2000 Chapbook

Costa Rica is famous among experienced divers for voyages to uninhabited Cocos Island, three hundred miles offshore. If you're out for challenging, high-tension, big-animal dives among hammerheads, mantas, occasional whale sharks, and other awe-inspiring creatures of the Pacific deep, Cocos is one of the more reliable places on earth to find them, but it's not for the faint-of-heart, coral lovers, or those out-of-tune with their skills.... Follow the weather pattern when planning trips as the number of sharks is negatively impacted during El Niño years.... Water temperatures run 75 to 85 degrees year-round, and air temperatures are about the same. Visibility and water conditions, however, are unpredictable, with both visibility and wind down in the rainy season (roughly May through November).... Northwestern Costa Rica's land-based diving is a smaller-scale version of Cocos Island. There are plenty of sharks (although no massing hammerheads) and a big-ocean feeling with rigorous conditions and an awesome amount of fish life .... Bat Island offshore is the place to go, so insist on it before booking... .Beaches vary from not-so-great to decent, though nature side trips are definitely a double "yes".... Shopping is mainly in San Jose, which is also a pleasant city for overnighting. Though Spanish is the national language, English-only speakers can get by....

For full reviews of the following Costa Rican destinations, see:

Rich Coast Diving - Bat and Catalina Islands, Costa Rica, Undercurrent- October 1999

The Inzan Tiger,More Boats in Cocos, Undercurrent- May 1998

La Paloma, Southern Costa Rica, In Depth- April 1996

Cocos Islands

Okeanos Aggressor,July 1998, David A. Stoll, New York, NY. Awesome diving. Squadrons of hammerheads, sometimes at 60 feet or less. Individual hammers came right up to us. Lots of white tip reef sharks, huge marble rays every dive. On many dives: silky sharks, enormous schools of jacks, lobsters, tuna, rainbow runners, eels, turtles. Water 78, cooler below thermocline. Currents and surges rough; not for beginners. Three day dives, one night dive (not very interesting). Dives deep and long; Nitrox recommended. Crew worked hard, but sometimes divemasters insisted on dumping all 23 divers on same site. Given the cost and time to get there, it is not too much to ask that dive sites not be crowded? Aggressorand rubber inflatable dinghies could be more comfortable. Visited the Sea Hunter,which is superior and more comfortable, and carries fewer people. Crossing to Coco can be rough; bring scopolamine patches. Two-day rafting trip on mainland through the rain forest on the Pacuare River was fantastic. (Telephone 800-348-2628 or +506 220-2103 or 504-385-2628 (Booking) Fax 504-384-0817 or +506 220-2103; e-mail: info@aggressor.com;website www.aggressor.com)

Okeanos Aggressor,October 1998, Jonathan Davis, Waynesville, MO. Vis: 40-60 ft. Water: 74-76 degrees, surge, currents. One of the best dive trips I have had! Captain and crew were great! Tropical storms made conditions severe with surges of 15 to 20 feet felt at 40 feet. Rain, more rain, but we dove everyday without missing a dive. Boat: Showing her age. Still comfortable, but not five star by any stretch. Food good, plentiful and varied, good enough for a hillbilly like me. Marble ray mating station, hammerheads and tons of white tips. Hammerheads were on Alcyone Rock and as usual, hard to photograph.

Okeanos Aggressor,February 1999, J.W. Phillis (SBPhillis@aol.com), Southfield, MI. Vis: 30-70 ft. Water: 78-80 degrees. Sunny. Large photo table, ample storage room. Boarded Okeanos in Puntarenas for 35 hr. journey to Cocos. Shake-down dive at Manuelita gave an exciting preview; hammerheads and white tip sharks in abundance, a variety of fish, lobsters and marbled rays. More advanced dives on rock walls and sea mounts, usually with strong currents. Diving from inflatables with a divemaster (Hugo or Mark) accompanying us and a great boatman (Jose) who could find you wherever you surfaced! Alcyone Sea Mount (a site worthy of its own T-shirt) where we hooked into the rocks at around 90ft. and watched the Hammerheads being cleaned by Barberfish. Drift dives in strong currents at Manta Point produced mantas, sharks, rays, moray eels and tropicals. Accommodations O.K. but aging. Meals high quality and Costa Rican crew exceptionally pleasant. 50 short fin pilot whales and many dolphins swam around the boat for a 30 mins. On our trip back (Capt. stopped the boat). Great adventure.

Okeanos Aggressor,February 1999, Aaron Wiltfong, Gunnison, CO. Vis: 60-90 ft. Water: 75-80 degrees. Best diving I have had. Large schools of hammers, white tips, jacks, grunts, eagle rays 12+ in a school, dolphins, mantas, octopus, lobsters and slippers. Incredible! Food good and plenty of it! The owner needs to purchase a washer and dryer for towels and linens and upgrade the water system so the gang in the upper cabins can enjoy the same showers as the rest of the cabins! Divemasters excellent. The dinghies are OK.

