I started reaching out to different dive shops about going diving. I told them I was interested in Los Arcos. (I had seen a lot of pictures and videos of people snorkeling and diving here and almost every picture I found had TONS of fish...AND....DIFFERENT KINDS OF FISH. Fish we've never seen before while in the Caribbean. Yep, that's what I wanted to do. However, I did notice in most pictures and video's, it could be very cloudy or have green water. I was really unsure about deciding to dive there or not. I knew it wasn't going to be the same experience we've always had in the crystal clear Caribbean. I was really torn on this decision.

I did show the kids the Hidden Beach and they were super excited about it. However, after I told them that this would be the only option to scuba dive at, they immediately picked diving instead. Karl said he really wanted to try out diving. Now I ask Karl multiple times before the cruise..."You do know how to swim right?" I would get the same reply each time "Yeeeeaaa (said in a very long drawn out way) I know how to swim...." and it always sounded like there was more to it. Of course he would add that he's never swam in the ocean. Honestly it had me worried. I was responsible for this 6'2" human "child" and I didn't want anything to happen to him. But he insisted on wanting to dive. Alrighty then! We are GOING DIVING!  (***so if anyone ever decides to go to the Hidden Beach, I want to hear your story since we really wanted to do this and wasn't going to get a chance! I WILL BE BACK!***)

We spent many months of "coaching" him with the way the ocean is, all the hand signals used and what they meant, the equipment, how it felt to breathe under water, the things you might see...all the nitty gritty. He was super excited, but I think also super nervous...especially when I told him "If you are a part of this family and plan on vacationing with us, you must love the water and must learn to dive" LOL

I ended up booking with a place called ECO Explorer Vallarta. We would have to take an Uber from the port to their location, which they said was about 8 minutes away.

They were aware of our "dive status" but also knew that we had someone with us that had never done a Discover Scuba before. Since I knew we were going to Los Arcos, I had to ask...where do we do the class and the skills? They informed me that the class would be conducted on the boat ride to the dive spot...ok, we've done that before. Then once we get to the dive spot, we would go in the water and do the skills. Ok, this is where things get weird and anxiety gets high. They said that it would be in about 15 feet of water. Ok, I'm kinda worried for Karl now. Karl is calculating in his head...ok, I'm over 6 feet tall and down 15 feet would be a little over twice my height...I should be ok. Yea, you THINK you'll be ok but this is different. The cost of the dive was $149/pp.

 As I put my phone off airplane mode, I immediately get a message from Eco Explorer

"Hola Kim, we are waiting for you to do our dive tour. We are departing soon"

WAIT WHAT??? I told them the ship was just now pulling into port and that ship time is an hour behind PV. We haven't even docked yet! This is our current situation...

Then they tell me "We have a client here waiting for already 30 minutes. We will ask him if he is willing to wait. Please ask someone what time you will be getting off the cruise. Please let me know about what time you can be here."

I told them our ship is due to dock at 9 and docking now. We would be off as soon as they allow. They are docking a little early but still had to get clearance before we could get off the ship.

She informs me "We had your booking to be departing at 9:00 but is already 9:32. We will wait 30 more minutes. Maybe you can talk to the crew and let them know you have a tour right now."

Are you serious? Do you not know how cruise ships work? Even if we were on PV time we can't dock at 9am AND be there to departing for a dive at 9am! Seriously?? I'm sure there's plenty of people that have tours. Do you think they're going to let our special group off the ship before they have clearance or before anyone is allowed to get off just because we have an excursion now? How ridiculous is this sounding right now???? I told her you know we are on a cruise ship and I told you the times we were in port.  I can't do anything about what time they let us off the ship or dock. Of course at this point I'm not only shocked but I'm pretty sure my face was turning red and the anxiety was kicking in full force. I just had to throw in "Have you never had cruise ship passengers dive with you before??" I also told them that if they had someone there waiting for the dive then obviously it had to be someone staying there in PV and I wasn't quite sure why they would have them on the dive with us when there's time involved in docking and getting a ride there.

She continued to ask "How long for you to get off, just an idea so we know what to do"

I gave her updates...we are docked...waiting on port authority to give clearance...we are standing in line to get off (8:47am)...getting off now (8:51am)...walking to taxi (8:52am)...getting in taxi (8:53am)...in taxi and pulling out of port(8:55am)....(all with no response back from her during this process) My anxiety is on high and I'm getting pissed that they are even doing this to us. Think about it $600 paid for something they might decide to leave without us on.

My last text to them HERE!! (8:59am). Now let's talk taxi's....I had originally decided to take the Uber because we all know it's cheaper. But there was no time for that. It was a 4 MINUTE RIDE...IT COST US $25!!!! Such a total rip off. They knew they had us. They could probably tell by the frantic look on my face and the rushing we were doing to get a taxi that we were desperate. I promise you, next time I will tell any dive shop that we want a noon dive or something. I won't be put in this situation again!

