Bahia de Tijeretas

The dive

Bahia de Tijeretas, also called Darwin Bay, is a small sheltered cove on the north-west coast of San Cristobal, about 300 m along a paved path from the Gianni Arismendy Interpretation Centre and a twenty to forty minute walk from Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. You get in down concrete steps at Muelle Tijeretas, the wood-and-rock landing in the cove. There is no entrance fee for the cove itself and no guide required, which makes it an unusual site in the Galapagos.

It is primarily a snorkelling site and that is how most people use it. The bay is rocky-bottomed with hard corals, urchins and sponges, calm, and about 4 m at its deepest, so the whole thing is legible from the surface. Galapagos sea lions haul out and swim on the right-hand side of the cove, green turtles graze algae off the rocks along the western edge, and the fish list runs to king angelfish, rainbow wrasse, parrotfish and Pacific spotted scorpionfish. Stingrays, eagle rays and whitetip reef sharks turn up in the deeper water outside.

San Cristobal dive centres also use Tijeretas, but differently: it is the check dive and discover-scuba site, run from a boat before the crossing to sites like the Carawa wreck, with a maximum around 15 m, 7 to 20 m visibility, and no or low current. As a dive in its own right it is a warm-up. If you have come to San Cristobal to dive, the serious sites are Leon Dormido, Cerro Brujo and Punta Pitt.

The whole bay is inside the Galapagos National Park. That means the standing park rules apply whether or not anyone is watching you: stay at least two metres from wildlife including with a camera, no touching and no feeding, no flash photography, and keep to the marked trails on land. Sea lions in particular will approach you - the two-metre rule is your responsibility to maintain, not theirs.

• Free shore entry down concrete steps at Muelle Tijeretas, no guide and no permit
• Galapagos sea lions swimming in the cove, usually on the right-hand side
• Green turtles grazing algae along the western edge
• Stingrays, eagle rays and whitetip reef sharks in the deeper water outside the bay
• 300 m from the Interpretation Centre, walkable from Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

Conditions

A sheltered, shallow cove that is calm on most days, with a rocky seabed carrying hard corals, urchins and sponges. About 4 m at its deepest inside the bay; the boat-based check dive works to a published maximum of 15 m with 7-20 m visibility and no or low current. Water is 23.4-30.5 C from January to April and 21.0-27.5 C from May to December - the cool half of the year is genuinely cool for a tropical latitude, and a wetsuit is normal.

On current: Dive operators using Tijeretas as a check dive report no current or low current, and the cove itself is described as almost always calm. Depth depends what you mean by the site: the bay you snorkel is about 4 m at its deepest, while the boat-based check dive is published with a maximum of 15 m; another operator quotes 10 m and a third a 5-35 m range for the wider shoreline. We record the conservative dive maximum of 15 m and flag the disagreement. Visibility is published at 7-20 m for the dive; 10 m is recorded as a conservative typical value.

Dives & underwater footage