Okeanos Aggressor,August 1999, Lawrence J. Cohn, M.D., New York, NY. Impressed by the service on board. Food, staff were superb. Cabins a little small. I have more than 200 dives, all in the Caribbean; my only drift diving has been in Cozumel. I came solo since my wife does not dive. I have always been able to find a buddy or paired with the divemaster. 18 divers, nine in a boat, meaning I was always the odd man and never had a buddy. That would have been fine if I could have buddied with divemaster, but Alberto spent most of his time on the underwater video and Mark roamed around. I was not strong enough to keep up with them and though I was their 'buddy', they rarely seemed to care where I was. I spent most of the dives without a buddy. Did not have sufficient predive information from the divemasters. As a Caribbean diver, I had been taught not to hold on to coral; no one told me that on Cocos, you have to hold on to the rocks and watch the sea life go by. I wasted a lot of air fighting the current. Though Mark on one pre dive mentioned that we should avoid the surge, it didn't set into my brain that strongly. So when I came up with 500 lbs and no one in sight, I swam to the rocks to hold on and got deep gashes. Divemasters did not fully prep us to go with the current and not worry, the boat will find us and pick us up. Lacking a buddy, this was often not pleasant. After a couple of days, I figured it out. But I hope future divers do not have to learn it the hard way as I did. The underwater experience should be as well planned as the above water experience.

Okeanos Aggressor,August 1999, Fric A. Maschke, Houston, TX. Vis: 50-75 ft. Water: 74-78 degrees. Restrictions: 120 fsw. Diving spectacular. Hammerheads 20 out of 23 dives. 2 night dives at Manuelita watched white tip reef sharks feed. Encounters with hammerheads were close and sometimes unnerving. Dirty Rock like diving in an aquarium. Large schools of snapper and jacks, lots of cracks and crevices to explore. Service excellent, crew friendly, accommodating and professional. Dove Nitrox 16 out of 23 dives and received certification on board. Nitrox a good choice most action 50 to 85fsw. Food very good. Okeanos Aggressor howing wear and tear. Autopilot did not work. Pressure gauges for Nitrox fill 02 bottles had to be tapped to keep needle from sticking. Inflatables crowded. Tank racks on inflatables are small and equipment gets banged around. A/C barely adequate in some cabins, while others freeze. Decks slippery; 2 people fell during the trip. Rust runs down the anchor hawser pipe and bleeds onto the hull. Life raft capsules were dated as inspected in 1998, however stainless steel securing bands were rusted and oxidized leaving me skeptical about last true inspection date. At one point DM pulled the start rope for an outboard engine and it came apart in his hand.

Undersea Hunter,April 1999, Doris & Bob Schaffer (seamoffPaearthlink.net), Fallbrook, CA. Vis: 30-90 ft. Water: 76-83 degrees. Excellent boat, spacious and comfortable. Outstanding crew. Schools of hammerheads on most dives. Lots of silkys and white tips. Squadrons of marbled sting rays. Enormous schools of tuna, jacks and surgeon fish. Our 17th live-aboard and it ranks among the top four. (Phone: 800-203-2120; Costa Rica: Tel: 011-506 228 6535 or 011-506 228 6613; Fax: 011-506 289 7334; e-mail: booking@underseahunter.com; website: www.underseahunter.com)

Undersea Hunter,July 1999, Gregg (gregg54@tcbi.com), Sheboygan, WI. Vis: 70-150 ft. Water: 68-78 degrees. Water: choppy, currents. 60 minute time limit on all dives. Hundreds of hammerheads on most dives. Fast, cool currents attracted roving bands looking for cleaning stations on the rocky pinnacles. White tips, silkies, black tips, dusky (or possibly Galapagos sharks), silver tips and a beautiful whale shark. Chase boats well equipped to ferry us to sites and pick us up wherever we surfaced. Nitrox a nominal charge; fills 32% for two morning dives, and 36% for afternoon dive. Night diving unspectacular though one could see feeding white tips at Manuelita. Divemasters and boat drivers were superb, the crew friendly and helpful; captain ran a professional low key operation. Divemasters Mario and Hugo ensured everyone maximized their dive experience. Hammerheads not easily spooked, and those of us not wearing rebreathers could get within arms length without spooking them. Huge schools of jack, pods of dolphins, a giant Pacific manta ray made this a spectacular trip. Accommodations comfortable and spacious. Ride out was long due to currents slowing the boat to 7-8 knots on the 300-mile journey. Didn't miss a single planned dive. Some passengers got seasick, but the crossing really wasn't severe. Journey home was fast. Rainy weather didn't hamper diving. Daily rainbows, frequent patches of sunshine, and plenty of days of calm seas. Once harbored, the boat was easy on the stomach. No conflict between photo/video slinging divers and those of us that merely wanted to look at the fish. Divemasters traded off the video camera to capture the experience, with a showing and edit on the journey home. Quality was OK but could have been a better video camera and even more sharks.

Undersea Hunter,July 1999, Tom Harvey, Hillsdale, NJ. Vis: 50-100 ft. Water: 78-80 degrees. Restrictions: 130'-60 min. max. My fifth trip, first time on Undersea Hunter. The best ever. Thousands of hammers, silvertips, blacktips. Whale shark for 50 minutes, school of pilot whales, dolphins. The best of 30 live-aboards I have been on. Capt. Roger-Mario and the crew set a new protocol for service. Seven days of diving (3 times a day) with a 4th dive easily available. Nitrox fills always on the mark.