La Gerardia

The first fifteen minutes of a La Gerardia dive happen at just five metres, swimming over shoals of bogue and the small baitfish locals call gueldes. From there the route drops steadily through a field of large boulders, threading nooks and gaps rather than following a straight wall. The boulders eventually give way to open sand, scattered with yellow and red gorgonians, and the sand carries you out to the dive's real destination: a Savalia savaglia colony in the deepest zone, a wide spread of gold-coloured polyps covering the rock.

From the colony, the profile turns back and shallows out toward seven metres for the return. Current can turn decisive here. When it does, the route gets adjusted rather than forced, and the entry and exit points have to be used exactly as planned rather than improvised on the day. This isn't a dive with a shallow half for less experienced divers to bail into. It's one continuous profile, start to finish.

Nothing else in this reef cluster is built around a single named coral colony the way La Gerardia is. El Cabrón spreads its draw across arches, caves and a recreational plateau; Arinaga is the easy shore entry into the same system. La Gerardia has one destination and commits an entire dive to reaching it.

That commitment is the point. At roughly 30 metres and 60 minutes total, this is the deep, technical option in a cluster of otherwise recreational-depth sites. Divers choose it specifically for the colony, not as a variation on a dive they could do elsewhere nearby. Gold-coral colonies this size aren't common on recreational-depth Canary Island reefs, which is part of why a centre built a dedicated route around this one rather than treating it as one feature among many.

The colony rewards a slow final approach more than a fast one. Bring a light. At 30 metres, natural colour has mostly drained out of the water, and a torch is what brings the gold back into the polyps rather than the grey-brown they show under ambient light. Keep a safe working distance. This is a living colony, not a rock formation, and disturbing it doesn't grow back on a human timescale.

The gorgonians on the sand-flat approach are worth a look on the way in and the way out. Reds and yellows both grow at that depth, which isn't something every site on this coast offers. Time and air are tight this deep, so decide before the dive how much of your remaining bottom time goes to the approach versus the colony itself.

A separate land-access permit is required to drive the unpaved track to the site's car park; this covers the vehicle, not the dive itself, and no permit or fee applies underwater. Recreational rod-and-line fishing is allowed in parts of the surrounding water, which is the specific reason a line-cutter or knife is mandatory kit here rather than a nice-to-have.

Advanced Open Water is the floor, not a formality. The profile runs continuously from a 5-metre transit to a 30-metre colony and back, with no shallow bail-out option built in. Current can turn decisive partway through, and the entry and exit points must be used exactly as briefed. Budget the full hour. Plan gas and no-decompression limits accordingly.