Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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WHAT TO BRING?
Wear comfortable clothes and bathing suit underneath, beach sandals, sunscreen (biodegradable), sea sickness medication if needed, sunglasses, hat, beach towel, and a waterproof camera. Credit cards are not accepted so bring cash too.
Although the day time temperatures are pretty warm, we suggest a light jacket for after you exist the water, especially between January and April.
Divers please don’t forget your dive card!
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DO I NEED TO BE SCUBA CERTIFIED?
The tours are open to everyone, you can experience snorkeling, freediving or an Intro to scuba diving.
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HOW TO GET TO CABO PULMO?
The best choice is renting a car.
It’s very easy to get here!! Cabo Pulmo is about 1:30 hours from San José airport where car rentals are available, or 2 hours from Cabo San Lucas or 3 hours from La Paz.
From Los Cabos follow the north road N 1 to Las Cuevas, then turn on the right to La Ribera and at OXXO turn right again and follow the road until you’ll find a dirt road.
After 5 miles of dirt road you will be in Cabo Pulmo.
During the way you will find the signage to Cabo Pulmo.
For a day trip and if you don't want to drive there are many taxi or private transports from Los Cabos or La Paz.
There is not taxi service or public transportation in Cabo Pulmo.
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WHERE CAN I STAY OR EAT IN CABO PULMO?
Cabo Pulmo has several accommodation options, most are like bungalow or casitas, but there are also different nice house with ocean view. If you are planning more than one day, here you can find different accommodations, according to your needs, all of them are very nice, cozy, and private. There are not any hotels.
The village is an eco-village in a remote area, so everything you need for your stay bring it along with you. If you are coming from La Paz or Cabo San Lucas, you can stop and pick up groceries on your way, we have a very small tienda here with only the basics.
Cabo Pulmo has 6 restaurants, all very good serving everything from pizza to gourmet and most specializing in seafood!
The restaurants doesn´t accept credit cards, so bring enought cash with you.
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WHAT ABOUT WEATHER AND SEA LIFE IN CABO PULMO?
Many divers ask when is the best time to dive in cabo Pulmo.
There is no single answer for that but in general the fall has warmer waters and we run more full trips in this time of year, is for us the high season.
Here, in the Sea of Cortez and Cabo Pulmo area, water temperature and visibility can vary from day to day and even site to site.
Water Temperature : Very variable. From December to July, the water tends to be cold, can fall to 19° C/66° F. The warm waters come from July to late November, the warmest is 30° C/87° F.
Visibility : Varies throughout the year. The clear water season is from August to December, when visibility can reach 90 ft / 25 mt.
From December to July the visibility coul be between 30 to 50 ft / 10-15mt.
In the area we can find seasonal marine life with hundreds of species, including schools of Rays, Sea Turtles, giant Groupers, large schools of Big-eyed Jacks, Pork fish, Eels, Rays, sea lions, sharks, and many, many more.
While the end of the summer and fall offer warm tropical water, as the temperatures decrease in the winter, the number of unique species that you might see in the dive sites increases, as well as the size of the schools of snapper, grunts, groupers, and encounter with whales, mobulas rays and sharks.
The months of cold water are usually murkier but crowded with big and pelagic marine life and school of fish. If you are looking also for macro life Cabo Pulmo is the best in the area with a lot of different species of nudibranch, blenny, morey eels and much more around the reef!
​To top it off, Cabo Pulmo averages only 10/15 days of rain a year, so expect lots of warm sunshine!
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DIVE WITH BULLSHARKS
Among this park’s underwater wonders are several species of sharks, either as residents or transients. One of the most noticeable is the increasingly an increasingly constant presence of bull sharks in specific divesites, which are already a spectacular due to its number and variety of fish residents. Depending on the season, there are a number of sites where bull sharks may be observed. Bull sharks sightings are becoming more common in more sites, and the time of the year during which they are present has extended. It is also very easy to observe them during the cold water season (December to April) September and October the water is very warm and they are not in the area constantly.
