Dive Review of Club Cantamar/Club Cantamar Resort & Sports Cente in
Mexico (Western)/La Paz, Baja Calif Sur

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Club Cantamar/Club Cantamar Resort & Sports Cente, May, 2005, by Sheryl O'Connor, CT, United States . Report 1826.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Club Cantamar is a family-run hotel and dive/sport operation and they are extremely customer-focused. Although the hotel accomodations were a little on the rustic side (warning-the mattresses are extremely hard and you need to bring your own hair dryer), the rooms were clean and well-kept and only a few steps from the dock. Breakfast at the restaurant and lunch on the dive boat were included in our pkg. price and were both excellent. You can also get a pkg with dinner included, but we went into La Paz every night since we had a rental car. It is a 10-minute ride into town and there are a lot of excellent restaurants and shops there, as well as a wonderful seaside walkway from which to view the sunsets. Our favorite restaurant was Carlos n' Charlie's where they make salsa fresh at your table. We were only able to spend two days diving since this trip was tacked onto the end of a business trip, but we would definitely go back to the area and this resort in the future. The first day we went to the bay of La Paz and snorkeled with whale sharks. Since the larger whale sharks don't come in until early Fall, these were younger, smaller whale sharks and they tended to swim quickly away from us, so,unless you're an Olympic class swimmer, you may not get too close to one. Our second dive was at Los Islotes, the main home of sea lions in the area. What an incredible experience, full of amazing photo-ops! Not for the feint of heart, though. The sea lions are very comfortable with divers and will play with you as soon as you get into the water. Be advised that their "playing" does include nipping at your fins, legs, arms, camera, etc.- not hard, but enough to startle the first few times. Our third dive was a Mexican navy wreck at about 50-feet; it hadn't been there very long, but there were some fish and small critters around it. The second day we headed out to El Bajo, about 6 miles from Isla Partida. El Bajo is a seamount about 70-feet down in open sea and is supposed to be the premier site for seeing large pelagics. Unfortunately, when we got to the end of Isla Partida we were turned back by heavy winds and choppy seas and ended up spending the day at closer sites off the islands. We got the feeling that this may happen about 50% of the time. Overall, the dive crew was extremely friendly, attentive and helpful, providing excellent briefings and offering guided dives. Advice to remember for future Baja trips: 1) bring your 5- or 7-mm wetsuit and a hood since the waters are pretty chilly and don't really get much warmer later in the year; 2) the really cool stuff the Sea of Cortez is famous for can be seen mostly in the Fall - hammerheads, large whale sharks, and whales - so schedule your trip between late Sept. and late Nov.; 3) the sea lions tend to give birth in late May and early June, so this is not the time to visit them; the females stay on shore with the pups, while the bulls are in the water and, judging from the size of these bulls, you do not want to be in the water with them while they are on patrol duty guarding their young; 4) definitely rent a car - we drove up the west coast from Cabo San Lucas and took the east coast road back down to the airport in San Jose; the country-side is spectacular, especially the east coast road down through the mountains; and, 5) if you're into fishing, definitely reserve at least one day to go out sport fishing; the first day we were there, we saw a huge Wahoo on the dock that someone had just brought in - the chef was going to turn it into some nice souvenir steaks to take home, and the rest was going to be served at dinner that night in the restaurant.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	My husband and I have been diving in Australia, the Red Sea, Honduras, Belize, New England, Florida and various islands in the Caribbean.
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	63-72°F / 17-22°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	15-30 Ft/ 5-9 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Basically, there were three dives per day and the sites and limits coincided with recreational dive table limits.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	> 2
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	There were no special facilities for cameras on the dive boats we were on - only one fresh water bucket that was not restricted to cameras.

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Dive Review of Club Cantamar/Club Cantamar Resort & Sports Cente in Mexico (Western)/La Paz, Baja Calif Sur

Club Cantamar/Club Cantamar Resort & Sports Cente, May, 2005,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Club Cantamar/Club Cantamar Resort & Sports Cente in
Mexico (Western)/La Paz, Baja Calif Sur