Revillagigedo Archipelago dive sites

El Boiler is only accessible by liveaboard departing from Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of Baja California. The crossing takes roughly 24 hours depending on sea conditions. Trips typically run from November through May and last between 8 and 10 days, covering multiple dive sites across the Revillagigedo Archipelago including San Benedicto, Socorro, and Roca Partida. Advance booking is essential as the limited number of liveaboard permits sell out months ahead.

The giant oceanic manta rays of the Revillagigedo Islands have had decades of positive interactions with divers and display a level of curiosity rarely seen elsewhere. Scientists believe they actively seek out the bubble streams from regulators, possibly for a cleaning or tactile sensation. At El Boiler, mantas regularly hover directly above kneeling divers for extended periods, sometimes ten minutes or more, making eye contact and adjusting position to stay close. Touching the mantas is strictly prohibited to protect their mucous coating.

Advanced Open Water certification is the minimum requirement, and most operators recommend at least 50 logged dives. The site features strong currents, blue-water descents, and depths to 30 metres. A liveaboard trip to the Revillagigedo Archipelago is not the place for newly certified divers. Nitrox certification is highly recommended for the repetitive deep diving schedule, and experience with current diving will make the experience significantly more enjoyable.

Roca Partida is the most remote and smallest of the four Revillagigedo Islands, essentially a vertical rock pinnacle rising from over 3,000 metres of open ocean. Its extreme isolation concentrates marine life around the only solid structure for many kilometres in every direction. The result is an unparalleled density of sharks, with dozens of whitetip reef sharks stacking on ledges, packs of silky sharks circling in midwater, and Galapagos sharks patrolling the deeper slopes. No other site in the archipelago offers this level of shark biomass in such a compact area.

The rock breaks the surface by only a few metres and the productive diving zone extends from the surface down to around 40 metres, where the walls disappear into the abyss. Most of the shark action occurs between 15 and 30 metres on the sheltered side of the pinnacle. Hammerheads tend to patrol deeper, from 25 to 40 metres. Dive plans are heavily influenced by current direction, as you want to position yourself on the lee side where sharks congregate in calmer water.