Cocos or Socorro?

[jjacobsen22]

Hi all !!
Well, it is time to begin planning future dive adventures, and I really need some advice from you guys..
First of all, I am a big fan of "wild" pacific diving, and have visited Costa Ricas wonderful Cocos island once before. I had decided on visiting that island again, but then I heard og the Socorro Islands in Mexico.
As I am just a poor university student, plus the fact that planetickets from Denmark are quite expensive, I cannot afford doing both trips.
So which one should it be ??
I hope someone have visited both places and would be kind enough to share their thoughs on this terrible dilemma

 

[matt215]

you can't go wrong with either for big animals. if you want sharks ... cocos is it. if you want mantas and maybe whales ... socorro.
i've been to cocos and am going again in two days !!!! i also have socorro on the calendar for later this year (but i've never been).
if you've done cocos, maybe socorro would be a nice change.
i have heard that 2009 may be an el nino year and could thus bring warm waters which could keep the animals away, so keep that in mind.

 

[mjh]

Have never been to Socorro but have seen every video we can find on it and talked to several people that have been. Main difference as noted is chance to see humpback whales if you are very lucky and almost guaranteed to see big mantas. Many also see dolphins up close on scuba.

We went back and forth on this issue but have decided we just love Cocos too much and are making it an annual trip.

 

[dweissnj]

We went to Cocos twice, and went twice on Solamar V, once to Socorro and the other time up the Sea of Cortez.

The manta diving at Socorro seems mighty tame in retrospect with the excitement generated by our first trip to Cocos. Our second trip to Cocos paled in comparison, maybe because we were more expectant, or due to the rougher crossing, and conditions in general, and disappointment at the inability to do the rebreather training we planned.

Just to throw more choices your way, also consider Galapagos, where we had the most excellent 2 days of diving with whale sharks out at Darwin's Arch.

 

[jjacobsen22]

Hi dweissnj - thanks for the advice !!!
I have chosen to go to Cocos again in december
I have already booked a trip on the Galapagos Aggressor 2, but it is first in july 2010, as i wanted to go in prime whaleshark season.

 

[NTSilver]

jjacobsen22
I think you made the right decision. We were in Socorro in April 08 and were in Cocos (May 07, Nov 07 and Jun/Jul 08). Socorro does have the sharks, but they really only congregate at one of the islands (Roca Partida) and it is not like the upclose action at Cocos. You do get the manta encounters at Socorro, but on our trip, the best place for these encounters was
"weathered out" so we had to try some new sites - there were no manta encounters at those sites. The water is too cold in Socorro for whale sharks. This past two weeks at Cocos we had hammerheard, silvertips, blacktips, whaleshark, silky shark, and white tip reef shark encounters plus LOTS of turtles. (no turtles at Socorro)