Hello Everyone!

Well, I thought I’d finally take a shot at my first trip report posting. Granted, the trip was earlier this year, but what better way to go back and relive a wonderful experience!! I hope this all works the way it’s supposed to…but if not I completely blame Chris’ FAQ’s!!!!!

In April of this year, my wife Liz and I went with her parents and sister to Loreto, Mexico. Her parents have enjoyed many vacations in Cancun, and we had been diving to La Paz last October (hopefully a future trip report) and really wanted to get back to the Sea of Cortez as we loved La Paz.

We stayed at the Inn at Loreto Bay, which is actually about 15 minutes south of the main town. There is a huge development being built in that area, and this hotel (formerly the Camino Real Resort) is on the waterfront of the bay. The hotel itself does not have a dive operation, so we went on some trips with the Dolphin Dive Center, run by Bruce Williams who used to own the dive shop of the same name in Arcadia. We found the hotel to be quite nice, though we thought the food was kind of pricey for Mexico. Getting to and from town was a standard 10 pesos which was very reasonable, and there were always shuttle vans outside the hotel waiting to be used.

Weather was a bit rough while we were in Loreto, and the winds were blowing pretty consistently during our whole stay (April 13 – 17). We only had time to dive two days, and because of the rough waters, we visited Coronado Island both times. In fact, on both days we visited the same dive sites. At first I was a bit disappointed at this prospect, but the conditions were quite different on the two days and we ended up seeing completely different things such that they might as well have been different sites anyway.

Diving was from a panga with a backwards roll into the water. Trip time to the island was about 30 – 45 minutes as I recall. Not bad at all. Coronado Island is a volcanic structure and the resulting underwater topography is really great, with extensive rocky reefs which support a wide variety of life. In fact, the Coronado topo. is pretty fascinating above water too. We found the Dolphin dive operation to be quite competent, but the in-between-dive snack situation was not what I would have liked. In other words, more than one bottle of water would be nice.

What did we see you ask? Well, LOTS of cool stuff! We saw several different types of rays, and multiple individuals on each dive. There were a few different nudibranchs species, including one I haven’t been able to ID yet, and one dive site has a “resident” school of Mexican barracuda that hangs out at the top of a rocky ridge. There were several moray eel types to be found, king and cortez angelfish, and a really nice variety of gorgonians and cup coral.

We really enjoyed the diving in Loreto very much, and LOVE the Sea of Cortez (La Paz is one of our best trips ever!). We really hope to make Cousteau’s aquarium a regular occurrence in our dive travel.

Well, I hope everyone enjoys this first report and pictures. Here’s keeping my fingers crossed that the links work!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1564655182/in/set-72157602408745399/
Coronado Island Topography

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1564655912/in/set-72157602408745399/
Two Tambja eliora nudibranchs

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1564655610/in/set-72157602408745399/
Diamond Stingray

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1563772379/in/set-72157602408745399/
unidentified nudibranch
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1564653998/in/set-72157602408745399/
King angelfish

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1564653608/in/set-72157602408745399/
Gorgonians and chocolate chip star

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1563770351/in/set-72157602408745399/
Stone scorpionfish

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1564653176/in/set-72157602408745399/
Polycera alabe nudibranchs

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1563769683/in/set-72157602408745399/
Mexican barracuda

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1564652558/in/set-72157602408745399/
Cup coral

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1563767135/in/set-72157602408745399/
Bullseye electric ray

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1563766351/in/set-72157602408745399/
Fine spotted moray

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1564647252/in/set-72157602408745399/
Tan star

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1564647006/in/set-72157602408745399/
Bullseye stingray

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1563762455/in/set-72157602408745399/
Cortez angelfish

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14900387@N08/1564645516/in/set-72157602408745399/
Gorgonian

• Chromodoris marislae Chris 12:23:27 10/18/07 (0)
• Arrrrgh!! Captain Kevin 22:07:00 10/17/07 (0)
• Clickable Links? Maybe??? Captain Kevin 22:03:29 10/17/07 (0)