Trip Report, Revillagigedo. April 30, May 10, 17 and May 20, 2014

Roca Partida is left behind - waiting for next season

One more adventure
Revillagigedo’s 2013-2014 season is over.

So many experiences and unforgettable moments during these fantastic 7 months, more than 400 immersions in the blue and the full of life waters of Socorro, San Benedicto and Roca Partida.  No doubt that Revillagigedo is one of the world´s top dive destinations.

Rocio del Mar and her crew are navigating north through the Sea of Cortez, heading to Puerto Peñasco.  The vessel will be at the dock for her annual service and maintenance and be ready for her new adventure: Sea of Cortez -Northern Midriff Islands season.

Divers approaching Roca Partida in calm seas

Diving is not for everybody, even less will cross half the world on international flights, get into a boat and navigate to distant islands in the Pacific Ocean where only the truly adventurous souls are willing to go.


Dora and Lolo once had a dream.  To have a diving boat and explore remote places. Living an exciting life visiting those unique dive sites where only few people have been there before and where only few ones are willing to go.  The dream of true adventure. 

It has been like that: that is Rocio’s del Mar magic, were dreams come together. 

Owners, crew and guests all sharing dreams aboard Rocio del Mar, living true adventures in the Pacific Ocean, watching unique sunrises and sunsets, experiencing the solitude of the open ocean and diving with the most amazing animals.

It doesn’t matter age, gender, nationality or previous experience. We all are here to dive, to explore the submerged blue world of Revillagigedo, facing some times wind and strong currents but always with a smile and that spark in the eyes before jumping into the water. Looking to have close encounters with unique marine life: giant mantas, sharks, big schools of fishes, tunas, dolphins and of course humpback whales.

Roberto DM, during general briefing

Sun deck ready for steak dinner in Socorro

Food is always good ... thank you Poncho and Joshua

Our last three trips to Revillagigedo have been like that: pure magic, making dreams come true.  Fantastic guests from the United Sates, UK, México, Canada, France, Germany, Austria and Israel traveling lots of hours to be here with us.

Matt and Joane's wedding anniversary

Matt and Bryan's honey moon

Debbie's engagement during the trip

Rocio del Mar was the love boat: we celebrated with our guests Matt and Brian’s honey moon, Debbie and Matthiew’s engagement and Matthew and Joanne’s wedding anniversary.
Diving was fantastic: almost all dives with at least one manta playing with divers, but most of the times we had three, four, even six mantas with us. It was incredible how since the checkout dive mantas were around us and even during the safety stop they came along with us asking to please stay longer playing with them.

Emma's birthday cake

Piñata celebrating birthdays

Thanks Steve for this photo with Guarani DM

We had many encounters with curious and friendly dolphins talking to divers and literally dancing underwater in a big party of camera flashes, smiles and bubbles.

Roca Partida has been exceptional. The usual: huge schools of black jacks, big eye trevallies and cotton mouth jacks.  

Recently we have seen more activity and presence of the stars of the rock: Silvertip sharks schooling, Galapagos sharks racing with yellow fin tunas to catch their dinner, silkie sharks during the safety stops and always  around divers were schools of hammerheads making divers hearts jump with each close encounter. 

Great moments with Dolphins in Socorro (Steve)

It has been an exceptional season.
Our last dive of the season at Cabo Pearce in Socorro island a big whale shark came to say good bye to us waving his tale before he disappeared in the blue.

Hurricane Amanda made us leave Revillagigedo sooner than expected and we finished our last trip diving in Cerralvo island, Espiritu Santo island with sea lions colonies and our last day diving in Cabo Pulmo Marine Park with bull sharks, mobulas and a last sight of a humpback whale on the surface.

Julio and Ever always having fun

Christinne and Klaus during suface interval

Anne Marie from UK

We want to thank Mother Nature for gifting us with so many positive experiences and the opportunity of seeing true wild life. It gives hope. We all are part of it. We all are committed to protecting our oceans. 

But especially we want to thank all of our guests. With out you it wouldn’t be possible to make all of these dreams come true.
We have been very happy to share those dreams with all of you and thank you for sharing with us those special life moments: Honeymoons, marriage anniversaries, engagements and birthdays. Thank you for letting us be part of your life and dreams.

We will always be happy to see you again diving with us, you will always be part of our family and Rocio Del Mar magic.

… see you in our next adventure on the Sea of Cortez …to keep making dreams come true

Trip Report, Revillagigedo. March 17 and March 31, 2014

Celebrating life! 
Rocio del Mar just completed two amazing trips to Revillagigedo archipelago.

Definitely a wonderful way to be close to nature and true wild life.
Sharks, mantas, dolphins, whales all of them are free, are not trained, not baited and gifted divers with magic moments interacting with them, taking pictures and video, swimming together ... celebrating life in the place where life in this planet started: THE OCEAN.

We had a 13 day trip from March 17  to 29 with a fantastic group of divers from the UK. Some of them already dove with us in the Sea of Cortez, now visiting for the first time Revillagigedo.
The next regular 9 day trip from March 31 to April 9 we had an international group from Poland, Germany, Quebec, US and Canarias.

It was very nice to see old friends and passengers aboard again, diving with us after a couple of years (some of them visiting for the 3rd time Revillagigedo) and some others doing their second trip in this same season!!. 

We really want to thank you all for choosing Rocio del Mar and to allowing us to be part of your life experiences, celebrating birthdays, marriage anniversaries and more. 

In the last two weeks the mantas at San Benedicto Island were unusually friendly. Divers know that the mantas at the Boiler dive site are famous for being friendly, but honestly these past weeks they have been closer to divers than ever, hovering on top of the bubbles just a few centimeters above divers heads, swimming with all of us for 4 hours in 4 fantastic dives.

