Erwin Poliakoff
Contributor
I just finished a wonderful trip to Cocos Island off the coast of Costa Rica on the Argo liveaboard. It was excellent diving, and an very well-run dive operation. I recommend it highly. The trip was chartered by Ultimate Dive Travel, and I use them frequently to arrange my diving trips. I have been very happy with them, both for their recommendations of good diving locations, and for their service, in general. I flew into San Jose a day early, and overnighted at the Marriott near the airport. It was a little pricy, but a very nice hotel. The next day, our group was loaded into a small bus and taken to the port at Punta Arenas with a couple of stops. It was about a 2.5 hour drive. We got on the liveaboard, and it was very nicely laid out and well-maintained. It was a 36 hour ride to Cocos. The conditions of our boat ride were very mild, but I have heard that it can be rougher. In any case, it was a leisurely ride out. My cabin was comfortable, and on the spacious side for a liveaboard. The food and service on the boat were great. We did three dives a day, which suited me fine. The water was warmer than I expected (81 F mostly), although there were some significant thermoclines that made a hood a good idea. We say a lot of sharks, including schools of hammerheads. As usual, they were more shy than a photographer would like, but relatively cooperative. There were too many white-tips to count. Some dives had other types of sharks, including a number of Galapagos sharks, and an occasional tiger shark. We also saw several whale sharks, which was a first for me. The visibility was okay, but I have been told it is typically betters. I would estimate we had about 60' vis on most dives. I was pleased to see relatively attractive and healthy reefs (hard coral), and lots of fish life. We did 7 days of diving, then headed back for the trip home. I also did the 1000' submarine ride, ridiculously extravagant. We did not see that much, but it was still a lot of fun, and a definite bucket list item. Here are some photos from the trip.
01_P8020052 scalloped hammerhead shark by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
02_P8080020 scalloped hammerhead shark by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
08_P8060004 whale shark by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
19_P8030024 moray eel by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
17_P8040113 peacock flounder swimming by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
The link to whole album can be found here: 2019 Cocos Flickr album
Erwin
The link to whole album can be found here: 2019 Cocos Flickr album
Erwin