Intermediate Colombia
Gorgona Island
A former prison in the Colombian Pacific where, in season, you can hear whales singing underwater
Between July and October, something unforgettable happens: underwater, in the middle of an ordinary dive, a deep song starts to be heard coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. It's humpback whales that come up from Antarctica to calve.
In this profile you'll find how diving works on this Colombian Pacific island, what its status as a national park with regulated access involves, what you see in the water and at the surface, when to go, and what level you need.
It's one of the few islands in the Americas' Pacific where the humpback whale calving season coincides with accessible diving, and where the males' song can be felt on almost every dive during those months.
Geography and access
Gorgona is a mountainous, jungle-covered island several tens of kilometers off the coast of the Colombian Pacific.
It was a penal colony until the 1980s and was later declared a national park; today it's accessible only with authorization and a limited quota.
The surrounding bottom is volcanic rock and coral patches, with the structure typical of the eastern tropical Pacific: less hard coral and more rock covered in life.
The waters are productive and turbid compared with the Caribbean: runoff from the mainland coast and the water's own productivity reduce visibility.
The island lies within the route of the humpback whales that come every year from Antarctic waters to calve in the tropical Pacific.
Access combines a domestic flight and a boat crossing to the island (about two hours from Guapi, in Cauca, and considerably longer from Buenaventura), always with a prior permit.
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