El Islote

The rock breaks the surface and is a roost for pelicans and cormorants, so it needs no GPS to find. Below, a wall dense with fan corals drops to big boulders on sand, where lobsters, crabs, zebra morays and scorpionfish hide in the gaps. Schools of snapper, grunts and gafftopsail pompano circle the rock, and hawksbill turtles are seen here. When sardine schools reach the islet in season, bigeye trevally and amberjacks arrive with them and the shoals put on a striking show. Dive centres also report bull sharks on the sandy bottom in the cooler water.