Daniel was heading back to the States soon and we wanted to get in some more scuba diving. Cabo Pulmo is protected marine park with world renowned diving and it was only a two hour drive from La Ventana. So this was naturally the best choice. We found an amazing campsite at the base of a rocky crag that jutted out into the sea. I took some drone shots of us as we climbed around on the rock and then we went to sleep early for the dive the next day.
Unfortunately, my GoPro can only go 10m deep and we were diving up to 25/30m so I don’t have any footage of the good stuff.
Amanda’s friend, Aaron joined us for night number two and he had a propane grill attached to his truck’s tailgate. To take advantage of this, we took a quick trip down to the fishing village of Los Frailes to get some fresh pescado. 400 pesos (about $20USD) netted us a red snapper and a mahi mahi. The snapper fit in a bag but the mahimahi was a bit large so we were about to tie it to my roof racks! Luckily a fishman saw us and offered to gut the fish really quick for easier transport.
Back at camp, the propane grill developed a leak and I was the lucky one who opened the lid to place the fish on top. There was propane gas that had settled inside and when the wind got under the lid, it stirred the gas over to the flame and a huge fireball erupted right in my face. My arm that was lifting the lid got the worst of the burns. My beard was shortened a little, eyebrows thinned, tip of my nose and left ear burned. This could have been a lot worse! (update: two months later, you can barely notice any of the burns)
Lesson learned: Trust no man’s grill
We still got in a lot of fantastic snorkeling and the highlight was this huge Mobula Ray:
Here is an extended version with more snorkel footage:
On the way back to La Ventana, Daniel and I took a detour to Sol del Mayo to see a waterfall and possibly do some cliff jumping. There are signs that say jumping is prohibited, but one thing I learned in Mexico is that most “rules” are actually more like “suggestions”
(Don’t worry, we did a depth check first, we aren’t idiots)