Bahía Solano

Diving works out of small open boats, often launched straight off the beach through the shorebreak, with cylinders and gear passed aboard by hand and no dive deck to sort yourself out on. The runs to the sites are short. Mornings are the working window, usually two tanks before the cloud builds, and afternoons often close in with rain. The rain governs the water as much as the sky: after a heavy night the rivers push sediment into the bay and the inshore sites turn flat grey for a day or two.

Underwater this is a rock coast rather than a coral one. Boulder slopes and rock ridges run down into sand, encrusted rather than gardened, with fish stacked in the lee of anything solid. Pinnacles further out break the swell and hold schools on their upcurrent sides. The frigate is the only wreck on the list, and in water this colour you meet it in sections rather than taking in the whole hull at once.

Plan it as a trip where diving is one part of the day rather than the entire point. Surface whale watching, river mouths, waterfalls and forest walks fill the rest, and the schedule moves with the weather instead of a timetable. It rewards divers who can stay oriented in green water and swell, who are content with two dives a day, and who are travelling for the encounter rather than the photograph. Operators are few and small, so bring whatever kit you are particular about.