La Piedra de Santa María

Dive site sheet from the Águilas Dive Guide by Buceo Estela.

Difficulty

LOW

Dive time

45 min

Max. depth

25 m

Area

Águilas

This spot gets its name from the large rock that balances improbably high above, right over our boat — it's made more than one person exclaim “Santa María!”. This dive is very accessible and has many variations. It's dived along a slope.

Here we descend with the current, the drift dive that requires the least boat navigation; it's a little over 300 m from the Cueva de la Virgen mooring. It's done from west to east, since going the other way would take you into the “Seta” bay, which has very poor seabeds.

We descend around 7 m along the boat's mooring line. We then generally head south-east, looking for deeper water, passing around some large rock blocks. Along this stretch it's worth looking inside the cavities formed by fallen rocks, since that's where the life is: meagre, forkbeards, groupers, moray eels...