Oct 2006

I finally had a good nights sleep after the combination of cocktails, dramamine and hanging my towels over the curtains.
I woke feeling realy rested.
We spent the morning diving with Whale Sharks in the bay but the visibility was not too good and the jelly fish were savage. We used a lot of vinegar on a lot of arms and legs that morning.

After lunch we dived at Whale Island and a small bay nearby we picked up Chocolate clams from the bottom and ate them with tabasco sauce on the way back to the dock.

Chocolate Clam

Whale Island in background.

I have spent the past few days checking out the fish and taking pics so I got the spearfishing gear out today and got a nice Pargo for dinner. Juanita at the hotel cooked it up for me with some salsa it was wonderful.Tomorrow is going to be a big day, we are going to spend the day on EL Bajo spearfishing. I want to try and get a wahoo and a tuna if I can.

I need sleep I walked arround half the night then watched TV in spanish not that I understood what was going on. We dived the
El Bajo sea mount today and saw the schooling Hammerhead Sharks they were totaly awsome. They were all around 10ft long and swimming at about 90ft they were rather timid which was a surprise to me. Most of the time I encounter sharks they are anything but timid. There were some huge Dog Snapper on the edges of the drop off and schools of Mac Tuna swimming over the top with the odd Wahoo screaming through feeding on the masses of bait fish.

Bait fish in the blue water around El Bajo.

Tuna on El Bajo.

Spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool over a couple of Pacifico's then had dinner at the restraunt on the beach. Pinky gave me some dramamine saying it should help me sleep but I backed it up with a couple of cocktails at the bar for good measure. The food at this place is just brilliant and cheap it's cost about $10 for food and drinks each night. The service is great as well and the 10 minute walk back to the hotel is just what you need after such a big meal.

The routine for day 2 was the same as day 1. I havent slept a wink since I got here there is a full moon and my bed is hard as a rock and the curtains are thin as its like daylight inside once the moon is up. Still a good day diving the weather is great light winds and warm during the day, no wind at night and cool but not cold. We ate dinner at a little bar / canteena overlooking the bay the sunset from here was spectacular and the food pretty good as well. I had a fair bit to drink I need to sleep somehow.

From the bar looking back to the hotel.

Day one saw us up before dawn for breakfast not that I got any sleap I must have got the hardest bed in the world. I have slept on softer concrete.
Breakfast was good and hearty and the quality never changed for the rest of the week always excelent. We then headed off to load our gear onto the boat for the day's diving. We had about an hours travel to and from the dive sites each day. The routine was to be under way around 7am and in the water by 9am then 2 hours surface interval and lunch before an afternoon dive and back alongside arround 3:30-4pm.
The first days dive sites were the Sea lion colony at Los Isalotes
then the Salvatore Wreck. The sea lion colony was good with plenty of bait fish on the edge dropping down to about 70ft and plenty of Dog snapper and Grouper swimming mid water. The occasional barracuda would cruise in and smash the bait every 15 or so minutes. Then the seals would do the same thing as if trying to show off.

Curios Sea Lion

Grouper at Sea Lion colony

The wreck is pretty much broken up due to being rolled along the bottom in the last Hurricane but is still a great dive. There are plenty of fish around it and bigger pelagics make the occasionan visit including huge tarpon.

Morey Eel on the wreck

The remainder of the afternoon was spent lazing at the pool before dinner at a little restraunt on the beach overlooking the bay.

The hotel Club Cantamar was nice and organised all we had to do on arrival was sign in and grab our room keys. We all headed off to our rooms having had dinner late agreed to meet at the bar in 1/2 an hour.
The first thing I noticed about La Pas was the roofs on most buildings were quite flat and most of the tiles were cracked.
This and the lack of vegitation told me it dont rain much here.

We all met up at the pool and had a few more beers and a swim discussing the days ahead before heading off to bed ready for an early start.