El Faro

The boat anchors close to the beacon, so the descent is short. Drop onto the rocky platform at 2-6m, where blue damselfish hang in mid-water and octopus reach across the reef top. The beacon itself sits between roughly 6 and 14m, marking the centre of the seca and serving as the orientation landmark for the rest of the route. Head north-east along the reef contour, descending gently. Boulders and cracks line the way down, and the moray eels and dusky groupers tucked into them are the first signature encounters: groupers tracking divers from inside their hides, morays threading between rocks. Schools of small fish hang above the reef once you look up.

The reef gives way to sand at around 26m, where barracuda usually hover in loose schools or move through the canyon that opens to the right. The canyon is the standard turnaround. From there the route runs back along the reef, passes the beacon for orientation, and finishes with a safety stop at 5m on the platform. Total bottom time runs around 50 minutes when the canyon leg is included.

The seca's geometry is what makes this dive work. A reef that tops at 2m and only reaches 26m at its sand edge stays brightly lit through the water column, and the beacon on the crown acts as a fixed visual anchor that few other east-coast reefs offer. PADI's Spanish coverage describes the conditions as "the light is fantastic" because the site sits in such shallow water, and centres around Cala Pada lean on that quality for ambient-light photography on the platform.

The second draw is the dual profile on a single mooring. The 2-10m crown is shallow enough for introductory dives without leaving the reef. Drop further along the contour and the reef-edge canyon at 24-26m offers a deeper second profile without overhead environments, navigation puzzles, or significant current. Illes Balears Tourism positions the site explicitly for divers in initiation or those who prefer calmer sites, and that framing matches what the reef actually is: a beacon-and-light reef where the deeper version is just deeper, not harder.

The east coast stays relatively dependable in the May-October window under prevailing east winds, but a north-easterly will shut the site down. Check conditions with the dive centre on the morning of the trip rather than assuming the seca is always reachable.

Plan exposure protection for the route you choose. The platform alone is a 3mm summer dive. The canyon leg meets the seasonal thermocline near 20m, so a 5mm with hood is sensible in summer if you intend to drop to the sand, and shoulder seasons reward a 7mm or a semi-dry. Surface boat traffic crosses the seca during the busy season, so finish your safety stop close to the dive boat and use an SMB if you drift off the line.

A few claims about El Faro are worth taking with caution. The structure on the crown is a navigation beacon, not a lighthouse, and the reserve framing some operators use is not backed by a confirmed government designation for this seca. None of that changes the dive on the day, but it is the gap between marketing language and what the reef actually is.