Saturday, June 12 1999 - Malpelo

Good morning fellow travellers,

We are now on a somewhat rolling anchorage at Isla Malpelo. Malpelo is out in Pacific about 500km west of Buena Ventura in Columbia. It consists of one main island, about 5km², surrounded by several small islets and rock pinnacles. The islands and pinnacles rise almost vertically out of the sea to a height of 258m (~850ft), and the whole thing looks very impressive even from a distance.

Isla Malpelo

The Island is uninhabited except for a small military station belonging to the Columbian army. As soon as we were close enough they hailed us and asked to come aboard to inspect our papers. In order to do this we had to put the small Zodiac tender in the water and motor round to pick them up. To get on and off any visiting boats, they use a metal gantry - built out over the sea and climb up or down a rope ladder. Two of the 6 people at the station came to the boat. They were relatively young men from the Columbian military and again we had to’hand and foot it’ with the communication. However we showered them with our official papers and after perusing them carefully they seamed to find enough to satisfy them. We told them that we would be diving - they said that that was no problem, but that there were ‘mucho sharks’. Malpelo is really only a place for experienced divers, the water is deep and there are many currents. So only a few people will be going in the water today.

Michael and Angelica were the first to get wet, followed by Trevor and Monika; they came back and reported seeing great schools of Amber Jacks, also White Tipped reef sharks, octopus, and tens of Moray Eels.