Bajo de la Testa

The bajo lies barely a third of a nautical mile off the harbour, so the run out is short and the descent begins almost as soon as the boat settles. You drop onto a rock formation shaped like a plateau, though it is far from flat: the top is full of irregularities from about 8 m down, and the whole rise is bordered by posidonia meadow that marks the line where rock gives way to sand.

On the west side a slope runs off the plateau and joins the cape itself, which is the natural direction to start. Following the perimeter round to the south brings you to a second rock formation standing off the main mass, and this southern edge is the part local guides rate highest: a route of blocks, caves and furrows carved as if by an imaginary river. The site bottoms out at 22 m.

The southern face is also where the site earned its reputation among local divers: the rock caught and kept the anchors of ships passing the cape in earlier centuries, and they are still there to be picked out among the furrows. The bajo is not large — it can be covered in one or two dives — so there is time to work back along the rock, where corvina, barracuda, sea bream and large groupers are the fish to expect.