Instagram model under fire for swimming in deadly Canary Islands cave

An Instagram model is coming under fire after uploading several photos of herself swimming in a dangerous and off-limits cave in the Canary Islands.

Marina Rivera Saldaña is a prominent Spanish influencer and Instagram model, boasting nearly two million followers on Insta and over 7 million fans on TikTok.

While Saldaña routinely posts pics of herself in gorgeous locales, some of her most recent photos are sparking quite a storm on social media.

On September 1, the model posed for a few shots of herself in a cavern with a backdrop of beautiful blue water behind her. In some of these photos, she can be seen swimming in the water, captioning the pics: “I’m a little mermaid from Makoo.”

Although the backdrop was nothing short of idyllic, many commenters pointed out that Saldaña was actually swimming in an extremely dangerous area.

To be more specific, Marina was taking a dip in the famous El Tancón cave located in Santiago del Teide, Tenerife in the Canary Islands — a group of Spanish islands near Morocco.

The cave, while beautiful, is deadly, with six people reportedly losing their lives in the location as of 2021, according to the New York Post.

In fact, the cave is so dangerous that it is actually off-limits to tourists due to a bufadero, also called a ‘blow hole.’ This rock formation can cause “unpredictable” currents and makes it difficult for emergency responders to get to people inside.

Commenters had a lot to say about Saldaña’s latest photoshoot, with many viewers decrying her for visiting such a deadly and off-limits area just to snap a few pics.

“Bathing is forbidden there,” one user wrote. “We are sick of tourists that don’t respect our land.”

“It seems to me a lack of respect that you are bathing in a place that is PROHIBITED, which is FENCED and has SIGNS POSED which prohibit bathing, and you enter because of the photos, and on top of that you publish it. Where you are, people have died, it is not an area suitable for bathing,” another said.

“I don’t understand why they skip all the security measures for a photo, unfortunate,” yet another commented.

This is far from the first time an influencer has come under fire for their travels; recently, a TikToker faced backlash for urging her viewers to simply “book a freakin’ flight” to Thailand instead of staying at home.