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‘FIESTA’ liveaboard, Club Cantamar, La Paz, Mexico, Week 2

Extract from diary :

Got some energy back end of 1st week. Travelling to + from UK, plus wedding, visiting, rushing around, then getting up at 7am for 3 dives per day as soon as we arrived, was all a bit of a shock to the system... soon got used to it though and felt fitter by end of 1st week here.

Dived at the sea lion colony (Los Islotes) lots more during the week because some of the other sites were too exposed & visibility not good. Fine by us, we loved photo'ing & video'ing the sea lions, but some of the other divers were complaining at the lack of variety - they've obviously never been to Catalina!!!

Got on the panga (little open wooden boat) with all our luggage to get out to the Fiesta. Pleased to see a ladder in the panga. They put it over the side to collect divers who've drifted. If you've ever had to haul yourself & all your dive gear into a dinghy at sea after finning against the current, then you'll know what a luxury it is to have a ladder to climb into the boat, phew!! I knew we were set for an easy week.

Boat was quite basic but good value. We had one of 2 en-suite rooms. Bunks 6” too short for Al (as usual) with mattresses so thin that you got bruised hips. Water was brown (rust hopefully!!) and dyed our swim costumes & towels. Don't know what it did to our skin, but at least I wasn't allergic!!! Air con worked OK, soon got used to the volume!

Routine: coffee & dive briefing @ 7am then 1st dive. Breakfast (eggs & refried beans in every guise possible) maybe move the boat, maybe stay on site, then 2nd dive. Read/ sunbathe/ download photos then 3rd dive. Lunch & snooze (the read/ sunbathe/ download options were also available, but I never took them up after lunch!) then 4th dive. Sometimes 4th dive was twilight or night dive, so different creatures & corals open up to feed. After 4th dive, dinner then put the world to rights (good bunch on board), then bed shortly after. No late nights on board. Everyone tired due to dives & lack of sleep on paper thin mattresses.

We were hoping to go North to Les Animas. Apparantly a lovely island full of life. Unfortunately the weather was bad, too windy, so we didn't make it much further North than Los Isletos. Ended up doing same dives as the day boat, but of course we didn't have the 2hr trip each morning because we were already there. Loads of time with the sea lions, plus 2 days at el Bajo diving the hammerhead site. Saw hammerheads in 1's, 2's and 3's. Pierre & Istphan saw a shoal, about 30. We'll have to wait until Cocos to see the shoals!

Water warm enough to just wear shortie, but leaves legs bare for jellyfish stings!! Teeny little critters hang around at about 5m on most dive sites. Everyone feels a little tingle as they go past, but I'm the only one getting large red welts where they've touched me!!! Fortunately they only sting a little at the time, with no after effects, they look much worse than they are. I've got plenty of antihistamine to keep me going!