Ever dived off of Chile

[Lost_At_Sea]

My fiance lived in Chile for twelve years and we are think about going back. Has anyone ever dived around there? If you have please let me know of what spots are good and if there are dive shops down there. Thanks.

 

[BikerManiac]

Heh heh, I just came back from Chile 5 days ago. While I was down there I called a few dive shops and researched some locations for Diving.

Go here to find the dive shops
http://www.dive-centers.net/diving-chile-15.html

I think the most popular dive site is called "Los Morros". I would bring a 7mm wetsuit as the Pacific ocean is always cold. Even in summer time. Winter time?? forget about diving there...

San Alfonso which is a resort (artificial reef) near Algarrobo. I saw pictures and the water looked like the Caribbean. You would have to take a look at it..

 

[Lost_At_Sea]

Thanks BikerManiac. I will check it out.

 

[Scared Silly]

I spent the night in a very small town called Quintay. Which is was a great place to hang for a few days after climbing in Andes for a month. It was a whaling post but now just local fishing. I was told that people come from Santiago to dive there. Which is about two hours away.

 

[Scuba96]

Heh heh, I just came back from Chile 5 days ago. While I was down there I called a few dive shops and researched some locations for Diving.

Go here to find the dive shops
http://www.dive-centers.net/diving-chile-15.html

I think the most popular dive site is called "Los Morros". I would bring a 7mm wetsuit as the Pacific ocean is always cold. Even in summer time. Winter time?? forget about diving there...

San Alfonso which is a resort (artificial reef) near Algarrobo. I saw pictures and the water looked like the Caribbean. You would have to take a look at it..

The place is called "Los Molles" it's a great place to go diving. Yes you will need a 7mm wetsuit, winter is only a little colder but still you are down there.......

San Alfonso del mar is not a reef, it's a huge artificial pond, the reef you saw it's an aquarium in the restaurant, they won't let you dive in there:no .......

Scuba96

 

[Scuba96]

I spent the night in a very small town called Quintay. Which is was a great place to hang for a few days after climbing in Andes for a month. It was a whaling post but now just local fishing. I was told that people come from Santiago to dive there. Which is about two hours away.

Quintay, nice village. A good friend of mine (Padi Instructor / Lobo) use to live there, spent a lot of time in Quintay having a great time with him, there's a coupple of wrecks near by.

Scuba96

 

[Robertmech]

The water temp close to the coast is about 12 deg C in Summer and 10 deg C in winter, the water
warms up a bit as you go north.
Further out eg 500 nautical mile off the coast the water temp is 20 deg C.
We are going out to San Felix and San Ambrosio in November for 10 days.

Regards Robert.

 

[Robertmech]

We are working with a company called AQUATOUR in Coquimbo and will be doing day
trips to Isla Paquaro(bird island) and other islands off Punto Choros during the summer months.
Isla Paquaro has a large seal colony and has only been dived 3 times before, we can tailor
these trips to your needs.
Regards Robert.

 

[drbill]

Thanks to our Chilean members for their input... I do hope to dive in the kelp forests there so I can film some comparative footage to show the similarities and differences with our own kelp forests here in SoCal.