Los Islotos

 

los Islotos is the most popular dive site in La Paz due to the huge population of friendly sea lions. They are just like in the Galapagos, espeicailly the babies; they would come up and nip at our fingers.

 

There was a canyon where they were putting on a show for us, spinning and dive bombing.

 

Surgeonfish.

 

After I learned how to spot the tiny Jawfish, they quickly became one of my favorites, peeking out of their holes in the sand.

 

Scorpionfish.

 

We had lunch on this beach a couple times. They always prepared a special dish for the vegetarian: chile relleno, quesedilla...

Fang Ming

 

My first wreck dive! They found an old Chinese ship illegally transporting people from Central America, and decided to make it an artificial reef.

 

Now, it sits at the bottom of the sea, 100 feet deep.

 

 

 

We discovered a gigantic sea turtle that was hanging out at the bow.

 

Apparantly he didn't want to hang out with a bunch of divers, hovering around, taking his photograph.

El Canyonero

 

Although this ship was also purposely sunk, it fell on its side, making it more of a challenge and more fun to dive.

 

It lies 70 feet down.

 

 

There were masses of plankton that day, and it was especially think around the ship.

 

It's a crab.

 

La Reina

 

The dive site was this tiny island covered with lounging sea lions.

 

We could hear them barking even underwater.

 

They're so graceful.

 

Swanee Reef

 

There are only a few reef dive sites in La Paz. Swanee is fun because of all the huge schools of fish.

 

Parrotfish.

 

 

We got to check out coral for a change.

 

At one point, a couple cormorants torpedoed down into the water, sending all the fish into a panic. They all appeared to be thinking, "not me!"

 

Porcupine fish swim clumsy, like bumblebees.

Whale Shark

 

We located a juvenile male whale shark in the bay just off the coast of La Paz, and I got the opportunity to swim with him. He was about 15 meters long. I asked Juan, the dive master, how he knew it was a male, and he said he swam down and looked. Duh.

 

The boat dropped us off in front of him, and we tried to keep up with him as he swam along, but with just a couple flick of his huge tail, he would get so far away. When we tired, the boat would pick us up again and repeat the process.

 

We were not supposed to touch it since humans can pass diseases onto the whale shark. The whale sharks were just beginning to arrive for the season; they come for plankton-rich water.