Last day of diving with Vallarta Adventures. Took a boat out to Marietas Islands which (again) was supposed to be one of the best dive sites around, but overall was just ok. Another big boat with tons of people, but quite a few more divers this time. I met this family of 5 from Santa Barbara, California -- the Prentices. Joaquim was my divemaster (same as yesterday) so he paired me up with the family since the other DM had two people from Colorado with one of them doing a refresher course.
Got to the island and they dropped us divers off right along a roped off area and we quickly descended. No wetsuit again this time and I convinced the dad and son to skip the wetsuit too. (they were glad they did even though we had a couple of cold pockets, overall it was very warm.) First part of the dive was fairly uneventful with just seeing a few fish, especially pufferfish. But then we stumbled upon a sleeping white tipped reef shark! He was just chilling on the bottom in the sand. I got up closer to him to try to take a picture but he swam away. I chased him for a little bit and hopefully got some on video.
On the second dive, saw a really cool stonefish which I had also seen when diving in Los Cabos. Did a couple swim-throughs too which were fun.
After the dive, they dropped everyone off at Las Caletas to spend another hour or two on the beach, but I negotiated a ride back on the staff boat so I could get back to the family. Was able to make it back to the resort and grab a quick lunch before we headed back out to Las Caletas, again, with the whole family for an evening event.
The event was called Rhythms of the Night and it did not disappoint! They had all kinds of acrobatic performers, fire dancers, and a really good show. They were worried it was going to rain but we only had a little bit of drizzle which stopped as the show was starting.
Got to the island and they dropped us divers off right along a roped off area and we quickly descended. No wetsuit again this time and I convinced the dad and son to skip the wetsuit too. (they were glad they did even though we had a couple of cold pockets, overall it was very warm.) First part of the dive was fairly uneventful with just seeing a few fish, especially pufferfish. But then we stumbled upon a sleeping white tipped reef shark! He was just chilling on the bottom in the sand. I got up closer to him to try to take a picture but he swam away. I chased him for a little bit and hopefully got some on video.
On the second dive, saw a really cool stonefish which I had also seen when diving in Los Cabos. Did a couple swim-throughs too which were fun.
After the dive, they dropped everyone off at Las Caletas to spend another hour or two on the beach, but I negotiated a ride back on the staff boat so I could get back to the family. Was able to make it back to the resort and grab a quick lunch before we headed back out to Las Caletas, again, with the whole family for an evening event.
The event was called Rhythms of the Night and it did not disappoint! They had all kinds of acrobatic performers, fire dancers, and a really good show. They were worried it was going to rain but we only had a little bit of drizzle which stopped as the show was starting.