Costa Rica Dives - con Whale Shark

[olalladiver]

Had (sadly only) 2 days of great diving in Playas del Coco and Playa Ocotal in Costa Rica. Struggled with which dive shop to go with after some good advice by folks on the board (thanks again -- It was very helpful not jsut for dive shops but other things as well) and also a buncha research on my own... Seemed I had a couple good choices, but ended up using Rocket Frog divers and they did a great job and would certainly recommend them to others.

Saw lots of great life including many flavors of Morays, rays, etc and the fish life was spectacular in ways the video just doesn't show... only thing that was not outstanding was the vis, but I guess that's not unusual in the area... Good by PNW standards, but no Belize or even hawaii.

Highlight of the trip was, without a doubt, the second dive of the first day when we had a 5+ minutes swim with a whale shark. A new gopro provides evidence that it happened, though it cut out unexpectedly before the interaction was over (the whale shark turned and came back toward us to hang out for awhile longer after the end of the video.) Least I got proof, since I know that without documentation, it never happened. More as I sort through the vids, but here's a bit of raw vid of the highlight on youtube...

It was "just a baby" I'd put it at maybe 5-7 meters... still something to remember and quite possibly a once in a lifetime experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJwTO5MGbl4

Great time in the cloud forest as well with great success seeing all the "classic" Costa Rican birds (quetzal, 3 waddled bellbird, emerald and keel-billed toucans, parrots all about, blue crowned motmots, and long tailed manaquins doing their mating dance, among other things). All in all, a great trip.

[Penopolypants]

Wow. What an amazing experience!

[Scubie Doo]

I dove with RFD in feb. Viz on my dives was about 15' so consider your viz good congrats on the whale shark, I didn't see anything close to that. What an awesome encounter! Glad you had the GoPro.

[Tom Nic]

So cool!

Looks like tons of fish life.

I look forward to diving here in the future.

[olalladiver]

Yes, tons of fish life and the vids definitely don't capture a whole lot of what I saw well... Definitely a fun place to dive... Guides we said say Aug actually was a better time to dive as vis improves and if I had any complaints that'd be it... it was only so-so.

and yes, Jenn... I was wearing the gopro on my forehead. Just for you. I'm like that.