Eastern Pacific · Colombia
Bahía Solano
Humpback song fills every dive from July through October
Photo: BlancaNDiaz · CC BY-SA 4.0
Bahía Solano sits on Colombia's Chocó coast, where rainforest runs to the beach and there are no roads in — only a light aircraft or a boat. Humpback whales come from Antarctica to calve here between July and October, and their song is constant underwater. The diving itself is low-visibility and rocky, built around the wreck of the Sebastián de Belalcázar, a former US Navy fleet ocean tug scuttled as an artificial reef in 2004, plus a scatter of pinnacles.
About diving in 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 tug 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.
Best time to dive Bahía Solano
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Fair | Fair |
| Sea surface | 28°C82°F | 27°C81°F | 27°C81°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F |
| Daytime high | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 28°C82°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 28°C82°F | 29°C84°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F |
| Rain | 503 mm19.8 in | 336 mm13.2 in | 468 mm18.4 in | 617 mm24.3 in | 797 mm31.4 in | 822 mm32.4 in | 974 mm38.3 in | 827 mm32.6 in | 834 mm32.8 in | 704 mm27.7 in | 719 mm28.3 in | 718 mm28.3 in |
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Good |
| Sea surface | |||||
| 28°C82°F | 27°C81°F | 27°C81°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F |
| Daytime high | |||||
| 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 28°C82°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 28°C82°F |
| Rain | |||||
| 503 mm19.8 in | 336 mm13.2 in | 468 mm18.4 in | 617 mm24.3 in | 797 mm31.4 in | 822 mm32.4 in |
| Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Fair | Fair |
| Sea surface | |||||
| 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F |
| Daytime high | |||||
| 29°C84°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F | 28°C82°F |
| Rain | |||||
| 974 mm38.3 in | 827 mm32.6 in | 834 mm32.8 in | 704 mm27.7 in | 719 mm28.3 in | 718 mm28.3 in |
2011–2025 averages. Sea surface: NOAA Coral Reef Watch, measured at the surface, so deeper water can run colder. Daytime high and rain: NASA POWER.
Jul–Oct is humpback season and the main reason to come; this is one of the wettest coasts on earth, so visibility is never reliable.
Best months: July, August, September, October
Bahía Solano water temperature and weather by month
The sea surface stays between 27 and 28 °C (81–82 °F) all year. Most rain falls from May to December, peaking at about 970 mm (38 in) in July; February is the driest. Daytime highs sit around 28 °C (82 °F) all year. The coldest water here is about 26 °C (79 °F), so pack a 3 mm full suit.
Dive types & marine life
Whales are a July-to-October event and largely a surface one, watched from the boat and the beach rather than met in the water. Dolphins and passing mobulas turn up in the same months. Groupers, jacks and barracuda tend to hold around the wreck and the pinnacles through the year, while turtles and reef sharks work the rock slopes, easiest to pick out early in the year when the rivers run lower.
- Reef
- Wreck
- Wall
- Pelagic & blue water
- Whales
- Reef sharks
- Sea turtles
- Trevally & jacks
- Dolphins
- Groupers
- Barracuda
- Mobula rays
Best dive sites in Bahía Solano
Seamount
Submerged mountain at the mouth of Ensenada de Utría
Sharks and giant mantas on a 9 to 36 m dive
Pinnacle
Sunken mountains dived along either flank at about 24 m
Reef
Giant snappers and jack schools at about 24 m
A 62.5 m fleet tug sunk as an artificial reef in 2004
Punta Huina
Headland off Playa Huina beach, close to the wreck site.
Ensenada de Utría
National park inlet to the south, a humpback calving sanctuary.
How to get to Bahía Solano
Almost everyone arrives by air from Medellín, with Quibdó the other regional link; light-aircraft baggage limits mean packing lean and using rented tanks and weights. Divers base in the town itself or in El Valle to the south, and moving between the two is a rough local track or a short boat hop.
Photos from Bahía Solano
Sylvain Eichhorn · CC BY 4.0
Dive videos
Pacific Ocean | Bahia Solano | Ankla Azul · Ankla Azul Diving Center & Travel on YouTube
La Mina Del Diablo | Part 1 | Bahía Solano | Ankla Azul · Ankla Azul Diving Center & Travel on YouTube
Photo credits
- Fishing boats rest on the sand beside palm trees and a blue wooden building in Bahía Solano. by BlancaNDiaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- A yellow-and-white spotted guineafowl puffer hovers close to a sandy, rocky seabed. by Sylvain Eichhorn, CC BY 4.0, via Openverse
Embed
Run a dive centre, club or blog? Embed this map of 2 dive sites near Bahía Solano on your own page.
Similar destinations
Hannibal Bank rises from 400 m and pulls in billfish and tuna
The world's largest known aggregation of oceanic manta rays
Whitetip reef sharks stack up by the dozen on volcanic pinnacles
Hundreds of whitetip reef sharks pile up in the shallows at El Remolino