In April 2006 I spent a week in La Paz, Mexico. I came back with images of playful but scarce sea lions out of Los Islotes, the local sea lion colony. I have a photo gallery available here for that trip. Last Summer, I went back, this time with a group of California divers and my favorite dive buddy.

 First, there was a harsh contrast between La Paz in April and La Paz in the heat of Summer. Temperatures in the hundreds, high humidity and storms were not what I experienced in the temperate Spring a couple of years back. What a change! Water, however was way warmer. I remember donning my 7mm + 7mm shorty to go diving back then, whereas last Summer, a mere 3mm was enough. That part, I liked...

In my first trip, I was often diving with just the dive master. Sometimes we had a little dingy for the 2 of us and the captain, sometimes we had a bigger boat with heads and more room in between dives. Sometimes it would take us two and a half hours to reach Los Islotes, sometimes one. With more than 40 people in our group we had several boats for ourselves. I ended up on a bigger version of the dingy I had back in 2006, but with the same limitations: awfully slow, especially when carrying 3 tanks per divers, and extremely uncomfortable...

The diving was good. Not fantastic, just good. On the first dive, a mere 5 minutes into the dive, a sea lion came and nipped at my hand. Awesome. I thought, wow, this is a great start. It circled around me a couple of times, too fast to snap a good shot and was gone. I was full of hope for the rest of the trip, but this remained a single encounter. We saw a couple of sea lions afterward but none were really interested in us. Not in me anyway...

 

We dove a couple of other dive sites. My favorite was undoubtedly "La Reina", a big pile of coral inhabited by a countless number of colorful fish. Morays, Sculpins and giant hawkfish are there in numbers. Sometimes all at the same spot!

Snorkeling with whale sharks was also planned on this trip. One morning we went in search of the gentle giants but could only find a massive pod of dolphins. One boat decided to stay with the dolphins and attempt to interact with them. We did not. Big mistake. The dolphins stayed with the other group for an hour, playing, inquiring, exploring. It must have been magic... Our boat decided to go diving instead and postpone the snorkeling session for later. On our way back from the dives, we spotted a few young whale sharks. I jumped in the water a couple of times but was never able to snap a shot, until the big guy came. He was a giant of probably 30ft (10m) and was feeding at the surface. I jumped in the water, along with probably a dozen of other divers. I managed to shoot a couple of hands, fins and a lot of bubbles but very little whale shark... Oh well. I dove with them in the Galapagos, so no big deal...

I shot and film on this trip. I let you judge the results.