CABO SNORKEL SCENE

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CABO SNORKLE SCENE
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CAPESCAPE

Diving at the Capes is unique. The contrast of tropical fish with desert terrain, the clear turqouise water, the way you walk into the water and are instantly there. There are three main areas for intense snorkeling in Cabo San Lucas and along the "corridor" to San Jose Del Cabo.
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SEALS OF DISAPPROVAL

Do they worship us? Fear us? Or want to have sex with us? YOU stick around and find out.
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LOCAL WEATHER

The Capes area might have the best climate in the world, always 90 degrees and sunny. Except during occasional hurricanes. The Sea of Cortez is calm and inviting almost all the time. Check daily forecast here.

CABO LINKS

Links to dive shops, outfitters, and places of interest to snorklers. Just click here.

LOS CABOS LOWDOWN
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Diving around the Capes is unique. The juxtaposition of tropical fish with desert terrain, the clear turqouise water, the way you walk into the water and are instantly there. There are three main areas for intense snorkeling between in Cabo San Lucas and along the "corridor" to San Jose Del Cabo. Don't be put off by the guide books, or even direct exposure to the goofy glitz and mercenary mash of Cabo. Like Las Vegas, it is what it is. Get out in the water and it's still a beautiful area. The comments of our cynical pal, "El Gallo" might prove pertinent, as well as amateur reviews from Igougo.com The classic Cabo swim spot is the uniquely gorgeous Lovers Beach, a must-go for snorkelers, sunbathers, or fans of natural beauty. There's no pop stand out there, so take your provisions. And, of course, bring what's left back in, por favor. The other beaches in Cabo San Lucas are sand, but the highway "corridor" that runs over to San Jose del Cabo has several nice outing sites although, sadly, a lot of the old areas like Shipwreck are being closed off and frequently turned into golf courses. Turning beach diving sites into golf courses: is that Satanic, or what? Two especially notable spots are the picture-postcard Santa Maria Cove and a great little day-vist beach with finger reefs and a rental shop, Chileno Beach.

CABO LINX
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Baja Web A great site with weather maps, legal info--anything you can imagine. Baja.Com Another very cool and helpful site with mucho features and a lot more laid back, informal approach. Contains features, guides, an open forum where you can ask or answer questions about Baja, travelogues written by visitors to the site, and even Personals ads for finding Cabo Companions and what not. Baja Quest A magazine with info and links, and another Q and A forum, though less active than Baja.Com Baja Life The grandaddy of Baja color mags, and a web of baja sites and pages. Classified ads for rental. etc.. SolMar Hotel Wonderful, romantic place: southernmost beds in California. Walk to Lovers Beach. Cabo Beach Guide Nude Beaches in Cabo???? Cabo Dive Guide

