Today was a light day of diving at Cabo Pearce, there were only a handful of mantas and a small school of hammerheads. You get spoilt here seeing mega sea creatures in hordes every day and at times you do not know where to look so as not to be disappointed that a fabulous sea animal has slipped away from your eyes.
Honestly, I do not mind an off day with little action as it allows me to focus away from large perspectives and concentrate on small things on the reef.
For example, I saw a golden phase guineafowl puffer, a juvenile spotted boxfish, a tiny decorator crab (probably a neck crab?), and a beautiful pelagic stingray gliding over the reef. We also had the good luck to see a huge school of perhaps 250 or 300 rainbow chubs which zipped past us as we were ascending for our safety stop!
A “sleepy day” is a welcome change from the daily giant mantas and Hammerheads as it forces us to take time to appreciate all the beauty and diversity that Revillagigedo has to offer!
Encounter with the Giant Mantas
This week I have discovered that you can get very close to a black manta if you can hover motionless. They do come super close to you in such cases. It is amazing to watch how these massive animals know exactly where their bodies are, and adjust the position of their wings accordingly. I have seen them curiously glide past motionless photographers and at the last minute, flick up a wing tip to just barely avoid hitting the camera.
So now my philosophy is to do my best to perfectly control my buoyancy and allow the manta to come as close to me as they choose, knowing that they are in perfect control of exactly where they are in the water. On one occasion, I hovered as motionless as possible as this beautiful black manta approached me from afar, then glided less than one meter above me, completely blocking out the surface of the ocean.
I have written before about the incredible awe that I feel, being so close to these magnificent animals, but words truly cannot express how humble and lucky one is to be graced by their presence.
Heading back to Cabo – A Few Reminiscences
Another fabulous week of diving at Revillagigedo ends as we head back to Cabo.
One thing that I liked most about diving off Revillagigedo is seeing how much all the guests love this place. I have always enjoyed the bonhomie among the guests after a dive is over and we are not in the water. Seeing the joy on the faces around me as we bounce along on the skiff on the way back to the Explorer, hearing the excitement in their voices as they relive key moments, looking at all the amazing photos in the salon at the end of the day – all these are indelible moments that keep the dive alive and fresh in our memories.
A few minutes back, one of the guests (an instructor with more than 800 dives) took me aside and thanked me (as if I had much at all to do with it!) for the ¨best dive of her life! It was a dive on Canyon, where we were so lucky as to swim for about 5 minutes with a very large school of perhaps 50 (probably more but it is always hard to tell!) hammerheads.
Diving off Revillagigedo has been a dream for many years – a dream that has finally come true. To know that I was a part (however small!) of the best dive of someone´s life fills me with a profound sense of gratitude for all the twists and turns in my life that had played out precisely to put me right here, right now, in a position to help make someone else´s dreams come true.
After finding hammerheads in El Canyon, connecting with mantas in Cabo Pearce, looking for tiger sharks in Punta Tosca, and almost kissing silver tips and Galapagos sharks in Roca Partida, we are more than super happy! The food has been delicious and the crew friendly, professional, and hard-working! And I was super lucky to end up in a cabin with the funniest woman in the world! Thank you for this second – and again – amazing trip to Revillagigedo.
