So much to catch up on - I’m now 2 weeks in, have met up with Marg and have done and seen so much. Costa Rica is amazing, and we’ve barely scratched the surface. But I have been lucky enough to venture a bit beneath the surface - starting the trip with a fantastic adventure on the Sea Hunter to dive the spectacular sites around Isla del Coco.
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| Isla del Coco dive sites visited by Yellow Panga |
A fabulous vessel with a highly professional, engaging, knowledgeable and incredibly hard working crew. It was such a comfortable liveaboard, the best I’ve been on so far, with plenty of room on the dive deck and everywhere else for 20 divers, 9 crew and the occasional Cocos Island ranger hitching a ride back to the mainland after a month long shift. The food was great, lots of variety and loads of fresh tropical fruits and veg.
Sea Hunter has 2 pangas (skiffs) for diving, which was amazing. After each dive you pretty much got off the the panga with your camera, the crew used a magic set up to refill the tanks while still on the panga, and everything was where you left it and ready to go for the next dive. On average 3 dives a day, this system is so efficient it was the least rushed I have every felt at gearing up time on a liveaboard trip. I was on Yellow Panga.
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| Yellow Panga returning from the last dive |
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| dive schedule - Yellow Panga on right |
More than 500km off the coast of the Costa Rican mainland in the Pacific Ocean, this National Park is an oasis. The divers were mostly from Germany, with a few French fellows and a Japanese couple from Houston. I was lucky enough to score a wonderful cabin and dive buddy, Annika - and with divers often sitting out dives here and there, we also enjoyed the company of an occasional spare buddy, the lovely Frederic from France.
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| Frederic, Annika and me |
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| Annika in action |
The diving was terrific. I have no words to describe how I felt when a school of a dozen hammerheads suddenly appeared in the blue just below us as we drifted towards a safety stop, or when watching the amazing formations and patterns delivered by a massive school of jacks or trevally when disturbed. I’m sure I’ll do another post on this as I haven’t made it through all my footage yet, but for now with so much to catch up on I leave you with some photos to try to convey the unforgettable experience I am so lucky to have had.
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| Hector (dive guide) in a school of jacks at Alcyone |
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| School of blue fin trevally at Manuelita Coral |
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| Hammerhead shark at Dirty Rock |
School of blue and gold snapper at Manuelita Coral |
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| Stupid white tip (said with great fondness, dubbed so by trip director Carlos) hanging with us watching schools of fish |
Wow Sam! The photo of your dive guide surrounded by the Jacks is like something straight from National Geographic!
ReplyDeleteIt was such a buzz
ReplyDeleteShould I start looking for tenants for your apartment? Sounds like you don't ever want to come back. Shame about the ear infection - I hope you have some serious antibiotics to deal with it. Great to hear from you and know you are having an unforgettable time. Love from a slightly jealous Miss Linda
ReplyDeleteThere is a very real danger I want to stay, but in a couple of weeks I will join you (probably with a resounding thud) back in reality. It seems to be a thing - the manager here is a French woman who came for a visit and has been here for 13 years; and our tour guide yesterday is a biologist from Amsterdam who came backpacking and progressively moved from an annual holiday to 3 months a year to moving here. It would be wonderful if you were here too, although I suspect you would enjoy the middle part of our jaunt coming and the bookends might be a bit less your style.
ReplyDelete