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Queen Bed Cabin
There are two spacious Queen Bed Cabinwith a queen bed, en-suite bathroom, and air conditioning.
Malpelo Island and Gorgona (4 - 11 nights)
Explore Colombia's thrilling Malpelo Island and Gorgona aboard the robust Ferox liveaboard.A former ice class Swedish Navy Ship (Mine Layer), the Ferox is not your typical liveaboard. Selected after a worldwide search, this 11mm steel hull vessel is run by the Colombia Dive Adventures and is one of the most robust liveaboards on the water. The Ferox is powered by twin Scania engines, ensuring fuel consumption is both reliable and environmentally friendly.
Colombia Dive Adventures offers private transport from Cali (CLO) to Buenaventura which takes approximately 3 hours. From there, guests are taken to the Ferox where they will participate in vessel safety drills.
Malpelo Island, or the Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, lying over 300 miles off the coast of Columbia, is unique to other islands in the Eastern Pacific. First of all, it is only eight square kilometers. Barren and nearly vertical cliffs of the island expose the summit of the three-hundred-kilometer-long volcanic ridge rising from the ocean floor at a depth of nearly 3 kilometers.
With such a small island size and the entire ocean abyss encircling, the concentration of pelagic life in Malpelo waters is enormous.Scuba diving in Galapagos and Socorro (Revillagigedo) archipelagos pale in comparison. Even Cocos Island, solitary but still a larger island, does not have the geological advantage of Malpelo. Malpelo was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006.
[See: Malpelo Island Dive Travel Guide]
The Ferox can comfortably accommodate up to 12 guests in its 10 cabins. 2 Queen Bed Cabins, 2 Full Bed Cabins, and 6 Single Bed Cabins are located on either the Main Deck or Lower Deck.All cabins are private, come complete with an ensuite bathroom, and are fully air-conditioned.
A variety of Western and local food is served buffet-style aboard the Ferox. The kitchen crew are also more than willing to accommodate any dietary restrictions as long as they are given advance notice. Snack, soft drinks, and alcoholic drinks are also available.
Diving in Malpelo is unbelievable, period. The best way to describe Malpelo is not through individual stories about individual dive sites, because Malpelo is one big dive site. You can encounter many animals pretty much anywhere around the island. We're talking about a genuinely wild place and truly wild animals. No sitings are guaranteed, but the chances of unique encounters are very, very good. If your first trip is Malpelo, you will have serious problems finding your next destination. Most other places will look dull and boring. That is how some divers feel after diving Cocos, and how many feel after Malpelo.
To dive at Malpelo, you should have at minimum AOW certification and have experience with dive 60-130ft. You should also be comfortable with your ability to handle strong current, surge, high swells and live entries to an immediate negative descent. This is because most of the dive sites do not allow for anchorage or moorings, and many of them are small underwater pinnacles. With the speed of the currents in the area, if you linger at the surface to tinker with your gear, or if you have equalization problems that slow your descent, you will likely get blown off the dive site and end up drifting in open water until the skiff can retrieve you. The group cannot split to wait for you in that current. Nitrox is also a must as dive groups must descend and ascend together, so you if your group is on nitrox you will need to be as well. On top of that, Eastern Pacific diving without nitrox is just not a good use of hard-earned money since there is so much to see on every dive. if you don't have your nitrox certification before your trip, let the liveaboard know and they can arrange to certify you onboard.
In open ocean diving your safety sausage should be big - about six feet. A smaller one might be obscured by the waves, and once deployed your next stop might be Australia.
Overall, you also need to stay very conservative in Malpelo because the nearest decompression chamber does not exist - plain and simple.
For your dive gear, you'll want fins that perform well in currents and the rest of your gear to be as streamlined as possible. Some divers have recommended long stiff fins like the Cressi Gara, which are clumsy in the panga but indispensable in currents. Whale sharks do not pose for photos so you'll need to exert a lot of effort in swimming next to them.
Since there is not much coral around, damaging the reef with long fins is not a huge concern, but divers should still be aware of sea life around them. When diving shallows near the wall, divers shouldn't brace themselves against the rocks. In high swells, it is safer (and more fun) to move with the water. The same rule applies when taking photos in the grotto - do not grab the rocks. There are plenty of nasty eels in Malpelo. Free swimming morays are a trademark at Malpelo and lots of fun to watch.
For exposure protection, a 7mm wetsuit, hood and gloves are recommended. Though surface water temps can reach the 70s (F), below the shallow thermocline the temperature can quickly drop. Drysuits are discouraged due to the additional drag in currents and surge.
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There are two spacious Queen Bed Cabinwith a queen bed, en-suite bathroom, and air conditioning.
Full Bed Cabins feature a full bed, en-suite bathroom, and air conditioning.
The Single Bed Cabin features a single bed, en-suite bathroom, and air conditioning.