Last Thursday we headed to Manzanillo reef with our newbie diver Morgan, pal Alejandra Braun and some friends from More Divers, a PADI dive shop in Morelia, Michoacan.Manzanillo reef is a nice shallow reef shelf located about twenty minutes south of the Zihuatanejo bay. It's a great spot for beginners and also certified divers and there's a host of marine life that lives off the coral.
For being a first-time diver, Morgan was very relaxed and was excited about exploring the reef below. Pako helped her get suited and Memo from More Divers lent Morgan his devil hood, which quickly turned into the photo-op of the day.Once everyone was in the water, it was time to buddy up and head down the line towards the reef. The water was nice & calm with just a slight surge and plenty of fish life around. Morgan was paired up with Alejandra and Pako was leading the group along.
Within a short time we came upon a sunken cage, which must have been used at one point to catch large lobsters because just about any sea creature can get in and out of it with ease. It's now been transformed into a natural aquarium with all sorts of puffer fish, moorish idols and pacific rainbow fish hanging out. We took some fun photos here and then headed towards the deeper part of the reef, where it looked like there were silvery schools of grunk fish gracefully gliding around.
Carefully imitating Pako and the other more experienced divers with their bouyancy control and folded arms, Morgan was already diving like a pro! She floated away only a couple of times, but was quick to realize she only needed to deflate the BCD to return to the group.
Sure enough after a few tries she was definitely more in control of her body positioning and really enjoying the dive!
Peeking in the crevaces of the coral we found some spider crabs and langostinos or tiny lobster looking creatures. We also came upon two thumb-sized seahorses attached to some smaller pieces of coral. They were so well camoflaged we almost missed them!
