Costa Rica - Catalina or Cano

[travelinman2]

Hi all, I have the familiar overwhelmed feeling in making airport choice for early January trip. I wonder which of these sites have better chance for big sea life, and visibility and here are travel options:

1 - fly into LIR, short transport to a playa, then Catalina/Bat dives. Fly out of SJO after seeing some inland sites.

2 - fly into and out of SJO, work our way down to central pacific for couple nights, then down to Drake. One dilemma here, is that I need all night electricity for apnea.

Between 2 options, there's also nightlife vs. eco, and it was decided to base decision on diving, though it'll just be 2-3 days of that.

I've looked at many websites and forum posts and also posted this on trip adivsor. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks, Travelinman

 

[EevelMonkee]

Out of your two choices, I only have experience at Cano. I made several trips there while working in Manuel Antonio as an instructor. You are very likely to see large whitetips there along with a variety of rays in lesser numbers. The water conditions in January should be nice and the dives would be memorable. For your research you could check out the op I used to be with Scuba diving and Dive Courses in Costa Rica

 

[dolesorchard]

My wife and I have done both Catalinas and Cano, for me it would be a toss-up if diving were the only consideration. I really prefer the Osa area, it is much wilder and less developed. If you are staying in Drake Bay, it is a short boat ride to Cano, but fairly expensive to stay. There are a lot of great places to stay in the Uvita-Ojochal area and it is a 40 mile boat trip to Cano. We dove with Mad About Diving in Uvita this past January and they were much better than Mystic Dive Center in Ojochal. Both of those operations offer three tank trips to Cano. The area around the Catalinas is desert, it is brown and dusty with very little wildlife. A large part of the attraction of Costa Rica is the wildlife and you will see much more in the south.

I am trying to put together a trip for mid January to both areas with some other fun stuff thrown in. If you are interested, send me a private message.

 

[travelinman2]

thanks for your responses! It does seem like Cano is best with a longer boat ride. My wife doesnt want rain as we got washed out on a trip couple yrs ago. In january, will it rain a bit daily there? Also she would like best potential for large sea life and hiking as well as spa opportunities. Son wants some night life but diving tuckers him out which is good. I just wanna dive!

 

[Scared Silly]

I would say go to Drake Bay and do the short rides to Cano. 40 miles via boat to dive would be way too long for me. We stayed at Jinetes De Osa in Drake Bay. They were very easy to work with both before hand and while there. Drake Bay is pretty quiet and easy to walk around. I have also stayed in Cocos and dove the Bats and Cats as well as local dives. All nice enough but Cocos is quite busy - especially on the weekends. However, getting into LIR is piece of cake.

 

[dolesorchard]

The entire Pacific coast is usually dry in January. We have been down there 9 times and on two trips we have had night time showers, but never any rain during daylight.