Costa Rica A Prime Scuba Diving Destination

[Danny Solano Alvarez]

by Shannon Farley

Costa Rica is known for its adventures. One that draws adventure enthusiasts from all over the world is scuba diving in Costa Rica’s warm and beautiful waters.

The “Rich Coast” in Central America offers under-the-sea adventures ranging from impressive coral reefs to vast schools of fish and other marine life to shipwrecks. With two coastlines, the Pacific and the Caribbean, Costa Rica presents scuba divers with a myriad of fascinating dive sites. Warm, tropical waters off Costa Rica stay near an ideal 80 degrees year-round for divers, reports Costa Rica’s scuba diving experts at Costarica-scuba.com. Visibility tends to range between 20-75 feet and most dives are done from boats since the majority of good dive sites lay between rock formations and islands.

Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast features one of the largest coral reefs in the country, at Cahuita National Park. Fanning out over 600 acres (about 1 square mile), the reef has 35 varieties of coral, including giant Elkhorn Coral, Brain Coral and Venus Sea Fans. The coral garden sustains an abundant variety of marine life, including sea urchins, sea cucumbers, lobsters, white shrimp, crabs, barracudas, octopi, sting rays, small sharks, and about 125 types of fish such as blue parrot fish, clown fish and angel fish. Additionally, there are two shipwrecks that are easy to explore since they are in shallow water.

Scuba diving off Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast gives divers the amazing experience of swimming with multitudes of fish and other marine life due to the waters’ richness in plankton and marine organisms. Natural rock formations are scattered along the ocean floor. The Pacific Coast is home to a huge range of sea life like white-tip sharks, bull sharks, lobsters, eels, tropical fish, puffers, snapper, jack, grouper, moray eels, eagle rays, octopi, angelfish, parrotfish, dolphins, and giant manta rays. During their mating season, sea turtles (Green, Leatherback and Olive Ridley) can be seen on the surface.

Costa Rica’s long Pacific Coast is full of phenomenal dive spots like Cano Island, Tortuga Island, the Catalina Islands, the Bat Islands, and Manuel Antonio. Then there is Cocos Island. Only accessible by live-aboard week-long dive boat trips, Cocos Island is considered a jewel of nature and was described by Jacques Cousteau as “the most beautiful island in the world,” according to National Geographic.

For those new to scuba diving, you can vacation in Costa Rica and also get scuba certified at the same time. There are several PADI-certified scuba schools and scuba resorts in Costa Rica. Quepos/Manuel Antonio is home to the only 5-star PADI scuba diving center on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Coast, Oceans Unlimited. They offer guided dive and snorkeling trips, PADI dive courses, introductory resort courses and Nitrox. The best part of diving at the more than 25 dive sites along the Manuel Antonio coastline is that all dive locations are within 10-20 minutes of the coast.

Get complete scuba diving information for Costa Rica with diving experts at Costarica-scuba.com. Then, plan your scuba diving vacation in Costa Rica with Costa Rica Special Deals, a dependable online travel service company based in Costa Rica. Their main goal is to give you excellent, professional customer service and guide you through the reservation process of hotels, tours, transportation, local flights, car rental, and any other services you may need during your visit to Costa Rica. They know Costa Rica from top to bottom, and offer you all of their valuable knowledge from more than 20 years of collective experience.

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