Mitsugirly's PANORAMA detailed review and pictorial

[mitsugirly]

I just wanted to give you a few "stats" on the air and water this day. 

 

The air temps were 86° today, so yes, it did get nice out for us and the nicest it had been the entire cruise.

 

The water would be freezing cold, then you'd hit a warm area, then back to cold again. 

 

According to the camera's, the deepest we went in this area was only 23'. The coldest was 63°  and the warmest area was 72.1°

 

 

Now as we sat on the boat and told Karl about the fish we seen down there I noticed our instructor was removing our tanks we used and putting new tanks on. Um...what are we doing? He said "We're going to switch out the tanks for your second dive".   Second dive? I had no idea we were doing a second dive. "Where are we going for the second dive?"

 

He points "over there"

 

 

 Wait, we're actually going over there? That's where I wanted to dive in the first place! I was getting super excited now. I was hoping to see the things I've seen in pictures and video's. 

 

Sakari had already peeled off her wetsuit and was comforting Karl. The instructor told her to gear up. She looked at Karl and looked at me and said "I don't think I'm going to go."  I kept telling her "This is the place you DO want to go...so I've heard."  She just kept looking at Karl and I know she felt sorry for him. She's very caring and does not like people to feel left out and she did not want for him to feel left behind. She just kept saying no, she was staying behind. Well, I can't force her so...I guess it's just me and the hubs.

 

You didn't have to tell me twice, I double back flipped and stuck my landing into the water. First off the boat this time!!! The hubby followed. 

 

 

 

Back into the freezing cold water. UGH! Gosh it was cold. It was somewhat deep in this area, so of course all you could see was the green. We swam under the ropes and headed toward the arch. The roped off area is so that boats cannot go into that area because that's where the snorkelers area is located. 

 

As we swam, the water got warmer, then colder, then warmer, the colder. I'm not gonna lie, I found a way to warm myself up every time I got cold...I'll let you use your imagination on that one. I showed no shame in it either! Just saying...

 

So I will show you what kind of pictures you get in this type of water. No color correction done. They are horrid. 

 

 

These are a few that I color corrected. Not the best...

 

 

 

 

The instructor was making bubble rings with his hands. Oh how I wished Sakari was here. She likes to do this.

 

 

Three Banded Butterfly fish:

 

 

 

This picture I was trying to get a photo of an eel that was hiding in the rocks. It was a Zebra Moray Eel (Another first for me). It was so pretty with the black and white stripes! I only wished that it would have came out enough to get a better picture. Can you see it to the left of the purple coral?

 

 

 

Then before long, we were at the rocks by the arch and IT WAS SUPER CLEAR!!! And it was WARM!!! Things got a lot more colorful in area's as well. However, you won't find all the pretty colors and coral you will find in the Caribbean.

 

 

 

 

Giant Damselfish:

 

 

 

 

Spottail Grunt:

 

 

 

 

LOOK AT THIS!!! Another new fish for us!  A Barberfish! It is a type of Butterfly fish. 

 

[mitsugirly]

I managed to catch an adult CORTEZ RAINBOW FISH!! (toward the bottom of the picture) So pretty! Of course...another first for us. 

 

 

 

A bunch of baby (initial phase) CHAMELEON WRASSE. (Another first). They are a pretty pink in color. 

 

 

 

 

 

The one color you did see a lot of is RED! (And purple)

 

 

 

 

PUFFERFISH

 

 

Finally a close up of the pretty RAZOR SURGEONFISH. You can now see the blade like spine at the tail. These are used for defense and are as sharp as a surgeons scalpel, which is why they are named surgeonfish. 

 

 

 

They usually swim in groups and there were A LOT of them. They were so pretty to watch. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

GIANT DAMSELFISH (I still cannot believe just how big these things are! I didn't even know they existed). 

 

 

 

MEXICAN HOGFISH:

 

 

 

Then I spotted some ORANGE CUP CORAL. I get so excited when I see these because I've been told they are hard and rare to find (although they were not open or "blooming" like a flower). Also, right beside it was a black and white spotted fish (hard to see because of all the sediment floating around) and I have no idea what it was. 

