Scuba Diving in Cartagena de Indias: A world under the sea

Cartagena de Indias is a city that enchants its own people as well as its visitors with its natural wealth. In Cartagena you can enjoy lots of different acitivities all very close to the city. Certainly, if you’re into water sports, the city offeres everything from wind and kite surfing to scuba and snorkling as well as some of the more wild activities like jet surfing. Practicing scuba diving is one of the activities that should not be missed in your list of plans for the city.

The areas that we recommend to practice this scuba and snorkling in Cartagena are: the Island of Barú, Tierra Bomba and the Banks of Salmedina, a marine reef on the west coast of the bay. Because of their crystalline waters, these places are love at first sight and offer abundant marine life. There are more than 30 sites where the great variety of flora and fauna will welcome you. You will be exposed to the sensations that live under the sea and to the wonderful marine universe that is offered by this magical destination.

The water landscape is made up of seven shipwrecks, reef corals and the great diversity of marine species. Between a world of sponges, corals, dusky worms, sea lilies, anemones, algae and tunicates, a variety of unimaginable colors. The waters are exceptionally clear as you get even a small distance from the city, making them ideal for underwater photography.

Banks of Salmedina

The Banks of Salmedina are a marine reef that is located on the coast west of the Bay of Cartagena. It is a bay that has depths from 10 feet to 100 feet. It is a reef formation with a diversity of marine life. It is frequently visited as a great place to practice diving, since it is located only five nautical miles from the city. In its shallow waters, there are two sunken ships that serve as a diving base and all, not too surprisingingly in the shadow of a lighthouse. Today, the bay is also marked by another lighthouse indicating the shallowest part of the whole reef. These shallows were the cause of the sinking of some Galleon ships back in the day, and you can still see scattered around the área some of the remains of these like guns.

Corales del Rosario National Park

The Corales del Rosario and San Bernardo Park are an important port of the local ecosystems. They are inhabited mainly by coral reefs which house hundreds of animals, including fish of different shapes and colors, corals, crustaceans and other species.

Few places in the world offer a spectacle of beauty and diversity as extraordinary as a coral reef. The beauty of a coral reef is not only due to the diversity of its shapes and colors. In Corales del Rosario, it is possible to observe, in shallow depths of crystalline waters, the life of the reefs, an extraordinary spectacle that surpasses the most vivid imagination.

Underwater Museum

Cartagena has the Museum of Art and Environment, Mumar, whose first pieces lie submerged in the bottom of the seabed, in front of the Island of Baru. The five sculptures made by the Colombian artist Germán Botero, form the Garden of Jellyfish, the first part of the sculptural project that will function as an artificial reef. The pieces of wood are anchored to 9 meters of depth and arranged in a circular way, diagonal to an area known as the Cienaga de los Vásquez, 25 minutes by boat from Cartagena. This is the first museum of its kind in Colombia and definitely a must see for any scuba visitor. To visit it you can go to the different operators of tourism and diving in the city.

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In this city you have the privilege of performing more than 6 nautical activities.
On the beaches of El Laguito: Kayak and Paddleboard
On the beaches of Castillogrande: Windsurfing
On the beaches of Bocagrande: Surf
On the beaches of La Boquilla: Kitesurf and Flyboard
Tierra Bomba Island, Barú and Rosario Islands: Diving