Diving in La Herradura

Orange coral (Astroides calycularis) and dead man's hand (Alcyonium palmatum, a soft coral) grow side by side on the deep walls of Punta de la Mona and Piedras Altas, with red and yellow gorgonians higher up. That is what experienced divers come to La Herradura for, and it sits a short boat ride east of a horseshoe bay shallow and sheltered enough for baptisms and first courses.

Punta de la Mona is the signature wall, covered in gorgonians and prone to current; one operator lists a 17 m descent line, a maximum beyond 40 m and a 20 m average, and grades it Advanced with nitrox recommended. Piedras Altas carries the same corals on a rocky, current-swept bottom. Cueva del Jarro is a cavern named for the amphorae once found there, and an overhead environment, so it asks for more than its medium grade suggests. Piedra del Hombre is a large rock breaking the surface where fish gather, with moray eels and triggerfish. La Calita, a sand and rock cove with a wall variant, is the sheltered stop on the headland and pairs a shallow cove with a deeper route on the same boat drop, its crevices rich in macro life.

Inside the bay, Marina del Este is the sector described as the one to choose when a west wind blows. Its sub-sites climb in difficulty: the shallow reefs and the sheltered rock wall of Vapor-Escollera, around 12 m, suit first dives, Mola Mola Point at about 26 m asks for Advanced Open Water, and the gullies of Las Hondonadas drop past 40 m. El Vapor, a rock wall with some current, is graded easy, and Pecio Los Candelabros, on rock and sand with current, medium. Along the Maro-Cerro Gordo coast, La Huerta is a sand and rock dive inside the park, with eagle rays and groupers among cerianthus anemones and sponges.

The park, a 12 km marine-terrestrial strip between Nerja and Almuñécar, was declared by Ley 2/1989 of 18 July and listed as a Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Importance in 2003. Decreto 6/2015 added Natura 2000 status, enlarged the park and approved the management plan that sets today's diving rules. That plan names recreational scuba itself as a source of impact, through anchoring and coral damage.

Most visitors fly into Málaga and drive the A-7. Centres cluster in La Herradura and Almuñécar, and boats leave from Puerto Deportivo Marina del Este.

Inside the park every scuba dive runs from a support boat on the park's buoys under a prior authorisation, so boat dives there go through authorised operators in practice, and a diver without a boat books with one. The Advanced grading on the two deep walls is operator practice, not a rule of the decree: ask your centre which part of the wall the day's dive will use and what depth that implies. Cueva del Jarro belongs on a guided dive with a centre that runs it.

May to October is the main season, July to September the busiest. Winter diving continues, though some centres run fewer days from December to March, so call ahead.