 

 

 

KING ANGELFISH:

 

 

And another one:

 

 

BARBERFISH:

 

 

 

And more:

 

 

 

 

 

I have located YELLOW!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Here's another first for us...and it was a beauty!!! Just look at the markings on it.

 

CORTEZ ANGELFISH: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KING ANGELFISH:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GROUPER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The amount of fish in this area was just amazing! So many of them. I was really wishing that I had made Sakari come with us. Karl would have gotten over her leaving him. She was really missing out! Not to mention...all the new fish we seen here as well. 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Now I want to say that we went under the arch rock, that is where we found the most fish. I honestly couldn't believe how much warmer it was under that area as well. Plus, the pictures turned out so much better too. It was so weird. Inside this cave area, the temps were 74.4° and it was usually between 8.2' to 12' deep in that area.

 

 

Then I seen my first SPOTTED BOXFISH! Oh my gosh so pretty and cute!

 

 

 

A little Boxfish facts for you:

 

They protect themselves with a deadly poison on their skin when they feel threatened by a predator.

They lay lots of eggs and can lay every day for 1 month

They blow the sand in search for prey

There are 23 species of boxfish: These spotted boxfish are located in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico...which is why we have not seen them before. 

They are slow swimmers and like to hover

They can grow to 18" long

They live for around 4 years on average

 

We seen quite a few of these too!

 

 

 

 

BANDED BUTTERFLY FISH:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was an area that was like a swim through and the water was rushing in and it swayed back and forth. It was a little difficult to swim over to the other side, but in this area were quite a few of what I thought were Trumpet Fish at first.  They were pretty big. But I believe they ended up being PIPEFISH.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Ok, that black and white spotted boxfish I just showed you....well it's time to meet the male version of it. Absolutely gorgeous with the black and white spots on the top, blue and black spots along the side, and also orange mixed around the edges. We would see several of them during this dive.

 

 

 

Ready for something new yet? I was....so we found a WHITE SPOTTED PUFFERFISH now. There were a lot in the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOOK!!! It's Gill from Finding Nemo!! OMGosh....another new fish for us. 

 

MOORISH IDOL:

 

 

The Moorish Idol got their name from The Moors who thought they brought happiness. They have a maximum length of a little over 9".

Their extremely long dorsal fins actually shorten with age.

They can be found alone or in groups but most juveniles are more likely to swim in schools together.

Adults mate for life.

They are found from the Gulf of California down to Peru (and also other places like Japan, Hawaii and Africa).

They eat sponges, tunicates, invertebrates and algae.

 

And most of all I loved them!!!! When I got back to the boat and showed Sakari my pictures she yells "You found Gill" Yep, I bet you now wished you had went with us.

 

 

Here we have a SPOTFIN PORCUPINEFISH. A little different than the Long spine porcupinefish that you normally see. They have spots without the large spots.

 

 

SPOTTED BOXFISH

 

 

 

 

 

WHITE SPOTTED PUFFERFISH

 

 

 

 

 

Look at the guy on the left bottom corner photo bombing my picture of the SPOTTED BOXFISH

 

 

 

Ok, I'll get a picture of you too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, here's what I'm talking about with the Pufferfish. A lot of them would have very long skinny bodies. It looked weird. They reminded me of a tadpole. 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

Wow this area was loaded with the Orange Cup Coral. I had really wished that Sakari would have been with us because she would have been getting all the macro shots of them. Her photography always turns out so good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Then I spotted this large beauty: BLUE TRIGGERFISH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PANAMA PORKFISH:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPOTTED BOXFISH 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 5 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

Well lookie there...I found another ZEBRA EEL! It had some friends (SPOTTED PUFFERS) with it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Damsel was getting in my way with everything I tried to take a picture of. First the eel and now it was blocking me trying to get a picture of these two Starry Groupers. Damsels are such a pain in the arse but I'm giving it a hall pass since the Damsels here in the Mexican Riviera are so pretty.

