Off the west coast of Panama there are many beautiful islands and dive sites. Only about 30 miles southeast of Panama City lies the Las Perlas Archipelago, a group of 220 islands with beautiful beaches. The dive sites are also ideal for beginners, at a water depth of generally less than 20 meters and calm seas, many fish can be found including some larger species like white tip reef sharks, nurse sharks, eagle rays and manta rays. In some areas, the visibility might not be quite as good.
A little further away from the mainland is the approximately 40 km (25 miles) long island of Coiba. In this pristine national park, divers will encounter an incredible number of fish: schools of mackerel, tuna, barracuda, snappers and rainbow runner. Encounters with nurse sharks, white tip and hammerhead sharks are common here. Manta rays, dolphins and humpback whales are also observed regularly.
Visibility is usually between 15 (49 ft) and 30 (98 ft) meters, often drift dives are offered.
Malpelo Island, which belongs to Columbia, is located 200 nautical miles off the coast, it is one of the best places in the world to see big fish. Malpelo is famous for its large schools of hammerhead sharks, an endemic species of large sand tiger, silky sharks and the countless number of moray eels. Given good visibility and a little luck, eagle rays, numerous schools of fish and whale sharks are observed. The sea surrounding Malpelo can be very rough and often strong currents are present.
Malpelo made environmental protection a priority, fishing is banned and breaking the law will be persecuted. In contrast to many other areas with big fish occurrences, the local shark population is even increasing.. Clearly as a result of the fishing ban, large number of silky sharks can be spotted.
Liveaboards
A diving cruise is the only opportunity to access the fascinating dive sites of Malpelo. In the past the island is visited by dive boats from Costa Rica, which then offered a trip in combination with the Cocos Island, but this option is no longer available.
We have 2 liveaboards in our program, which offer excursions from Panama. Only one liveaboard at the time is allowed in Malpelo's waters. Therefore trips are often fully booked well ahead before commencing.
