Explore San Jose del Cabo
Scuba diving in San Jose del Cabo is an intimate experience with a professional dive team and no other boats around. Only twenty miles northeast of Cabo San Lucas, this other half of the Los Cabos municipality feels worlds away. While offering plenty of places to wine, dine and unwind, San Jose del Cabo is smaller, more relaxed and very scenic. Its centuries-old mission and colonial architecture complement a beautiful white sandy bay and a historic estuary fed by an underground river. San Jose del Cabo is perfectly positioned for great diving. The San Lucas Bay dive sites are easily reachable, as well as the Corridor sites and even northerly destinations like Cabo Pulmo and La Paz. The dedicated dive center in town is the proud discoverer of the local dive sites and offers a wide variety of tours and courses. All the great marine life of the Sea of Cortez is likely to be found in San Jose del Cabo: mobulas, sharks, dolphins, whales and huge schools of fish.
Top San Jose del Cabo Dive Sites
1. Cerro Colorado
This dive site offers a vibrant underwater landscape with shrimps, crabs, lobsters, and large groupers. Guitarfish, diamond rays, and schools of jacks and mobulas are common sights. Suitable for both scuba diving and freediving, it provides easy to moderate adventures. The area features small caves and abundant marine life, making it an engaging experience.
2. El Salinar Shipwreck
Known for its mysterious history, this site features a shipwreck lying in three segments, creating an artificial reef. It offers scuba diving adventures suitable for advanced divers. The wreck is home to a variety of marine life, including colorful fish, and provides a unique opportunity for exploration.
3. Punta Bella
Renowned for its impressive coral growth and interactive channels, this site is ideal for scuba divers seeking an easy to moderate adventure. With an abundance of colorful reef fish, turtles, and schools of jacks, it's a vibrant underwater paradise.
4. Los Abanicos
This site, dominated by gorgonians and large rock formations, is perfect for scuba diving. Schools of porkfish and triggerfish, along with puffers and coral growth, make it an engaging dive. The site offers an easy to moderate adventure level.
5. Chileno (The Corridor)
Known for its garden of garden eels and schools of mobulas, this site offers easy adventures for both scuba diving and freediving. The underwater pinnacles and cleaning stations attract yellowtail jack and large milkfish, making it a lively experience.
The best Months to dive in San Jose del Cabo
The sea is warmest and clearest in San Jose del Cabo between June and December, but there is great diving year-round. When planning to dive in San Jose del Cabo, visitors should note that different marine animals visit at different times of year. A huge mobula ray migration passes through in May and August. December through April is whale-watching season. In terms of nesting sea turtles, olive ridleys come up the beach between June and December, while huge leatherbacks emerge between November and February. The local water temperature has a wide range, from 15 celsius / 59 fahrenheit between May and June to 30 celsius / 86 fahrenheit between September and November.
Top Wildlife Sightings in San Jose del Cabo
Divers in San Jose del Cabo get to enjoy encounters with many iconic Baja California marine species: huge schools of fish like jacks and porkfish, endangered sea turtles, hundreds of schooling mobula rays, macro-critters like colorful nudibranchs, a diversity of stingrays and moray eels and even sharks. If lucky, a diver might even catch sight of a manta ray gliding by the Corridor dive site Santa Maria.
Wildlife Sightings are Based on User Generated Content
Alamy-Christian Zappel
112 Sightings
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28
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8
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7
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6
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12
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7
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2
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2
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3
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8
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22
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7
AdobeStock/G Russel Childress
Great Hammerhead Shark
70 Sightings
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3
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2
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4
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3
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0
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12
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3
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3
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3
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10
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20
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7
AdobeStock-Magnus
Humpback Whale
39 Sightings
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7
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8
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6
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2
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3
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8
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5
The image shown is a representative illustration and does not depict every individual animal in this category.
Total number of species approx.: 200
Alamy-WaterFrame
Moray Eel
37 Sightings
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3
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1
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1
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6
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4
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4
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3
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3
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1
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6
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5
iStock-crisod
Reef Manta Ray
14 Sightings
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2
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1
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2
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1
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3
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1
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3
The image shown is a representative illustration and does not depict every individual animal in this category.
Total number of species approx.: 7
iStock-Michael Zeigler
Sea Lion
13 Sightings
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7
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1
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1
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1
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3
The image shown is a representative illustration and does not depict every individual animal in this category.
Total number of species approx.: 25
iStock/Juliosanjuan
Eagle Ray
11 Sightings
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2
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2
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2
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1
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4
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0
iStock/Divepic
Giant Oceanic Manta Ray
10 Sightings
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2
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0
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0
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0
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8
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0
The image shown is a representative illustration and does not depict every individual animal in this category.
Total number of species approx.: 600
iStock/ultramarinfoto
Wrasse
8 Sightings
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2
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2
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1
Shutterstock-Shane Myers Photography
Green Turtle
7 Sightings
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1
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0
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1
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1
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0
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0
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2
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2
The image shown is a representative illustration and does not depict every individual animal in this category.
Total number of species approx.: 300
Alamy/Reinhard Dirscherl
Octopus
7 Sightings
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1
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0
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0
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1
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3
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0
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0
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0
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0
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2
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0
The image shown is a representative illustration and does not depict every individual animal in this category.
Total number of species approx.: 27
iStock-Global_Pics
Barracuda
4 Sightings
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1
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1
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1
iStock/Extreme Photographer
Whale Shark
3 Sightings
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3
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