Scuba With Sea Lions

We weren't looking forward to Cabo San Lucas, as it's full of American resorts (think Cancun/Magaluf) and doesn't have a great reputation compared to the rest of the Baja but we felt we had to go take a look. Fortuitously we had bumped into some travelling friends who recommended a nice small hostel and dive centre (plus they forgot to return their keys) and it was great advice. We squeezed the van into their car port and arranged a dive for the next day. There was a really nice mix of people & nationalities, including the first brit we had met on the road, and with only 8 beds a perfect size for us.

We headed on an early start for our dive at Pelican Rock, only a 10 min boat ride from the harbour. Within a couple of minutes we had a lovely encounter with a white tip reef shark (only 1.5m long and harmless), then went out into the blue (you normally dive around rock/coral formations) and found an enormous school of cow-nosed and mobula rays. For the 2nd dive we went down close to famous Cabo Arch, and into a narrow canyon where we sat on the sandy bottom and watched the inquisitive sea lions pop down to say hello. We've never seen them underwater before and it was an amazing experience. On the way back we bumped into 2 tortugas (turtles) sleeping under rocks, one of whom wriggled free and swam over my head for an incredible GoPro shot.

We had a delicious lunch at lovely local joint, and as we were away from the resort area it cost us a massive $4 each :) Diving is tiring so we lazed around the pool and then a few of us went out for another lovely meal, and ended up drinking 2 litre bottles of beer on the hostel roof terrace until the small hours.

Its was lovely to hang out with cool people at a really nice place, but diving is always pricey and despite the cheap eats we were burning through money so we headed off to find a cheap beach, and also recover from a bit of overindulgence.Read more