Colombia is twice the size of France and home to some of the most amazing dive sites in the world, including the world’s third largest coral reef barrier.Choose between dive sites in the Caribbean and the Pacific during your trip to Colombia: the former tend to be clear and more placid, while the latter are a bit wilder. The Island of Malpelo in the Pacific offers truly magnificent dives, where you can see an unbelievable number of hammerheads and silky sharks, as well as the ever-impressive humpback whale (in season).Found far off the mainland is Isla de Providencia, a little-visited destination out in the Caribbean. Technically found closer to Nicaragua than Colombia, Isla de Providencia has incredibly clear water and is an excellent alternative to the massively popular San Andreas. The reefs are exceptional here, and the wall dives are some of the best in the Caribbean. There are also some stellar wreck dives at Isla d Providencia, like the Planchon, a WWII German ship.
Bring a checklist of all the marine life you want to see, because you’ll possibly find it all here. There are whale sharks, hammerhead sharks (sometimes in massive schools), manta rays, humpback whales, angelfish, surgeonfish, butterfly fish, moray eels and scorpion fish.
Bogota, Cartagena, Medellin, Pereira, Cali, and Barranquilla all have an international airport. Most visitors fly into Bogota and some tourists may take connecting flights to smaller airports from there. You can also take ferries or pangas out to the more remote islands, and the public transportation on land is cheap and semi-efficient.
In San Andres, don’t miss out on the Blue Wall, a popular drift dive that takes you along a steep cliff adorned with sponges and abundant marine life. For an easy reef dive, head to Nirvana. For something a bit more advanced zoom out to Trampa Tortuga. The visibility here is out of this world.While on Providencia, head to Felipe’s Place. This coral garden has...
Malpelo Island features strong and changing currents as well as occasional rough seas and is therefore recommended for advanced divers. It is only accessible by diving liveaboard vessels so make sure to book in advance as only one vessel is allowed at the island at any given time. Liveaboard vessels depart from two locations which are either David in Panama, or...