Diving Playa Flamingo Bay, Lanzarote

Did you know, there are no Flamingos in Lanzarote, I mention this as you may wonder why it is so named, I haven’t a clue, but there again there is another diving area at Playa Chica, which roughly translates to beach girl, the mind boggles, but I digress, which for all you Sun Newspaper readers means I have wondered off and lost the point, which is the dive at Flamingo Bay.

This dive is like no other on Lanzarote, it is relatively shallow, 19 mtrs at high tide, there are no drop offs, but I can only liken it to diving in an aquarium.

Flamingo is a man made bay, formed by two concrete and rock arms some 100mtrs long with an opening in the centre, or rather it was until in 2006 nature took a hand in a full blown (excuse the pun) Hurricane, this destroyed a lot of the wall and deposited large slabs in the entrance, it should have been repaired by last November, however this is Spain!!.

The dive, as a result can only be done at high tide, in a way this is good because it is not over dived and the marine life has been allowed to become prolific.

So the dive, you cross the beach and surface swim out to what was the entrance, carefully pick your way through the boulders, then reach a small drop off to 9 mtrs, turning right it is best to follow the wall line, its still intact underwater, within a short distance you will encounter shoals of fish of different species, without exaggeration these shoals number in hundreds, and they are not shy of humans.

At this time of year there are numerous Angel sharks here, a word to the wise, if they are laying on the bottom covered in sand, it is because they are feeding, waiting for a fish to swim past then they will strike, so don’t grab them by the tail, it can seriously p—s” them off and they may decide your hand is food!

There are a number of Octopus here, unusually in the open, further on you will encounter large shoals of Barracuda, sometimes surface to bottom, they will let you through, but have the disconcerting habit of then circling you!, a bit further the wall ends and a small reef heads out, don’t be tempted to go out to far, there is not a lot there, and you would need to go half way to Fuerteventura to get 30 mtrs, besides, further out there is a strong current.

In this area there are large shoals of Sardine, here sometimes a strange thing happens, I should explain that either end of the relatively shallow channel between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura there are huge depths 300 to 500 mtrs, and that is the area where Blue shark and Marlin are caught, on occasions the shoal of Sardines suddenly, as one, split and hurtle off, leaving you looking out to sea wondering what made them do that!!.

On the return to the opening in the wall at the end of the dive, we sometimes, carry on underwater back to the shore, the water in the bay itself is cloudy, so we use a compass, however there is a weird anomaly here, it can make you disbelieve your compass and seem to swim in circles!!

I was going to review places on the island for breakfast and Tapas as a separate thing, however it seems an idea to do it with each dive site review, so with this dive site I can recommend breakfast at two places; The Irish Anvil, which is near the Harbour, it does a mega breakfast, well cooked at a good price, it has an ingredient I had not seen before,white pudding, which I guess is Black pudding without the blood!.

Next, In Marina Rubicon, Lanis snack bar, which considering the location does a good breakfast very cheap.

Safe Diving
Medical Mick