DIVING IN COSTA RICA

By Colin Cuskley. Photos by Steve Roper.

This year we decided to take our annual February vacation/dive trip in Costa Rica. Along with another family, we booked the villa at the Sugar Beach Hotel just north of Playa Flamingo in the province of Guanacaste on the north west of Costa Rica. It was a great house about 100 feet up on the cliff overlooking the hotel’s beach and the Pacific Ocean. Offshore we could see a number of small islands with high cliffs; one set a couple of miles out. There were also a few groups of large rocks jutting out of the sea a mile and more out, which looked like sailboats in the distance.

We flew into the capitol, San Jose, about 200 miles from Playa Flamingo and rented a car (there are also flights to Liberia about an hour from Playa Flamingo). Having read about driving in Costa Rica, we planned 5 hours for the drive and rented a four-wheel drive SUV. Driving in Costa Rica can be an adventure. While the Pan American Highway (Route 1) is a decent road, it is only two lanes wide, there are potholes and driving through the mountains around San Jose is particularly slow with truck traffic and little opportunity to pass.

We made a great side trip up to the Arenal volcano on our way up to the hotel the day after we flew in. We went to the hot springs at Tabacon and had a great lunch (get the tortilla soup) with a superb view of the volcano. This detour added at least two hours to the drive time. The “major” road north from Arenal back to the “highway” was not a road with potholes, but potholes with some road between. As we were warned, the final stretch, the local road from Flamingo to Sugar Beach through the village of Potrero, was unpaved and bumpy. Never the less, through the week we were glad to have the flexibility to explore a bit and, for the dive trips, get ourselves back and forth. The dive center, hotel and/or local car services would have also provided this service, for a fee.

The largest dive operation in Costa Rica appears to be Bill Beard’s in Playa Hermosa, kind of the Bob Soto’s of Guanacaste. Though near Sugar Beach as the crow flies, I wasn’t sure about getting there by road in the early morning or if they could pick us up by boat around the hotel. I wanted to find out about these arrangements so I tried emailing them a couple of times and got no reply. I also tried calling. It was an 800 number in the US run by a tour company. The operator didn’t really know anything about the diving or other arrangements and could only book packages. This confirmed my previous experience to stay away from the big dive operators. On the other hand, especially with the family, I didn’t want to go out with some fisherman moonlighting with a couple of air tanks. So back to the web.

I found Aquacenter diving right in Playa Flamingo. They are associated with the Best Western Resort there and, from the website, appeared to be a solid operation with two nice boats. I emailed them requesting two days of diving for five certified divers and one resort course diver. I quickly received a reply and they were flexible about scheduling. I promised to contact them the Monday we arrived to confirm our planned Tuesday and Wednesday dives. On Monday morning, I drove to Flamingo to check it out and finalize arrangements.

Aquacenter is housed in three nice stucco garage bays around the side of the Best Western, under some of the rooms. There is an office/shop in one bay and equipment, tanks and two compressors in the other two bays. The shop is facing the marina/harbor were the dive boats were supposed to be; except the marina was overgrown with weeds, no docks and no boats! This was the only thing that did not turn out as advertised. The marina was closed in mid 2004 by the Costa Rican Coast Guard after problems with the operator and environmental violations.

Approaching the office, I found Anna, who I had been in contact with. She was very helpful and friendly. Our resort diver had cancelled, one of the five certified divers was only going out for one day and we wanted to switch the second day from Wednesday to Thursday. All this was arranged quickly with no charge for the cancellations. We filled out all our paper work and were instructed to be back at 7:30 AM for a 2 tank morning dive and one tank afternoon dive as we had arranged.

We showed up promptly the next morning and were greeted by Anna and two dive masters who both spoke excellent English. It turned out the younger of the two didn’t actually speak very good Spanish! He was from Manchester, England and actually a dive master trainee. As we organized our equipment, two minivans, well more than a dozen people, showed up ready for a trip.

I thought “Oh no! Another cattle-call dive trip.” where they throw you all in the water and say “Come back in a half hour”.

