| Costa Rica is an eco-tourism paradise with rain | | | | season. The operator I used was Rich Coast Diving. |
| forests, exotic wildlife, volcanoes and much more. | | | | The local Costa Rican divemasters from Rich Coast |
| This little Central American country is also an | | | | they took all of the scuba equipment including tanks |
| interesting place to scuba dive. Most of the diving in | | | | down to the beach every morning by pickup |
| Costa Rica is done on the west coast Pacific Ocean | | | | truck.The dives ranged from about 60 feet to 85 |
| side with an area up in the Guanacaste region located | | | | feet with mild to moderate currents. One thing that |
| in the northwestern part of the country and another | | | | all divers will notice here is that the diving in Costa |
| south of the capital city of San Jose near the middle | | | | Rica is very different from the usual Caribbean reef |
| of its west coast. If flying into San Jose, one would | | | | diving. The visibility is a lot poorer and there are some |
| have to do some internal traveling to get to either of | | | | noticeably colder thermoclines. The poor visibility is |
| these two locations.The Guanacaste area is a bit | | | | due to higher amounts of plankton in the local waters |
| easier to get to especially if one could arrange a flight | | | | compared to the Caribbean Sea. In some dive sites, |
| right to the town of Liberia in northern Costa Rica. | | | | we had to swim through sections of water which |
| There are some seasonal charter flights from North | | | | turned into an almost brown color soup. This cut the |
| America directly to Liberia. The town of Playas del | | | | sunlight from the top drastically. However, there is a |
| Coco which is used as the main base for divers is a | | | | huge plus side to this poorer visibility. The plankton |
| short cab ride from the Liberia airport. There are | | | | attracts larger marine animals and if divers came here |
| restaurants and small hotels in Playa del Coco including | | | | to see the big ones, they will not be |
| a few American owned scuba dive operators. These | | | | disappointed.Even some of the reef fish here are |
| dive operators usually have special package deals | | | | larger. For example, the trumpet fish we saw down |
| available which include both diving and | | | | here are significantly larger than the ones found in |
| accommodations with one of the local hotels. | | | | Caribbean waters. Also, there are much more |
| Everything in town is within easy walking distance.I | | | | porcupine puffer fish here. |
| made a trip for scuba diving here during the late fall | | | | |