If I was to do this trip again (and I'd like to) I would totally avoid San Jose (SJO) and instead land at Liberia (LIR). From there it is a half hour drive to the coast and ~3.5 hours to Monteverde.
Next stop to the north after Playa del Coco was Playa Hermosa. Bingo. Big, beautiful beach in a protected bay with pretty view to the rocky islets that crop up out of the Pacifc, several beachfront restaurants and the mellow kind of vibe that we were looking for.
Hotel Playa Hermosa on the south end of the beach is a quaint hotel of yesteryear - only 20 or so rooms (with more in the planning), lovely swimming pool area, gorgeous old growth trees strung with beckoning, shaded hammocks and a dining room terrace overlooking the beach with a good menu and very reasonable prices.
We met the ower, Jim, a bon-vivant sort of fellow, during our stay. He is an ex-pat American who came down to Costa Rica in the 60's to do a stint in the Peace Corps, and who fell in love with the country (who could blame him?) and a beautiful Costa Rican woman, and stayed. They have four children, and one of their sons (Justin) is Assistant Manager at the hotel.
Jim has only owned this hotel for a few years, but also owns a hotel up near the volcano at Arenal, as well as ranchlands near the volcano where he runs cattle. The hotel restaurant serves his guaranteed-no-mad-cow, organic free range beef. I would highly recommend the pepper steak (US$10) to omnivores like myself.
Playa Hermosa, apparently like most beaches in Costa Rica, is a public beach. There is a fair amount of boat traffic in the bay, and the locals launch their trailered boats regularly. Farther up the beach is a beach club where rentals of jet-skis, banana boats etc etc can be achieved.
This was the beginning of the dry season in Costa Rica (February), and the parched hillsides and occasional brush fires were in great contrast to the lushness one would expect.
Viviane of Resort Divers tells me that when the rains begin in the late summer, the area greens up in a matter of days.
This is the pool area at Hotel Playa Hermosa.
The picture, taken on an overcast morning, does not really do justice to this lovely structure. Beautiful tropical hardwood chaises, hot tub and dense plantings make this a most attractive recent addition to the hotel, and a good spot to escape the intense sun and occasional noisy activities of the beach.
For me, one of the highlights of staying at this hotel was the resident family of howler monkeys who lurked in the high branches of the numerous trees during the heat of day, and who made the most gawdawful cacaphony at daybreak. They are called howlers for a reason.
The hotel is comprised of several building blocks, each containing a small number of rooms. From what I could see, all rooms are at ground level.
The rooms are modest, but well-appointed, with private bathroom and various configurations with beds. Ours was a queen and a single for US$75 per night, plus taxes. I am a little confused on the tax thing - perhaps it varies province to province, but the tax charge was something like 17% on the room. In contrast, we did not pay any additional taxes for the rooms in Puntarenas, San Jose or Monteverde. Perhaps it is a tourist tax of sorts - the coast is in the midst of rapid development, especially since Liberia airport was opened.
This is the beach at the Fiesta Premier Resort, located at Playa Panama, about a 15 minute drive from Playa del Coco/Ocotal and about a 5 minute drive from Playa Hermosa.
The hotel sits in a very protected bay, which is itself located in a deep inlet. Across the bay on a point is the extremely tony Four Seasons Resort.
The main facilities (pool, restaurant, resort shops) all looked very nice, and a diver who shared the boat with us told us that the rooms and the food were both top notch. For an all-inclusive, I would pick this resort over Ocotal, which is located on a hill above the ocean near Playa del Coco - this one has easy and safe beach access, lots of amenities, and a very private and naturally protected location, ideal for water sports.
Resort Divers has a full service dive shop located on the hotel premises, with friendly staff. We checked in and picked out our rental gear ($20 pp for the day). We only brought our own masks, computers and hooded vests - as we were doing alot of traveling about and staying in hostels, we did not want the hassle nor the risk of schlepping our gear all over the country for only a few dives.
The rental gear was in good shape - Scubapro 7 mm wetsuits (jacket & john), Mares bc and I recall the regs were Scubapro, but I could be mistaken.
There were only 3 of us on the boat for the day - P1, a fellow named John who was celebrating his 40th B-Day, and myself, along with DM Felix and the boat captain.
During the 40 minute or so run out to Catalina Island, Felix busied himself assembling our gear while we sucked in the beautiful view. The weather during our week in Costa Rica had been quite turbulent with heavy off-shore winds, but the Dive Gods were with us this day - the seas lay flat and welcoming.
After a briefing (in which Felix informed us that our dive time would be limited to 45 minutes - ouch!) we entered the ocean off the swim grid of the 40 foot dive boat. The visibility was not stellar - only 30 to 40 murky feet, but getting down close to the reef allowed us to tune into the interesting array of sea creatures hanging out on the red rocks. There were lots of similar critters and topography to the Galapagos, including this blue sea star.
