El Bajo de Los Meros

El Bajo de los Meros is definitely our favorite site, the ‘flagship’ of the reef. A dive to 50 feet on ½ mile short and maybe 100 feet wide reef surrounded by sand; so we have to go slow, especially with currents. A dive for experienced divers… In summer spectacular for its hard and soft corals, the amounts of leopard-grouper (1 in every 100 is golden!), yellow tail snapper, dog snapper, pork fish and burrito grunt in big schools. Even puffer fish are schooling while porcupine, jacks and morish idol tend to go more in couples. The moray eels (zebra, spotted and of course the fat green ones) are all over the place and the garden eels, well, they’re in the sand…This reef in winter shows reproducing stingrays in the sand, while the cownose rays swim by in schools, being overtaken by the thousands of mobulas, a smaller kind of manta ray. The water is ‘boiling’ with their activity; they are jumping out of the water and slapping back again. Guitarfish take no notice of anything… The jacks are no longer in couples but pass by as a huge and dark thunder cloud, trying to stay away from sea lions’ jaws. Being a reef close to a sub-marine canyon, some whales might entertain you during a surface interval, or sing for you during your dive. Hundreds of dolphins swimming by and every now and then there’s a turtle completing the scenery; green turtles, leather backs and the extinction threatened hawksbill. In May and June you might even swim with the biggest fish of all, the impressive, beautiful, whale shark, just minding its own business.