We arrived to the dive shop and they immediately had us filling out the questionnaires for the dive. Then it was time to try on our gear. 

Thank goodness they had wet suits for us. My wetsuit was a little uncomfortable so they gave me a different size. I have put on an extra 10 pounds since our last cruise, I believe because I switched jobs where I used to walk 6-7 miles and work 12 hour days to one that I do hardly any walking other than to and from my car and into facilities. Then we won't mention the random cheating we do either. 😉 

I was given another wet suit. I was concerned because there was a huge tear in the neckline. I ask about this and said water was going to get in it. He said it would be fine...fine for who was my question.

The other guy that was diving with us came in the door. Honestly, he didn't look like he was worried about us being "late" or going out later. I think it was more the dive shop that was rushing.

Once we were geared up, we grabbed our things and headed down to the dock right in front of the shop and were on the boat pulling out by 9:16am.

Ok, I'm happy now and more relaxed. They had us put on life jackets and said they were required during the boat ride.

I didn't see any seals on the docks or in the marina. Isn't it weird how PV and Cabo are so close together but yet so different?

I spotted a Whale Tail...and it wasn't a Humpback either...

Thirty minutes into the boat ride (9:44am) the boat stops. The captain is looking around. 

Wait, what's going on? Then we spotted this:

WHALES!! It was a momma and her baby. They weren't putting on a show. They were relaxing and moving really slow. Our dive guide told us that yesterday there was a pod of 8 Orca's in the area and they were attacking the mother and baby. She was fiercely protecting the calf. He said it was lucky to be alive. You could see the battle scars every time they surfaced. He said they were relaxing and recuperating until they would go on their long swim out of the area.  You see all the white chunks out of their back and teeth marks?

How cool would it have been to see the Orca's the day before? I guess another bucket list item to be added...although I'm mad at them for doing this to the mother and baby.

Here's a video of them just floating at the surface and relaxing. You can really see the bite marks around marker 1:01. So sad. 

We stayed watching the mother and calf for 15 minutes and then headed back out. We were in the Los Arcos area by 10:11am. I could see it in the distance. 

Then the boat stopped and we were told to gear up...we're going in! Um...ok. I thought we would be closer to the arch. I was super confused but whatever. 

We were geared up with our equipment. The hubby had the GoPro, Sakari had the "good-newer" camera and I had the exact same camera that was older. 

We were going to get to go off the boat by flipping backwards. We have only done this once before (I think) and I absolutely loved it! I was excited when they said we were doing it this time. 

Up first was the hubby:

Then Sakari:

So once the hubby and Sakari got into the water, I was still on the boat preparing to do my acrobatic dismount from the boat when the instructor goes LOOK DOWN!! I guess there was a large group of stingrays going by. Of course I missed it and Sakari looked down just in time to catch them going by. Now...since she had the camera (which I highly recommend NOT taking video's with it because video on the Olympus Tough is NOT great and very grainy, especially if you are far away) but...it's all that we got of them (included in my video). 

Here's a screen shot from the video of the stingrays going by.

Then it was my turn. Woo hoo...kerplunk. OH MY GOSH!! Did I just flip into Alaskan waters? It was FREEZING COLD! The guy that told me "It'll be ok" that I had a rip in my wet suit was totally wrong and it was not ok. That water was so cold. I wasn't really sure how this would work out...especially once we went deeper down. 

We were told to go over and hold onto a rope going down in the water. I immediately looked down and was surrounded by PUFFER FISH! Oh my gosh just look at all of them! They were everywhere...just hanging out and starring at us. They were so cute and curious. They would get real close and just stare. They were not scared at all.

That water though...it was so cloudy and a reminder that we were NOT in the Caribbean. I was beginning to wonder what exactly we would be able to see. I'm pretty sure I could see my breath underwater...if that would have been possible.

 Sakari also noticed the pufferfish surrounding us and was excited.

As we held onto the rope, Karl went off the boat. I was quite a ways away from there and had no idea what was going on. The hubby was over by him. He looked like he was struggling. He was just bobbing up and down. The hubby seen the problem...he had lost one of his fins. The instructor swam over to where they were and the hubby told him what had happened and pointed down at the fin. 

The instructor had them both go over to the line to hold on while he went down and retrieved Karl's fin.

Once everything was back to normal he told us to deflate our bcd and head down under the water. I always use the rope to go down. There's just something about the security of it until I get to the bottom. The hubby and Sakari just go down...show offs!

