Hi all,
First, I hope I'm posting in the right place. I spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out where this message belongs, since people seem to be posting their C.A. trip reports in three or four different places.
I did a liveaboard with the Undersea Hunter Group aboard the Argo in August. I stayed at the Hotel Grano del Oro in San Jose for a day or two at both the start and end of my trip. It's a really nice hotel, has free wi-fi, and the restaurant is nice too, if expensive. I avoided it, not just because of the price but also because with all my dive/camera gear I didn't even bring a nice collared shirt or slacks, so I felt really out of place being anywhere near the restaurant. I did have one meal there but despite the $55 US per person price of the meal (with drinks) the service was downright lousy. Unfortunately the area around this nice hotel seemed shady -- the side streets were nearly desolate even in daytime and I felt less than safe walking at night. If I was going to do this trip again I'd stay at the Best Western Irazu, or at the Marriott and just cab it from there.
Now for the good stuff. Upon transferring to the Argo we got a warm welcome from the crew, who had refreshments waiting for us. The crossing was rainy with lots of lightning but the boat weathered it well. The cabins were smaller than I was hoping for (thinking of the Odyssey trip I did in 2004) but they were clean and well-appointed. Every room has a nice flat-panel tv and dvd player, and the dvd player has a usb out so you can plug in a device and watch your own videos. I plugged in a card reader and used my 16 gig flash card. Naturally there's not phone or internet on the boat, but you can pay to use the satellite phone, or get your own email address which is also via satellite. The crew kept us well-fed and the food was served at the table, not buffet style, so it was pretty efficient. The food was possibly the best I've had on a liveaboard. Beer is included, no extra charge there. They also have a laundry service.
When it came time to dive the big boat deployed two smaller skiffs and split the group of 16 divers in two. The skiffs are perfect for diving, they have little windshields that deflect most of the bow spray, and you can keep stuff up front that needs to stay dry. They also have ladders and canopies which offer relief from the sun during the rides to the dive sites, which could be as long as 25 minutes. I noticed that the other, non-USH operators were using plain zodiacs to get to the dive sites. The crew transferred our rigs to the skiffs and they stayed there for the whole trip. The crew also attached safety gear to our rigs including a personal locator beacon, in the event someone was swept from a dive site (which didn't happen).
Nitrox is a must on this trip. Unlike stories I heard we did not normally venture down to even 100', however we were consistently down long and deep enough that you would run up against no-deco limits without Nitrox. We did have the choice of 12L (looked like an Al 80 to me) and 15L (looked like a low-pressure steel 95 to me) tanks. I thought for sure I'd stick with the 12L, but I changed my mind after the first dive, as I came back with quite a bit less air than I thought I would. As it turned out 90% of the time the 15L was a lot more air than I needed (and it did cost extra), but I liked the peace of mind, especially when I overheard other divers talking about coming back with 300, 200, and even 100 PSI in their 12L tanks.
After hearing "horror stories" about currents at Cocos and Galapagos I was surprised to find that, compared to the Red Sea, conditions were almost mellow. Yes, the currents were strong. The surge was strong at times also, even at 100', and some divers complained about it and really did not like some of the dive spots for this reason, but I didn't find it worse than what I've experienced in San Diego. But bring good gloves because hovering above the reef in these conditions is not an option, you will need to find a piece of rock to hold onto, especially if you want to stay in one spot and watch the sharks at a cleaning station. There is not much coral so finding a bare piece of rock is easy. We were often able to descend/ascend on a mooring line, and when there wasn't one, we followed the DM into the blue and he deployed his SMB so the boat could come get us.
Visibility was excellent early in the trip. On day two I could look up and still make out the skiff from 100'. It seemed to get worse as the trip went on, down to the 40-50' range. It was still pretty nice, but sometimes the big schools of hammers were little more than silhouettes in the distance.
Water temp was about 80F every day. I think I get cold fairly easily but I was comfy in a full 3mm wetsuit. A couple of times I wore my hood as a preventive measure but it really wasn't needed.
As for sea life, there were many white-tip sharks, hammerheads, both in small groups and in schools of maybe 30; occasional large silky and galapagos sharks, big schools of jacks, large morays, and a few spotted eagle rays. I swear I saw a tiny mantis shrimp on a rock. I also saw two whale sharks and one manta ray. I only did one night dive, and though it was amazing to watch a huge pack of white tips feeding on the reef, it seemed like the night dive was pretty much the same thing every night so I skipped the others. My buddy and I also saw a tiger shark, in fact we were the only ones on the trip to get a good look at it. It was easily as big as two grown men, so at least 12' long. We also saw some humpback whales swim by on the surface. A typical dive would be to jump in and descend to 60-70' and then "hide" behind some rubble to watch the hammers come in close to the cleaning stations. If there wasn't good "hammer action," or after we'd gotten our fill, we'd swim around to see what else we could find.
I skipped one day of diving to go on the Deep See submersible, all the way to 1000', which was a great experience. During the sub ride we had a school of about 12 silky sharks circle us and we saw some mobula rays. Later that afternoon we did our one shore excursion on the island and hiked to a beautiful waterfall where we had a nice swim. The trail was very slippery so you'll want real shoes (hiking/running) for that.
If you like big pelagic stuff, this is a great trip. I've never seen large numbers of big sharks like this before, with no chumming involved. Everyone was very satisfied with the amount and variety of sea life. Many people on the boat had been diving for 20-30 years and several remarked that the Argo was the best boat they'd been on, with the best crew to boot.
Well I know this was a long post but when I searched for Cocos info before the trip I didn't come up with much, so I really hope this is helpful to future travelers. Pura vida!
