costa rica-drake bay suggestions help!

[cakil]

Hi everyone,
I am trying to plan "the" dive trip to Costa Rica at the end of march for about 10 days. The plan so far is:
Fly to San jose, and then either take the bus or plane to drake bay for 4-5 days. Dive cano island and the rest of time hike jungle+rainforest. Then go back to San jose, rent a car and drive to the NW coast for Bat+ catalina diving. for 3-4 days.
We are 3 divers and we want to make it as inexpensive as possible even though it means sacrificing luxury and comfort, and see as many sea life, animals, (especially big ones) as possible.
So here are a few questions:
1)Has anyone dove drake bay/ cano island? which operator did you use? where did you stay? how did you like them? what do you think the chepest alternative for us would be?
2)The same questions for the NW coast..

Any kind of advise will be much appreciated!! anything else we should not miss when we are there?

Thanks!

 

[cyklon_300]

I was there in '98 and stayed at Jinetes de Osa in Drake's Bay.

At that time, the only access to this area was by boat, I don't know if they have air or road access at present. We flew to San Jose, overnited, took a small plane to a jungle air strip, and then transferred to a mini-van which transported us to Sierpe. Contracted with a river boat operator there who took us to Drake's Bay. Two full days of traveling, but it was all very interesting and enjoyable, especially the river cruise and surf entry into the bay...be prepared to be soaking wet on your arrival if you take this ride.

Jinetes was/is? run by the Chavez Bros. (from Colorado) who were doing an outstanding job of creating a rustic jungle haven. Open-air dining, simple wood cabins with bunk beds and a small dresser for your belongings. If you want fancy, look elsewhere. I thought they offered the perfect balance between comfort and simplicity. Food was good and the dining area overlooked the bay...and the bar always had cold drinks on hand. Delicious Costa Rican coffee was delivered to our room each morning and we drank it while sitting in hammocks watching the daybreak.

Diving was provided by Jinetes and was done exclusively at Isla Cano. The boat ride was approx 1 hour each way and typically only two dives per day were offered, one morning and one afternoon with a lunch break taken on the island. The island attracts day tourists and there were usually a dozen or more people playing volleyball, hiking, throwing frisbees, or picnicing on the beach. We got to witness a partial solar eclipse during one of our lunchtime surface intervals.

After trying a couple of sites at Cano and being less than overwhelmed by the marine life, we dived El Bajo del Diablo and found mantas, mobulas, bull sharks, white tips, sea snakes, large snapper, morays, reef fish, etc etc...we made the remainder of our dives at this site as it was so much better than any other sites. However, 4 days of diving one site got to be a little old and I would recommend only doing 3 days at most.

We observed a humpback whale and calf at the surface one morning which was nice. Besides diving, we also took hikes through the Corcovado Nat Park and a boat cruise along the mainland looking for macaws. The area was in a severe drought when we were there and many of the jungle species were not readily observable...hiking thru dry vegetation alerted everything to our coming and not many animals were seen. However, howler monkeys were out in force and did not miss any opportunities to harass us.

I thought it was a great destination, but would not consider it world-class diving.