Roncadores del Faro

Two different dives leave from the same mooring here, and which one you get depends on what you book. The standard route drops onto a platform at 20 metres, where a small tunnel gives the first taste of overhead terrain before a short swim toward a wall dressed in black coral, threading past caves and grottoes along the way. Roncadores move over the lava terrain in dense, single-mass schools throughout. The deeper variant instead follows the edge from a shallow 4-metre anchor almost straight down, through sharper basalt steps, swim-throughs and plateaus, toward the wall's base at 25 to 40 metres. It's the same volcanic architecture either way, just two very different amounts of it.

Black coral on a wall is not something you find often on this side of Tenerife, where the coastline south of here runs mostly to sand and open reef. Combine that with a site built around basalt columns, canyons and a small crater, and Roncadores del Faro reads as more sculpted than most of its neighbours. It also does something few sites manage from one boat trip: a genuinely easy dive and a genuinely advanced one, run from the identical mooring point, so a mixed group doesn't have to choose between them.

Bring a wide-angle setup for the wall. Black coral growing at accessible depth is rare enough on this coast that it's worth planning the dive around, and the surrounding basalt columns and small crater give a wide lens plenty to frame beyond the coral itself. On the shallow route, the roncadores schools reward patience: let the group settle rather than chasing it, and the fish will often close back in around you. Macro shooters get more from the tunnel and cave sections, where trumpetfish and moray eels tuck into crevices and slipper lobsters sit further back out of the light.

Ask which version of the dive you're booked on before you go. A torch earns its keep on the black-coral wall and in the caves along the way. Current can turn from mild to decisive depending on swell, so check conditions with your operator, especially before the deeper route. Watch for pleasure-boat traffic on the surface once you're back up.