I recently returned from diving in La Paz, West Mexico. La Paz is a town with a population of about 200,000 and is located on the coast of the Sea of Cortez. I dived with The Cortez Club (who are excellent) and who are one of only a few dive centres in the area.
Having gone in October I was there just as the high season is about to end. Most of the divers are American and tend to go down for long weekends, while for the Brits you really need to consider about ten nights just because of the length of journey on the plane (about 14 hours with a stop in LA). I paid alot overall for the whole trip, I couldn't even guess how much the same package is now with the Airlines all desperately seeking passengers.
The diving at this time of year is focused on three elements - Sea Lions, Mantas, and Hammerhead Sharks. There are though seasonal variations and some great wreck dives to do as well. The main difference for many UK divers who go backwards and forwards to Egypt is that this is not a soft coral sea with bright colours and fish everywhere, but I think the diving can be much better, the water is warm enough and the visibility is pretty good.
All the Sea Lion colonies have produced pups by October, and are all big enough and old enough to leave the safety of ‘Mum’ and go interact with the divers. They are all exceptionally curious and you can watch them gentle biting at divers wetsuits and limbs (not causing any pain or distress to anyone I add) to see what you are.
The hammerhead sharks can be a little bit of a let down. You tend to float out in the ‘blue’ with no bearing to at look except other divers. The hammerheads in truth are actually very timid, and on a 40-minute dive you might catch a 5 second glimpse of a small group before they disappear. Personally I felt that quick glance was worth the dive (they are big sharks after all) but some of my fell divers were slightly less excited about it.
The Mantas (both individual large ones and squadrons of up to 40 small ones) are pretty impressive and everyone enjoyed diving with them. The only problem and this goes with a lot of the diving is the Plankton in the water (that is why the Mantas are there though), if your like me, a simple amateur photographer it does make taking pictures a little tricky. More experienced photographers would no doubt overcome this.
The Cortez Club who I dived with were very good, they had excellent staff, all the equipment you may need was available for hire, they always insisted on diving in small groups of no more than 6 and have some good diving boats. There was one boat that I spent a day on which did not have any cover, to be honest sitting on that from 8am-3pm was too much for me and I just asked to be changed which they did.
The Sea of Cortez was used to photograph some of the BBC series the blue planet, it is therefore a great place for whale watching (from about February I think?).
Beyond the diving the food and beer is reasonably priced and tastes fine, it is mostly Mexican food so don’t expect any green vegetables! There are a couple of hotels in the area of La Paz, on the face of it they're not five star, but they’re comfortable and have some facilities. But really you go to La Paz for diving or deep-sea fishing and not lying by the pool all day. The town itself is fine with plenty of bars and some nightlife. I would recommend diving in La Paz to anyone.
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