 

 

 

 

At least I managed to get a picture of this one as we headed back. 

 

 

 

Now that was a lot of BANDED BUTTERLY FISH! I have never seen them grouped together like this before. Usually you will find two to three of them swimming along, but this many???

 

 

 

 

 

As we headed back, the water got colder and greener. I was reminded that I was probably on the verge of hypothermia at this point, but I didn't care after everything we had just seen down there. I probably could have spent another 30 minutes down there and still been excited to see the same fish over and over. I will say that I did miss something.... the hubby told me him and the instructor found (in the video I will be doing) but I was busy off in my own little world. 

 

So my first picture that I took when we started this dive compared to the last picture I took before we surfaced...which was this picture:

 

 

 

We were down there around 37+ minutes. Not long enough AT ALL. Seriously...we could have stayed down so much longer. I REALLY wished that this would have been the only place they took us to and let us do 2 dives there. This should have been the place they took Karl to. If he's anything like me, seeing all the fish and unique things you would never get to see by snorkeling might have calmed him down enough to do the swim (or at least a little longer). I honestly don't even understand why they took us to the other dive area. There really wasn't much to see there and nothing that was like WOW (other than us saying we seen something new that we have never seen before).  Like this dive site was AMAZING! If I go back to PV, I would do it all again in a heartbeat! AND request that we ONLY go to this area.

 

 

So once we surfaced Sakari was above to take our picture. She had said that since she was staying on the boat with Karl, "they" might get in and him try to snorkel. I told her if she did, take the other camera with her and see if she could get it to turn on and take some pictures of us diving below. When I ask her if she got in, she said "yes, only for a minute...I had to use the bathroom" 🤣 But he did not get in nor did they snorkel. 

 

 

 

So here's where things went downhill. She took the picture of me and the hubby. I climbed back onto the boat.

 

 

I look down and see the hubby. He didn't really have the excitement on his face of someone that just had an amazing dive and seen things we've never seen before as he did a few minutes ago. I had no idea what is going on.

 

 

 

He sat on the steps. He brings his hands up in the water and he's starring. Do you notice anything?

 

 

 

 

Do you see around his wrist the little black things that are fanned out? Well, our GoPro has a built in stand. You just flip them over and 3 little flaps come out and you can sit the GoPro down to take videos. Well....THAT'S ALL THAT'S AROUND HIS WRIST!! WHERE IS MY GOPRO???? OMG!! He's looking all over the place and looking really worried. He's showing our instructor. 

 

 

 

 

He climbs out of the water and onto the boat in shame. He knows how much this GoPro means to me. It has all of our video on it...other that what was taken with the camera's. I wasn't sure if it had downloaded to our GoPro account or not yet. I was devastated. 

 

 

[blarko]

Oh nooooooo!!!

[ninjacat123]

I hope there is a happy ending....🤞

[mlshum]

😩   Oh no!  I’m on pins and needles here!

[mitsugirly]

4 hours ago, blarko said:

Oh nooooooo!!!

Yea, it was a big oh nooooo!

 

2 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

I hope there is a happy ending....🤞

 

My heart dropped when he came up without it.

 

1 hour ago, mlshum said:

😩   Oh no!  I’m on pins and needles here!

 

That's exactly how I felt at the time when he was looking down to see if it was on the bottom somewhere.

[mitsugirly]

So after showing our dive instructor what had happened and explaining that the GoPro is somewhere in the area (he had hoped) and attached to a very long stick, the instructor said he would look around the area for it. Now the hubby had absolutely no idea at what point he no longer had it on his arm. I know that when I swim with it (or the camera's) I never let go of it. It never dangles from my arm trusting the arm brace. I'm always holding onto it even when swimming. I'm also constantly checking to make sure everything is still tightly screwed.  