Turns out they were a separate group for a snorkel trip on the other boat. Another chap, who appeared to be the boss, was also on hand and helped keep things moving along. Though we never actually met the gentlemen formally, he was always there before and after every trip to make sure things went smoothly. There was only one other women joining our group of five to dive along with the dive master and his assistant/trainee. After fitting wetsuits for those who needed them, we were off to the dive boat within twenty minutes of our arrival. Appropriate BCD’s, regs and tanks had already been loaded aboard.

Because the marina was closed, we went over to the beach in front of the Best Western and boarded a launch with an outboard motor. The surf was calm and the crew very helpful. A short trip of a few hundred yards brought us to the smaller of the two dive boats moored off the beach. The boat was very comfortable for the 6 divers plus two dive masters. There was also a captain (“el capitan”) and deck/dive hand. It had a large awning, flying bridge for the captain and, with two large outboards, was faster than the bigger boat. As we got under way the trainee did a good job of giving us the welcome, introductions, safety speech and pointed out refreshments. The facilities were “el baño naturale”. Our dive site was a couple of miles out, about 15 minutes, around the two islands we could see further offshore from our hotel.

On the way out, a pod of what appeared to be a type of killer or pilot whale passed close by in front of us and off to the starboard side. Arriving at the island, 100 foot cliffs soared over our heads while magnificent frigate birds circled about. Waves were breaking on the rocks but the water was not overly rough; no whitecaps; a promising looking site. Xavier, the dive master gathered us around and outlined our dive as we approached. As we suited up, we discovered we were short one pair of fins for my two daughters and wife. This was of course Dad’s fault. One of my daughters graciously volunteered to skip the first dive and my wife would skip the second. The crew offered to motor over to the other snorkeling and see if they could pick up an extra set of fins while we were down and indeed they were successful allowing both my daughter and wife to make the second dive.

So four of us, the additional diver, Xavier and his assistant did back rolls off the side at the stern and all is well. Until we go underwater. The visibility is awful. We can only see about 15 ft, almost not enough to keep with the other divers in the group. The dive master is leading and the assistant is following up so we feel safe enough but wondered if it’s even worth it.

I also had trouble descending. I usually don’t wear a wet suit in the Caribbean and still only had a 3 mil shorty on. With that extra buoyancy, even my normal overloaded weight wasn’t enough (I’m embarrassed to say). While in the water, the assistant took a weight off his belt and put it in my BCD pocket, which worked well enough to get down.

Once we get to the bottom, about 60 ft, the visibility cleared a bit to maybe 25 ft. The bottom was rocky like the island towering above us. There is some coral around but not large ones as in the Caribbean. Upon closer look most of the “sediment” causing the poor visibility turned out to be alive! This abundant plankton, while limiting visibility, ensures a wealth of larger marine life. There were a good number of interesting fish of all sizes. There were a lot of starfish in a variety of colors and sizes. One especially interesting type had thin arms varying from 6 to 8 inches across with a bright strip of color down the center of the arm, often blue, sometimes greenish, sometimes paler. Another creature was a very bright blue, tube shaped thing about 2 to 3 inches long. I wasn’t quite sure if it was some kind of small anemone or coral or other plant. A couple of morays were hiding in the rocks with one especially cute little guy. The depth varied from 60 to 80 ft with a bit of surge back and forth but nothing too difficult. It was the first dive for all of us in a while and I had used up a bit too much air getting down in the first place. My son had also been a bit nervous to start and was running low so we went up after only about 35minutes.

Once on the boat we reviewed the dive and snacked on some fruit, cookies and water. We spotted another group of whales a bit further off and motored slowly over. They looked different, grayer and with a shorter dorsal fin, which I later looked up as possibly a false killer whale though these are considered rare. That made me doubt the earlier sighting but everyone agreed at least that the two groups were definitely not the same type of whale. The next dive was a bit further inshore at one of the sets of standing rocks. As we motored over near the rocks a group of small dolphins began swimming around the boat. We were hoping to dive with them but they disappeared by the time we got to the site.

