After the warm up in Cartagena, we took a flight to the island of San Andrés. We stayed at the Cocoplum, which has a very nice private beach. I visited several dive shops and the one that ended up pleasing me more were Sharky Dive Shop. I did a total of 13 enjoyable dives with them, most of them on the western side of the island. The 28ºC of the water temperature allows diving with a simple lycra and in my case with only 4kg of weights which is very comfortable. The visibility of all the dives was spectacular, surpassing widely the 30 meters. Also worth mentioning are the good vibes of Roger and Jainer who were guiding me during all the dives.

The dives were in:

La piscinita: It was a deep dive with young couple who were ending their Advanced course. Like several of the sites in the area, it is a shelf that then falls into deep wall.

 

El barco hundido: a rather large and deteriorated shipwreck about 12 meters deep.

El velerito: It was a coast dive, we started passing through a reef and ended up in a very nice sunken sailboat, leaned and without mast.

 

El faro (x2): Easy shore diving. There are some small tunnels formed in the reef so it´s possible to swim through them. The left air under the corals filters above these tunnels making lots of bubbles.

Wildlife: Also a shelf that then falls. During this dive, one of the divers lost a camera. While we were looking for it we crossed with 15 dolphins going in the opposite direction at a very high speed. One just turned around us and then left.

As Sharky guys define it, a diving “Hello Kitty” dive, quite close to the coast. As in el Faro there are a tunnel formations. We ended up near a trampoline on the coast.

Westpoint:  Another shelf that drops into a wall. We went upto 40 meters deep and then slow came back to the  shelf at 20 meters

La piedra de José (Joseph´s stone): Similar to Westpoint. I descended up to 41,5 meters and got my first nitrogen narcosis.  I ascended 3 meters and it went away. It´s quite easy on these dive to go beyond 30 meters.

Punta PADI: Easy dive about 15 meters deep. I saw some moray eels and sharp tail eel.

Nirvana: Night dive from the coast. Many lobsters. Jainer, the divemaster pointed his flashlight to a barracuda, that suddenly rushed into his chest and punched him. Luckily, nothing happened. Scary!

Sharp tail eel

The only dive I did on the east side of the island. Accessing depends on the wind not generating too much surge. It is a vertical wall that falls upto 60 meters or more. We went deep upto 43 meters with a spectacular visibility.  From there, the view of the wall and the surface gives an indescribable sense of immensity. We then climbed the wall and entered a small canyon just to get to the upper shelf. Higly recommendable diving spot but not for beginners.

Dedos de Morgan: After the Bluewall we did this simple dive with a finger-shaped reef pointing towards Morgan’s cave on the island. Then I did a whole day of rest to be able to fly.

Diving sites in San Andrés – Sharky Dive Shop

Snorkelling with Mantas in San Andrés

Another worthwhile attraction is snorkeling with mantas. They are very friendly and they can get really close to tourists. If you move away from the crowds you can get really cool photos.

Manta in San Andrés