Advice on Costa Rica - Tamarindo

[cdre311]

We were going to be heading out to Costa Rica in June / July 2010 and wanted some thoughts from other divers.

As of now, we have reservations at the JW Marriott in Tamarindo (using points!). I saw that there was one dive shop there; Agua Rica. I was wondering if anyone had a recent experience with them. I've e-mailed them, but haven't heard back. I was also curious to see if anyone knew of other dive shops nearby or if other beaches (Coco, Ocotal etc) were close enough to drive to for morning dives.

We almost stayed at the marriott near Herradura, but we heard it was pretty isolated and it seemed like Tamarindo had a bit more to do. Also there were some better reviews on Trip Advisor.

All that said, I was just curious what other people's thoughts were. I heard the visibility was lower in CR, but the fish were bigger etc. Anything else? Any thoughts about Tamarindo or Herradura?

 

[HerraduraDivers]

The trip from Tamarindo to Playas del Coco is min. one hour by car.
Agua Rica is run by a nice italian (english speaking) couple, i know them personally but unfortunately never had time to dive with them.
The Islas Catalinas (their primary dive site) is one of the oldest and most famous divespots in Costa Rica.

The Marriot in Herradura is located in the Los Sueños Resort and Marina Costa Rica's Premier Luxury Real Estate Resort,
certainly one of the most beautiful Resorts in Costa Rica and we have a lot of clients from the Marriot here and never heard any complaints.
Herradura is locatet about 4 Miles from the bustling town of Jaco where you will find almost everything you desire and a Taxi will be about 8$.
The Herradura / Jaco area is also a good "basecamp" for excursions to discover the beauty of Costa Rica.

Yes, visibility in Costa Rica is influenced by rainfalls in the rainy season and all year around by the massive amount of plankton.
The good thing of plankton is that marine life benefit from it and grow much more, the backside of the medal is that the visibility drop down.
To be honest, in June/July visibility can be better in Tamarindo, but this depends exclusively on the rainfalls here and is quite difficoult to predict when they start.

Best regards

Chris Karrer

 

[rlskill1]

Flamingo Beach has a few dive shops. Aquacenter Diving located at Flamingo Beach Marina Resort was a good group to dive with.

 

[zindie]

Hi there,

How are you? I wanted to let you know about Rich Coast Dive Center at Playas del Coco. This 5* Padi Center will happily show you around under the surface! There's so much to see that makes up for the, sometimes, average, viz... Think about all kinds of Rays (eagle,sting, devil, round, cow-nosed) , turtles, nudibranches, octopus, lobsters, jacks and you'll be surprised by the big schools of fish. Then there's sharks. White-tips, nurse sharks and from may/ june on, Rich Coast Diving will be your guide at the famous Bat Islands, where you've got the change to meet the Bull shark!!! Boats go out every morning and return early afternoon.

If i can be of any further help, please don't hesitate to contact me. Have fun planning your trip!

 

[glamourpuss]

We dove with Aqua Rica, about a month ago, and I have to say I wasn't very impressed. The dives themselves were ok, visibility was pretty bad... only about 5-8 meters, (when we asked in the shop the day before what it was like that day when they were out, we were told it was 20m.... I'm skeptical that it changed that much over night, given that there was no rain, no wind, no nothing. Pretty sure they just told us that to get us to sign up. I've since read that the average for the area is about 12m) anyway... we saw a few white tips and a couple of eagle rays.

As for Aqua Rica, as Chris mentioned above it's run by an italian couple. They wife (I'm not sure her name) came off a little cold, and definitely not very welcoming when we booked our dives, but Claudio (I think that's his name) who was our DM the next day was quite friendly and seemed like a nice guy.

We showed up at the beach the morning of our dives and were a little early. There were 5 of us diving that day, and we got to talking before Claudio showed up. 2 of the people diving were doing their open water with Aqua Rica, and were close to finishing, but hadn't completed the course yet. I assumed that they would be going with their instructor, and the rest of us, would be going with a DM. When we got on the boat and realized that there was only one guide I was definitely confused about the situation. We all ended up diving together, and went below 18m.

Now, it wasn't really a big deal... nothing happened, but I definitely wasn't very impressed that they took two students who weren't certified yet, out on a fun dive with paying customers. Naturally the two students ended up running out of air way before the rest of us, so the instructor told us to wait at the bottom while he took them up, and then came back down and finished the dive.

I don't mean to be a stickler for rules, but it just didn't seem very professional.

 

[HerraduraDivers]

Glamourpuss,
as i wrote, viz is influenced by rainfalls (not a big issue in Guanacaste) and plancton/algeas.
Almost everywhere on the pacific side the conditions can change over night due the changing currents, swells and tides and may bring in and up "dirty" but plankton rich water.
A lot of people don't belive that untill the see with their eyes how quick viz can drop or grow, sometimes between 2 dives too.
A visibility of 5-8 meters is below average for this month, but as i said things can change quite quick here.

Chris

 

[glamourpuss]

Chris,

The visibility wasn't really the issue. I don't really believe that they had 20m vis the day before we dove, but that wasn't what put me off of Aqua Rica... the part I wasn't impressed with was the fact that they took un-certified divers out with paying customers. When I'm paying good money to go on a dive I expect the shop to be professional, and the whole situation made me very uncomfortable.

 

[cdre311]

Chris,

The visibility wasn't really the issue. I don't really believe that they had 20m vis the day before we dove, but that wasn't what put me off of Aqua Rica... the part I wasn't impressed with was the fact that they took un-certified divers out with paying customers. When I'm paying good money to go on a dive I expect the shop to be professional, and the whole situation made me very uncomfortable.

Thanks for the heads up. While I'm certainly hoping for decent visibility, I'm more than happy to sacrifice it if it means spotting some pelagic ocean life. In the past we've always gone to the Caribbean where viz is great, but this summer has us traveling the Pacific Coast (Mexico and Costa Rica). All in all, I'm just happy to say "I dove it".

As far as having to dive with people in training, I'll keep a heads up to make sure that doesn't happen when we are down there. I've had some similar experiences with DMs in Mexico and it really put me off. Also, I think we are going to try and dive with Rich Coast Diving at Playas del Coco, so we'll continue diving with whichever shop we are most comfortable with.

Did you happen to see any bull sharks when you were down there?

Cheers

 

[zindie]

Hello again,

Being a diver at Rich Coast Diving i can guarantee you, you won't be diving with students, because of the fact that they sometimes need to do underwater/surface skills, can go less deep or simply need other kind of attention than experienced divers. Groups will be kept small wich gives you the change to enjoy your dives the fullest!!!!

About the bull sharks, last couple of days, the sea was so quiet we considered going to the Bat Islands already instead of having to wait 'till May because of rough sea conditions in that area. The Bul sharks are there all year round.

If there's anything i can help you with concerning your stay at Playas del Coco (accomodation, excursions, etc...) please don't hesitate to contact me.

Best regards

 

[cdre311]

Zindie,

We will be staying in Tamarindo when we are down there, but I won't hesitate to reach out to you regarding diving with your group. We'll be coming down in early July. I'll shoot you and e-mail about a month prior to set up some dates to dive with you.

Thanks!