May 2017 |
Only 2 dives - Vis not brilliant
Date posted: 07-Dec-2017 17:10 by: mazakdiver |
May 2007 |
Was loaded with critters. I've never seen such a variety of species on a single dive. Catalina Island was simply the best dive I have ever done.
Date posted: 02-Sep-2008 12:19 by: alaskowski |
August 2006 |
My wife, daughter, and I decided to spend the last week of summer vacationing in Costa Rica, a country we had not had an opportunity to visit previously. We wanted to get in a few days of diving and to have a chance to explore the country the other days. Ocotal Beach Resort/Ocotal Diving turning out to be a fantastic choice to meet our needs. We chose the resort/dive operator based on previous Undercurrent reviews, an extremely informative website, and responsive email communication.
Ocotal Beach Resort is located in Playa Ocotal, an easy 30 minute drive from the airport in Liberia. It is located on a hillside overlooking the beautiful Pacific. We stayed in one of their comfortable bungalow rooms with its own small pool. A delicious buffet breakfast at their restaurant, Roca Bruja, was included with our room. The resort has beautiful grounds, easy access to a nearly private, large beach, and a nice, small exercise facility. Howler monkeys migrated through the resort frequently and iguanas, lizards, and exotic birds were everywhere.
It was a pleasure dealing with Ocotal Diving, located near the beach in the center of the resort. The boats depart from the beach in front of the dive shop. Check-in was quick and painless. They took our equipment and it was set up on the boat for each day of diving. They rinsed, dried, and stored the equipment between dives. Being freed up from dealing with all your equipment each day is an incredible luxury. Ocotal Diving has five 32 foot boats though no more than 2 were used during our stay. The boats are reasonably fast and comfortable. They have heads, protected fresh water camera tanks, protected areas, and water, soft drinks and snacks. There are no more than 10 divers with 2 dive masters per boat; we always dived with fewer than the maximum number of divers. We took 6 dives during our stay, 2 local (Aquarium and Shark Point), 2 at Catalina's Islands (The Wall, Elephant Rock), and 2 at Bat Islands (Big Scare, Black Rock). The diving is considerably different than that in the Caribbean being mostly volcanic rock rather than hard coral. The sea life was incredibly prolific and much of it also new to divers familiar with the Caribbean. Some highlights included Whitetip Reef Sharks, Devil Rays, Jewel Morays, Panamic Green Morays, Reef Cornetfish, King Angelfish, Bumphead Parrotfish, and Guineafowl Puffers. Unfortunately, the resident Bull Sharks were absent from our Bat Islands dive but a huge off-season Manta Ray was a nice consolation prize. During surface intervals we saw mating turtles, Humpback Whales and porpoises. The personnel of Octotal Diving were uniformly helpful, considerate, and friendly. We enjoyed getting to know Liv, Diana, and Felipe in the office and Sergio and Diego on the boats.
On non-diving days, we toured the countryside. We took a fabulous boat tour of Palo Verde National Park and saw crocodiles, iguanas, bats, white-faced monkeys, and exotic birds including blue heron and egrets. A trip to Rincon de la Vieja National Park was a great way to spend a day and we spotted a Coatamundi walking around near the part entrance. We dined at several fine, relatively inexpensive restaurants including Roca Bruja in the resort, Picante in Bahia Pez Vela (just below Playa Ocotal), Vida (excellent Peruvian food in Playa del Coco), and Father Rooster's (adjacent to the resort in Playa Ocotal). Shopping in Playa del Coco was easy and fun.
We had a great time on our week in Costa Rica; our only complaint was that it was too short a period of time to enjoy all of the diving and other activities the friendly country had to offer. We hope to have the opportunity to return to Ocotal Beach Resort/Ocotal Diving to start where we left off.
Date posted: 07-Oct-2006 17:36 by: Craig |
August 2005 |
I got a kick out of diving here every day.
big fish especially the trip to Catalina when we saw the whale shark and humb back whales!!
Besides diving I went to Arenal and took pictures of an active vulcano and I also did some hicking in Monteverde and saw loads of wildlife.
Date posted: 12-Feb-2006 17:35 by: gurucostarica |
January 2006 |
I liked the dive atmosphere, Rich Coast Diving was one big fun time. Great diving
Date posted: 12-Feb-2006 17:28 by: diveduddy |
January 2006 |
Great big fish, sharks on everydive,big bullsharks at batisland and manta's at Catalina
Date posted: 12-Feb-2006 17:24 by: diveduddy |
June 2005 |
The viz is limited but there is so much out there that it doesn't matter...you see more life and variety here, it is truly incredible!
Date posted: 19-Oct-2005 10:03 by: chery |
July 2005 |
saw white tip sharks
had a dolphin and turtle escort on the surface
Date posted: 07-Aug-2005 23:55 by: Dana |
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