Punta Berrugo

Punta Berrugo — the Berrugo Point — is a beginner dive site on Lanzarote's southern coast, its name referring to the characteristic texture of the volcanic rock at this headland where the basalt surface has been sculpted and encrusted into the rough, barnacled quality that the local name suggests. The point itself creates a natural topographic feature underwater, with the reef changing character around the headland and providing slightly different marine communities on each of its aspects. Headland dive sites have an inherent structural advantage: the point concentrates current and creates a natural focal point for the dive, with the reef wrapping around the promontory to provide variety as divers circumnavigate it. At beginner depths in the generally calm conditions of Lanzarote's southern coast, this structure makes for a satisfying, varied dive that doesn't require navigational complexity — the point is always there as a reference point and a feature to explore. The basalt at Punta Berrugo is encrusted with the typical Lanzarote southern coast community: sponge colonies on sheltered surfaces, anemone clusters on the underside of overhangs, and the algae-covered upper surfaces that support the grazing wrasse and parrotfish. The point's position creates slightly more current than the fully enclosed bay sites, which encourages the development of the filter-feeding organisms — sea fans, feather-duster worms, and hydroids — that extend their feeding structures into any available current. The waters around the point are reliably productive for sea turtle encounters, and the rocky texture of the headland provides the substrate that juvenile turtles favour as they develop from the sandy beaches where they hatch. Large dusky grouper occupy territorial positions on the point's prominent reef structures with the confidence of protected species, and the schooling bream and bogues that orbit above the reef provide the open-water element that completes a thoroughly enjoyable beginner dive.