El Salvador diving???

[rakkis]

Anyone have any information regarding scuba in El Salvador? I've been trying to look for some online and haven't been able to come up with anything substantial.

 

[knives]

I had the same question a while ago, I have some friends there and they dive and train in one of the crater lakes and take dive trips elsewhere....I would be interested in some ocean diving around there , but have not heard of any....

 

[peebee]

Here's a list of the San Salvador dive shops from the SS phone book:

Blue Diver
Col Escalon 1 Cl Pte No 4632
2263 0058

El Salvador Divers
2264 0961
3a Cl Pte No 5020, Col Escalon
www.elsalvadordivers.com
esdivers@elsalvador.com

Planeta Agua Buceo Profesional
Col Escalon Cl Padres Aguilar No 15
2264 5407

Oceanica Centro de Buceo
2263 6931
www.oceanicacentrodebuceo.com
oceanica@salnet.net
Cl Circunvalacion #17-B, Col Escalon

I dove Lake Ilopango with Alex, the El Salvador Divers owner. Alex was great, I highly recommend him & ESDivers!!!

I'll post some notes & pictures from the trip when I get back to the real world in a couple days.....

Thanks, Alex!!!

 

[rakkis]

thanks for the info! keep us posted on those pics

 

[peebee]

Here's a few shots from the trip, including:

A view of the lake on our descent in the car from the peak of the crater:
View attachment 29034

A small island (the top of an underwater mountain) formed during the last major eruption in the late 1800's. This was also the site of one of the dives:
View attachment 29035

One of the sites had underwater hot springs all over the place, sourced from long thin fissures. There's a "vapor" effect from the change in temperature, you can see this in the "wavy hand" photo below. The springs are like bath-water temperature. In some other spots, there's no springs and you don't feel any change in water temperature, but if you stick your hands into the sandy/gravelly bottom you can definitely feel the warmth.
View attachment 29039

I'm pretty proud of this one, this is one of my best UW animal photos ever (if I do say so myself). We saw quite a few of these crabs down there.
View attachment 29041

Not a great photo, but it gives you an idea of some of the other life down there (small fish) as well as the typical UW terrain (rocky). Also, not shown in this photo, there are fresh-water sponges and algae growing on some of the rocks near the surface -- the algae looks like a red carpet, and is covered with small bubbles from the oxygen it makes.
View attachment 29042

Thanks again to Alex at El Salvador Divers. I definitely recommend giving them a call if you're in town. In addition to Lake Ilopango, they also make regular trips to the El Salvador coast (Los Cobanos is a popular dive site, too bad we didn't have the time for that one) as well as occasional trips to Roatan and other international locations.

 

[knives]

hey Nice pictures , Thanks for sharing....I did not realize the vis would be so good in the lake.....

 

[peebee]

The visibility was good, but not great. . . . maybe 15-25 feet (I'm not real good at judging underwater visibility, sorry!). The photos maybe make it appear just a bit clearer than it actually was. They warned us that vis was a bit worse than usual that day. I don't mean to sound overly negative. . . . just don't want to get your expectations TOO high. . . .

Glad you liked the pix! Thanks!