Los Arcos

Diving from boat – intermediate level.
The dive site Los Arcos (the Arches) is at two minutes away by boat from Las Galletas harbour, just beside Punta Luna dive site. The anchor is dropped at 25m depth, a dive where the use of Nitrox is recommended to enjoy the maximum from it.

This time we do a drift dive. As soon as the last diver reaches the bottom, the anchor will be send back up, the boat will find us at the deco stop. The descent takes ages, 25,26,27m depth and we finally stabilized upon the sandy bottom. The landscape is spectacular. The rock formation is very marked, in the shape of an underwater labyrinth. A first commemorative plaque was placed here in homage to Jean Koller (Jean Koller the Moray eel), dive centre boss considered for his underwater rodeos where he played with moray eels with bare hands. Jean died in the ocean in 1999, and his dive centre is still active: La Morena.

Our dive guide inflates the lifting bag fixed to the anchor chain, which takes off and quickly disappear towards the surface. We swim through these walls of several metres height and a first arch takes shape on the right hand side. We cross only a few submarine life, essentially trumpets fishes entering and going out through this imaginary door. The sky is cloudy this morning, the shade weighs in this submarine landscape loaded with history…





Indeed, another plaque was laid here by British divers, after the disappearance of Philippe Kloos, boss of the dive centre Coral Sub, in 2008. It is Jean the Moray eel himself who had sold the centre to Philippe in 1996. Coral Sub, one of the first dive centres in Tenerife, is always active. Here are some underwater moments from “the old time”, where appears the famous yellow submarine of Tenerife. I mean the first one, the one who haunts Las Galletas bay since then.

The second arch is at few fins quick away from the first one. With a reduced size, it calls the diver to swim below the portico but we prefer no to do it. Some Seabreams go away when we approach. Not a lot of marine life is fixed to the rock, the site seems deserted. But we did not come for that, we knew it.


If we take time to come close to the rocks, it's all whole Macro universe which surrenders to our eyes. The use of a torch light is strongly advised to enjoy its beauty. The arches are covered with small organisms, as for example the coral Phyllangia mouchezii. It is important not to dive under the arches because our air bubbles are very corrosive for this underwater environment so fragile and can impose irreversible damages to the ecosystem. Underwater photographers will take care of not staying there too long …




We go southward, in the direction of the open. Some arrow crabs are guarding this landscape so full of emptiness. A white spot attracts my sight from more than 10 meters away. At the feet of the last arch, a cross was placed there in homage to Jacques Yves Cousteau. In 1997, after the Commander death, the dive centre Buceo Tenerife from Las Galletas organized a commemorative dive in his honour.






The last arch, the biggest of the three, is impressive by its size. It is the opening to the unlimitedness of the sandy bottom at 30 metres depth. We can see some marks clearly appearing on the bottom. We can imagine the sting ray which came here to hide or to hunt. We follow the dive along the drop off, on the left hand side.


At a hundred meters from there, pushed by a light current, we reach another dive site called Punta San Juan. This site also presents a spectacular rocky formation, cutting on the whiteness of the sand. A large school of bastard grunts moves slowly above the falling. A magnificent entertainment and the opportunity for us to swim at shallower depth in the direction of the shore, to do our deco stop in the blue.






The dive site Punta San Juan is not often visited by the dive centres of Tenerife. The environmental contamination is important there. We find garbage spread everywhere on the bottom. Their source is multiple: fishermen at the surface, current, marine outfall … The 600m one from Las Galletas is effectively nearby. Several times fixed, it does not stop contaminating the sea bed around. What goes through our toilet find its way to the sea, near our shore, near our beaches. A water-treatment plant as well as a new marine outfall of 1000m length is under construction. With the years, the garbage decomposes itself into fine particles and enters the food chain by ingestion.
What we through at sea will come back one day, somehow, in our plate. To know more about our food chain: Fast Food Nation.