Costa Rica, Guanacaste Region (April, 1999)

Author: Joe Childs

My wife Cathy and I just returned from our annual "Lets go on a dive trip in April" dive trip.This year we picked the Guanacaste Region of Costa Rica  The following is a brief description of our trip. If anyone would like additional information, phone numbers,or URL's feel free to email me at jwchilds@austintele.com.

Getting there:   Thanks to the generosity of a friend, we had a pair of low cost standby tickets to San Jose, CR. via  Atlanta.  Flying time was about 3 1/2 hours from Atlanta.   Upon arrival in San Jose, we picked up our luggage and took a taxi about 1/2 mile to the "little plane" terminal. There we checked in at Lacsa (the local carrier) and for $55 each, got on the plane for a 35 minute flight to Liberia.  The Liberia Airport is also an "international" airport, and receives one to three daily charter flights from various companies. I noted that Adventure Tours services this airport on Thursdays from Dallas and will probably use them on subsequent trips, due to fewer connections. The Liberia Airport is about 25km from the coast, and there are plenty of taxi drivers willing to make the 30 minute/25 dollar trip.

Accommodations:   We booked a "5 night/4 day dive" package via a travel agent at El Ocotal resort. The resort is on the beach, about 5km from the town of Cocos. They have what looked to be about 50 rooms, some in the form of duplex bungalows. The bungalows are not on the beach, but do have a great view of the water. We stayed in the 10 room structure on the beach. Our room had 2 double beds, air conditioning, ceiling fan, 110v electricity, drinkable tap water, refrigerator and TV (HBO, CNN, TNT). The rooms were cleaned on a daily basis while we were on the dive boat.

Playa del Cocos: Our forays into town were generally to eat dinner and shop for souvenirs. To get to town, we would call the front desk, who would then get a taxi dispatched to our room, usually within 20 minutes. The taxi ride took about 10 minutes. The town has a population of a couple thousand with several restaurants and bars, a grocery store, and pharmacy. Our favorite was Papaguyos Seafood. They specialized in Cajun cooking and was quite good, as were all of our meals at the different restaurants.

Diving (4/11):  
Our package included diving, but we would have been fine booking dives when we arrived. There were 4 or 5 dive shops in town. The Ocotal dive shop was located about 50' from our room and was closed when we arrived at 3pm. The front desk told us that they opened at 8:00am and dive boats left at 9:00. We walked over promptly at 8:00 the next morning, filled out paperwork and were on a boat at 9:00. The shop has 3 boats, each having a capacity of about 16 people. On this morning, only one boat was going out, with a total of 8 divers. Four were students, and two were students the day before :). Cathy and I rounded out the group. Our first dive was at "Punta Gordo", a 15 minute boat ride. This dive was 76' for 49 minutes. This, as well as most of our dives consisted of anchoring, descending the anchor line and swimming around one or more underwater rock formations. The students and recent students dove with their instructor, while Cathy and I had our own dive master. We saw a school of 8-10 sting rays, a turtle,a white-tip shark, a green moray, and many puffer fish. Surface temp was 80 and temp at depth dropped to 73. Visibility was about 25'. After a 2 hour surface interval which included soda, water, chips and fruit we did our second dive at "Punta Argentina", (56'/51 min), where we saw about the same stuff as on the first dive.  
(4/12)
Upon checking in with the dive shop at 8:30 we discovered that we were the only divers that day. We asked about a "special" trip to  Catalina Island and were told no problem. We then asked if we could do 3 tanks and were again told "no problem" . Catalina Island is "special" in that it's about an hour away and the shop charges an extra $12. We dove 62'/47min,66'/47min, and 60'/34min. Surface temp was 80, and 69 at depth. Visibility was much improved over the day before, to about 50'. We saw several white-tip sharks, the largest  about 7', and on each of the dives we saw schools of 200+ cow nosed rays swimming above us.
(4/13)
"Virador" 62'/53min
"Punta Argentina" (Sur) 87'/43min
Again, we were the only divers.Today was special, as the first dive would be Cathy's 100th.   She made a special request to the DM that she would like to see a seahorse. He obliged her 5 minutes into the dive with a great big orange one.  A few minutes later, he found a yellow frog fish, which was my "cool fish of the week".We also saw another school of cow nosed rays as well as half a dozen or so octopi.  Cathy ended up sitting out the second dive due to the cold. The first dive started at 72 at surface and got as cold as 62 at depth. It was at this point that I got out my dive skin. As it turned out, I should have brought a 6mil. The second dive got as cold as 58 DEGREES. The manager of the dive shop later told me that north winds (which we had the day before) would generally bring colder water temps, but he was still surprised at the 58 degree temp that I recorded.
(4/14)
"Aquarium" 84'/40min
"Sharks" 71'/46min
Cathy was *still* chilled from the day before and ended up sitting these dives out, so it was just me, the capitan and the DM on the boat (talk about a private trip!). Water temp was back to 80 on surface and 72 at depth. Along with the warmer temperatures came poorer vis, though, only about 20'. It was very similar to Texas' Lake Travis on a good day. Other than a few sting rays and the ever present puffers, the only thing I saw of note were a pair of clown shrimp. 

Misc:
Weather/Environment
Air temps were in the  upper 80's to low 90's throughout the day, with 10-20 mph winds. April is the end of the dry season. We were told that from May to October it rains just about every day. From the looks of it, they need it. We expected a rain forest but this part of the country is actually referred to as a "Tropical Dry Forest". The hills are covered with dead grass and we could typically see several ground fires from the dive boat every day.
Money
The local monetary unit is the "Colone". Most businesses accepted dollars and returned change in colones. The official exchange rate is about 280C per 1USD. the rate at businesses was similar. The worst we saw was 270C/dollar. Make sure that any US dollars you intend to spend are in good condition. The local bank and businesses will not accept money that has any tears or marks.
Prices- (US)
2 tank local dives 45-60, 
Hotels 6(really) to 100
dinner entree 3-10,
beer <1-3
Language: Spanish and English, in that order
Bugs: We didn't see many. We did get hit a couple times by jellyfish. Buy a
bottle of vinegar at the market for itching.