There’s an entire underwater world waiting when you go snorkeling at Los Arcos in Puerto Vallarta. I visit its mysterious depths after a walk, a ride in a Volkswagen bus, and a short hike. Then: transcendence.

Los Arcos National Marine Park

You can see these rocky outcroppings from downtown Puerto Vallarta, but you need to get close to them to appreciate their size and stunning beauty. They look like massive gray boulders dropped in the sea by Poseidon.

Los Arcos is a flourishing ecosystem because of its protected status as a national park. In Los Arcos National Marine Park, you’ll find caves, deep tunnels, and a coral reef alongside the arches. The warm blue waters are home to many tropical fish and other sea creatures.

I knew the rocks were beautiful and unique, but nothing prepared me for the underwater world around them. Once I had my fins and snorkel on, I floated into the water. Immediately I was in a different place. The curious fish came at me from all sides. The further I went toward the arches, the more diverse the ecosystem became.

How to See the Sea Life of Los Arcos

A few guides in town will loan you equipment and take you to Los Arcos, but there’s also one that brings his underwater camera. I found Sebastian through Airbnb experiences and we met in old town Puerto Vallarta at the bus stop.  

Much to my surprise, we didn’t catch a bus but instead hopped in a Volkswagen Microbus Sebastian had parked around the corner. The van was a classic, with original brown and once-white bench seats. It took the phrase “shabby sheik” to a new level but added novelty to our ride down to Los Arcos.

He drove us to Mismaloya – a former fishing village in a remote cove surrounded by jungle. This is where you’ll find Los Arcos in Banderas Bay in Puerto Vallarta. The van chugged up the mountain hill as he explained that Los Arcos is Spanish for “the Arches” because of the vast gray granite islands pushing up out of the ocean in arch formations.

We ambled our way down the road along the coast and, after about 15 minutes, parked the van on the side of the road. We gathered our masks, snorkels, fins, and floatation tubes and began making our way toward the water. There are only two ways to get to Los Arcos: a hike down to the water or a boat ride. Since we didn’t have a boat, we hiked.  We went through the trees and down a steep decline onto a beach.

There are lots of little “hidden” beaches along this road that runs alongside the water and you can hike through to the trees to get to them. They’re not that popular because they’re hard to get to, the hike is steep, and many of the beaches, like this one, were filled with river rocks, which are ok on the feet but not great for hanging out sunbathing. Plus, unlike the clear blue waters of more popular waters, this beach is filled with rocks and coral – making it suitable for snorkeling and diving, but little else.

Coral Reef at Los Arcos, Puerto Vallarta

As soon as I got in the water, I saw a red and white striped eel hiding under a rock and then not a minute later, a small beige and white Sting Ray swam beneath me. The colors of the fish and coral were breathtaking, and I was nearly stunned by it. I couldn’t turn my head fast enough. I wanted to see everything at once in this new world.

I’ve been snorkeling many times in Florida off the keys, in Puerto Rico, Cancun, and other places, but this time I felt like I was in a saltwater fish tank. There were so many different types and colors of fish it was overwhelming.

The fish were red, black, yellow, orange, blue, purple, pink – and the neon! Some of the fish actually glowed. They were speckled, striped, dotted, splotched, and different prints and patterns harder to explain. One looked like a leopard fish. They were all shaped, round and stout, oval, long and thin, tall and wide, or very narrow and their fins were all unusual types. Some had fins like sharks, or angelfish, or some combination in between. A school of tiny silverfish swam around me and made me feel like I was swimming in a sea of stars.

Sebastian pointed out tropical fish named damsels, pufferfish, boxfish, butterflyfish, eels, and many others as we swam. We saw spotted boxfish, octopuses, rays, and red and white zebra moray eel, schools of needlefish that were long and silver with pointed noses like, you guessed it, needles.

A Big Manta Ray

Then I spotted a giant spotted eagle manta ray the size of a café table. Sebastian said it was only medium-sized! It was beige with white spots, and each time we dove under to get closer to the beautiful thing, it swam away. Finally, it quickly folded itself in half like a pancake, opened back up and was gone like a shot out of sight. It moved like a spaceship launched into a hyperdrive.

After a few hours in the water, we slowly made our way back to shore with a renewed appreciation for the variety of life and mystery on our planet.

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