Dive trip San Andrés Island

Stay, Diving holidays in Colombia, on the San Andrés Island

Combine business with pleasure while shopping on Isla San Andrés, the largest island in the archipelago made up of Providencia and Santa Catalina on the shores of the Caribbean Sea!
Indeed, this island is exempt from taxes (free taxes) on the sale of products (our VAT!). You can, therefore, buy cheaper brand name clothes like Chanel, as well as duty-free alcohol such as Jack Daniel's whiskey. There is also an excellent hotel infrastructure at all prices.

Another facet of the island is more authentic with charming bays, dozens of colorful wooden houses, translucent water with marvelous shades of blue, islets such as Johnny Cay, Cotton Cay, Crab Cay and Brothers Cay, close to the coast, magnificent sandy beaches lined with coconut trees where hammocks are hung, ideal for drinking lulo juice and having a lunch of fresh fish and seafood.
Discover this island by snorkeling. As there is no beach on the west coast of the island, access to the sea is possible thanks to the facilities made by the locals with ladders in the rocks, small improvised pontoons, lockers to keep your belongings and flipper and mask rental services.

To the east of San Andrés City, snorkel Haynes Cay, an islet topped by a dozen palm trees with the nearby El Acuario islet.
Go to Wreck Diamond with a depth of 12 m, accessible from the shore. The prettiest part for diving is located between West View and Piscinita. With a car and your snorkeling equipment, go to El Faro.
From the shallow beach of Cocoplum Bay in San Luis, you can walk to Rocky Cay, capped with vegetation, 200 m from the shore and the rusty wreck of a boat stranded on the reef serves as a landmark for snorkeling.

A diving holiday on San Andrés Island is possible for all levels of divers due to the diversity of the sites with caves, coral gardens and drop-offs, in a profusion of turtles, butterflyfish, angelfish, and boxfish.
Also take advantage of this environment to take an Open Water Diver or Advanced course, or to become a Search and Recovery Diver by learning effective techniques to search for an object underwater... like your pair of sunglasses lost from a pontoon!

Marine species in the area

Dive sites

Many diving providers have established themselves in Isla San Andrés. However, only a few of them have diving boats.
There are, in fact, organized departures from the shore, along the west coast. The divers with their boulders climb the rocks to get in and out of the water.
It is, therefore, necessary to have booties with adjustable soles and fins. Some centers do not offer wetsuits or those famous booties with soles, adjustable fins, or computers for hire. Confirmed divers, it is therefore preferable to have all your diving equipment here!When departures are by boat, each trip is organized with 2 dives without coming back to shore.The dive lasts 45 minutes with a surface interval of 15 minutes between dives and then we change dive sites.A diving holiday on the island of San Andrés allows access to about 30 dive sites around the island.

Most of them are accessible simultaneously to beginners and experienced divers.
Ideal for beginners, Bajo Bonito is a very beautiful reef, parallel to the coast, in the north-west of the island, between 5 and 16 m.
The more experienced divers have access to a small cave with octopus, lobsters and moray eels in the holes. Stingrays and flying gurnards burrow on the sand. Sometimes nurse sharks can be seen.Diamond Cantil, to the north, allows the flight over large reefs on a sandy bottom.In the south, turtles have taken up residence in El Padi Cantil, a coral garden. A drift dive is carried out to reach the Diamond wreck, further on.

El Avion, these are the remains of a propeller plane, which sank 20 years ago a few hundred meters from the airport, lying on the sand, in the middle of coral, covering a vast area, with lionfish, shrimp, barracudas and jacks.At El Velerito, a wreck of a small sailboat serves as an artificial reef in the coral, 10 m deep, but it's at the edge of the drop-off, more than 45 meters down, that the fish concentrate.Take easy walks for diving or snorkeling at La Piscinita, La Rocasa, Montanita, West Point, Bajo Bonito Cantil, Dedos de Morgan, and Big Channel, beautiful bright coral gardens in the 10m depths, with slopes that reach 30 to 40 minutes, with angelfish and parrotfish.

At Dedos de Morgan, you can observe many crabs, lobsters, and moray eels. At Big Channel, hard corals and sponges are worth a visit.
In front of the main reef, at Los Cables, the eastern side of a huge coral block descends to a depth of 60 m.Above this coral shoal, schools of jacks and mackerel pass by. On the sand, between the main reef and the coral block, we find the Cushion Sea Stars (Culcita novaeguineae).A special mention is given by photographers to the Pyramid site because of the triangular shape of the main reef. The site, an expanse of small coral boulders, is shallow, bright, with schools of blue gorgonians (Haemulon sciurus) and blue-striped grunts, shrimp and arrowhead crabs, and Caribbean eye-spotted coins of the Cyphoma gibbosum type. This is the only place where night dives are allowed.

Often, the second dive on the west coast of the island is at Reggae Nest, a nice reef parallel to the coast, between 10 and 33 m, covered with rocks with a cave. Sometimes a nurse shark hangs around there, with a large sedentary Baracuda.
At Trampa Tortuga, stingrays are lying on the sand. First, we cross a coral garden from 10 to 20 m and to the northeast the slope drops to 60 m deep.A pinnacle rises from 60 m to 22 m, with large pelagic fish. Very nice surprises await you here with dolphins, sometimes manta rays and reef sharks.More experienced divers, go to Blue Wall, a drop off at 60 m deep.Large blocks of coral lying in front of this wall form a canyon, which we explore. Grey sharks are often seen here with very large parrotfish.

Leave from the edge at Las Cuerdas and Las Esponjas, from 14 to 20 m deep, with a drop-off at more than 40 m where triggerfish and pelagic fish pass by.Become a happy snorkeler with a beautiful playground stretching between West View and Piscinita! We stop at Wreck Diamond, accessible from the shore, with 12 m of depth in the south of the west coast. With a car and your snorkeling equipment, go to El Faro.
A stay at Isla San Andrésest is ideal in all seasons. Nevertheless, it is best to avoid the months of July and August and prefer the dry season from January to April.