Thursday, December 5, 2013

Trip Report, Rocío del Mar. Revillagigedo. Nov 22 to Dec 1, 2013

Rocio del Mar is back to Revillagigedo!!! 

Fantastic weather, good visibility ,79 F degree water temperature and lots of pelagic life to see!!

Happy to be back to Revillagigedo ... new season 2013-2014
This trip we enjoyed diving with a very nice group. Divers and friends coming from different parts of the world, different jobs, different ages, but all of us meeting with one single objective: our passion for the ocean, our wish to see giant mantas, sharks, and take with us life time memories and lots of pictures!


Danny, Kelly, Angelo, Phil, Brandon, Patrick and Holly all from the US were diving together with Guarani. Lanny, Peter L, and Peter R, from Netherlands, Baptiste, Time from the US and Alex and Marc from Barcelona were diving in group B with Gil. And Roberto, our new dive master dove with Elliot, John, Bill, Ruth, Cindy, Patrick and Brooke.

Nice crossing to Revillagigedo
Dive teams

Crossing was smooth and we had wonderful weather. Poncho cooked fantastic food and vegetarian passengers on board were very happy with the different choices Poncho had for them. Actually some of the meet eaters changed to vegetarian choice during the trip! Great job Poncho!!

Gear ready to dive: 6.45 a.m.

Finally after about 26 hours we arrived to San Benedicto Island, one checkout dive with turtles, white tip sharks (Triaenodon obesus) and giant lobsters at "Las Cuevitas" and we moved to "El Boiler" to dive with 3 fantastic and friendly Giant Mantas (Manta Birostris)


Friendly mantas at El Boiler, San Benedicto, Revillagigedo

Storm near Socorro Island, Revillagigedo
Our captain Lolo advised for some wind and rain the next days so we moved to Socorro during the night. "Cabo Pearce" was incredible. Mantas coming on each dive, small groups of hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini), silver tip sharks (Carcharhinus albimarginatus), octopus, lobsters, and more! The following day we moved to Punta Tosca, it had less activity but still some divers saw dolphins, mantas and more sharks!

Divers approaching to Punta Tosca, Socorro Island.


Kelly getting close to Galapagos sharks
Third day of diving we arrived to Roca Partida. Slow first dives, but with the sun shinning we started to see huge schools of hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini), big Galapagos sharks (Carcharhinus galapagensis), tunas, green jacks hunting small sandia´s fishes. It was amazing!!
But the best was still to come ....

Good dives! Hammerheads!
We spent the night at Roca Partida and it couldn't be better. The ocean was like a pool. Not wind at all, and silky sharks (Carcharhinus falciformis) came close to the boat to eat dinner :-)

Silky sharks approaching the boat

John getting ready with all his nice "toys"
Danny picking on Phil ... all time! :-)
Second day at Roca Partida one shark was missing to see and he didn't want to make us wait longer: a mid size whale shark (Rhincodon typus) was swimming slowly to allow divers to take lots of pictures and video. It was great!! Was the best of the day.


This is a happy face after seeing a whale shark!


Rocio del Mar offered a special dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving day with our passengers. We all had a great time and enjoyed fantastic dinner.

Our last diving day was at San Benedicto and we head back to San José del Cabo. 







A lot of feelings at the same time when we had to say good bye to Revillagigedo

It was a great trip. Great divers, great people, lots of great moments and memories. Rocio del Mar crew was very happy to have you all on board and we expect to see you all soon with us again.

THANK YOU ALL FOR SUCH A GREAT TRIP


Roberto, our new dive master

Happy Divers!

Beautiful smile ... thanks for sharing these days with us