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