First, I hope I'm posting in the right place. I spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out where this message belongs, since people seem to be posting their C.A. trip reports in three or four different places.
I did a liveaboard with the Undersea Hunter Group aboard the Argo in August. I stayed at the Hotel Grano del Oro in San Jose for a day or two at both the start and end of my trip. It's a really nice hotel, has free wi-fi, and the restaurant is nice too, if expensive. I avoided it, not just because of the price but also because with all my dive/camera gear I didn't even bring a nice collared shirt or slacks, so I felt really out of place being anywhere near the restaurant. I did have one meal there but despite the $55 US per person price of the meal (with drinks) the service was downright lousy. Unfortunately the area around this nice hotel seemed shady -- the side streets were nearly desolate even in daytime and I felt less than safe walking at night. If I was going to do this trip again I'd stay at the Best Western Irazu, or at the Marriott and just cab it from there.
Now for the good stuff. Upon transferring to the Argo we got a warm welcome from the crew, who had refreshments waiting for us. The crossing was rainy with lots of lightning but the boat weathered it well. The cabins were smaller than I was hoping for (thinking of the Odyssey trip I did in 2004) but they were clean and well-appointed. Every room has a nice flat-panel tv and dvd player, and the dvd player has a usb out so you can plug in a device and watch your own videos. I plugged in a card reader and used my 16 gig flash card. Naturally there's not phone or internet on the boat, but you can pay to use the satellite phone, or get your own email address which is also via satellite. The crew kept us well-fed and the food was served at the table, not buffet style, so it was pretty efficient. The food was possibly the best I've had on a liveaboard. Beer is included, no extra charge there. They also have a laundry service.
When it came time to dive the big boat deployed two smaller skiffs and split the group of 16 divers in two. The skiffs are perfect for diving, they have little windshields that deflect most of the bow spray, and you can keep stuff up front that needs to stay dry. They also have ladders and canopies which offer relief from the sun during the rides to the dive sites, which could be as long as 25 minutes. I noticed that the other, non-USH operators were using plain zodiacs to get to the dive sites. The crew transferred our rigs to the skiffs and they stayed there for the whole trip. The crew also attached safety gear to our rigs including a personal locator beacon, in the event someone was swept from a dive site (which didn't happen).
Nitrox is a must on this trip. Unlike stories I heard we did not normally venture down to even 100', however we were consistently down long and deep enough that you would run up against no-deco limits without Nitrox. We did have the choice of 12L (looked like an Al 80 to me) and 15L (looked like a low-pressure steel 95 to me) tanks. I thought for sure I'd stick with the 12L, but I changed my mind after the first dive, as I came back with quite a bit less air than I thought I would. As it turned out 90% of the time the 15L was a lot more air than I needed (and it did cost extra), but I liked the peace of mind, especially when I overheard other divers talking about coming back with 300, 200, and even 100 PSI in their 12L tanks.
After hearing "horror stories" about currents at Cocos and Galapagos I was surprised to find that, compared to the Red Sea, conditions were almost mellow. Yes, the currents were strong. The surge was strong at times also, even at 100', and some divers complained about it and really did not like some of the dive spots for this reason, but I didn't find it worse than what I've experienced in San Diego. But bring good gloves because hovering above the reef in these conditions is not an option, you will need to find a piece of rock to hold onto, especially if you want to stay in one spot and watch the sharks at a cleaning station. There is not much coral so finding a bare piece of rock is easy. We were often able to descend/ascend on a mooring line, and when there wasn't one, we followed the DM into the blue and he deployed his SMB so the boat could come get us.
Visibility was excellent early in the trip. On day two I could look up and still make out the skiff from 100'. It seemed to get worse as the trip went on, down to the 40-50' range. It was still pretty nice, but sometimes the big schools of hammers were little more than silhouettes in the distance.
Water temp was about 80F every day. I think I get cold fairly easily but I was comfy in a full 3mm wetsuit. A couple of times I wore my hood as a preventive measure but it really wasn't needed.
As for sea life, there were many white-tip sharks, hammerheads, both in small groups and in schools of maybe 30; occasional large silky and galapagos sharks, big schools of jacks, large morays, and a few spotted eagle rays. I swear I saw a tiny mantis shrimp on a rock. I also saw two whale sharks and one manta ray. I only did one night dive, and though it was amazing to watch a huge pack of white tips feeding on the reef, it seemed like the night dive was pretty much the same thing every night so I skipped the others. My buddy and I also saw a tiger shark, in fact we were the only ones on the trip to get a good look at it. It was easily as big as two grown men, so at least 12' long. We also saw some humpback whales swim by on the surface. A typical dive would be to jump in and descend to 60-70' and then "hide" behind some rubble to watch the hammers come in close to the cleaning stations. If there wasn't good "hammer action," or after we'd gotten our fill, we'd swim around to see what else we could find.
I skipped one day of diving to go on the Deep See submersible, all the way to 1000', which was a great experience. During the sub ride we had a school of about 12 silky sharks circle us and we saw some mobula rays. Later that afternoon we did our one shore excursion on the island and hiked to a beautiful waterfall where we had a nice swim. The trail was very slippery so you'll want real shoes (hiking/running) for that.
If you like big pelagic stuff, this is a great trip. I've never seen large numbers of big sharks like this before, with no chumming involved. Everyone was very satisfied with the amount and variety of sea life. Many people on the boat had been diving for 20-30 years and several remarked that the Argo was the best boat they'd been on, with the best crew to boot.
Well I know this was a long post but when I searched for Cocos info before the trip I didn't come up with much, so I really hope this is helpful to future travelers. Pura vida!
