Cabo Pulmo is considered the best dive site in the Los Cabos area. We were keen to dive Cabo Pulmo!  Read on for a review of a day of diving in Cabo Pulmo.

Getting there

Diving Pulmo is a full day activity. It is quite a drive from Cabo San Lucas so it was with an early start. We arrived at the Ninja divers dive shop in Cabos San Luca at 6:30 am to fill in the usual diving paperwork. We met Tono our dive guide for the day.

He drove us to Cabo Pulmo. It is a beautiful drive through the desert. The advantage of leaving so early is that we got to witness the sunrise.

The drive took about 2 hours but went fast as our guide Tono shared a lot of stories about the local region and Cabo Pulmo.

TIP: The car will stop on the way at a shop where you can buy breakfast or use the restroom

On the way back, we stopped by the Santiago oasis which is a 10 minutes detour from the main road. It is a scenic site in the middle of the desert with water and a lot of green trees

Cabo Pulmo village conservation effort

Cabo Pulmo is a tiny village in the middle of the desert. About 150 people live there, and no electricity.

It is a simple place, but it has a good vibe and a beautiful beach.

The Pulmo marine reserve is also an excellent story for conservation, and by diving there, you support the conservation efforts.

It used to be a fishing village. The inhabitants used to catch groupers and sharks. They realized they had to go further and further to get fishes as the fish stocks were being plundered

Some people then came diving and understood that there were not many fishes left but some beautiful corals. So the fisherman decided to stop fishing there and created the Pulmo national park.

Now it is a Unesco heritage site that includes the sea area and wetlands. Since then, the number and size of the fishes exploded.

There are many schools of Groupers, snappers, and Jacks. Predators are starting to come back. Sharks now stay in the park year-round. You might be lucky and encounter Bull sharks, white tips reef sharks, Lemon sharks or even hammerheads.

It is the oldest living coral reef in the northern hemisphere.

The diving area is 16 miles by 5 miles, and there are a lot of rules to follow.

Maximum dive time is 50 minutes, making for short dive as you need to start coming up after 45 minutes. You must stay at least 2 meters above the bottom. The use of gloves and reef hooks is not allowed.

Diving the Los Morros Site

Los Morros is the most colourful dive site in the park.

There is a sandy bottom at 10 meters. The rock formation starts and goes down to 18 meters. There are many different corals on the rocks. The rocks formation create many hiding places for fishes and underwater creatures

The most impressive part of this dive was the big schools of fishes swimming around us.

Schools of jacks, groupers, and other fishes were going in a circle around the dive site. Visibility was not good when we went, but it was still a nice dive.

What is amazing when diving Pulmo is that the fishes don’t seem to be afraid of divers. They will just hang out very close to you.

Diving the Barco Hundiro El Vencedor site

Barco Hundiro El Vencedor is probably the most popular site in Cabos.

It is a wreck at about 15 meters deep. There are lots of boat remains and nets, creating habitats for fishes and other marine creatures.

We saw a few nudibranchs, octopuses and eels.

About 10 minutes into the dive. we witnessed large pelagic hunting the schools of fishes. What a magnificent show that was. This dive site was also full of schools of fishes.

The main attraction here are the bulls sharks that are commonly seen. We were unfortunately not lucky enough to see them.

After the dives, we stopped for lunch at `Tacos and Beers` which seems to be the place to be in Cabo Pulmo. The tacos were delicious.

What is the best season to dive Cabo Pulmo?

We dived Cabo Pulmo in August, which was not a great choice because the visibility was poor. Water temperature was around 24 degrees, so a five millimeters wetsuit is probably the best.

September to November has the best visibility from15 to 30 meters and is considered the high season to dive in Pulmo. It is better to book in advance during that time.

The best time to see sharks is from March until May.

Tip: in high season go early in the week.

There is a maximum number of people allowed on the most popular sites. Once they reached the weekly quota, then the dive site is closed. So you have fewer chances of diving the good sites if you go on Friday or Saturday

Who to dive with in Cabo Pulmo?

I dove with Dive Ninja expedition, a dive company based in Cabo San Luca. Besides the regular beginners’ classes and dive, they also organize expedition types dive.

They do a lot of work to improve marine protection and create protected areas in the region.

They were very friendly and professional; therefore I highly recommend them if you want to dive in Cabos.

I didn’t bring my equipment for this trip so had to rent the dive shop equipment. It was all good quality. The BCD they gave me even had integrated pockets.

Tip: The fins were without booties so better to bring socks if you are prone to get Blisters.

 

Conclusion

Cabo Pulmo is an excellent diving destination with an incredible amount of fish. It is worth the day trip from Cabos, and I wish to go back there from September to November to enjoy it while the visibility is better

For more information and booking, contact Dive Ninja Expeditions  

For more day trips in Cabo San Luca, check out my review of diving and snorkeling at the arch and the Shark dive snorkeling trip