Costa Rica Scuba Diving, Costa Rica Beach, Costa Rica Resort, Costa Rica Holidays and Costa Rica Sport Fishing : Costa Rica Dive

Nov - Dec 2005 trip to Costa Rica with Costa Rica Dive. Diving at El Ocotal Resort and ecotourism at Arenal Observatory Lodge

A 10 day trip, November 25 to December 4, to Costa Rica was a Christmas splurge that my wife and I gave to each other. Although diving is usually the major focus of our vacations, we decided to also take advantage of Costa Rica's reputation for land adventure. Rolando Arburola of Costa Rica Dive setup the trip and later joined us as our guide through the Arenal region. I'll say it now in case you don't stick around to read part 2; Rolando went well beyond our expectations with his encyclopedic knowledge of this country and its special spots.

After flying into Liberia, the trip was split. We spent 6 days at El Ocotal Resort and 4 days exploring the Arenal lake region from the Arenal Observatory Lodge. While we enjoyed the diving at Ocotal, the land adventure was really the highlight of the trip. Two photo albums, above water and underwater, are posted to Kodak Gallery

El Ocotal and Playa del Coco

El Ocotal Resort is a very comfortable resort with some luxury aspects and high attention to service. Buffet breakfasts were good and the view from the restaurant was outstanding. Iguanas and birds occasionally visited the restaurant which we found entertaining. The birds had a cute trick of taking sugar packets off of the table. They never took any of the pink or blue artificial sweeteners, only the real sugar.

The swim-up bar at the pool and Stewart the bartender were a favorite. Stewart introduced me to the Caipirinha. The Caipairinha is a mix of Guaro, a local liquor that Stuart called “rubbing alcohol”, limes and raw sugar. The dive staff is energetic and fun; more on diving later. One very small nit is that the rooms don’t have alarm clocks and wake-up calls don’t happen so bring an alarm clock with you if you need to get up early.

The beach at Playa Ocotal is black volcanic sand. At the west end of the beach are tidal pools that deserve some exploration. In the other direction along the beach is Father Roosters restaurant and bar. Our first-night dinner was here with burgers that were a bit too rare, but good drinks and appetizers. For all other meals we took a taxi into Playa del Coco.

We had nothing but good experiences with meals in Playa del Coco, hitting Tequila Bar, Papagayo’s (by the beach), Louisiana Grill, and Sapporo (across the soccer field from main street). The chilaquile at Tequila Bar was my favorite meal in Playa del Coco, but Sapporo is also worth highlighting.

On Tuesday night, we ran into a group of six from Oklahoma in Papayago’s who told us about beyond-the-norm day trip activities that they did. They stayed at Rancho Armadillo and told us to see Rick to get the info on what’s good and what’s not.

On Tuesday afternoon, after our last dive, we took a cab to Rancho Armadillo and Rick gave us an itinerary that included the Bagaces waterfall, a rafting trip on the Corobici and a visit to the Wildcat Rescue Center

With the help of the desk staff at El Ocotal we rented a car from Eurocar and were off for land adventure on Wednesday. Driving in this area for someone used to driving in the US was not a problem. The only caution is to watch out for the potholes, and feel free to go as slow as you need to. If you’re renting a car a four wheel drive is a must!

Our first stop was the Bagaces Waterfall, approx 28km south of Liberia on the Pan American Hwy. The dirt road entry to the Catarata Bagaces is marked by a ramshackle bus shelter and very small restaurant. The waterfall turn-off is not well marked coming from Liberia, but there is a sign in the opposite direction. If you get to the Bagaces turn-off, you’ve gone too far. Once on the dirt road, take the first right for approximately 1km to the parking lot for the waterfall. Beware of the huge ditches in the road. If he’s there, give the old guy a tip to watch the car and keep the place clean.

The walk down to the waterfall was not strenuous and the falls were great! The falls were once used in a jeep commercial and swimming in them was incredible. A pack of howler monkeys kept us company.

From there we headed south on the Pan American again for about 20km to lunch at a large Rincon Corobici Restaurant on the Corobici river. We then went a few hundred meters south to Safaris Corobici for a two hour float trip. We saw crocodiles, iguanas, Jesus lizards, various types of herons and many other birds

Diving

The dive operation at El Ocotal is professional, safety conscious and attentive to customer service. Most dives are a short boat ride from the resort to the dive site, but we also went to Catalina Island, approximately 45 minutes away. Diving conditions close to the resort were mediocre with limited visibility that varied from 25 to 50 ft. Viz at Catalina was better at approximately 75 ft. Temps were unexpectedly warm at 80 to 82 degrees F. Occasional surges of cooler water were felt, but did not last very long.

A normal dive profile was 50 minutes at 60 to 70 ft depth. The DMs limited dives to 45 minutes bottom time. The boats were not too crowded with only 6 to 10 divers per trip. Other divers were usually beginners and almost none carried a computer, thus the conservative dive profile that was used by the entire group.

There was some coral, but not to Caribbean levels and it wasn't coral that we came for. The first dive had probably the worst visibility of the entire trip at 20 to 25ft. We saw lots of puffers, rays and various eels, sights which were common to most of the dives. On the way to the second dive of the day we saw a very large leatherback turtle at the surface, my first leatherback and very exciting. We were also informally introduced to a number of jellyfish, another occurrence which was common all four days