![]() It has some very nice vistas of the coast. The path varies quite a bit from wooden walk ways to rocks and loose sans. From Cañaveral it's about an hour's walk to Arrefices (the path is marked). There are mini vans you can take for this stretch for $CCOP 2.000 per person. I guess that would be almost an hour on foot. Our driver brought us to Cañaveral (we entered at El Zaino (km32 on the road from Santa Marta to Palomino). ![]() Luckily we had bought our tickets well in advance from a Colombian tour operator so we skipped the lines. When we were there the holiday for the Colombians was just coming to an end but still it was quite busy. Getting there: By air or land to Santa Marta from all over Colombia, then by bus, colectivo or moto-taxi to Taganga.Obviously PNN is popular, both with foreign and domestic visitors. It’s where I learned and the variety of operators meant I had an instructor to myself. Taganga (like Honduras’ Bay Island or Thailand’s Ko Tao) is one of those brilliant places to learn to dive in a nice location for a staggeringly good price. It’s on here for the sheer number of dive operators in the little town, and the cheapness of doing a course here. Taganga isn’t really on the list for its world-class diving experiences: it’s in the Caribbean and a variety of gorgeous marine life can be seen, as well as an array of corals, however there are better places to go in Colombia. Getting there: By air from Medellin, or, alternatively, overland to Turbo followed by a three hour speedboat trip through the Gulf of Uraba (sit in the back of the boat, trust me!). The best time to dive is between May and November, and there are several good-quality dive centres located in he town. There are more than 30 dive sites, and from Capurgana you can organise a dive in the stunning San Blas Islands. This area on the Panama border near the Darien Gap has preserved a gorgeous coral reef, partly due to its inaccessibility and lack of tourism. That’s right, I even dive in my Colombia shirt… There is a hotel attached to the National Park or you can visit on a live-aboard dive boat. Getting there: You can fly from Cali, take a dive boat or ferry from Buenaventura or a high-speed boat from Guapi. Turtles can also be seen here, although the real treat is visiting between July and October, when you can combine diving the wrecks and cliffs of Gorgona with whale-watching. There are a number of impressive dive sites where you can observe a vast number of Pacific species. Getting there: This one’s a bit more challenging! You have to visit on a dive boat: talk to a travel agent or tour company to find out which companies are currently running trips to Malpelo and when they are available.Īnother Pacific diving spot, Gorgona is an inhospitable island, formerly used as a prison, which now serves as a nature reserve and breeding area for humpback whales. People have reported schools of up to 500 sharks around Malpelo. It’s worth the time and money though Malpelo is one of the best places in the world to dive with sharks, including hammerheads, whale, and the rare sunray shark. If Providencia is the accessible best of Colombian diving, Malpelo is the inaccessible version: a craggy rock in the Colombian Pacific, it can only be reached by boat, and divers can only visit here as part of an organized trip on a dive boat. Hammerhead shark…imagine 500! (photo: Barry Peters) ![]() From there you have two choices: a Satena-operated flight to Providencia or a 2 hour catamaran trip between the islands. Getting there: You’ll need to fly to San Andres (routes with Avianca, LAN and VivaColombia) first. The largest reef has an area of 255km 2, and the diverse dive sites include caves, blue holes and even sunken pirate ships, making Providencia arguably the best dive site in Colombia. You can dive here among some of the most beautiful corals in South America, and it’s possible to observe 4 species of shark. The seas around Providencia are a UNESCO protected area, and are known as the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve. Providencia and Santa Catalina, a smaller island to the north, is home to the third largest coral reef barrier on earth, and includes over 40 dive sites. So, that being said, here are See Colombia’s Top 5 diving spots in Colombia… All of this sea makes for some incredible diving experiences, and some fairly unique ones too. The wonders of Colombia aren’t just on dry land: the country boasts two separate coastlines, and a number of gorgeous islands and offshore natural reserves.
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