Scuba and snorkeling at the artificial reef Ex Santos dive site

A great wreck dive site in San Carlos is the Artificial Reef Ex Santos. Sunk on March 3, 2022, by mid-June, the sea had already claimed it!

Here's a cool video of the ship sinking.

On a Wednesday morning, we put in for a shore dive off what is labeled Playa "El Tomate" on Google Maps. It was a long swim out and a longer swim back in, but do-able. Another family had come out and anchored their boat near the stern of the wreck, so if you have a boat, that seemed like a good option. I know the local dive shops do tours to the site as well.

My scuba-certified family descended near the bow and explored inside and around different openings as they made their way to the stern. Since they had gone to a depth of around 45 feet, they couldn't just come up to the top without safety stops. I'm not scuba certified, so excuse any errors in my vocabulary. Anyway, they got some cool photos, and it was cool for me to explore the wreck as well.

For this snorkeler, the views from the surface were interesting. I was able to look down into different towers and chimneys (I don't know what they're called) that the deep-divers couldn't explore as easily. The top of the boat tower was about 8 to 10 feet down. And there were tons of fish swimming all around me. Nothing particularly exciting or colorful on this visit, and the scuba-divers affected my visibility, but it was cool anyway. 

I think for us this will be an annual dive, just to see how the artificial reef evolves over time. If we drive in again, I'll definitely take time to snorkel around the cove just west of where we put in. 





Location: WWPM+JJ, San Carlos Nuevo Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico

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