On closer examination there was yet another turtle resting in the cave right next to the sharks. They weren`t cuddling or anything, but it was still quite a good find. This turtle was also annoyed at the rude awakening and sleepily swam away. In the shallows we found two more turtles and many rays. A nice dive to start the trip. We`re looking forward to some even better diving tomorrow at Roca Partida!
Until Next Time,
Dave Valencia

Baitballs, dolphins, mantas, and sharks on our final day at San Benedicto!

We did an early dive at El Cañon, and on our early morning dive we had non stop playing and singing from dolphins in search for schooling hammerheads!  The hammerheads were there but not in huge numbers, but there were some above us, some below, and some out in the blue! 
Our 2nd dive took place at El  Boiler, we had gorgeous blue water with a lot of white tip reef sharks, schooling big eye jacks, and more dolphins!  I was also very glad to see a dolphin I call Nemo because it has a short pectoral fin and unique tail! A chevron manta came in and hung out with us for the remainder of the dive.  This friendly giant took its time slowly oing from one diver to another, without skipping anyone! Our dive time was up, our divers were still playing with the friendly manta when we had to say goodbye!  
During our surface interval we saw a lot of action happening on the surface a ways from the boat, but it had all the signs of a bait ball so we thought we'd take a look! It turns out we spotted a big one!  Only 3 miles off the island, we found lots of yellow fin tunas, silky sharks, dolphins, and even one marlin!  The different critters seemed like they were taking turns to take a hit at the bait ball, first tunas, then sharks then dolphins! Bait balls are an adrenaline filled event that can't be explained it can only be experienced.  

We did a final dive at El Boiler to finish our day, with tons of colorful reef fish, and the friendly chevron manta from dive two stopped by to say goodbye to our divers! Water temp was 77F with 50' visibility.

Visiting a famous cave at Socorro Island!

Hi there!
Our first day in Socorro Island begun with silkies swimming around the Solmar V and a beautiful sunrise that illuminated the colors of the cape of Cabo Pearce. This time the conditions in Cabo Pearce were limited, 40´/12 m visibility and a chilly thermocline of 69 F/19 C, that brought murky water full of plankton. Due to this conditions we changed the dive site for Roca O´Neal, here the conditions were still the same as in Cabo Pearce but visiting the famous cave of Roca O´Neal made the dive, because one can get great shots of the open dome that is in the cave.
After having a delicious club sandwich for lunch prepared by our awesome chef Tony, we moved the Solmar V one more time to the bay of Punta Tosca and what was our surprise that here is where the Mantas were, some were feeding close to shore and others were getting clean at the dive site. It looked like the Mantas are almost done with their feeding session. We expect that eventually all the Mantas will return to the cleaning stations and will enjoy the divers bubbles!
Tonight we´re heading back to San Benedicto to finish our trip # 20 of the season.
Don't leave and stay tuned for another adventure day with the Solmar V
amigos!
Erick Higuera

This was our third day here at Roca Partida and we have enjoyed every minute of it.

Hi Solmar V fans,
This was our third day here at Roca Partida and we have enjoyed every minute of it. The gentle swells and shining sun, not to mention the amazing diving, have made the last few days great. Well today`s diving had much of the same amazing things. On our first dive this morning we had a group of friendly dolphins keeping us occupied for the first 15 minutes of the dive. Behind the dolphins we had a few hammerheads and silkies check us out to see what we were up to. As we made our way back to the rock, Galapagos sharks, Silky Sharks, and Silvertips slowly swam back and forth among the massive amounts of creolefish. Towards the end of the dive, a school of thousands of bonito rolled towards us. They were circling like a tornado and sharks were above, below, and going through the tornado. It was definitely a "wow" moment. The second dive had a few small schools of sharks with a mixed school of a dozen or so silvertips and galapagos around the north point. One group swam to the blue and even caught a glimpse of a nice school of hammerheads. The third dive was probably the most exciting of the day. We waited patiently near the north point and finally saw some silvertips below. So we dropped down into a school of 30 silvertips. The were going back and forth along the wall. They circled around four times and didn`t come back. Then the Yellowfin Tuna showed up.. There were a lot of Yellofin Tuna and they were Large. The giant-sized tuna dwarfed even the largest sharks and us divers. They came close chasing one another in mating behavior. The males show vertical stripes as they get excited and chase the females everywhere. Some were even feeding dashing through the baitfish. Having these large Tuna come so close and show curiousity towards divers is quite uncommon and very special. The tuna dazzled us with their colors and made us dizzy swimming circles around us for nearly 30 minutes. Unforgettable....
Tonight we head to Socorro hoping to get some manta action. 
Until Next Time,
Dave Valencia

Day 2 at Roca Partida was incredible!

What can I say about Roca Partida? We were spoiled here at the rock in the middle of nowhere! We had great conditions at our favorite dive site and with all the action we had, our guests made memories that will last a lifetime! Silver tip, Galapagos, silky, hammer head, white tip sharks, yellow fin tunas, stripe bonitos, and wahoo, all in just one dive!  We had 75F water, 100' visibility, and a bit of current coming from the east that allowed us to drift along the wall of the rock. There was a ton of hard coral, fish, lobsters, octopus. On our second dive with the same conditions we had a nice and unexpected visitor that stopped towards the end of our dive! We ran in to a chevron manta that spent 15 minutes with us before it was time for our safety stop!

On the third we stayed in shallower water to watch the yellow fin tunas hunting!  They were very active for the whole dive, down deep with lots of sharks, just like the first dive! It is amazing the amount life this rock brings for our divers to see! Help us to protect a unique place like Roca Partida!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata