Scuba Diving in Colombia

Diving in Colombia is one of the many attractions of this beautiful country because the doors are submerged in the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, Diving in Colombia has many advantages, options and varieties this post.

• Diving in Taganga – Santa Marta

Taganga is a strategic point to do your dive certification and also it is one of the cheapest places in the world to be certified, to experience a new adventure.

It is a place where there are many beautiful colored fishes, places where you can do drift dive, wreck dives, deep dives, night dive and I recommend you to ask for the area of Aguja Island or The safari in Tayrona Park area.

Certified divers, you can take the Local Orientation program, normally you do tow dives of 40-45 minutes at the deep you are certificate. If you didn’t dive 6 month or more, you need to do refresh dive.

For beginners you have two options:

Discovery Scuba Diving: 2 tanks 45 minutes each one, you go with one professional, in the beginning of the dive you need to do few exercises to fill comfortable in the water, you do it in shallow water and the maximum depth will be 12 meter/40 feet.

Open Water Course «First Level»: this course requires 3 days, the first day you practice in the swimming pool doing 2 dives and the theory, second day 2 more dives in the sea at 12 meters, third day you do 2 more dives at 18 meters. The theoretical classes consist in 5 videos, knowledge review and theory with your instructor.

in the end of the course you receive a certification card with which you can dive to the depth Of 18 meters everywhere in the world.

To arrive to Taganga you can take a bus from the Santa Marta $1600 pesos ($0.5 dollars) down town (5th avenue) or taxi $ 10 000 pesos ($ 3.5 dollars), there is many diving schools, but i recommend you to ask for Luis Escobar, (if you want to go to deeper info here is his whatsapp: +57 323 332 9432) or Taganga Diving Station he is a certified diver with 16 years of experience, very professional and is the only one that has special trips, private safaris with good prices, he can recommend you which are the best Diving in Colombia.

 

• Diving in the Island of Providencia and Sta. Catalina

They are small islands located to the northwest of Colombia, they shelter about 406 species and in it is the Cayo Cangrejo nature reserve, habitat of fish and turtles, is one of the best places to Diving in Colombia.

Providencia has the third largest coral reef in the world and the second in Central America, its extension of 32 km that almost go around the island.

This site houses around 45 dive sites in which you can see: deep blue holes caves, whale sharks, mantas and more.

to reach these Islands you first need to get to San Andres by plane, From many cities in Colombia, the most famous and cheaper air lines flying there: Avianca, Viva Colombia, Wingo, and then by ferry or plane to Providencia and Sta. Catalina’s Island, is recommended to have the Certification cause the courses here are very expensive.

more information about diving in San Andres to: Taganga Diving Station

Diving in Isla Baru – Cartagena

In this place you can make very quiet dives from five to forty meters deep, you can see Morenas, Angels fish, surgeons, fish trumpet etc.

There are not many dive schools in this place most of the dive sites are close from the beach but you have few dive sites more deeps and wreck dive is recommended.

To get to the Island can be done two ways; by sea or by land. By land via the Canal del  Dique, arriving at Pasacaballos and you takes the Ferry,  then you can take a taxi, motorcar or private transportation by motocar the passage is quite 20 minutes and economical $ 8.000 pesos ($3.5 usd) and you can arrange to be picked up at the afternoon.

by boat you need to go to the port (Muelle turistico) directly to Isla Baru like 40 minutes and cost 40.000 pesos ($12 usd)

 

• Gorgona and Malpelo

Malpelo is one of the best places for Diving in Colombia and the world one of the best to see see sharks, this place is wonderful, the arrival is only through diveboats that make safaris for several days “living aboard”, there you can see shoals of up to 200 hammerhead shark, huge mounds, king shark, turtles, shoals of fish of many colors and you can combine the diving with the sighting of the humpback whales

Gorgona is an island also located in the Colombian Pacific, this place has a great history since its beginnings, Gorgona Island was an ancient jail and nowadays it is a nature reserve, the variety of fish is wonderful, you can also enjoy the whales humpbacks in the seasons between July and October.

You need to fly to Cali and them take a bus to Buenaventura port, from there you take one living aboard from for three or four days, is recommendable that you reserve the trip from Cali.

• Capurgana

This place is located on the border with Panama and is almost a virgin place to the dive, because to get there is a bit complicated but its great varieties of fish and reefs make this place a wonderful place to do this sport, there are more than 30 dive sites in this place.

Enjoy each one of your Diving in Colombia, each place have a different beautiful view, if you need more detail about any place in Colombia, you can live you comments.