When we asked our passengers what they wanted to see, most of them answered "humpback whales". Everybody knows winter is good for humpback whales in this area of the pacific ocean. Whales swim long distances from the arctic to give birth and mate in Revillagigedo and in other areas of the mexican coast line. We see them all the time on the surface breaching, hitting their tales and pectoral fins constantly, swimming peacefully with their calf around the boat. Sometimes they are shy and very protective with their babies, swimming away from divers, but during these past weeks, since the babies are getting bigger their whale mothers are more confident and we have been seeing them underwater. Snorkeling and swimming together having more and more encounters on scuba. All groups saw, at least once, whales underwater. Some snorkeling, some on scuba, but everybody was really happy. They came to see whales and the whales were spectacular! Socorro island could be named "whale island".

Calf  breaching at Socorro

Big humpback whale near Punta Tosca in Socorro

Kasia from Poland on whale watching and snorkeling afternoon

Roca Partida, as usual, was full of surprises. It's impossible to get tired of diving around this small rock in the middle of the ocean. So much life around it all the time.
One dive we saw six of the seven shark species that can be found in Revillagigedo. Isn't it amazing?
Big schools of hammerhead sharks constantly around the rock, this time shallower than previous weeks, getting really close to divers.
Big Galapagos sharks swimming slow, moving silently among divers. Groups of 4 fat silver tip sharks came and went again and again. White tip sharks resting in the terraces and swimming around. Silkie sharks chasing a school of barriletes (Euthynnus lineatus) and suddenly coming from nowhere a friendly whale shark. He was happy around the rock, we saw it on at least three dives and he posed for pictures and video. It was amazing!

Spending vacations aboard Rocío del Mar is more than excellent dives and marine life encounters.
We also had great time together with, fantastic food and celebrations.
Jim had his 700th dive at the Boiler in San Benedicto Island.
Stuart celebrated his birthday with us during our traditional mexican carne asada night with delicious tacos, spicy sauce and nopales (cactus salad).
Iwona and Jerzy were celebrating their 32nd wedding anniversary.

Mexican taco dinner with UK divers

 Alicja and Janusz together have 104 years of diving and were visiting one more time this amazing dive destination: Revillagigedo.

Alicja (Ala) with 50 years of diving and Janusz 54 years of diving shared with divers and Rocio del Mar crew their experiences, their passion for diving and photography. They are the polish national champions of underwater navigation and shared with us some of their diving history and images. We learned from them that it is always a good time to dive, to travel, to get fascinated with nature's wonders and it is never too late to learn something new, to have a new experience in life, or to meet new people and make new friends from around the world.

Ralph and Jurgen from Germany

To all of our passengers, THANK YOU! It was a pleasure to have you all aboard Rocio del Mar, we hope to see you again after some years and to share great dives together. We hope to see you again soon.

Mario and Yves from Quebec

Mexican, Polish, German and Diving flags

Happy faces after the last dive in San Benedicto

Steve wanted to stay with us driving a "panga"

Little rest between dives

Delicious rib-eye on the grill

Gilberto briefing divers

Next some pictures courtesy of Alicja and Januz:

Ala and Januz diving in San Benedicto

Alicja - 50 years of diving

Januz - 54 years diving

Alicja and Januz, current national underwater navigation champions

Trip Report, Rocío del Mar. Revillagigedo. February 25 and March 07

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven ... we lost count of how many times a humpback whale was breaching right before us and then a few minutes later another and another .... it was amazing!

The past two weeks Rocio del Mar completed two trips to Revillagigedo Islands. Mantas (Manta birostris) have been very active around divers: great memories, great pictures, great dives, but the best, many smiles ... that's our best reward.

We were very happy to receive passengers from China, Singapore, Italy, Brasil, México, Canada and different cities from the United States. Everybody had an extraordinary time.

As usual we first visited San Benedicto Island. The 5 star dive sites "El Boiler" and "El Cañon" gave us incredible moments: In a single day two tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)sightings, humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) encounters on scuba, mantas (Manta birostris) on almost all dives. But please read carefully: these mantas were enjoying being close to divers, they really wanted to hang out with us and their were  4, 5 or 6 of them in a single dive for more than 50 minutes "flying" above us. It was magical!

Winnie with her nemo lucky hood.
She saw a humpback whale on scuba

These trips were not only good for diving. Our passengers really felt at home and shared good moments with Poncho (our chef) cooking different dishes from Singapore and China.

Our next stop was in Socorro Island. We enjoyed mantas, silver tip sharks, hammer head sharks diving at Cabo Pearce. Mantas were all over the dive site: at 15 feet, at 70 feet, we even saw one asking us to play at 90 feet.

Our final stop was at Roca Partida. This tiny rock in the middle of the Pacific is a giant dive site. It is for sure one of the best dive sites in the world. It is difficult to believe the variety of species and high density of their population around this rock. 

But the best is that in a single day of diving it is possible to see at least 5 of the 7 species of sharks that inhabit the Revillagigedo Archipelago.

Hammerhead sharks were at peace swimming around 90 feet and we had the chance to see big schools of them around the island several times.

Besides great dives we also had great weather. 

We spent two days at Roca Partida on each trip and enjoyed fabulous food on the top deck celebrating mexican taco nights and sharing with our guests one mexican tradition: the Piñata. It is common in México to celebrate birthday parties with a piñata full of candies and a delicious cake.

We believe everybody had a great time and filled their expectations of marine life encounters. Weather was great and we expect to keep having these great conditions during the following trips.

We want to thank all our passengers who dove with us and shared all these great memories. It is our purpose to make you all feel like home during your 9 days visiting these great islands full of life and magic.

We hope to see you back again aboard the Rocio del Mar.