This time we went 40 to 60 ft. I added yet a few more pounds of weight and had a much easier time of it, returning with about 700 psi after 40 minutes. The visibility was slightly better but still not good. There was a bit more surge that took a while to get used. It was not strong enough to push you into the rocks and would actually push you up over the rocks if you were close. At first it was a bit disconcerting because when the surge would catch me I felt it was moving me away from the group and I was concerned about getting lost in the poor visibility.

I soon realized that the whole group was caught in the same movement and we are all swaying back and forth slowly together. It got to be fun as we swam along making no headway and then would shot ahead. Again, there was interesting underwater terrain and creatures, but nothing exceptional. I did spot one moray, about 2 1⁄2 feet, that was out of his hole and swam right under the dive master back into his lair. He then stuck his head back out with the classic, ferocious moray stare while at the same time shying away from us.

That ended the morning dives and we headed back to shore. We were now going into the wind with a bit more sea and some whitecaps. There was good deal of spray and some shrieks but an enjoyable ride. I’ve been out on similar dive boat rides where some people complain that they’re getting wet!

After a nice lunch at the Monkey Bar at the hotel above the dive shop and relaxing by the pool for a bit we returned for our afternoon, one tank dive. We had a different dive master who was also good. This time we had the slightly larger boat, which had a rear platform to board through and for the dive entry. The dive was similar to the second morning dive. Though when we first descended two of us got separated from the dive master. He ascended with the other two divers, fond our bubbles, had the boat pull them over to where we were and came back down to continue the dive.

We went back again two days later. A couple who had dived often in the area joined us along with a family of three, father and two kids. There was a second dive master this time who went with the other family as their junior divers were limited in the depth they could go to.

On the way out we saw a turtle and group of small rays on the surface. The dive conditions were similar to the first day. There were a couple of groups of rays on the first dive but difficult to see. There were some nurse sharks squirreled away in some crevices on the second dive.

The other couple who were familiar with the area said the poor visibility was not unusual but that at other times that had very good visibility; even just the week before. They also had some excellent recommendations for restaurants.

That night we went to Mar y Sol which is at the top of the peak in Flamingo with an excellent view of the sunset. It’s a family owned and operator restaurant but extremely professional with excellent food and great service. It was the only place that actually asked how we wanted our steak cooked and got it right. The presentation was excellent as well as the quality, what you would expect in a high end New York or continental restaurant. A must if you are in Flamingo.

The second recommendation was for Marco Polo’s in Portero along the dirt road to our hotel. This didn’t sound promising as it appeared to be mostly local places in the village. Matco Polo’s is part of a small inland resort with about 30 cabins spread over beautiful grounds. It also turned out to be excellent. We went twice, once for lunch that day and back again the final night of our visit. We never did try the “real food” though as the pizza was so good the first time, we had it again for dinner. The regular meals looked excellent as well and as a starter.

I had the fish carpaccio, which was thin sliced raw fish prepared ceviche style. The service was thoroughly professional.

One another night we had eaten at Camarón Dorado in Brasilito because it was highly recommended in a number of tour guides. I generally don’t like to bad mouth places but, despite the tour guide recommendations, don’t bother with Camarón Dorado.

In addition to the diving and trip to the volcano and hot springs, some in our group also went horseback riding and did a jungle canopy zip line tour. There is also surfing in nearby Tamirindo and golfing at Playa Conchal (though book ahead for tee ties)

It was a good vacation but the diving was not great because of the poor visibility. Even with only 40 or 50 ft visibility it would have been much better because of the profusion of marine life. The abundant plankton also means a lot of big creatures, which we did see evidence of on the surface but not underwater. (though for all I know there could have been a blue whale 60 feet from us and I won’t have seen it!)

We hear the visibility can be that good or better but it’s a hit or miss thing.

Overall the experience was good and Aquacenter Diving was a well run operation that I would highly recommend. It’s hard to say I would go back again just for the diving because there are so many great places in the Caribbean with almost guaranteed visibility.

Though with the other advantages Costa Rica has to offer, I would say it was a worthwhile vacation to Playa Flamingo and if you go, give the diving a shot.