Posted by Eric Frasco on July 20, 2000 at 12:42:22:
In Reply to: anybody been to LaBufadora?... posted by tired dog on July 19, 2000 at 22:40:13:
Went two years ago, on an annual trip which is put together by one the members of the Dive Team (a dive club) affilliated with Dive N' Surf. They go every Labor Day weekend (in about six weeks). It is organized by a well known member of the dive community, Chad Thagaard. You can contact him through Dive N' Surf if you want to link up with them, it will save you a lot of planning and logistics. Chad has a fair portion of the campground reserved at this point. But staying at a hotel in Ensenada and driving out to dive is an option.
La Buf is somewhat of a tourist trap with lots of junk and trinket shops. There is also some really basic campground-like area with minimal bathroom facilities (which are near substandard, but its something you can put up with for a few days).
The owner of the dive shop at La Buf (see Jon Davies' posting), is an "expatriated" American - he moved down there and started the business, and married locally and now lives down there permanantly. The shop provides air fills and "ponga" trips and also can arrange for sites at the campground. The ponga trips usually do two dives twice a day, there are some fantastic pinnacles to see, visibility was good, and water temps were just a degree or two better than LA/OC areas.
Getting in and out of the ponga is a little struggle for some, and the boat operators usually don't speak english, so if you go that route, make sure the shop owner has told the ponga driver exactly what you want to do if your driver doesn't habla englais.
There are restraunts there, and a small convenience store. I bought my liquor in town and took it to the campground, saved some bucks. It also seemed that the shops on the southbound side of the road (where your average gringo is more likely to pull over on his way down to La Buf) charged more for booze than the shops on the Northbound side.
Also, Mexico has different holidays than US (duh), so check it out in advance. Their elections were over our 4th of July weekend, and Mexico sells no alcohol on the day preceeding the election, some folks I know went down saturday for a four day weekend and couldn't buy any beer, etc., until Monday.
If you want to have some fun, link up with Chad's group. But keep in mind that they will be very interested in staying up late and drinking beer and socializing. So if hardcore diving is what you want to do, you may want to plan your own trip.
-Eric-