I was already down and exploring the bottom...then my camera stops working immediately. It turns off. I can't get it to turn back on. I'm trying everything. I knew that the battery was fully charged. What is going on?? It was useless. It just wasn't going to work. UGH!

Sakari was keeping her eye on Karl coming down.

We make it to the bottom and start exploring. Wait, I didn't even notice that we weren't doing any of the skills until actually AFTER the dive. I don't even know WHERE we would have done them. It was a rocky bottom. It definitely wasn't a place to try to sit on your knees and do skills. I was completely confused about this.

Immediately after getting down to the bottom we spotted a Tiger Snake Eel:

I spotted a different one right after that about 5' away but Sakari had moved on with the camera so she didn't get a picture. So here's a picture I pulled off the video. It was a Jewel Moray Eel.

Sakari was busy with the extra large big fish in the sea at the moment...Karl

The dive instructor had both Karl and the other diver and was holding onto both of them. Karl looked as if he was just floating and not knowing what to do. Just relax and kick your feet Karl. They are extra big feet, you should zoom right along!

A Juvenile Queen Angelfish.

We also managed to see another new fish that we've never seen before: A King Angelfish!

A couple of Yellow Goatfish hanging out under the rock.

This must be one of the moma's to all those Mexican Hogfish we kept seeing. We did end up seeing several of them. 

I did want to mention that it was really odd, first of all, to see SO MANY Porcupine Puffer Fish. It was also odd that many of them were EXTREMELY L-O-N-G and skinny. Usually they are big and fat but there were so many of them that were long and skinny. Are they not eating good? Dieting? Hibernating because they think it is winter in these freezing cold temps? I'm not sure.

I did manage to get my camera to come back on but only for a split second and only long enough to take one picture. But I was excited about this picture. It was a starfish and one that we've never seen before. It had long tubular arms with a lavender to brownish base color and covered in yellow spots that left a clear line down the center of each arm. They are called Pharia Pyramidata...or The Yellow Spotted Star. They are found in the Tropical Eastern Pacific along the California Baja Sur. You won't find these in the Caribbean.

Here's a map for reference:

It was so pretty and I was glad we were able to see something different on this dive than we normally do. 

I went over to the hubby and handed it to him and gave him the signal to give me the GoPro. He had no idea what was going on because I've been letting him take the video's every time we dive for quite some time now. I guess he thought I wanted to change things up. He would quickly learn, I pulled a fast one on him and he got the faulty equipment. 😄 I guess that meant he could just enjoy the dive and not have to worry about being in charge of anything.

At some point the instructor swam over to me with Karl and took my hand and gave me Karl's hand. He wanted me to hang onto Karl as he went to ??? maybe get the other newbie that was with us?? I'm not sure. What I was sure of is that Karl was in full panic mode. His eyes were as wide as they possibly could go and he was shaking like crazy. I gave him a signal to look at me in the eyes and gave him a calm down motion and to breathe slowly (while I simulated taking deep breaths in and out as I moved my head up for a breath and down to release).  I felt so bad for him. I knew he was so scared...and the shaking was a big portion of that...the coldness was the other. Sakari was near by taking pictures and as she got close enough, I grabbed her and grabbed her hand to hold onto Karl. I don't think she even realized what was going on with him until that moment. 

The instructor came back and retrieved Karl and held onto him. He could see the panic in his eyes. He motioned for us to come and we started swimming. 

At some point a few minutes later, I think he knew that this just wasn't going to work out for Karl and he needed to take him back to the boat. He handed Sakari the dive line with  buoy on it and told us to stay put. She later said she felt so important to be the one holding our dive line notifying anyone above that we were down there. It was like she was a dive instructor now. 

He took Karl back to the boat and we waited around for him to return then off we went.

Now this is the first time I have ever seen a fish like this too. I wasn't quite sure what it was. I resembled some type of Damsel but it was HUGE and had really long fins. I haven't seen anything like this before. We would later see tons of these unique looking fish. They were everywhere down there.

I would later find out they are called the Giant Damselfish and with good cause. They get over a foot long! That's big for a damselfish. Anyone who has swam with the damselfish in the Caribbean will notice how territorial they are and will chase you away from their home/rocks. I did NOT want to be chased by these monster damsels is all I can say.

They are also located along the Baja California Sur and down.

We would see tons of tiny little fish everywhere. They were black with yellow stripes and a pinkish color to their fins and tail end. I would later find out they were juvenile Cortez Rainbow Wrasse's, which are beautiful fish!

Hey this puffer photo bombed the picture of baby wrasse's.

For those wondering what the Cortez Rainbow Wrasse looks like (I don't see any pictures Sakari took of one) I'll show you a picture from a fish identifier book that the captain of the boat handed me after our dive. They are really pretty and with as many as we seen that day, I'm shocked there's not an adult around them. 