 

The last video he had taken was all the way over by the rock/cave area with the abundance amount of fish. However, I do know that I seen him with it when we stopped to take a picture together (when I effectively cut his head out of the picture and didn't know it in the picture above). So, that meant it had to be fairly close to us? But, that water was really moving back and forth so there was no telling. 

 

Our instructor went down and I can tell you he was moving at a very fast pace. We could see his bubbles at the surface and we watched him go a pretty far distance and he was circling around, to the left, by the rocks, to the right and then through the middle and circled around again. When I seen him go around that second time, my heart sunk. I was losing hope. 

 

 

 

We could see him heading back toward the boat. The bubbles were getting closer and closer. He popped his head up. I held my breath. Then up came the GoPro on the stick. WHEW!!! OMG!! It was like Christmas to me! You would have thought I won a brand new car! I'm pretty sure I squealed and maybe even shed a tear.

 

He said it was "All the way over there!" as he pointed over to the rock mountain and to the right....but we weren't even over in the area he pointed to so we were very lucky he had found it because the water had carried it that far. 

 

It was time to head back now. The hubby and I couldn't stop talking about all the fish we had seen and showing pictures to Sakari and Karl. I really really wished she would have foregone her loving, caring status for at least this one time and been a mean girl and came with us. It was by far the best scuba I could have imagined!!!

 

On the ride back, we spotted a whale again. However, it went under and we never did see it come back up so that I could get a picture of it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was the perfect opportunity to get some good pictures of this beauty we called transportation for 8 days. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No sea lions, but there were plenty of pelicans. 

 

 

 

 

[ninjacat123]

Woo Hoo!!  Good job Dive Instructor!!  I couldn't imagine finding that Go-Pro needle in the ocean haystack!👏👏👏

[Roscoe13]

3 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

I hope there is a happy ending....🤞

Easy now...

[mlshum]

What a relief!  Definitely helps you feel better about their earlier shortcomings.

[deladane]

OMG!  That story about losing your GoPro had me on the edge of my seat!  I'm so glad your instructor was able to find it and return it to you safely!!  It reminds me of when I went stand up paddle boarding in St. Kitts on my 2012 Carnival Victory cruise, and the instructor offered to take my camera to take photos of us SUPing.  Towards the end of the tour, he put it in the cargo pocket of his swim trunks and when I asked for it back at the end of the tour, I saw a look of horror on his face as he realized he no longer had the camera in his pocket.  One of his friends took him on a jet ski to backtrack along the route we had taken and an hour later, he returned with my camera!  I had a floating wristband attached to it and he saw it bobbing along the shore near where we had stopped to take a rest break.  That was over a decade ago and I still remember it like it was yesterday because nearly losing my camera with all of my vacation photos was so traumatic!  So I definitely feel your pain and know exactly how you felt on that boat waiting for your guide to return!!  Whew!!

 

I am making a mental note about this scuba tour... it will be a few years before we can take Ian on a DSD tour, but I am sure we will take many more Mexican Riviera cruises in the years to come with living in Arizona, so I definitely want to visit that site one day!

[pe4all]

Yay dive instructor! He definitely went the extra step for you.  I am sure hubby was glad to get out of the doghouse when the GoPro was found.  

[Oakman58]

I hope before you make Karl go scuba diving again you make him get PADI certified. That will be the only way you can be sure there won't be panic in the ocean again.  Also if you take him on another cruise, make sure he takes something to prevent (not treat) seasickness.  That poor boy went through a lot to please your daughter.

[mitsugirly]

13 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

Woo Hoo!!  Good job Dive Instructor!!  I couldn't imagine finding that Go-Pro needle in the ocean haystack!👏👏👏

 

 

Exactly and no where near where we actually were at. 

 

 

11 hours ago, mlshum said:

What a relief!  Definitely helps you feel better about their earlier shortcomings.

