Malpelo is located at approximately: latitude 4°8'N  longitude 81°30'W  The weather is humid tropical with average temp of 28°C.  Portion of a most west territory claimed by Colombia and cross-claimed by Melchizedek in the Pacific and the Island is the maximum height of an underwater mountain chain which extends hundreds of kms. Total area is 3.5 sq. km. length 2 km and height 390 mts. Scarce vegetation,  land crabs, some lizards and some birds are the only inhabitants.
 

One way to get to the island is by boat from Buenaventura - Colombia.  (There is a live aboard boat from Costa Rica going to Malpelo).  The trip is about 40 hrs.   There are no facilities on the Island so live-aboard boat is a must.  It is very difficult to go to land due to the cliffs. There was a one man Colombian army post in the Island.  Diving is on warm waters and wall diving between 15 and 180 meters.   A lot of caves. Heavy surf, the visibility is 50 meters +.
The sea creatures are in abundance: schools of hammer sharks are the main attraction.   This site is compared to Coco's Island in Costa Rica but with more marine life and a lot less visitors.  This is not for beginner divers, a lot of currents make drift diving the prefer method.

Malpelo Island is an unusual place. It is one corner of the Golden Triangle, which includes Cocos Island and the northern islands of the Galapagos Islands (Wolf and Darwin). It lies 300 miles South of Golfito, in Costa Rica, and to get there you use a similar sequence to that one used to reach Cocos Island. You fly to Costa Rica, enjoy a comfortable opening hotel night, then catch an early morning flight to Golfito where you can board the yacht The Inzan Tiger; and once aboard, you cruise for thirty hours to reach the island across a generally calm tropical sea.

When you arrive at sunset on that second day, your first view of Malpelo is like seeing an ancient monument bathed in the softly radiant glow of the setting sun. It’s right up there with the Pyramids or the Parthenon.

The real impact of this island fortress, however, occurs next morning. By the brilliant light of sunrise you see the main island’s spectacular battlements erupting from the sea and soaring, sheer-sided, into the vault of heaven. Indeed, like so many high tropical islands, Malpelo is tall enough to generate some of its own weather. There may, at dawn, be a cloudless sky on all sides, yet a wreath of cloud envelops the remote island-peak.

During the week at sea or so that one is at Malpelo, the island is a constant presence. At any time of day, one finds his eyes drawn to the shining cliffs, which contrast vividly with the empty, flat blue sea. This contrast is part of the indelible memory of Malpelo, a mental movie which sometimes plays unbidden and brightens a rainy day at home.

Still, no matter how impressive the island, it is the explosion of life in its waters which distinguish this amazing place from any other.  As we come closer, the mirror-calm surface of the water is rippled, as if tiny fish are swimming just beneath the water/air interface and grazing it with their tiny fins.

However, when we finally drift close enough to see beneath the surface, we see that the dorsal fins are those of—HAMMERHEADS!

Even a bit after 8:00 in the morning, the sharks have finished their nocturnal hunting and gathered for socializing and security. Recent research suggests that one side of the sharks brains shuts down completely when they school, allowing the sharks to rest yet still be alert  to danger.

Gliding down from the surface in the middle of a school of hammerheads is one of diving’s more enduring memories. To non-divers it would be taken as a clear sign that you had slipped your moorings—yet while you are doing it, it is the most natural, peaceful thing in your world.

Malpelo’s hammerheads tend to stay fairly shallow, offering you the opportunity to dive with them several times each day. I found that I only went deeper when I wanted to photograph them soaring in great armadas above me, and even then the deepest dive of the week was to 110 feet. By contrast, filming the hammerheads at Cocos really requires going to 115 feet on every dive. That naturally reduces the number of dives you can do in a week at Cocos. Malpelo’s shallow sharks are a special wonder because they fit our human frailty…

Recent night dives during the El Nino months have revealed a new phenomenon which may or may not be connected to the famous warm-water intrusion. On five separate occasions, night divers at Malpelo have observed hammerheads devouring large green moray eels. Has this been going on all along? Or is it another El Nino curiosity? We don’t yet know. Sure is a fabulous photo op, though…

Another recent discovery is a trio of brilliant canary-yellow frogfish, rebutting the popular notion that Malpelo offers only big-animal encounters. What actually happens, of course, is that in famous big-animal destinations we simply never get around to looking for smaller creatures!  This has also been observed  in Papua New Guinea, Western Australia’s Ningaloo Reef, the northern Galapagos and other places famed for their pelagic species; by the time I turn my attention to the smaller thrillers the cruise is over!


Some of the above information was extracted regarding the diving aspects from: http://www.divxprt.com/latest/mag1roe.html

Diving Malpelo.

Live Aboard cruise on:
The Inzan Tiger

Port of departure:
Golfito, Costa Rica

Date of visit:
End of June / Early July 2000

Own Diving Experience:
Worldwide, tropical to ice diving

Overall weather conditions:
Mostly cloudly with a few sunnier days ( within 7 days )

Water conditions:
Choppy

Water temperature:
Low to mid 70s ( Fahrenheit )

Wetsuit:
I would recommend it.

Visibility:
30 - 50 feet.

Dive own profile:
Yes, nobody bothered what the divers did.

Restrictions:
Kept asking to limit dives to 45 minutes.

Marine life encounter:
Huge schools of silk sharks and scalloped hammerhead sharks, sightings of 2 whale sharks,
dolphins.

Ratings: 5 is best, 1 is worst:
Corals: 1
Tropical fish: 2
Large fish: 2
Large pelagics: 5
Small critters: 1
Dive operations: 1
Shore diving: n/a
Overall diving for beginners: 1
Overall diving for experienced: 3-4
Condition of accommodation: 3 - 4
Level of service: Crew: 5  Owner: 1
Quality of food: 3 - 4
Accommodation for photographers: 1 - no camera table; equipment was stored on the floor in the salon which is the only place for guests to gather.
 

Additional comments:
My assessment is that the boat was built for 3 day deep sea fishing trips and was refitted for diving ; the compressor is up on the sundeck ; the diving equipment is stored in plastic crates as well as fruit and vegetables ; no benches to suit down to put on the gear, only a small little table - crew assisted in putting on the gear; was difficult at times with the boat rocking a lot in the sea, 4 - 6 divers would already crowd up the ' dive ' deck in the aft ; very steep ladder to climb up and down ( or a 5 foot giant stride entry which is not for everyone, particular not the photographers ) ; the kitchen has been refitted.

To summarize all the above:

If you like to be surrounded by hundreds of sharks throughout an entire dive, I can certainly recommend the destination Malpelo.

Joerg Wachsmuth from Nuremberg, Germany