During the period 2-7 September, 2005, Karen and I drove to San Carlos, Mexico, for our second visit to that diving location. We went with a group from Sandia Snorkel and SCUBA. San Carlos is over 750 miles from Albuquerque and constitutes a serious driving commitment. Although the roads both in the US and in Mexico are quite good, you must spend a lot of time behind the wheel just to get there. There is a hour's mandatory stop at the Mexican border/immigracion station. In Jan 2006, they are going to move this station south of Guaymas, which is next to San Carlos. US citizens can then drive directly to San Carlos. Most of the residents of San Carlos are Americans. Anyway, we spent two days driving there and one day driving back.

We went over the Labor Day Weekend, hence things were relatively crowded. Karen and I stayed in a very nice littel condo we rented from Casa de Amigos Realty. The condo had another benefit of being right at the marina, so Karen and I could walk to whatever dive operation we used. We used two different dive companies - Surface Time and Gary's Dive Shop - as neither had room on their boats for us all each of the days we were there. Of the two, I think we would go with Surface Time if we ever return in the future. Gary's operation was good and Gary is a very nice guy, but it was just too big. Surface Time, on the other hand, was small and very accommodating. Both dive operations served a regular gourmet lunch during the surface interval.

The weather was sweltering until you got out on the water and then things got comfortable. The water was just like a bathtub. The only reason for a wetsuit/skin was protection against the jellyfish (I didn't see any) and sunburn.

On Saturday we dove with Surface Time and took what, unfortunately, was to be our only trip to San Pedro Island (also called Seal Island). The visability was over 100 ft and there was lots of neat sea life there, nonetheleast of which were the sea lions. They would whiz by you in the water. As big as they were that really got your undivided attention. We also saw a sea horse, which are bigger there than in other Caribbean locations. Our two dives there were unguided so we just went where we wanted. New fish for me included the King Angelfish and the Cortez Angelfish. I never take my camera on the first day so I have NO pictures of Seal Island, where the dive conditions were a photographer's dream.

Sunday we dove with Gary's Dive Shop and visited local sites that were faster to get to (Seal Island was a two hour boat ride). The visability was LOUSY - 20 ft max. The fish that were so bright and colorful at the island were now drab and dull. Of course, now is when I bring my camera. Good planning on my part! Using flash was virtually impossible due to all the particulates in the water and the resulting backscatter. In spite of the bad conditions I did manage to take some pictures.

The rest of the group left on Monday. Karen and I stayed and dove again with Surface Time. We couldn't get enough divers for them to justify a trip to the island, so we again dove at local sites. The visability had not improved. It was on one of these local dives (Deer Island) where I saw more octopi and scorpionfish in one place than I have ever seen in my life. I also saw a giant hawkfish at this dive site.

I must say that the restaurants in San Carlos were quite good and relatively inexpensive. Karen and I cooked breakfast in the condo, had lunch on the dive boat, and only went out in the evenings. All-in-all it would take a pretty slow news day to get Karen and I back to San Carlos, at least in September, the hottest month of the year. The diving just doesn't offer the interesting sea life we like and the visability was really very poor. Perhaps had we been able to dive around San Pedro Island a little more we would have found something that would have inspired another trip.

Here are the photos. I put them all in one display, even though they are both surface and subsurface pictures. I didn't cull many out, so there are too many pictures of octopi, scorpionfish and the marina at sundown. My thanks to Mike Sare and David Seelig for letting me have some of their pictures, otherwise I would have had no sea lion pictures. Photoshop built the web display. If you want to return the the "San Carlos Trip" page, you will just have to use the "Back" arrow of your web browser until I can figure out how to insert a "Return to" command in the files Photoshop generates. With my vast computer expertise that may never happen. So far, your "Back" button is the best I can do to help you navigate around.

Photos of San Carlos, Mexico.