For all our Bahía trips, we are working with a local dive company, Ricardo’s Diving Tours, to bring our guests the best possible experience as well as support the local ecotourism industry.
Read MoreWhy is he a darned grizzly bear? Because he chose to amble across the beach 150 yards away from the Nautilus Explorer in the middle of my morning briefing. Cheeezzzz, how am I supposed to do a briefing when all the guests are running for their cameras and binoculars?! Anchored up in beautiful and scenic Secret Bay today. I hesitate to publish the topographic name of this bay because (a) it is so beautiful (b) we have had really good luck with grizzly bears here (c) there is an amazing grotto of marble accessible up the stream (d) when the salmon return to this stream, it is a great place to snorkel with them and (e) we have a permit with the good graces of the U.S. Forest Service that allows our guests stroll, walk and hike through the rainforest here
Read MoreWe anchored so that we could swim to the dive site, and with no current and very little waves, we had an open deck for the day so guests were free to dive whenever they felt like. Between dives, a lot of guests chose to accompany Marco, our chief mate, on a tour of the shoreline to see the arches and pinnacles and whale watch. From the Nautilus we watched a young humpback whale leap multiple times out of the water followed by an adult humpback breaching creating some wonderful photographic opportunities.
Read MoreWe started Dive day 2 by checking in at the Navy base and then picking up three underwater photographers from the World Wildlife Federation who had been waiting for us at Socorro Island during the storm (unable to dive). From there we went to Cabo Pearce. Throughout all 3 dives at Cabo Pearce we could hear the humpback whales singing in the background. In between dives two and three several guests were out snorkeling when a humpback whale mom and calf happened along and checked out the snorkellers. The encounter was, of course, an incredible experience.
Read MoreToday luck was with a few of our guests who jumped in off the back of the boat, sans scuba, to snorkel with some dolphins that had been playing nearby, and were given the dive of a lifetime by some passing humpback whales that made one close pass. Swimming with a young humpback whale escorted by bottlenosed dolphins is definitely one for the logbook.
Read MoreWe dove both Punta Tosca and Cabo Pearce today with some really mixed experiences. One lucky group of snorkellers were approached by a humpback whale calf until Mum zoomed in (15ft away!) and dragged the calf away. We also had some great dolphin encounters, and about half the divers encountered a very playful giant manta ray.
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