The wind storm has past, the port is open, and the weather is beautiful so we booked a dive trip for today. There were 9 of us that went along with 2 dive masters and a boat captain. They took us 1 hr. 15 minutes North of La Paz to Los Islotes, a national park with a sea lion colony. There were several cute seal lion pups that would swim right up to you and if you held out your arm they would nibble on you. Some divers actually had little bite marks. Kevin had a sea lion pup bite on his arm several times. One of the other divers had a pup play tug-of-war with his head. The beautiful tropical fish would swim by and weren’t even bothered by us being there. It felt like we were swimming in a giant fish aquarium. It was a shallow 40ft. dive which allowed us to do a second dive.
The air temperature was 85F and the water was 77F so a wet suit was needed. The dive master led the way into a cave in the rock wall where sea lions were diving in the water above us. It was incredible experiencing the beauty of swimming with sea lions, their pups, and tropical fish. At one point a very large male sea lion (bull) glided by but didn’t even stop to take a look.
The second dive was a shipwreck. I didn’t go on this dive but Kevin and others said they swam in narrow passages through the ship and it was quite dark. Following other divers through the wreck, at one point Kevin was in a passage that was pitch black ahead – there were no more dive fins in front either – where to go? After several long seconds of hesitation, the dive master poked his head down from above. With a feeling of relief, Kevin exited the dark passage through the ceiling. They did see two sea turles and several species of tropical fish but the clarity of the water wasn’t as good as the first dive.
It had been over 30 years since I last dove and about 20 years for Kevin. We were surprised it was like riding a bike (once I got over the initial anxiety).
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