Bobcat,
I guess It's subjective as to if it's worth the price. Since it's likely our operation you're posting about, allow me to explain the basis for offering this trip.
First of all, we are located in Quepos, halfway down the Pacific coast and next to the number one tourism destination in CR, Manuel Antonio National Park. Cano Island is approximately 48 miles to the south of us and 11 miles off shore from the mainland. Yes, it's a haul by boat, but much longer by car to get to the Drake Bay area to get on a boat for the island. The ride by vehicle, including a 45 kilometer portion over the infamous road to Dominical takes six hours from Quepos. That doesn't include the three hours from San Jose to Quepos. This adds two days to a trip, in a car, just to get to Drake Bay. Throw in the car rental cost and gas at well over $3.00 a gallon and you will end up spending $200. easy. Also, you have to figure in the hotel cost for the trip and dive charter cost.
The trip by plane from San Jose is currently $85 each way from San Jose via Sansa and slightly more by Nature Air. A trip by air will necessitate an extra day on the ground after diving, and the regional carriers stop flying at 5:30 pm when the sun goes down. Once again you have to factor in hotel cost and charter fees as well as ground transport.
Diving in Cano is limited by the number of divers per day allowed on the reefs. To gain access you need to have dive guides certified by the Coasta Rican Tourism Board and make reservations prior to visiting the island. There is new management at the ranger station on the island and they are enforcing these rules. In the very near future any tour operators bringing divers to the island or any aquatic activities in national parks will have to be certified by the Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT). Although this may not directly affect you as a diver, it does regulate access to the island, the same as at Cocos. All our guides are certified and our operation is ICT certified as well. As of this writing there are only three ICT certified dive operations in Costa Rica, Ocotal Resort and Diving Safaris in Guanacaste are the other two. This certification is expensive and time consuming but assures that operations issued the certification meet all industry standard safety and operation practices. This does directly affect you as a diver. I'm not saying that operators who are not ICT certified don't meet these standards, just that those who do will have much more access to dive sites in park waters.
I'm bringing up these points to highlight the fact that this trip is to an increasingly popular dive location, one that is increasingly restricted by the CR parks ministry (MINAE) in order to preserve it.
Our trip includes all equipment, lunch, drinks, snacks, two dives, park fee ($15 of the cost, wether or not you set foot on the island) and transfers to and from your hotel. The vast majority of our clients who go on the trip say it was well worth it. In addition to comments posted here you might want to look us up at
www.govisitcoastarica.com where some of our past visitors have posted reviews.
To sum it up, this trip was intended to provide a time and cost efficient alternative to traveling to the Osa Peninsula in order to dive Cano Island. It's not for everyone but offers those traveling in CR an option to experience a world class dive site.
I hope this answered your question, or at least gave you some information to make a comparison based on your own research. You can contact us directly by going to
www.oceansunlimitedcr.com
Scott, Bob, Katherine, Roberto and the Oceans Unlimited Crew
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