Diving in Tenerife 2012

I have to admit that the beauty of the underwater world around the island of Tenerife came as a bit of a surprise to me. The volcanic rock bottom of the Atlantic ocean around the island is in itself a sight worth seeing. There are some exellent dive sites just off the beaches of the popular Playa de las Americas, only a short boat-trip away. It is possible to see masses of different species of fish and other marine life, from octopusses and tortoises to dolphins and even whales.

I dove with Wannadive, a dive center that is located right at beach front of Playa Las Vistas. They picked me up from my hotel in the morning, we got into our dive gear at the center (very convenient!) then walked in full gear to the beach where we hopped into their little boat.

It only took about 10-15 minutes to get to the dive sites. The water was clear and the temperature not too cold, around 19 centigrade in late January-early February. Temperatures in the Canary Islands make it possible to dive comfortably all-year-round. Plenty of life to see underwater, we even saw some dolphins from the boat on the way back!

An angel shark

Spotted an angel shark lazing on the bottom. They can grow up to about two meters long, and are completely harmless to humans.

A dive site definitely worth seeing is Roncadores Pal Mar. It gets its name from the huge school of roncadores-fish, that circles round and round in a horse-shoe shaped gorge of volcanic rock. It's an easy dive with max depth of 23 meters.

When we got in the water at Roncandores Pal Mar, we jumped straight in the middle of dozens of large jellyfish!

Wreck of El Condesito

The El Condesito wreck is another nice dive site. The ship sunk in the seventies. There is plenty of life around it, but the wreck is an impressive sight in itself. Also an easy dive, suitable for beginners.