Diving in Santa Marta and Taganaga

This area offers possibilities to dive in both Santa Marta or Taganga, the neighbouring fishing village. But you also can dive at the Aquarium and Museum of the sea, where you will see seals, turtles, dolphins and sharks. Santa Marta has excellent clear water, in addition to the huge diversity of marine life. There is a sub-aquatic garbage collection event in the Bay of Taganga that has became over the years very popular: singers, actors and people from public knowledge appear to protect the environment from damaging littering on the sea. This has made the event very popular. 

In Santa Marta you can find differents kind of diving, such as coral reefs, caves, sunken ships and various marine ecosystems. You can also find different levels of difficulty dive, from beginners to more advanced divers.

You can find a variety of dive sites. Among them you can find Remanso and Punta Venado, which are ideal for beginners divers, and also it is the nice place for doing night dives. The Granate is a bay from Tayrona Park, it is well protected from the trade winds, and it offers some deeper diving. You will find many patches of coral in the center of this arena, like little oasis with an enormus number of species. Another dive site is la Pecera, which has an exuberance of hard coral, and is often visited by hawksbill turtles. In El Torin you'll find the best vissibility of the area. El Coro point, is the union of 2 rocks forming a underwater cave. In Calichan you can find an untouched underwater mountain covered with lettuce coral. And Naufragio “Barco hundido” dive site site offers a 17 years old sunken boat, covered by oysters and corals. Other dive sites are: La Piedra del Medio site, El Cantil, El Salidero spot, Paso del ngel site, Morrito Largo. 

In all these dive sites you'll find typical reef marine life and a great diversity of corals. In the recent years the lionfish seems to have been found more and more often in the bay of Santa Marta.

The weather is tipical tropical with temperatures ranging from 25°C (77ºF) to 30°C (86ºF), accompanied by a sea breeze. The water temperature ranges between 21°C (70ºF) and 29°C (84ºF), and the northwest winds make the water temperature decrease.

Travel to Santa Marta and Taganaga

Santa Marta is the oldest colonial city in Colombia. The proximity of the city to the waterfront, its warmth, and its beaches makes it an attractive city for tourists. It's also the starting point for most excursions in the area. One of the many attractions the city has is the Aquarium and the farm where Simon Bolivar died (the liberator of Colombia and other Latin American countries).

Like we said before, Santa Marta is a conection point to nearby atracttions. At the north of Santa Marta you'll find Taganga, a fishing village where most of the diving is done, and it's just 10 minutes away by bus from Santa Marta. And further northeast is located the Tayrona National Park.

To reach this area you'll need to fly to any major city in Colombia (Bogota, Medellin, Cartagena, etc) and then take a conection flight to Santa Marta. From the airport to the city you'll need to take a taxi.

In Santa Marta you have every type of accommodation, it just depends on how much you are willing to spend. From 5 star hotels to Bed and Breakfast lodging.

Once in the area, besides diving, you may visit the historical places like Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino where their liberator died. Also you could go to the oldest Colombian church, the Cathedral, that presents a mixture of architectures. And you may visit the Gold Museum, where you can find belongings from Tairona and Arhuaco culture and Kogui Indians. For the ecologist, near Santa Marta is located the Mamancana Park. This park is an ecotourism project where it aims to mix extreme activities with the extraordinary beauty of the park. You can enjoy hang gliding, rockclimbing walls, canopying, rappelling, etc.