Trip Report: Playas del Coco, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Jan 7 - 14th, 2005
Stayed at:
Villa Flores B+B, recommended, has excellent pool and gardens. Also 2 nights at Coco Verde motel, not recommended for longer stays, on the main road and noisy (but this is where the dive operation is).
Dived with:
Deep Blue, cheapest shop in the area and good service. They dont have a real dive shop as such. American owners and Tico dive masters. All dives are led by divemaster.
Two tank local dive $45.
Town:
Small and laid back, with a few tourist shops and restaurants. Great seafood to be had, but not as cheap as you might think. Biggest problem is the dust during the dry season, since most of the roads are not paved. Has large supermarket and bank, but ATM did not work with foreign cards. The beach is black sand and is somewhat abused by the locals. There is a lot of trash around. You can find pristine beaches in the area though (best to go by boat).
Diving:
There are a lot of fish out there, but because of the variable visibility you may not always get to see them. The visibility ranged from 10 to 40 ft, and averaged around 20ft. The plankton in the water made everything very murky at times, but that is where the fish are. The best time for visibillity is apparently during the summer (May - Sep). Be aware of the winds that can blow hard from Feb - Mar. Temperatures ranged from 77 to 83 F. I wore a 5mm full suit with hood and gloves.
Dived mainly on 6 of the 10+ local dive sites, in 5 days of we repeated a couple of sites. You can do longer trips to the Catalina Islands to the south and during the summer also to the Bat Islands. The Catalinas is where you are most likely to see Mantas, but there is never a guarantee (we saw some jumping on the surface but not underwater). We did 2 trips to the Catalinas, and saw stuff on the first trip and nothing on the second.
Fish:
We saw Manta rays (on surface), Humpback whales (on surface), Common Dolphins (on surface), Eagle rays, Cow nosed rays, Sting rays, white tip sharks, large schools of grunts, Jacks and other fish, lots of morays, puffer fish and stone fish. Also occasional frog fish (on the only wreck), octopus, sea horses and nudibranch. There is not a lot of coral, mainly algae covered rocks and boulders.
Overall:
I would recommend you try diving in this area, especially if you have never dived in the pacific before (like me). You never know what you are going to see, and you might just get lucky. Its a great country with friendly people and we enjoyed out short visit.
Thanks for reading :monkeydan .
Stayed at:
Villa Flores B+B, recommended, has excellent pool and gardens. Also 2 nights at Coco Verde motel, not recommended for longer stays, on the main road and noisy (but this is where the dive operation is).
Dived with:
Deep Blue, cheapest shop in the area and good service. They dont have a real dive shop as such. American owners and Tico dive masters. All dives are led by divemaster.
Two tank local dive $45.
Town:
Small and laid back, with a few tourist shops and restaurants. Great seafood to be had, but not as cheap as you might think. Biggest problem is the dust during the dry season, since most of the roads are not paved. Has large supermarket and bank, but ATM did not work with foreign cards. The beach is black sand and is somewhat abused by the locals. There is a lot of trash around. You can find pristine beaches in the area though (best to go by boat).
Diving:
There are a lot of fish out there, but because of the variable visibility you may not always get to see them. The visibility ranged from 10 to 40 ft, and averaged around 20ft. The plankton in the water made everything very murky at times, but that is where the fish are. The best time for visibillity is apparently during the summer (May - Sep). Be aware of the winds that can blow hard from Feb - Mar. Temperatures ranged from 77 to 83 F. I wore a 5mm full suit with hood and gloves.
Dived mainly on 6 of the 10+ local dive sites, in 5 days of we repeated a couple of sites. You can do longer trips to the Catalina Islands to the south and during the summer also to the Bat Islands. The Catalinas is where you are most likely to see Mantas, but there is never a guarantee (we saw some jumping on the surface but not underwater). We did 2 trips to the Catalinas, and saw stuff on the first trip and nothing on the second.
Fish:
We saw Manta rays (on surface), Humpback whales (on surface), Common Dolphins (on surface), Eagle rays, Cow nosed rays, Sting rays, white tip sharks, large schools of grunts, Jacks and other fish, lots of morays, puffer fish and stone fish. Also occasional frog fish (on the only wreck), octopus, sea horses and nudibranch. There is not a lot of coral, mainly algae covered rocks and boulders.
Overall:
I would recommend you try diving in this area, especially if you have never dived in the pacific before (like me). You never know what you are going to see, and you might just get lucky. Its a great country with friendly people and we enjoyed out short visit.
Thanks for reading :monkeydan .
