Dive Review of Fun Azul in
Mexico (Western)

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Fun Azul: "Sea of Cortez with Sea Lions!", Nov, 2017, by Raymond Haddad, QC, CA ( Sr. Reviewer 10 reports with 9 Helpful votes). Report 9967.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I decided that my next scuba diving trip would be closer to home and something I have never done. Why not dive with Sea Lions in the Sea of Cortez? That is why I choose to dive with Fun Azul on the M/S Valentina. Getting to La Paz from Montreal was very easy. I flew from Montreal to Mexico City then to La Paz. From the airport, take a taxi which costs 350 pesos which is cheaper than the Fun Azul Shuttle which costs $35.00 US. I arrived a day earlier and stayed at a hotel in the middle of the city and right on the main strip. The hotel named La Perla is very basic, inexpensive, clean and well located. They will pick you up from your hotel at around 5PM and take you to the ship. Then the standard liveaboard procedure starts: room assignment, documents to sign, certificate cards verified, seat assigned for scuba gear, weights … you all know the drill. They do not serve dinner that night. You are on your own. The ship is docked about a 5 minute walk from hotel La Perla, where they are many restaurants. The trip is a short one: 5 nights and 6 days, where you will do 18 dives in total. The ship can carry up to 20 passengers, we were 19, and you are split into 3 groups. All dives are done from the 2 RIBs. The can either board the RIBs with you gear or you can have them carry it on to them. Once you dive is completed, you will remove your weights, then your BC, then your fins and then climb up the ladder. They offer nitrox at $100.00 for the week, unfortunately half of my group where on air … why do people dive on air while on a liveaboard, especially when the dives are mostly swallow. You dive with a guide and resurface with the group. Some dives only lasted 40 minutes and we did not go deep. No buddy diving is allowed. They need to do a better job when making the groups. They would put 4000 psi in one of the divers tank (which I never saw before) and still he had consumption issues. The bottom of the Sea of Cortez is very rocky with very little coral. The highlight of the Sea of Cortez is diving with the Sea Lions. We dove 5 out of the 18 dives with them. At this time of the year (October), the pups are now juveniles and like to play with each other and divers. They get very close to you, you can pet them, play with them … great photo and video opportunities. We saw many types of eels, jawfish, scorpionfish, octopus, a few nudibranchs, schools of snappers, …On 3 occasions we dove a site called El Bajo, where if you are “very lucky” you will get to see hammerhead sharks. For me this was a waste of time, a lot of swimming for nothing. A very fun dive was the night dive with the Mobula Rays. One of the dive masters goes down with a light at around 15 feet to attract the plankton and krill. Then, about 40 to 50 Mobula Rays appear and start feeding near the light. Crazy! The last day, they take you to a bay to snorkel with whale sharks. The visibility was poor but we had a few encounters. From there, they will take you to the marina and shuttle you to your hotel. This last part of the trip needs to be improved. The food is good, the ship is clean, and not all rooms are the same. You need to check out their web site for the ship layout. The crew was very polite, friendly and very helpful. Lorenzo the cruise director and dive guide did an excellent job as well as 2 other dive guides, Rui and the lovely Jenny. Fun Azul is a Japanese company. On our trip we had 7 people from Japan, 1 from China, 2 from Peru, 10 Americans and me the only Canadian.
Websites	Fun Azul
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Bahamas, Belize, Honduras, Australia, Palau, Fiji, Indonesia, Turks & Caicos, Maldives, Philippines, Cozumel, YAP
Closest Airport	La Paz	Getting There	You need to go to Mexico City to get your flight to La Paz
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm
Water Temp	78-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-75 Ft/ 12-23 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Dive with your guide, surface with the group.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	1 or 2
Turtles	1 or 2	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	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Large camera table with air hoses.Two big rinse buckets for cameras.

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Dive Review of Fun Azul in Mexico (Western)

Fun Azul: "Sea of Cortez with Sea Lions!", Nov, 2017,

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 Fun Azul in
Mexico (Western)