Costa Rica night life

[Steve the Baker]

Hi Kathleen,
I think it is gonna be difficult to get the Macro dives that your looking for. Most divers that are on the boat come the bigger stuff( Rays,Sharks,Etc.) It is because the bottom isn't pretty mostly rocks. Many Amazing Creatures in them but they seem to be overlooked.If you want to macro dive I usually book 3 dives consecutively. After 2 everybody else seems to get off the boat and then I have My Dive. Corridas Dive Site in the bay where Rich Coast anchors its boats is a Great macro site. The top of the mount in the grass is the Best spot. Go with Maurin because she enjoys finding critters. Tortuga and Argentina both have go to spots do the currents. Enjoy

 

[cephalopod2]

Steve is absolutely right that booking 3 dives is ideal and that most divers are looking for bigger animals or they are so new they either don't have a focus or are not really tuned in to smaller animals. But in my experience if you are at least 2 people and you make it clear to Rich Coast in advance that you want to focus on macro animals and that you want to dive with Maurin every day, you can get some very good macro diving done in the two AM dives. I had to repeat this message a couple times, but once I found a 2nd person and got listed in Maurin's group in the scheduling book everything was easier.

When I was there, no op was offering 3rd dives because there were not enough interested divers. I met a nice buddy on the boat and the two of us always dove together, with a rotating door of 1 or 2 other new divers joining our group every day. Even with this randomness, Maurin was keeping track of which small animals she had already found for us and carefully balanced showing the new divers the critters she had shown us earlier (seahorses, harlequin shrimp, more common nuibranchs), showing all of us interesting stuff that was passing by, and searching for new smaller critters for the two of us. She even escorted divers who ran out of air early back to the boat and then came back to keep searching with us a couple times. She is very professional and as Steve says, she loves small animals. If you ask her about seeing something specific (e.g. I wanted to see more cleaning pipefish) she was on it instantly (found a toothpick sized juvenile plus two others the next dive). She is legendary at Rich Coast for how good her eyes are - everyone teases her about having critters in her pocket.

The macro in this area is not as rich as in e.g. Asia, but if you do some homework you should be able to come up with a list of interesting critters you have not seen before. A couple of the nudis are much harder to find than others (e.g. both of the tambjas listed on nudipixel) - one is only usually seen at Bat Isl. Some times of the year there are more seahorses and frogfish than others.

Thanks again Steve for connecting me to Maurin. She was by far the best guide for macro I dove with in the area and she found lots of terrific critters.

 

[cephalopod2]

KathleenMalstrom I believe another forum member PMed you earlier but please see this post for an update on macro specialist guides in Playas del Coco / Ocotal http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ce...news-playas-del-coco-ocotal-macro-lovers.html.

WOW.... Thank you ... so much information : ) This is very helpful .... I am looking for a full week of diving... so I want to maximize my dive times to an hour and not waste time with nonsense.... I want to make sure to iron out all the details in advance!

 

[KevWinot]

If you are in Puerto Viejo you need to check out Johnies. It is a bar/club located on the beach. They play dance music and have a large dance floor. there is seating outside as well. Very open and you will definately see a wide variety of interesting people. It is a good place to go Thursday and Saturday nights.

 

[KathleenMalstrom]

We decided on Summer Salt for our dive operation. We are going to do an excursion to Bat Islands and Catalina Island. Five days of diving at least and hopefully some great land adventures as well.About a month until departure.... Thanks so much for all the info.

 

[Sushi Boy]

Excellent choice, you're going to have a great time! Be sure to pay a few bucks for a cab ride up to the Lookout restaurant. It's well worth the effort.

 

[cephalopod2]

Kathleen how was your trip? Would be interested to hear more about your experience with Summer Salt, esp. how good they were at finding diverse macro. Hope you had a great time.