2008 Costa Rica

December 5-13, 2008

The Resort:
Ocotal Beach Resort in El Ocotal is 1/2 hr drive from Liberia International Airport. It is on the cliff like all the resorts in the area, and has a nice beach, multiple pools and a jacuzzi. It is surrounded by lots of trees where howler monkeys travel through and the birds flying over. Iguanas and raccoons were ever present. A restaurant and a pool bar (only till 4 PM!) were OK, but food was not impressive. We wished there were nice bar at the restaurant since it had a great view. Shuttle service is $6 each way for up to 5 people to the village of El Coco, same as the taxi ride.

Restaurants:
We ate at 'Father Rooster' next to the resort on the same beach. It gave us the best value for the $$, and their fish was always fresh. DO NOT go to 'Lutz' even though the resort recommend it. Food was not good and they overcharged us intensionally. 'Papagayo Seafood and Steakhouse' was good value and some of us stated that it was the best steaks ever.

Focus of the trip: Diving Gulf of Papagayo and explore Costa Rica

Dive Sites: Aquarium, Rainbow, Meadow

Water Temperature: 73-78 F (23-26 C)

The first dive was the worst with limited visibility and cold water. During the week the condition kept improving and we saw many creatures. Big Diamond sting rays came in with the cold water and stayed with us whole week. There were numerous numbers of Balloon fish and puffers in every dive, and we were wondering if they were mating in the region. Eels (Panamic green moray, Jewel, Tiger snake, Starry, and Undulated), Stone scorpion fish, nudibranchs, and blennys were everywhere. If you are California divers used to the low visibility, this is a great location to dive for creatures. Aquarium and Rainbow are close to Bat Island, and had little current. With the current we had schools of Cortez grunt and Bumphead parrot fish along with Yellow trevaly, Pompanos, and White tip sharks. Our favorite site was Meadow where there were good numbers of nudibranchs, scorpion fish, damsel fish and a sea horse. Seahorses were fairly common and a sighting of clown shrimp was reported by other dive boat. The dive masters wanted us to stay close (with the limited visibility and occasional current, a reasonable request). Originally they wanted to limit the dive to 35 min. We insisted for 50 min, and at the end of the week we stayed over 60 min. The boat handle 10 divers max with 2 dive masters in the water. The dive boat could have used little upkeeping.

Arenal volcano and Tabacon hot springs were great fun despite of the long ride (3 1/2 hrs each way: If your schedule is flexible staying overnight at Arenal area is recommended). Tabacon hot spring is a must in Arenal area, there are a water slide near the pool bar, different temperature river pools with water falls in beautiful tropical garden. Dinner was included in the tour and was probably the best we had on this trip.

We did Palo Verde National Park boat tour, and saw lots of herons (Little blue, Great blue, Green, Yellow crowned night and Boat billed), egrets, kingfishers, crocodiles, and monkeys (Howler and White faced). Others enjoyed Canyon Tour including zip line, rappelling, rock climbing and horse back riding or Canopy Tour including zip line, a long water slide, and horse back riding.