Hello Again All –

Chris got me straightened out on my picture links…so this report should work. If you already read the previous post just skip down to the pictures. Thanks also to Chris for identifying the previously “unknown” nudibranch as a Chromodoris marislae.

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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.

Coronado Island Topography

Two Tambja eliora nudibranchs

Diamond Stingray

Chromodoris marislae nudibranch

King angelfish

Gorgonians and chocolate chip star

Stone scorpionfish

Polycera alabe nudibranchs

Mexican barracuda

Cup coral

Bullseye electric ray

Fine spotted moray

Tan star

Bullseye stingray

Cortez angelfish

Gorgonian

• Complete Photo Set

• Re: Corrected Loreto Trip Report - Pictures! Brad 01:11:59 10/20/07 (0)
• Nudibranch ID Clinton Bauder 14:17:13 10/19/07 (2)
  • Tambja abdere Chris 16:15:27 10/19/07 (1)
    • Re: Tambja abdere Chris 16:39:37 10/19/07 (0)