Snorkeling With Mobula Rays in La Paz Mexico

By Mark and Jean Scanlon

I wanted to share my experience snorkeling with mobula rays in La Paz Mexico. In May of 2024, my wife and I traveled there. One of my bucket list items was to see mobula rays jumping. We saw that, and so much more! After flying into Los Cabos, we rented a car and drove a couple hours northeast to our rental apartment in La Paz.

Our Three Tours Seeking Mobula Rays

Our first snorkeling tour was advertised as a mobula tour, we drove about an hour to the village of La Ventana. The boat and the tour operator were fine, except they found very few mobulas for us to see. Visibility was good, but not great. We saw the common fish we have seen around the Caribbean before, and were happy to be in the water.

Our next snorkel tour was to Espirito Santo Island. We loved swimming near sea lions a lot more than we thought we would. The coral reefs were a little wavy, but we did see some nice small reef denizens.

The next day was windy and overcast, so we hung out on El Tecolote, an okay beach with bar and food service.

What really made the trip for us was our last tour, with Baja Tours who launch from a private pier just north of the Malecon in La Paz. Our captain and guide, Jus and Alex (Alejandro) were amazing! The tour was originally to be two stops at San Rafelito (a sea lion colony), and Balandra Beach. Because it was just us and another couple, we put ourselves in their hands, and they started a safari tour with us.

We stopped at the sea lion colony, and there we found out how great Alex was as a guide! We followed him swimming around a group of “teenager” sea lions hanging out near the reef. He knew how to get the sea lions to be aware of us, but not concerned, then we swam within three meters of the pod. It was so cool to be so close, and not have them be afraid of us. They took turns swimming around and underneath us for probably 20 to 30 minutes before we moved on.

Next we saw and snorkeled with a few mobulas, and even saw a couple jumps. The mobulas are so wonderful to see! But this was just a taste.

We stopped for a nice lunch on the white sands of Balandra Beach, with its interesting rock formations and crystal clear waters. Wading around trumpetfish, trunkfish, and a few other small fish was a nice break!

Leaving the beach, we saw a couple dolphins swimming nearby, and then the best part of the whole trip… Jus spotted a few mobulas jumping in the distance. When we got to the pod, we got to see probably 12 to 20 jumps within 40 meters, and then we went into the water on top of the pod.

Mobulas travel in large numbers, in tight groups. We were perhaps 10 meters over the group, and we could not see all of them in a single view. We had to look up and down, and side to side to see all the rays under us! This was one of the most impressive moments of all of our snorkeling adventures around the world.

We got back on the boat, and back into the water ahead of the pack of rays two more times, to finish one of our top snorkel tours of our lives.

We will return to La Paz, but will probably fly directly there and skip the big city area of Cabo. But not before our trip next year to Raja Ampat on this tour!