 

Exactly. I was praising his glory after that one. It made up for everything. 🙏

 

8 hours ago, deladane said:

OMG!  That story about losing your GoPro had me on the edge of my seat!  I'm so glad your instructor was able to find it and return it to you safely!!  It reminds me of when I went stand up paddle boarding in St. Kitts on my 2012 Carnival Victory cruise, and the instructor offered to take my camera to take photos of us SUPing.  Towards the end of the tour, he put it in the cargo pocket of his swim trunks and when I asked for it back at the end of the tour, I saw a look of horror on his face as he realized he no longer had the camera in his pocket.  One of his friends took him on a jet ski to backtrack along the route we had taken and an hour later, he returned with my camera!  I had a floating wristband attached to it and he saw it bobbing along the shore near where we had stopped to take a rest break.  That was over a decade ago and I still remember it like it was yesterday because nearly losing my camera with all of my vacation photos was so traumatic!  So I definitely feel your pain and know exactly how you felt on that boat waiting for your guide to return!!  Whew!!

 

I am making a mental note about this scuba tour... it will be a few years before we can take Ian on a DSD tour, but I am sure we will take many more Mexican Riviera cruises in the years to come with living in Arizona, so I definitely want to visit that site one day!

 

Oh gosh yes...if I lost my camera...I would flip out. All the pictures I take on vacation and for the review and the scrapbooking I do for our vacations and...and...and...I can't even imagine! I'm so glad your story had a happy ending as well. Whew!

 

Yes, this scuba tour was amazing at the arch and I highly recommend it!

 

 

2 hours ago, pe4all said:

Yay dive instructor! He definitely went the extra step for you.  I am sure hubby was glad to get out of the doghouse when the GoPro was found.  

 

The dive instructor was awesome at his locating skills for sure. I guess with them doing this scuba tour all the time, they know where to look and the way the water takes lost items. 

 

I'm definitely going to figure out a better way to secure the GoPro stick now. I do know the end of it likes to "unscrew" itself...which is why I'm always checking and double checking it when I have it. 

[tsahall01]

8 minutes ago, Oakman58 said:

I hope before you make Karl go scuba diving again you make him get PADI certified. That will be the only way you can be sure there won't be panic in the ocean again.  Also if you take him on another cruise, make sure he takes something to prevent (not treat) seasickness.  That poor boy went through a lot to please your daughter.

I second this!!  I was surprised that you did not do it beforehand--it would have saved a lot of trouble and grief--you could also get all of you certified as well!  I had a good friend die in a diving accident--he was not certified, but went down with other friends and had a panic attack--surfaced too fast and died.

Edited May 6 by tsahall01

[mitsugirly]

2 minutes ago, Oakman58 said:

I hope before you make Karl go scuba diving again you make him get PADI certified. That will be the only way you can be sure there won't be panic in the ocean again.  Also if you take him on another cruise, make sure he takes something to prevent (not treat) seasickness.  That poor boy went through a lot to please your daughter.

 

It was his idea to go scuba. He really wanted to try it and picked that over going to the Mariettas. He talked about it all the time prior to the cruise. He's real excited to try again. His mother told him to buy something to prevent seasickness and he declined. I even ask again when we were at the hotel in Long Beach and told him we would pick something up before the cruise if he wanted. Once again he declined. You can't force someone to take something if they don't want to...no more than we forced him to do this dive. I would hardly say he went through a lot to please my daughter. Actually, totally the opposite...she decided not to do the second dive to please him and missed out. He only did what HE wanted to do/try and said he will try it again. 😉 I just don't think it was the best circumstance  for his first try (I had no idea what it was going to be like since we've never been there before). 

[cmukid87]

Lost Go Pro?!?!  Glad you got it back.

 

Had a similar situation about 9 years ago in Grand Cayman.  My Go Pro came loose from the mount and I didn't notice it until we surfaced.  I told the lead and he jumped right in.  He resurfaced shortly after with the Go Pro.  He got quite a tip for me since it was our only camera we used and it was our last day before going home.

[pirate4me2]

OMG I am so glad your GoPro was found, that would have been awful! I am always afraid to trust the straps/etc for cameras/phones/etc and hang onto them as well as wrapping the straps around my wrist.