El Toro is a little island on the south west coast of the Balearic island of Mallorca.
It is one of four marine reserves on Mallorca and therefore is incredibly rich in marine life. But this island is not particularly known for its spectacular scuba diving. So what were we thinking when we booked our annual fall dive trip to this island in the sun? We went ahead to find out!
Arriving in Palma de Mallorca airport was an easy and comfortable but really early 2-hour flight from Amsterdam with Transavia. And after a taxi ride of just 25 minutes (what should normally be more around 40) our cab driver (which we nick named ‘speedy gonzales’ for the occasion) dropped us off at our hotel in Santa Ponsa.
And not even an hour later, Alberto from Zoea Mallorca picked us up with the company mini van and drove us to the dive center. After the formal greetings and paperwork, we were on our way to venture into the underwater world of El Toro.
El Toro marine reserve is conveniently located just a short 15 minute boat ride away from the Zoea Mallorca dive center. And on arrival at the first dive sight we geared up, completed our buddy checks and at exactly 12:23 we descended underwater by a back roll entry.
And apart from the water being a bit chilly for the time of year the underwater world turned out to be very impressive. Protecting this area proved to be effective. From big groupers to small fish, it was all present in abundance. It was certainly not what most people would expect to find on an island as Mallorca. After 50 minutes underwater including our safety stop we ascended back onto the boat. As we got pretty cold during this dive we were certainly happy the dive center was so close. We got off the boat and headed to the showers to heat up.
After a light snack, a coffee and a short snooze under the sun we got geared up again for dive number 2. Back to El Toro! The same routine as our first dive led us to enter the water once again with a back roll entry after a short briefing and our buddy checks. The dive turned out the be as impressive as the first and with the nitrox we made sure our no-dec times stayed right were they are supposed to be.
On Sunday we dove the Cala Montjo caves in the morning and Malgratz Pool in the afternoon. Especially the second dive turned out to be very impressive. So much so that some of us needed back-up air to finish the dive. And after yet a second day of scuba diving the El Toro MP with water temperatures around 18 degrees we once again slept like babies.
The next 2 days we were doing some deep diving. Jeroen, Luka and Nima all wanted to do the PADI Deep Dive Specialty and Mallorca was going to be the place to do this. Our instructor Elena was introduced to us and before we knew it we were 37 meters down doing the Deep Dive skills. And even though the deep dive were very impressive, nothing could beat what we would encounter on the night dive. Our night dive was filled with so many octopus that we literally lost count. I can honestly say that after 15 years of scuba diving I never encountered as much octopus as in El Toro here on the island of Mallorca.
So as you understand the highlight of our trip was not saved for last but for the night. And even though this site has not been protected since very long yet, it is probably no coincidence that we encountered so much fish here.
The underwater life of Mallorca is not as impressive as the Italian marine reserve of Ustica yet. So it will need more time. But already this place is really impressive with its caves, barracuda’s, scorpion fish and the amount of groupers we encountered was really promising. For more info contact us via info@thedivespotteam.com
Or clik here to watch a video of the Zoea Dive Center.
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