The Lee side of the Rock Immersion

The Garachico Rock is an islet of a volcanic formation (as is the rest of the canary islands) situated in front of Garachico, this islet gave the town its name, because in the old aboriginal language, the islet was called GARA and in Castilian/ Spanish CHICO and so Garachico-small rock.

The close position of the islet to the coast (about 600metres) gives it a good and easy access from a boat. The size of the islet allows us to be able to do up to 4 different dives; on the lee side it is not so deep, so it is more sheltered from the strong currents and main winds of the area which usually blow from east to west, they can reach a force of 37 metres.

At the beginning of the dive, we can observe a small ledge where generally in the midst of the waters there is a shoal of barracudas lying in wait for an unaware little fish, hidden in the sea foam, we descend down the wall until the before agreed surface depth in the briefing.

The volcanic walls have masses of cracks which hide and protect the eels with the inseparable scarlet lady fish, prawns, arrow crabs and sponges. We can also see some elegant sea slugs. To the sounds of our regulators come along banks of damsel fish, bright green wrasse, bream and cod, and if we are in luck, we could find a solitary ray.

Given the maximum depth that one can reach in the dive it is ideal for doing the depth speciality; the wall protects us from possible strong currents and we only have to keep our eyes on the pressure gauge to avoid problems.

The experimenting divers can enjoy the sensation of seeing that there’s still “blue” underwater and that this visibility makes the dive so pleasant.

Inmersion level 2, 3, 4