Beginner Diving in Costa Rica over Christmas/New Years

[kldomino]

Hello more-experienced divers....

My husband and I are now only 1-week-a-year vacation divers, with a total of about 50/80 total dives each. Our youngest daughters (16 and 17) are new to diving, have only been to several trips to the FL keys, and have about 10 total dives each. We all took the 2-day PADI refresher course last January. The four of us are hoping do some dives in Costa Rica over the Christmas/New Years break.

I have so far only booked roundtrip air to SJO Costa Rica. I am having a difficult time finding the best place to dive 3-4 days (we arrive 12/25 and depart 1/6, with a wide-open itinerary). We cannot afford a liveaboard to the Cocos (and I'm not sure the daughters would want THAT much diving), so I am looking for the best possible location for boat diving at that time of the year. The girls are somewhat fearful of sharks, so high-density shark areas are not a good thing in this case.

I want it to be a good experience for them, since the current and shallows of the keys have not been great experiences. My original thought was that we might possibly see a migrating humpback whale or a large ray in Costa Rica by going to Drake Bay or Catalina, but I am seeing mention that there is a river runoff issue on the western coast that time of the year which greatly affects visibility - true? I don't know that the eastern coast is good for beginners...

It seems there are adventurous things to do (volcanos, ziplining, hiking, ATVs) in most CR areas, but the dive location is hindering my condo selection, so I need to decide soon. Any help you can give is appreciated.

Sincerely,
Kelly

 

[dolesorchard]

My wife and I have done quite a lot of diving in Costa Rica and from our experience, the best option for visibility is Isla Del Cano. Our next choice would be the Catalinas, the best dive I have ever done was there in 2009. The one thing you will have to accept is that the visibility is not like the Caribbean. Most dives there have a significant current as well. My wife got certified there, so its not too challenging for a beginner, especially if they don't know better. One of the dives that I did this year at Cano was with a Canadian women who was on her final open water dives for her certification. We dove at Devil's Rock and the vis was not good and the current was very strong. At the end of the dive, the current was so strong we could not get back to the bouy they had dropped on the top of the rock and had to go back down to about 40 feet to get out of the strongest current to be able to swim back to the upstream side of the rock. After the dive, I told her how impressed I was at her staying calm on such a challenging dive and she said "Oh, was that a challenging dive?"

Anyway, there are all kinds of fun things to do there. One thing I tell people on their first trip to Costa Rica is not to miss Tabacon Hot Springs. Good day trips from the Flamingo area near the Catalinas are too numerous to mention, but our favorite part of the country is the area south of Dominical around Ojochal and Uvita. There are trips from both of those villages to Cano and the operation I recommend is Mad About Diving in Uvita. For the Catalinas I recommend Costa Rica Diving in Flamingo.

 

[kldomino]

Dear Dolesorchard-

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I laughed at the "challenging" story - it puts it in perspective.

This info is very helpful! I hadn't heard of Tabacon, so that non-diving lead is great as well.

Does everyone else agree with Doleorchard's "Cano over Catalina" thought, for that time of the year?

Thank you,
Kelly

 

[altaskier]

I'm writing this from Bahia Pez Vela, near Playa del Coco, on my first trip to Costa Rica. So I can't say much about the various locations, or times of year, other than this week in this place... but I've been having lots of fun diving! The diving is less easy than the Caribbean in terms of visibility (I've seen between 30-50 feet), currents, and thermoclines. However, my wife (who has only about 15 dives in her log) had a good time of it yesterday just at the local sites in the Papagayo gulf near Playa del Coco with Rich Coast Diving. The "terrain" here has rocky ridges with sand in between and very few colorful corals, but lots of colorful fishies including various anglefish, more porcupine fish than you can shake an octo at, and other oddities like guitar fish, lots of arrow crabs, lettuce nudibranchs, spotted eagle rays, dolphins jumping the boat's wake, the biggest stingray I've seen in my life... Also, my 16 year old daughter (who is not a diver - yet) has been having lots of fun with lots of things to do, including horseback riding and (this morning) a river boat tour where we had capuchin monkeys come onto the boat. I also did a trip out to the Catalina islands and that was great fun, though the local Papagayo sites are enjoyable too.

 

[ReneB]

Some of the nicest reefs I've seen in Cosa Rica are on the Caribbean side, right by the Panama border, in an area called Punta Uva; get as far as you can from where the surfers are (Puerto Viejo) for more family friendly vibes <http://www.anywherecostarica.com/maps#caribbean-costa-rica>. In fact, in some of this area you don't really need a boat nor even have to do scuba - they are shallow enough for snorkeling. There's less tourism infrastructure on that coast, but the diving is much nicer than the Pacifica side. However, I've never been out boat diving on the Pacific, so bear that in mind.

 

[Seya]

I just dove Catalinas this week 25 foot visibility. Tons of rays, eels to see we saw one white tip too
I dived with aqua rica
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

[Steve the Baker]

I can not disagree with any of you .My preference is Playa del Coco as a base town. I hope to be back this Jan. My trip report from last year is at the bottom of the page.Rich Coast Diving is Excellent to use.

 

[dolesorchard]

Rene B, we have been to the Caribbean coast five times and have been able to dive just once and that was with about 15' of vis. We have snorkeled at Punta Uva, Cahuita and Manzanillo and it was fun. More often than not the vis has been zero and the only time I will go back is if I am on the Pacific coat and watching the weather, if they have had a few good days and are calling for a few more, we will pack up and head over. Most often You can dive the Pacific coast, but there are no coral reefs, just rock reefs with some coral growing on them. But, there is always lots of life both large and small. You will rarely, if every do a dive on the Pacific and not see sharks, eagle and southern stingrays, many morays of various species and huge schools of fish both large and small. The currents can be quite challenging from time to time and the reefs are not very colorful, but there is always a lot to see.

 

[ReneB]

@Dolesorchard -- sorry to hear you had such poor visibility! What time of the year were you there? For several years, I was working in Costa Rica 6 - 8 months a year and found out about the Caribbean coast diving from some of my colleagues (I'm a biologist). We visited the coastal areas for a break from work from time-to-time. On the Caribbean coast, we snorkeled from the shore (in the Punta Uva vicinity) or else went a little further south in a small boat and snorkeled there. Definitely had more than 15' visibility.

Due to the high amount of rainfall, however, visibility WILL be greatly affected during the rainy season. Most years, but not all, it's driest from Nov - March or April. Sometimes it's dry from Sept on.

 

[ScubabunnyCR]

@kldomino If you are looking at Cano island, a good base for other activities is the manuel antonio are. You can day trip to Cano, also local dive for a day, from December through to April is the best time of year for the diving in those areas. In manuel antonio you can also go rafting, zip-lining, canyoning etc, plus beautiful beach and national park, wildlife, you name it. All on your doorstep. A trip to Arenal is a great option as well, with the hot springs a must.