The increased numbers of these predators in the Park’s waters is relatively recent, another fruit of the conservation of the National Park.
Note that diver - shark encounters in Cabo Pulmo have always been safe because of the particular dive protocols followed during shark dives. The shark’s natural prey is in abundance in these waters and they display a relaxed, albeit sometimes curious, attitude towards divers.
All shark feeding (also known as “chumming”) is BANNED in the park, so the encounter with sharks in Cabo Pulmo are completly natural and unpredictable. Nonetheless, do not forget that we are intruders in their home, and our role is to observe and enjoy. When diving with sharks, follow the instructions of your divemaster in order to stay safe, use common sense and good diving practices, and your diving experience with these animals will be a unique event in your life as a diver!
As we are looking for wild animals, we can NOT guarantee the encounter in the divespots.
HOW MANY DIVESITE IN THE NATIONAL PARK?
More than 15 different dive sites with depths ranging from 10 to 100 feet, are all within a short 10 minute boat ride.
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NATIONAL PARK RULE ( mostly for scubaa divers)
Each dive site has a maximum number of divers allowed per week, once this capacity reaches its limit the site will be closed for rest and conservation by the park rangers. Before each dive trip the guides have to do a report to the marine park office passing the required information and reserving the available dive sites of the day with specific times.
The report can only be made a few minutes before the boat begins its navigation. The sites CANNOT be reserved a day in advance. For this reason we do NOT have a plan of the dive sites to visit, they will be decided on the same day with the guide depending on the weather conditions, level of the divers and availability of the places by the marine park rangers.
In high season (Sept - Dec) the most popular dive sites are usually very busy and some of them could be closed. We do not know the reopening day of each dive site in case of closure, because it is random and in this way no anybody can make an advance forecast about which dive site we can visit or when is going to open a specific site.
The rest of the year that does not include the 4 months of high season, it is very difficult for dive sites to reach their maximum capacity consented. This is a rule of the marine park and is for all boats that offer tourist service in Cabo Pulmo.
Everything said does not apply to snorkeling or freediving tours.
As a marine park, divers are not allowed to wear gloves or a knife.
For more informations please do not hesitate to contact us.
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WHICH RULES I HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT SNORKELING?
Maximum 8 people per boat, life jacket and a certified guide are mandatory.
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WHICH RULES I HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT FREEDIVING?
Maximum 6 people per boat, a certified guide is mandatory.
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CAN I DO A NIGHT DIVE?
Night dives are not allowed in the National Park.
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ARE THERE BUGS, DANGEROUS ANIMALS OR WATER HAZARD?
The bugs are more prevalent in Cabo Pulmo following rains. The most annoying are mosquitoes and they grow out of standing water. During the late summer months we recommend you bringing bug repellent. Remember that you are ina remote area sorraunded by nature, little bugs, spider or little scorpions are commun in the houses and around the road.
If you will be hiking in the hills be careful where you walk because snakes do live in the desert. During the night make sure to bring a light on and check wher you walk.
Although the Cabo Pulmo bay is a very safe and protected from any large waves we ask everybody entering the water to use extra caution with the little blue bubbles on the surface. These are small stinging jellyfish in the water that have long tentacles that are hard to see underwater. These Jellyfish are normally in warm water and can cause a burning rash that lasts for a few hours or so.
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WHAT ABOUT ELECTRICITY IN CABO PULMO?
Yes, each house is equipped with a solar system that charges its batteriesfor the night You must be very conscientious of your electrical usage especially on cloudy days. Once the batteries are emptied there is no way to recharge them except waiting for the solar power to charge the batteries the next day. So be careful in the day that there is no power turned on. However, some customers have large battery chargers for their underwater photo equipment, we like to ask them to charge them in the bungalow where they have more power during the day. In the dive shop the electricity is limited.
For the same reason there is not air conditioning in Cabo Pulmo, but all the bungalows has fans.