Finally Back in Malpelo!

Last year all my trips got canceled. When we were finally on our way this year, a demonstration canceled my first trip. Many of us, including Colombia, suffered during the pandemic; but now we are alive and kicking! Malpelo is running during COVID!

After our comfortable bus trip from Cali with a bit too much a/c that we had to adjust it so that we didn’t feel like we were in my birth country of Sweden, we boarded the Ferox in Buenaventura.

For those who don’t know, I charter half the boat and choose a maximum of 6 divers for the trip. We dive together for the 6 days that we are in Malpelo.

To finally come here with divers whom I have known for more than 10 years, it was a chance to meet with friends again.

The trip out was 34-36 hours long, mostly a time for just resting, talking, reading a book or watching movies. At times the waves were not kind, making the ride not so comfortable for some. So we set up our gear when we got to the island.

The Rock is still there! Ready for a new challenge.

It has been two years since I have been back. We arrived early morning and tied up at the northern mooring of the Rock. Malpelo was dark gray and covered with green algae. It was still there, this dear rock that I started diving about 10 years ago. A lot of emotions and memories come back to me.

Malpelo is one of the most challenging sites that I have ever guided in all the places I have worked. Every time I come here she shows different faces with current, weather, surge, and marine life. She is very unpredictable and I always have to try to find a way to read her in order to maximize our experience in the few 6 days that we have. I do know I have great divers with a great attitude, so the pressure is on me.

Honestly I often wake up in the middle of the night thinking what I will do the next day… and still not having an answer in the morning when I go out on the first dive. I normally don’t give a briefing until I have looked at some sites and my gut tells me what to do (from evaluating and taking in all the information that my eyes can capture).

Malpelo Continuing to Deliver

The first day was spent shaking the rust out of our system and finding out how the land lay. It was an okay day, but nothing special.

For the rest of the week we had a lot whale sharks showing up way earlier than expected. We did not get the hundreds of hammerheads, but they were there; more towards the end of the trip. We saw way more Galapagos sharks than I have ever seen before. One time we dropped in to the end of a Galapagos frenzy that we had to back away from because 6- to 7-foot Galapagos sharks darting over to you can get intimidating, at least for me.

We encountered the biggest schools of big-eye jacks that I have ever seen. The mullet snappers were here as well! The whirlwind of ten thousands of jacks that merged with the snappers made us lose sight of each other on our last dive.

Or, when leatherbass and bluefin trevally are coming in with the schooling whipper snappers, monster Almaco jacks right behind them, and the bottom is covered with moray eels hunting out in the open, you can’t really put it into words until you have lived it. While all this is happening, a big Galapagos shark cruises by just behind your back.

Fish of all kinds, from Cubera snappers to Almaco jacks that seemed to be on anabolic steroids, gathered together like a blizzard of fish at Ferreteria. It was just so wild, so rich, and so crazy! All this while you held on for dear life in the surge…

And then there were some dives that were… Oh, look! An eagle ray… and not so much more.

Where is the thermocline? And what is the weather saying?

We can have this clear blue water at 27 C (81 F) that suddenly comes down to a green wall of 20 C (68 F) in the same place. I often get the question, “At what depth is the thermocline?”

I used to answer, “In Malpelo anywhere from 40 meters (131 feet) to the surface on the same dive.”

And the weather forecast? We can predict some. But the sky here is from blue sky to heavy tropical squalls where you can’t see more than 10 meters (33 feet) ahead of you and after some heavy rainfall the gray vertical wall of Malpelo looks more like Norway with hundreds of small waterfalls streaming down the rock.

Malpelo Running During COVID

There is much to add to this trip, but I wanted to get the word out, to let you know that we are back. I’ll be out again the 30th of July for my second trip. There are still some spaces left.

We had a really nice trip to Malpelo. I am speaking for myself, I hope my guests think the same. It was also nice that Tanya could join the trip and we could spend her birthday together. (I left her alone on her 40th birthday by going to Malpelo.) It was a pleasure to guide a great group of people.

If you are interested, have good diving skills and an open and generous attitude, don’t expect luxury but decent living on one of the safest liveaboards and where diving matters more than the thread count of your bedsheet, please contact me.

If you are the other kind, please contact someone else.

I will continue coming here as long as my body can work as a guide.

Thank you, Bob and Amy, Craig, Sebastien and Dan!