Juvenile Mexican Hogfish:

Again, when they are adult, they look pretty and totally different. They have the huge bump on their head and usually big teeth that can be seen. They even come in a bright red color. Notice the pucker lips above?

Another unique looking starfish: Phataria unifascialis in a tan/whitish color. These are sometimes blue.

Then we would come across a school of fish:

Another puffer...just because they were everywhere!! You can't begin to imagine just how many there were here.

A large school of Razor Surgeonfish:

Now it's hard to tell in those pictures above, but Razor Surgeonfish are a new experience for us as well. They are actually light in color with a yellow tail. They have moderately large teeth that are close together with flattened serrated edges. The dorsal fin has 7-8 spines and the anal fin contains 3 spines. There are 3 bony plates along each side of the back of the fish, close to the tail, that stick out. They have black spots and a dark bar through the eye and through the shoulder. They can get close to 2' in length.

We started to head back up to the surface and I was kinda glad at this point. I was so cold and just wanted to wrap up in a towel and sit in the sun.

It wasn't the dive experience I had hoped for and we definitely didn't see the same things that I've seen in other videos. However, it was a new experience for us and tons of new fish and starfish that we've never seen in the past. That made the dive worth it I guess. $149/pp worth it...ehhh, I doubt that. But those puffer fish!!! Awww...so cute!

The time stamps from the beginning of the dive until the end show it was 30 minutes. However, it would be even longer if you add on from the time we went under and down and coming back up.

Over there is where I expected to be...

We found Karl sitting on the boat and embarrassed about not being able to go far in the dive. We know he made it to at least 22' according to the camera and picture we had taken of him being led along by the dive instructor. He was at least proud of that moment. 

He did inform us that he had been just hanging out on the boat while we were diving...and yep, you guessed it...his head was hanging over the side of the boat several times getting sick. 

We let him know it was not entirely his fault he wasn't able to do the dive. It wasn't really a good place for a beginner. The water was just too cold. The water was just too cloudy and greenish...visibility sucked unless you were right up on something. And going off a boat into deep water for your first time probably wasn't the best choice. We assured him that if he would have went from a beach, in the Caribbean, in warm water that was crystal clear and got a chance to get used to the breathing before just taking off (not to mention doing the skills) he probably would have done much better and not panicked. He said "Oh, I'm definitely going to try it again for sure! I will be able to do this!" I was glad it didn't scare him so bad that he would never try again. 

So here's a very short video of our dive. Remember, the water clarity was terrible and there was so much stuff floating in the water. Also, it was VERY green. I've tried to color correct a bunch of it so it's not so hideous to watch, but it still isn't the great work I've done before...just saying. Pats self on back for making it even visible You're gonna witness Karl's first flip off a boat into icy cold water, losing his fin and being led by the instructor. Ha ha...good times. 

A little information about Los Arcos: It is located 7 miles south of Puerto Vallarta in a Marine National Park. When we went diving, we were within the park, just not at the arch. It's the perfect depth for beginning divers and ranges from 10-90 feet. "El Acuario" (which is over by the arches) is a shallow site of 30-40 feet. It's a great place to see a variety of fish and especially schools of Angelfish, Pufferfish, Butterfly fish, Parrotfish, seahorses (wait...where were the seahorses???), Trumpetfish, Sea Turtles and large Manta Rays are usually spotted there.

I just wanted to give you a few "stats" on the air and water this day. 

The air temps were 86° today, so yes, it did get nice out for us and the nicest it had been the entire cruise.

The water would be freezing cold, then you'd hit a warm area, then back to cold again. 

According to the camera's, the deepest we went in this area was only 23'. The coldest was 63°  and the warmest area was 72.1°

Now as we sat on the boat and told Karl about the fish we seen down there I noticed our instructor was removing our tanks we used and putting new tanks on. Um...what are we doing? He said "We're going to switch out the tanks for your second dive".   Second dive? I had no idea we were doing a second dive. "Where are we going for the second dive?"

He points "over there"

Wait, we're actually going over there? That's where I wanted to dive in the first place! I was getting super excited now. I was hoping to see the things I've seen in pictures and video's. 

Sakari had already peeled off her wetsuit and was comforting Karl. The instructor told her to gear up. She looked at Karl and looked at me and said "I don't think I'm going to go."  I kept telling her "This is the place you DO want to go...so I've heard."  She just kept looking at Karl and I know she felt sorry for him. She's very caring and does not like people to feel left out and she did not want for him to feel left behind. She just kept saying no, she was staying behind. Well, I can't force her so...I guess it's just me and the hubs.

Check out our other dive...you'll love it and we loved the experience!