Scuba Diving in Costa Rica

Almost all of the diving in Costa Rica is done on the west coast Pacific Sea side with an area up in the Guanacaste area found in the northwestern part of the country and another south of the capital town of San Jose close to the middle of its west coast. If flying into San Jose, one would need to do some internal journeying to get to either of these 2 locations. The Guanacaste area is a bit better to get to particularly if one could prepare a flight right to the city of Liberia in northern Costa Rica. The city of Playas del Coco which is employed as the main base for divers is a short taxi ride from the Liberia airport. These dive operators customarily have special package deals available which include both diving and accommodations with one of the local hostels. I made a trip for scuba diving here during the late fall season. The local Costa Rican divemasters from Rich Coast they took all the scuba kit including tanks down to the beach each morning by pickup truck. The dives went from about sixty feet to 85 feet with mild to moderate currents. One thing that all divers will see here is the diving in Costa Rica is really different to the common West indies reef diving. In some dive sites, we had to swim thru sections of water which turned into a virtually brown color soup.

This cut the daylight from the top drastically. However, there's a big and side to this poorer visibility. The plankton draws bigger sea animals and if divers came here to see the giant ones, they won't be disappointed. Also, there are tons more porcupine puffer fish here. Formerly in West indies waters, I have seen just a couple of porcupine fish and they are typically alone. We encountered big colleges of other fish types on a constant basis too. The local divemasters here definitely work in an alternative way compared to their opposite numbers elsewhere.

We encountered big colleges of other fish types on a constant basis too. The local divemasters here definitely work in an alternative way compared to their opposite numbers elsewhere.

In several West indies locations, the divemasters would promote a 'look only no touch' rule. Here, the divemasters actively turned over each rock to find engaging creatures for us. They might catch them in their hands and pass them over to the other divers. Naturally this practice of handling sea wildlife is debatable re ethics but it was actually a fascinating experience holding these creatures in my hands. The divemasters were definitely hardworking for sure though as they were avid to make certain the guests had good dive trips. Enormous animals like giant sea turtles, stingrays and white tip sharks were also spotted. On one occasion which I can never forget for the remainder of my life is when a particularly massive college of cow-nose rays headed directly for our group of divers. They seemed like a big squadron of alien spaceships.

They went right thru and past us while we watched in surprise. Then they disappeared. So for a totally different kind of scuba diving compared to the West indies without traveling too much further, Costa Rica is a fascinating destination for divers to think about. There will not be crystal clear visibility but the sea life will be different with extra huge animals to see. In addition, there are numerous other stuff to see and activities to do on land besides the scuba diving which makes Costa Rica a particularly full vacation.