I just got back from my trip (2 weeks). We did the normal costa rica tour things:
Tortuguero - we stayed at mawamba lodge and toured the rainforest for 2 days.
Arenal - stayed at tabacon resort - awesome hot springs and a great spa. Did a horseback riding trip to the volcano which was fun.
Monteverde - did a canopy tour (zipping down wires between trees). This was fantastic, the longest one was 1/4 mile and at least a few hundred feet above the ground. Hiked in the cloud forest.
Manuel Antonio/Quepos - Dove and ended up getting my advanced cert from costa rica diving (costaricadiving.com). Also went on an ATV tour and a whitewater rafting tour. Ate at a couple of good restaurants and had new years at El Gran Escape which was a good restaurant. I ate at the sushi restaurant which I do not recommend. The sushi was mediocre. We ate mostly fish - I ate seabass at least 5 meals.
I dove 3 days with costa rica diving, they are the only dive operation in town. They also operate out of drake bay which Greg Chavez (the instructor/owner) said is the best mainland diving. It has as much animal life as up north and average vis is 60ft.
There wasn't a ton of animal life on the dive, but I had a lot of fun. There were a ton of lobsters so I spent a lot of time trying to catch them. I caught a couple that were too small, but greg caught a few for me so I had lobster two of the days.
The dive boat is small, something like a 15' boat with a canopy, but it is only 10 minutes or so to the dive site so it isnt a big deal. The boat can hold 6 divers, but there is not a lot of room to put on gear, but it isn't too bad. Entry is a backroll.
Day 1 - Two dives, 1 hour each, I was the only paid diver, but two of greg's friends/co workers also went so we had 4 divers. The vis was about 60ft which greg said is pretty rare. We saw 3 eels, a whitetip shark, scorpion fish, a lot of lobsters and a moderate amount of fish life. Greg mentioned to me that since the area is not protected (like drake bay) it is pretty heavily fished. Greg caught a few lobsters (yum!). Water temp was about 82 degrees. I get cold easily so I wore a 3/2mm full wetsuit.
Day 2 - Two dives - There were 3 other divers and two snorkelers. We picked about 20-30 oysters, didn't manage to catch any lobsters. Similar fish life to day 1, but viz was down to 30 feet.
Day 3 - Two dives, 1 hour each. Caught a couple of lobsters, viz was about 30 feet. There were 2 other divers, one was a divemaster (not the divemaster, just a divemaster who happened to be diving with us). One of the other divers was underweighted and I noticed that she was struggling at about 2000 psi. Her dive buddy (a dive master) did not seem to pick up on this. I wasn't sure what to do, so I let greg know. He helped her to let air out of her BC. I was a bit disappointed that a dive master was paying so little attention to her buddy. I kept watch on her since I knew her dive buddy was not and she started to have trouble again very soon after. She ended up struggling the rest of the dive and had a lot of trouble maintaining a 15 ft safety stop. I believe at first she ended up surfacing. She told me later that she spent the dive singing " I will survive" to herself. The second dive went much better since she was properly weighted.
The trip was not primarily a dive trip, so diving was secondary to the other stuff. However I did get to do some diving, but not necessarily in the best location. However I really enjoyed the diving. I would give the diving 3 stars out of 5. The lobster hunting made the fun factor really high for me. They also mentioned that I could go spear fishing there, which I have never done but would love to do.
Costa rica diving was an adequate dive operation and greg seemed to be a knowledgable instructor. The operation was pretty relaxed and very informal. I felt more like I was diving with a buddy than with a diving operation that was taking care of me (which is ok for me). I haven't done that much boat diving so I don't have a lot to compare to, but I would classify costa rica diving as a good but not great operation, however I would definitely dive with them again if I was in the area.
