Geo-Dive: Tailormade Scuba Diving Trips

Hotel Cantamar Beach Resort and Marina

Built in 1994 with a boat ramp, a small office building and the compressors house with the tank filling station, which in turn gave place to the actual Hotel Cantamar Beach Resort & Marina, this resort as a family management. The whole family is involved in marketing, administration and operations, along with 32 young men and women who collaborate making sure you get the best possible service

Solidly built, accented with desert colours and stucco walls, Mexican tile floors and roofs, Cantamar is laid out in a way that ensures privacy in its small buildings. With unparalleled ocean view, quiet air conditioning system and comfortable rustic style furniture, 35 standard rooms are perfectly fitted to offer the best of the modern life. All rooms have satellite TV and most rooms have telephone.

Two spacious jr. suites are the perfect match for those who want to upgrade their comfort, or travel as a small family group. Each suite accommodates as many as 4 persons comfortably.

A recent addition to Cantamar is a unit with supreme location only steps away from the beach, featuring only 4 apartments, each with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, full kitchenette, dining room, living room and private balcony.

The new sea-side restaurant, where Lucas and Juanita take pride of reading your thoughts and preparing the most delicious meals while you enjoy a cold drink watching the unspoiled bay view.

The swim-up bar is a favourite for the afternoon recounts of the day's adventures, featuring large screen TV set with VCR, DVD and stereo sound.

Over viewing the ocean, fresh water swimming pool deep enough for scuba training, it sits among palm trees providing shade and refuge for absolute relaxation sipping the coldest Corona beer in town. Marina Pichilingue is strategically located to reduce the boat ride time and optimize your day for fishing, kayaking, sailing, diving, snorkelling and any other water activity of your choice.

The Diving

The Sea of Cortéz is a very narrow but deep body of water dotted with underwater mountains and canyons that produce up welling of enriched water from the depths, which in turn produce seasonal plankton blooms that contribute to the massive diversity of tropical and pelagic fish.

This diversity form such a unique ecosystem that was baptized by J. Cousteau as "The Aquarium of the World".

Marine mammals such as sea lions and resident pods of dolphins, orcas, pilot whales, sperm whales, and others, as well as transient humpback whales, blue whales, fin whales, etc. attract enthusiasts of water sports to this area, lured by the opportunity of an encounter with of those big animals.

WHALE WATCHING
Although many species of whales visit the warm protected waters of the Baja California Peninsula, the best known is the Gray Whale, due to the large numbers and migration patterns followed year after year from the Behring Sea to the Pacific Coast of Baja. .

Considered once as an endangered species and hunted near to extinction, the Gray Whale has made an impressive come back, protected by stiff Mexican and international law that designated three salt water lagoons as sanctuaries where they mate and give birth during the months of January to March, when they make the trip back to the north, some of them pregnant, some of them with calves, but all of them happy after performing their ancient rite of reproduction.

Whale Watching Tours can be made in many ways, from the simple one-day trip, to the most sophisticated liveaboard or camping all inclusive trips, in conjunction with sea kayaking and natural history interests.

Dive Centre

Located inside the hotel area to the Marina and run by very professionals guide and instructors, managed by the owner of Club Cantamar offer diving courses, nitrox, rebreather, equipment hire and a huge fleet of diving boats.

The heart of the scuba operation is composed by a battery of 5 high pressure compressors, with a tandem filtering system and 500 aluminium scuba tanks, with international valve.

A large battery of well ventilated private lockers, with double lock for security purposes, make your diving experience less tiring, as you can rinse your gear 10 m from the dock and hang it, instead of carrying it to your room, wash it in the shower and have your room as a real mess.

As part of their technical diving operation, Baja Diving & Service is a certified blend, repair and training centre for ANDI and TDI.

Nitrox- 70 scuba tanks, oxygen clean, are available with any mixture of your choice, at reasonable rates.

The Club Cantamar is the only Dive Resort in Mexico fitted with a decompression chamber in premises, and the operation is in charge of Fernando Aguilar Sr., after exhaustive training in the University Of Southern California (USC), in Catalina Island.

Prices Per Person - 2010

Other Prices

Notes

PRICES INCLUDE: Accommodation in double sharing standard room, 2 or 3 guided boat dives (depending on weather conditions) - Full board - Airport transfers - Mexican taxes.

PRICE DO NOT INCLUDE: International flights and airport taxes - drinks and personal extras

DEPARTURES: Daily

Prices are subject to change, and can at the time of booking therefore be lower or higher than those published, depending on the flights cost and exchange rate between British Pound and other currencies.

Our Opinion

3 stars hotel which offer good services. Very well organized diving centre. There is also the possibility to organize Liveaboard around the Sea of Cortez.