Costa Rica, Coco Island, Okeanos Aggressor, by John Davis

I have just returned from the Coco Island trip on the Okeanos Aggressor. Did the nine day trip. . . 17 divers on board.

1) Crew was absolutely great. They worked very hard to insure that you had a great time. Thanks to Mario Arroyo (divemaster), Victor Hugo (Captain), Roy the Chef, Eduardo (Primero Panga Driver) and all the rest of the crew. Thanks guys!

2) The boat herself is beginning to show her age. She is slow (9 Knots out and back) but everything works. Not a luxury cruise by any means, but hey, this is diving not a Carnival cruise. I had cabin number 6 to myself. Two bunks, bathroom and very little storage. The cabin was plenty big for just myself, would have been a bid cramped with two people.

3) The food was plentiful and good, nothing fancy, just good. Breakfast was pancakes, waffles, fresh fruit, eggs to order, etc. Lunch was hamburgers or some pasta dish. Dinner was usually fish fresh salads, etc. One night was steak.

4) Diving: Conditions were not optimal. Vis was in the 40 to 50 feet range with heavy surge and currents. Vis was low due to a lack of sun and rrain almost every day. Needless to say, the hurricanes and tropical storms were effecting the weather. Seas were in the two to three foot range. Be sure and take sea sickness medicine. Diving is done off the main boat via Zodiacs with 40 hp outboards. Some of the folks had trouble getting back into the Zodiacs, but nothing the average person cant handle.

5) Sea Life: On every dive there were plenty of white tip sharks, on average we saw 50 to 60 white tips per dive. Eagle rays were sited on several of the dives and marble rays were very common. We found one site that had a ?mating station? for the marble rays. One female and probably 50 to 60 males doing their thing. Rare enough that the guys on the Undersea Hunter that were filming for PBS and IMAX came over one night to find out where we located them. They needed the footage for their film, working title, "Coco Island - Land of the Hammerheads", should be released next year. We only found the Hammerheads on one dive site, Alcyone. Tough dive folks, the dive is to 115 feet on a submerged sea mount. No reference except the line, go down to 115 hit a current of 1 to 1.5 knots and hang on! Several of the divers were unable to reach the top of the mount and aborted the dives. The hammerheads would rise out of the deep, turn and swim by you. They are very skittish and hate bubbles. Most of them are seen just at the edge of your visibility and seen only in silouette. We probably saw 40 to 50 hammerheads over all. Only four were in true video range, the rest were ghosts passing in the ocean. Had the vis been a little better, this could have been an awesome sight, as it was, the dives were good, just not great. The other critters we saw were the common ones, morays, schools of jacks, neon runners, tuna, etc. Don't go there looking for pretty coral and sponges, they arent any. Everthing is volcanic rock.

While you are there, spend some extra time in Costa Rica and check out the rain forest and volcanos. Pretty awesome! Overall, the trip was acceptable, I would rate it a 7 on a scale of 10 for large pelagics (would have been higher with better vis), and a 5 out of 10 for overall. By the way, the ads call this advanced diving, they are correct for the most part. This not a place for beginners, but it can be handled nicely by any diver in good shape with 30 to 40 ocean dives. Go with the current, watch you bottom times and enjoy. Side note. . . I did every dive with Nitrox 32 and was glad to have it. The increase in bottom time is necessary on the deeper dives when you are trying to find the hammerheads. The published rate for the Nitrox tanks are $7.00 per tank extra. As a group, we rebelled over the price and negotiated with Captain Hugo for a better deal. He agreed to a price of $50.00 for the entire trip. Thanks Victor!!

Another note concerning tipping, which always seems to be an area of concern. . . the group had informal discussions about what would be an acceptable amount to give to the crew, due to the great job that the entire crew did, we decided that $150 per would be about right. Everyone had the option of more or less, all tips were placed in a sealed envelope and given to the Captain. Dont know if this helps or not, but this was a great crew and I felt earned the tip!

Good Diving!
John