From what I've heard, there's are reasons why the Don Jose costs less,
basically fulfulling the axiom that you get what you pay for.  But I haven't
heard anything truly terrible or scary about the boat.  On the other hand,
Cantamar has run a successful operation for years there so you'd think they
must get some things right.  Or so you hope.

I'm scheduled in July to go on a boat that's not even scheduled to be put in
service until February, so it's a completely blank slate and I'm a bit
nervous having only the reputation of the company to rely on.  That company,
however, has a terrific reputation with nary a negative review, so I decided
to risk spending 11 nights and many thousands of dollars on what could end
up being a leaky washtub.

From what I recall, the Cantamar people were a family-run operation which
included their related dive op, Baja Diving and Service.  I already
mentioned the problem with their large boats and alluded to the fly problem
we had in our room (a really, really, really bad fly problem).  Otherwise,
the room was OK as cheap Mexican hotel rooms go, with a typical
mattress-like-a-rock and very strong air-conditioning, and I don't recall
any other negatives about the hotel except the bar tab at the swim up bar
where the tiny $4 margarita would turn into $8 if you wanted a double, which
was simply another shot of cheap tequila.

Normally I wouldn't complain about such a rip off (perhaps the prices don't
seem high compared to other resorts, but trust me that they were very out of
range for the sh.t hole that La Paz was at the time, where nice sidewalk
cafes in town would sell you a huge strong margarita for $5 or so), except
that they also tried to charge us for nitrox tanks that we didn't use and
had mixed up some other room's charges with us and ended up being very
unfriendly as we tried to settle the bill.  So unfriendly that they were
actually yelling at us to come back to the office because they thought they
had discovered some other charge that our group supposedly owed, but I
fortunately had rented a car that I needed to return and sped off into the
sunset to safely meet up with the rest of our group at the airport.  That
marked the fifth and last time I ever had to flee a Mexican hotel, as I've
chosen my accomodations more wisely ever since.  (At least the guy chasing
after our car at Cantamar didn't pull a weapon on us like that time in
Ensenada when I was accused of stealing a pillow, but that's a different
story . . .)

Me, I'd go with the Don Jose.