Caleta Baja

Three dives start from one parking area above the rocks, and each gives a different shape to the same volcanic terrain. Cueva Cruentatus is a cavern set in the middle of a canyon. A bank of red catalufas fills it, two large giant anemones carry spider crab and shrimp, and a Palythoa colony holds a cleaning station. El Rajón is a big cut in the rock, partly under a ceiling, with a lobster, a giant anemone and a moray in its crevices, and the deeper zone beyond it is where rays and angel sharks are usual. The Bufadero, also called El Ojo de Tamarán, goes one way: it begins in an overhead section by the blowhole, drops down an L-shaped tube past coral and sponge walls, passes a second tube with a small opening to the surface, and leaves through an arch into open water before the deepest zone. All three finish at the same entry, and each runs about an hour.

Backlit light organises these dives. In the cavern it comes through the mouth onto the catalufa bank, and in the Bufadero it falls down the tube from above, so a dive that starts in a blowhole ends in open blue. The route is the thing to remember: in through the blowhole, down the tube, out by the arch, with the catalufa cavern and the Rajón cut as the other two ways to spend the same entry.

Devil rays visit the Bufadero zone in some summer and autumn months. They are a bonus on the deep leg, where the one-way route leaves time to look.

Entry and exit decide whether a day works: the operator runs these dives only on days the sea suits them, and the entry has to be made at the planned point. Part of El Rajón and the Bufadero is under a ceiling and the current can set the route on both, so follow the guide's line through the covered sections. A line cutter or knife is mandatory on all three dives. Spearfishing is prohibited, but rod fishing is allowed, and lines can end up in the water. Divers heading for the Bufadero blowhole go down a stair and over rocks, and the way out is the same entry used for the other two dives, so the exit point is fixed before anyone gets wet.