Costa Rica diving?

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Dirty-Dog

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My wife and I are looking ahead to a fall trip, and Costa Rica has come up. Since ScubaBoard is the first place I check, I was disappointed not to find any active info on this part of the world.

If you've been diving in Costa Rica lately, we'd love to hear your impressions and suggestions.

One place we've seen online (but would love to hear opinions of) is Reef Runner diving in Puerto Viejo.

Anybody?
 
Actually I was just about to do a write up on my Diving in CR.

We went to Playa Hermosa on the West coast (Pasific) and I dove with Diving Safaris.
Had a great time. DMs where great both days the group was small.
vis wasn't great but even the local who was diving with me said it was unusual.
The Catalina Islands is a must dive huge Manta Rays, Sting rays, Bat Rays, Turtles, black tip reef sharks. Great dive
Let me know if you have any questions.

Jason
 
There is a bit of info available if you do a search on SB, but you are correct is saying that has not been a huge amount posted. I was doing some research this winter, for a possible CR trip, and had to dig pretty hard to get much. Those who responded to my inquiries were very positive about the diving there.
 
Here is a post I made a couple weeks ago on another thread. We were in Northwest Costa Rica in Jan. and had a fantastic time. My wife and I felt safe, and the weather was absa-freaking-lutly perfect. Low to mid 90's during the day and mid 70's at night. Sunny and a bit breezy. Anyway, here the the quote from my post. We are planning another trip next year, and hopfully staying for a full month. You are welcome to PM me for any info I can provide.

I was just in Tamarindo for two weeks in January. I dove with Aquacenter diving in Playa Flamingo. The Catalina islands are where just about all the dive shops in that local area go to. The vis is not the greatest, but we saw some pretty great things I think. One day we saw several large Manta Rays. Two on the first dive and two on the second dive that day. The next day we say another Manta Ray, it pretty much hovered over us for half the dive. Pretty amazing watching an animal like that stay so close to us. Also saw some white tip reef sharks, a sting ray down at about 90' with a tail that seemed to be 5' or 6' long. Schools of eagle rays, puffer fish, angel fish, eels, octupus, and lots of other amazing sea life.

By far the coolest part of the diving for me at the Catalina Islands were the huge Manta Rays, and white tip sharks.

The visibility was around 20 to 30 feet, and temps were 78 degrees near the surface and 73 degrees was the coolest I saw. 3mm wetsuit was suitable for me. And most dives were about 50 to 65 feet. I did my Advanced Open Water Cert while there so one of the days was the deep dive, thats where we saw the big sting ray.

The Bat islands are frequented during the rainy season, when the winds are a bit calmer than the dry season there. Apparently the seas can get unruly and make for unsafe conditions at that location, so plan accordingly if thats where you want to go.

I don't necessarly think Costa Rica is the best spot for a dedicated dive trip, but with all the other awesome stuff to do, the volcanos, beach, jungle, very nice people, restraunts...etc, it made for a great vacation. My wife and I are definatly going back.

Check out Nibana in Tamaringdo for good hapy hour drinks, and El Mirador for a nice dinner with a great view of the sunset. Most places in Tamarindo have 2 for 1 deals during happy hour which seemed to be 5:00 to 7:00. Find a fishing charter and do some fishing, we caught a bunch of Grouper and Red Snapper. Made for some good dinners.
 
I also was in Playa Hermosa from the 14th through the 19th of Feb. I dove with Rich Coast Divers out of Playa Del Coco. I will 2nd your comments on great DMs and haa good time. Also the viz that we had was not very good, 10-15ft max which as I understand is unusual. Did see the largest moray of my life. Estimated between my Buddy and I to be around 8ft.


Actually I was just about to do a write up on my Diving in CR.

We went to Playa Hermosa on the West coast (Pasific) and I dove with Diving Safaris.
Had a great time. DMs where great both days the group was small.
vis wasn't great but even the local who was diving with me said it was unusual.
The Catalina Islands is a must dive huge Manta Rays, Sting rays, Bat Rays, Turtles, black tip reef sharks. Great dive
Let me know if you have any questions.

Jason
 
My wife and I are looking ahead to a fall trip, and Costa Rica has come up. Since ScubaBoard is the first place I check, I was disappointed not to find any active info on this part of the world.

If you've been diving in Costa Rica lately, we'd love to hear your impressions and suggestions.

One place we've seen online (but would love to hear opinions of) is Reef Runner diving in Puerto Viejo.

Anybody?

Reef runners certainly has the coolest and friendlest staff. The diving in Viejo isnt the best in the world. But i went their on vacation and stayed for several months, mostly drinking beer and playing chess on the porch at reef runners. I am a OWSI so it didnt take long before Jessica was having me fill tanks a lead dives but got alot of free diving on their boat "The Reefer" Anyhow tell them I said hello
 
I e-mailed Reefrunners this weekend, and am still waiting to hear back from them. My dive buddy and I going to be there on May 11th as part of a South American-Panama Canal-Caribbean cruise and am hoping to dive with them. Do you know if they come and pick up at the cruise ships?
 
Just got back from Playa Hermosa/playa Cocos. We dove with Rich Coast and they had boat issues. Their big boat had engine troubles and they chartered a fishing boat that was not set up for diving. The two small boats could only go to close local spots so we dove the same 6 sites for 9 days. That being said, the vis was so/so and even on the same dive. I liked the instructor staff, they had new dive masters who got lost a few times, but its an adventure.... right? They could find small critters and every dive really was different. I did get some great photos and saw some very cool stuff. We will probably never go back, there is so much more to see... Hope this helps and as always, any day underwater is a good day.
 
My wife and I have been to Costa Rica ten times. She got certified there in 2005 at El Ocotal Resort. We have been diving with quite a few operators there and the best we have seen in El Ocotal. To dive the Catalina Islands which is the premier site in Guanacaste its a lot closer and cheaper from Flamingo and we have used Costa Rica Diving with good results. Harald and Barbara are a lot of fun.

Our favorite part of the country is the southern part of the Pacific coast. The best diving there is Isla Del Cano. Its a fairly expensive trip as the island is quite a boat ride unless you are staying at Drake Bay. We like Mad About Diving in Uvita.

Diving on the Caribbean coast is a hit or miss proposition. We have been over there six times and four of those times diving was impossible because of zero visibility. When we dove it was with Reef Runners and it was good, but maybe twenty feet of visibility. It rains more often than not and if it rains a lot, there is so much runoff that you will not dive.

If you want to dive the Caribbean, go to the Pacific and get some diving in and watch the Caribbean weather and go after they have had several days of good weather and are calling for several more.
Fall is not the best time to go. I would wait for January. If you are interested I am leading a dive trip down there starting the second week of January next year, I have several people signed up now. If interested, PM me.
Earl
 
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