There was an abundance of certain critters, most particularily the most concentrated population and variety of puffer fish that I have yet encountered.
Several kinds of eels, including the moray to the left who was having a serious dental hygiene session, hunkered down in cracks and crevices. The terrain was not overly inspiring (fairly flat reef interspersed with large boulders and hillocks), but there was lots to see.
I was lost in a bit of a reverie (all the while keeping half an eye on P1, who is a very competent diver, but who hadn't been in the water for a few months) when I heard someone banging their tank.
I have to say that I have quite a strong aversion to tank bangers, underwater rattles, "Hammerhead" noisemakers and the like - anything designed to introduce sound into an otherwise silent, serene experience.
But when it's a manta, bang away dude. This was the first of numerous sightings we enjoyed during our three dives at Catalina Island.
John (the guy celebrating his 40th birthday) had shared on the boat ride out that it was his birthday wish to see dolphins (which appeared off the bow as we approached the island), mantas (within 5 minutes of descending) and sharks (sighted on the second dive). He was one happy guy that day.
After the manta disappeared into the gloom, I put my head back down to observe some of the smaller critters on the reef.
Then again with the tank banging.
Uh oh, I thought to myself, maybe Felix is going to be one of those wrangling DM's who is going to be in our face for the entire dive, never letting us zone out. As I glanced over to where he was, I could just make out a big boulder behind him. So, where is the manta dude?
Then I realized that that was no rock, it was a massive something moving towards us.
Holy cow-nosed rays Batman!
A veritable swarm of the things - heading straight over our heads.
I have been privileged to do a lot of dives, in a lot of places around this spinning ball that we call Earth, but I have never seen anything like this.
The herd of rays stampeded over our heads, blocking the light with their dense formation. The show went on for several minutes, and by my estimation, the animals numbered in the thousands.
Sometime during this mind-blowing event I actually had the wherewithall to remember that the little Olympus 4040Z digital camera that I had brought along to take underwater pix was capable of capturing short video (.mov) files. Click the pic to the left and you will be taken to a video download page.
I usually shoot a housed Nikon D100, but it was too much stuff to bring on a backpacking trip - especially since we initially did not have a dive plan in place. In the spirit of traveling light, I had not even packed the digital strobe for the Olympus camera, so the lit shots in this photo essay were shot with internal flash only.
[All topside shots in this report were taken with a Nikon D100 and various lenses.]
After the black cloud of rays receded into the murky horizon (about 15 minutes into the dive), Felix asked us about our air consumption. P1 and I reported that we had 2500 psi left.
Funny, but he never asked again ;^)
We bagged a one hour dive (see above regarding air consumption...) and then surfaced into the sunshine. The boat was moved around to the other side of the island, and we passed our surface interval inhaling ham & processed cheese sandwiches, cookies, and juice (supplied by Resort Divers) and revelling in our recent incredible experience.
Dive two, and more Galapagos critters.
We also saw a small reef shark, an octopus (down in a hole) and...
A bigass school of jacks that stayed and teased us with formations like this for the second half of the dive.
We had hoped to see more mantas on this dive, as well as the possibility of seeing a whaleshark, which are known to migrate in this area, but no such luck.
Catalina Island is actually a connected series of smaller islets.Being exposed to open ocean (next stop is Japan) it is one of those places that can be subject to very rough seas, big current (including surge) and cold water thermoclines. Luckily for us, we experienced none of these. The diving was pretty easy and the water was a hospitable 78 degrees. With a 7 mm jacket and john, plus my 5/3 Henderson Gold Core hoody vest, I was T for Toasty.
I asked about Bat Island (home of Bull Sharks) and was told it is a long run from Playa Panama and that it is not a regular destination by this dive op. In fact, they hadn't been there since September.
Dive Number 3. Can it get any better?
Another animal also found in the Galapagos.These colourful little hawkfish are everywhere, but they are skittish little buggers to photograph, especially with a shutterlag digicam.
Perhaps that is my message about diving in Costa Rica - for a taste of, or in preparation for, Galapagos-style diving, in a family/non-diver friendly location, without the astronomical travel expense, remote location and high cost of liveaboard in Galapagos, Costa Rica is not a bad choice.
The number of big pelagics we saw in just 3 dives was impressive.
Again with the manta.
This beautiful creature with an estimated 15 foot wingspan circled us for the second half of our final dive at Catalina.
This bodacious three tank dive day at Catalina Island cost $120 per diver, plus $20 equipment rental and a generous tip for Felix, who despite his relative inexperience as a DM, more than made up for it with enthusiasm and a desire to please the three divers on the boat that day.
I think we got our money's worth.
Sunset at Playa Hermosa.
Shared with a much-cherished daughter, accompanied by a well-chilled cerveza, viewed from a hammock swaying in the breeze - it really doesn't get any better than this.