Mexican Riviera Dive Review

[dtchem1]

We just returned from the Mexican Riviera cruise on the Carnival Spirit. Ports were Acapulco, Zihuatanajo and Manzanillo. We dove all three sites. First, this is not the time to dive here. Visibility was 10-30 feet due to plankton. Dive operators said that November is best and gets worse until March. Water was about 75F at depth, so a 3mm full suit was perfect. We did not use the ship's excursions for any of the dives. Acapulco, we iused Acapulco Scuba. Operation was good, safe and had decent rental equipment (we did not use any), boat was seaworthy, but not the nicest I've ever been on. Dive master was knowledable. Sea life was good: puffers, turtles, rays, assorted fish. They had a hose to rinse equipment. Zihuatanajo was the best of the three. We used Carlos Scuba, run by Thierry (pronounced Terry) who is a very friendly guy. He responded quickly to my emails to set up the dive and all went smoothly. The dive master was Matt, who was very knowledable and very concerned with safety. Dive shop is on the beach and nice. Good rental equipment. Our equipment was all rinsed and hung to dry at the end of the dive, while we had a free cervesa and ordered some snacks and more cervesa from the restaurant next door. Sea life was good- eagle rays, lots of puffers, lots of small rays, turtles, eels, and assorted fish-angels, sergent majors, etc. Manzanillo was ok. Visibility was the worst of the three for us. Had to take a taxi to the dive shop due to union rules of taking passengers from the dock. Susan and Carlos of Gomanzanillo were very nice and responded to emails to setup the dive. All went smooth. The sea life was not as good as some of the others, but the terrain was great. Lots of swim throughs and small caverns. Most of the same sea life as the others, but not as plentiful. The dive left off of a beach that has a few restaurants, but only one guy spoke english, so if you want lunch you have to know spanish or find Jose. I would like to try again in November, and I would definitely use Carlos Scuba again. If I can aswer any questions, post a reply.