Costa Rica Dive Report and Photos.

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fisheater

Contributor
Messages
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Location
Sebastopol, CA
# of dives
500 - 999
Mid July, I spent a week in Costa Rica with my wife and daughter. As I'm the only diver in the family, I only got ten dives in, but had a blast.

We stayed at the Ocotal Beach Resort, just south of Playa de Coco ("Coco Beach") in the Guanacaste Province on the northwest corner of Costa Rica on the Pacific Coast.

The Resort has its own dive operation and 5 32' boats. My plan was to do the morning two-tank boat dives and spend the rest of the day with the family.

We arrived late Saturday night and I showed up at the dive shop early Sunday morning. The week we were there the Resort was hosting PADI's Kids Sea Camp, so things weren't normal. I was put on the boat with the other "civilians," and the kids took a few boats and their parents another.

On Monday and Tuesday, I was on the "parents" boat, as the rest of the "civilians" had left.

The dives were all in the Papaguyo Gulf and were (to me) very unique. The water was warm (75 to 82), but not stunningly clear. The vis ran about 25-35 ft. Not at all what I've experienced in the Caribbean, Hawaii or the Philippines, but very good for a northern California diver. In fact, my overall impression is that "this is what California diving may look like in a century with global warming."

There was little to no coral. (I'm told that winter upwellings and the Humbolt Current are too cold for most corals and that they provide lots of nutrients for a rich ecosystem. Sounds familiar to us California divers.) The reefs were rocky and the rocks were covered in crustose algae.

There were also similarities and differences vis-a-vis Hawaii. There were sergeant-majors and butterflyfish, for instance. However, there were very few species of each and they were individually much larger. There also LOTS of eels, rays and scorpionfish.

On Wednesday, I took the day "off" from diving and accompanied the family on a grand jungle adventure involving 7 killer (seemingly) ziplines, the world's second longest water slide, horseback riding, a challenging hike in the jungle (including numerous hanging bridges - a la Indiana Jones) and a stay at a volcanic hot springs spa.

On Thursday, I showed up at the resort's dive shop and found out that I was the only diver for the day, as the Kid's Sea Camp folks were doing their jungle adventures that day. The dive manager noted that I had been trying all week to get the minimum four divers together to make a trip out to the Bat Islands and asked "do you want to go now?" I asked why they would be willing to make the trip for only one diver and he said "We won't. But we've already put your gear on the Rocket Frog boat, the dive op down the beach. They're ready to go and you ready?"

And off I went to the Bat Islands and a rendezvous with some nine circling bull sharks. I fell in love with their "Pacific Express," a 36' RIB powered by two 300 HP Yamaha V-8 outboards. The trip that all the other dive ops said would take them 2 1/2 hours took only 45 minutes. The SOP at "Big Scare," the divesite that featured the bull sharks was to backroll in negative, in two groups, and to drop as quickly as one could to the rocky, sloping bottom at 40-70 ft. and to hover over the bottom, with one hand on a rock to stay somewhat steady in the surge. When the first person in the group hit 1,000 psi, the group rose up and swam away from the island and did the safety stop and final ascent well away from the waves hitting the rocky island.

The unnerving part was that a large number of bull sharks were circling about right off that same rocky bottom. You could see them from above as you descend. Then, on the bottom, you "keep your head on a swivel" as they swim in and out of your visual range. Sometimes in front, sometimes in back, sometimes from one side or the other. Sometimes they swim around the group. Sometimes they swim through the group. Sometimes singly. Sometimes in a small group.

However, none expressed anything beyond curiosity.

On the first dive, I rolled in with the second group and the captain handed me my camera. Alas, one of the two thumbscrews holding the housing to the tray was completely loose and the other half way there. It'd only take a minute (or two) to fix, but I didn't want to the "odd man out" when there was a school of bull sharks, so I handed it back to the captain and hightailed it down to catch the rest of my group.

After that dive, we were supposed to go to another site (Black Rock), but there wouldn't be any bull sharks. The DM in charge for the day asked if we'd rather stay at Big Scare and do another dive with the bulls. A few people said "sure" and no one objected, so that's what we did. Wouldn't you know it? About 1/3 of the folks had some excuse to call that dive, ranging from bad eardrums, to regs breathing wet, but not a one mentioned anything about any sharks. That includes the diver who was next to me on the first dive and I couldn't get to acknowledge my can light signals into her mask to show her the octopus fight going on just a couple of feet in front of her. She had just grabbed a rock and was waiting anxiously for the dive to end.

Friday, my last dive day, it was just the dive manager and me on a couple of nice, relaxing dives.

Costa Rica is a very friendly and environmental conscious country. The people were very happy to have visitors and went out of their way to make us feel at home.

---------- Post added July 28th, 2013 at 04:36 PM ----------

Here are some photos.

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---------- Post added July 28th, 2013 at 04:39 PM ----------

 
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My wife and I had the opportunity to do the Bull Shark dive as the only two divers on the boat, and took it. We did both Big Scare and Black Rock, plus a shallower one on the way back to the resort. One of the most unforgetable dives I have ever been on.

Thanks for the memory, and the great photos!
 
Thanks for the great trip report and nice pics. I'm heading to Tamarindo for a week in Nov and have been debating on heading out for a few dives, but after your report, I'm leaning more towards going, especially for the bull sharks. Cool to see so many close-up pics as it seems like generally people plan on seeing mostly 'big' stuff out there. Do you not have more pics of the bulls or were the conditions just not very conducive to taking lots of pics?
 
I only got two acceptable shots of the bulls and they're pretty much the same, only with the fish swimming in different directions. They would swim in and out of vis and it would likely have been better to have just used available light and not tried to use my strobes.

Be aware that the bulls are seasonal and may not be around in November.

Check with your dive op before committing.
 
Thanks for the Photo's. I have an interest in diving southern CR near Gulfito or Pavones and would like to know if anyone is doing any diving around there? Thanx.

Wandersome and enjoy the day
 
Just doing a little research for a potential trip to Coco Beach.

Glad i found it. Definitely going to try to make this trip happen.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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