LOVERS BEACH IS FOR LOVERS
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SHORE SCENE Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots This might be the most wonderful swimmin' hole in the world. The setting is magnificent and portentous: the last beach in the Californias (think of THAT!), a beach on two seas (wild Pacific Ocean and calm Sea of Cortez), giving beach views of both sunrise and sunset, a beach totally without buildings or development but convenient to the fleshpots, suicidal body surfing and clear snorkeling water on the same beach. The distinctive gold sand of Cabo is packed in among towering columns of granite, sandblasted into bizarre shapes reminiscent of Max Ernst, or maybe Salvador Dali on LSD, and the beach is littered with stone "sculptures", looking like Henry Moore's sketchpad. There are a LOT of things to do here: you can climb and scramble on the rocks, jump from the cliffs into deep, clear water, ogle other denizens, fly kites from assorted altitudes, drift idly in the calm Cortez waters, get your brains beat out by the cruel Pacific surf. Sorry, no pop stand. DIVING HOTSPOTS Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots SEAWARD FROM LOVERS BEACH From the short, charming Sea of Cortez side beach, you can just plunge in and start screwing around along the cliffs to the south. It drops to 3-4 meter depth very quickly and there is a great combination of motion, scenery, and fish. Keep on going around to the south and you'll pass a lot of cool rock formations with many levels of motion. The huge stone finger sticking up is called "El Alfil", meaning a chess bishop. As you approach the end of the land, there is a huge Slab of rock, beyond which you are exposed to Pacific currents. Rounding the Slab gives a view of the Arch, and several rock stacks further out. This is a place to see seals and sea lions (See "Seals of Disapproval") and occasionally you will spot a whale off to the west. Past those stacks is a table-sized rock at almost exactly sea level. Tricky to stand on it, but if you do, you're occupying the southernmost piece of land in California, the true "Land's End". Just past the Arch is a very neat sand beach in a cave. Romantic place to take a rest. Continuing around the Cape you will find yourself in the big, rough Pacific surf. You can go in there, completing a circumnavigation of the Cape, but it is no picnic getting in. It's a sand bottom, but these waves have been known to kill people. Neat, huh? LANDWARD FROM LOVERS BEACH If you head north from the beach you will be moving in fairly calm water along a beautiful chain of coves, caves, and pocket beaches. The first point of interest is "Pelican Rock", a guano-white spire 60 meters offshore in front of a very nice, rock-landscaped beach. This is Fish Central for this area, a column of flora where all kinds of aquarium-class fish graze at depths down to about 8 meters. You see the Cabo fish here, schools of Moorish Idols, Wrasse, Parrotfish. Watch out for boats near the rock, and especially in the channel between rock and beach. And, of course, schools of Tourist Tuna floating around gawking at the rock's pastures of fish. Further north are some beaches I like because the bottom shape and scatter of boulders make them good for "soaring" around the rocks when the sea is high or big boats pass. Eventually you will arrive at the beaches by the gas dock. HOW TO GET THERE Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots Just getting there is fun. You can WALK out from the SolMar Hotel. Cut through the lobby and pool area, head south on the beach until you hit huge rock cliffs, climb over those cliffs until you hit beach again, walk south until you see the second surf to your left. But most people arrive by sea. You can rent canoes or kayaks from outfitters on the Hacienda (Medano) beach and paddle across the harbor entrance and south along the wall, stopping at little beachlets as you go. You can swim out from the gasoline dock, less than a mile, very scenic. Or you can take "Water Taxis" from the inner harbor by the Plaza Las Glorias, Medano Beach, or about anywhere they pimp you into it. Make sure you've got the return trip business figured out in advance.
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AVE, SANTA MARIA
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SHORE SCENE Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots It's easy to find post cards of Santa Maria Cove, easier than actually finding the place. Photographers like the perfect moon crescent of white beach between two hills, the calm, protected water, the color of the shallows. There are no beach amenities at all, and the parking lot is (deliberately?) hard to find. But you just walk down from the Twin Dolphin, bring a small cooler and an umbrella and party if that's what you want. Fortunately the lack of access to the huge vehicles necessary for scoobers to carry tanks and rubber suits means snorkelers tend to have the place to themselves. UNDERWATER WORKS Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots The "open air aquarium" tag they slap on S.M. Cove is fitting. You stick your foot in, literally, three inches of water and there will be bright, colorful, obnoxious little fish swarming around them nibbling at your hairs. You don't have to put yourself out to see the fauna around here, they practically come up on the beach after you. The convenience continues: you just stroll in the waveless cove. flop into the warm water, and start swimming out along the west (Twin Dolphin) side of the cove and pow, you're seeing formations, fauna, and mucho fish. This is not an all-time dive, but it's not bad at all. There are some caves, some small reefs further out: it's a sort of pocket dive site, as if the hotel had it designed by Jacques Cousteau the way they get Palmer and Player to do golf courses. You can go around the points into other coves, but Santa Maria is the main show. HOW TO GET THERE Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots There are buses that run between the Cabos towns every hour or so, fare is around a dollar. (Dollar U.S, that is: and no whining about exchange rates, you Canucks.) Catch it at the big circle just east of Planet Hollywood in Cabo San Lucas, anywhere along the highway through San Jose. Just tell the driver you want "Bahia Santa Maria". If he crosses himself, you pronounced it wrong. You will probably end up getting out at, and walking down the hill from, the Hotel Twin Dolphins, which sits at the west end of the Cove, provides a knockout photo opportunity from the hill above the cove, and serves food and drink, which there is none of to be had down on the beach.
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CHILENO CON CARNE
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SHORE SCENE Shore Scene Getting There> Dive Spots There are just enough amenities at Chileno beach to make it a family spot, especially on Sundays and Holidays. (Don't even THINK about going there during Semana Santa.) You walk in from the parking lot and there are showers, bathrooms (expect the usual Mexican nominal charge to use them). some odd changing rooms or something, and...best of all...a popstand with snacks that also rents inner tubes and snorkle gear. The popstand is in the first of three distinct coves, and you can get to the others by walking over hillocks of rocks sharp enough to discourage barefooting. There are some interesting artifacts of a boatyard here. This string of beaches is a great place to hang out, exactly the sort of craggy grottos that make Los Cabos so magical. The way the rocks, sand and water interact reminds some of Greek islands. You can climb around, dive from heights, snuggle in crannies, snooze in warm, sheltered sand. The first beach often has rentals of boards, tubes, even boats at times. And the east end of the main beach becomes the Cabo San Lucas Hotel, a classy old bastion of Baja luxury, where you can dine like you could afford it or sip a Margarita in a beach chair. DOWN UNDER THE SEA Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots Chileno is a fun place to goof. There is some surf, some calm, approach to rocks, just a whole theme park of snorkel fun. But the main subsea attraction is the series of finger reefs lying just off the westernmost of the beaches. Unless you just can't stand blasting down crevices like Luke Freakin Skywalker, chasing fish. Or plunging down the outside of the reefs into vertical gardens munched by the local fauna, such as Moorish Idols, Parrotfish, Wrasse and such. Chileno is just a real playground--and a great place to come with the girlfriend or kids. Not that we recommend having such peripherals, but if you do, haul them out to Playa Chileno for an afternoon of fun. HOW TO GET THERE Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots There are buses that run between the Cabos towns every hour or so, fare is around a dollar. (Dollar U.S, that is: and no whining about exchange rates, you Canucks.) Catch it at the big circle just east of Planet Hollywood in Cabo San Lucas, anywhere along the highway through San Jose. Just tell the driver you want "Chileno". He'll let you off in a place that doesn't look so hot, but past the link fence on theseaward side of the road is a parking lot, and you will thread through some paths and scrub until you come out by the showers and popstand/gear rental shop. If you want to have a meal or drinks first, get off at the Hotel Cabo San Lucas--it lies on the east send of Chileno Beach, and is worth seeing as an example of Cabo's glory days before the highway went in and everybody there was rich.
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