1. Santa Maria: Guided Snorkeling Tour
Snorkelling around Sal is a wonderful way to explore the underwater world, here we are lucky enough to have shallow reefs with an abundance of marine life, including tropical and Mediterranean fish, rays, turtles, moray eels and many more. It is possible to go from the beach in some areas, but it is much better to access the reef from a boat that will drop you of at the reef rather than swimming a few hundred meters of the coast and risk getting caught in strong currents. We use a zodiac rib to get us to the best sites and ensure maximum safety for all our clients. The Snorkel Tour takes approximately two hours. We meet all participants at our dive centre so we can fit you out with proper snorkeling equipment and fill in the paperwork. There you will also receive a brief overview explaining whats going to happen during your tour, the equipment you will be using, some basic knowledge about snorkeling and the rules that need to be followed for your safety during the tour. What's included Professional snorkelling guide Use of snorkelling equipment and wetsuits Snorkelling vests Please bring: Towel Water Minimum age: 8 years old No experience is required! • Explore the Atlantic ocean in safe and comfortable surroundings. • Supervision by our experienced and friendly guides. • All snorkelling equipment is supplied. We have three different sites where we can do snorkelling depending on the sea conditions we will choose the best considering safety, visibility and currents. Let me explain a little about the sites. In the bay of Santa Maria a couple hundred meters of shore there is a multilevel reef 3m to 8m deep giving a range of depth ideal for marine life to move around and suitable for all visibility conditions, at the end of the reef there is a shallow shipwreck, Bolama or more commonly known as Calderinhia due to the big boiler still left behind. Schools of soldier fish and snappers like to swim around it and are regularly found here in addition to parrot fish, trumpet fish and many others. Dunas is a series of shallow reefs interlaces with sand dunes ideal as refuge for many fish species and turtles, depth is around 7m. Bikini is further to the north, it is a shallow reef 2m to 6m where you can see corals in close proximity, lots of invertebrates such as morays and lobsters and since its closer to shore and shallow, it works as a fish nursery area. On occasions we visit the Christ statue in the Bay of Santa Maria close to the pier, this statue is only 3m deep and can be easily seen from the surface, placed here to protect the bay it is an attraction for both tourists and fish. Please take into account that it is a zodiac rib and thus the inside does get wet, keep your belongings safe and only bring what is necessary to the trip.