Rapa Nui - Moregallo

The dive

Rapa Nui is a freshwater dive, not a sea one. It sits on the Moregallo shore of the Lecco branch of Lake Como, on the Valmadrera side, and takes its name from the Rapanui bar and diving centre on the beach above it rather than from anything Polynesian on the bottom: no source describes moai here, and the assumption that there are some appears to be a naming coincidence.

Entry is from the beach below the bar, down an easy staircase, with supervised parking at the top. That is a large part of the site's appeal. It is presented locally as a training area usable by everyone from a first open-water student to a technical diver, with a guide chain running from about 2 m out through most of the dive so a group can follow a line rather than a compass. Along it divers have deliberately sunk things to look at: statues, furniture, vehicles, household appliances and bells. Circulating descriptions place specific objects at specific depths, including a glass bell and a set of figures deeper down, but those depths come from a directory rather than from the centre, so we do not publish them.

Conditions are the freshwater ones. Lake Como's water column runs roughly 6 to 18 C depending on depth and season, and divers report about 12 C at 18 m on the Moregallo shore with drysuits normal from November to June. Visibility here is described as clear, though it varies and is generally better in the cold months. The lake surface sits at about 197 to 198 m above sea level, comfortably below the altitude at which altitude-diving procedures are normally applied, so the real deviations from sea diving are cold, freshwater buoyancy and the absence of any bottom to stop you: the Lecco branch drops away fast, and Lake Como reaches 418 m.

Fauna is modest and freshwater: perch are common, with pike, burbot and catfish reported on the Lecco branch. Our occurrence records for the area return brown trout, Prussian carp and freshwater blenny, which is about what a lake site should return. Coral and reef fish are not part of this dive and never were.

• Easy shore entry down a staircase from the beach, with parking above
• Guide chain from about 2 m running through most of the dive
• Deliberately sunk statues, furniture, vehicles and appliances as an underwater park
• Used for training at every level, from first open-water dives to technical

Conditions

Freshwater, no current, cold. About 12 C at 18 m is the reported figure on this shore, within a lake water column of roughly 6 to 18 C by depth and season; drysuits are normal from November to June. Visibility is described as clear here but varies, and is generally better in the cold months than in summer.

On current: No current: this is a lake. Visibility varies with season and is generally better in the cold months. No source publishes a depth range for the site itself, so none is recorded; the sunken objects are described at various depths but only by an unattributed directory.

Dives & underwater footage

Life at Rapa Nui - Moregallo

This is fresh water, so there is no reef life to log. We do not carry an occurrence record for inland sites: the scientific databases we use are marine, and the nearest records would come from whatever lake or river is in the search radius rather than from the water you dive.