One of things I love about Lanzarote is the quality of diving here – it really is exceptional, with good visibility, gentle currents and an abundance of sea life. But despite having dived here hundreds of times all around the island, I’d never been to the marine reserve areas around La Graciosa.
I was able to change that last week when I went with two friends to dive with Buceo La Graciosa. We caught the first ferry over from Orzola and the dive school is right in the harbour at La Graciosa, where we were met by Jaime, our dive guide and Javier from the company, who was accompanying us to shoot video and still images for another project.
The facilities are good, with a changing room and lockers, and we were offered nitrox, so we elected to use a 30% mixture for our two dives. We kitted up on shore and then carried our gear to the dive boat, which is a very impressive rib with twin 300HP motors. It didn’t take long to go “behind” La Graciosa to Montaña Clara and we were soon anchored over the reef ready to drop down to 30 metres depth following the anchor line down.
I was surprised at how different things looked over there – I was expecting it to be very similar to diving around Lanzarote, but the topography and the sea life are quite different. There’s almost a Red Sea feel to the corals, and the very large shoals of fish over there, which all seemed to be much larger than the ones we see on this island. The reef was interesting in that it was laid out like a canyon, so you could swim along its curving route inside the walls of the canyon and protected from the current.
After surfacing, we raced back across to Playa La Concha and anchored off shore for our surface interval. The beach there is stunning, and I swam ashore to walk along it – it’s pure white sand and the surface is covered with crushed shells – hence the name.
After an hour’s break, we headed to our second dive site, also near Montaña Clara. This was slightly shallower, but no less interesting, and once again we marvelled at just how much sea life there is in the protected area. We had hoped to see some large species – whales and hammerheads are regularly spotted in the area, but sadly they weren’t playing on that day. We did spot a couple of rays, some large tuna stalking a huge sardine shoal, and the biggest rock lobster I’ve ever seen!
We headed back for Caleta de Sebo by going around the other side of La Graciosa, so we completed a full circumnavigation of the island, and on the way back we stopped at one of the day boats to get some cold beers and Tortilla Española, which was very welcome.
It was a fabulous day out – the boat’s skipper (I can’t remember his name) looked after us very well, Jaime was a knowledgeable and helpful guide (he speaks excellent English) and all three of us have promised ourselves that we’ll head over there to dive with them again soon.
You can connect with the dive school on Facebook: Buceo La Graciosa
If you’re interested in diving with them, just fill in the enquiry form here and they will get back to you: La Graciosa Diving
Related Information:
Videocosta excursions in Lanzarote