Costa Rica Trip Report (above and below water)

It was a hot and sunny day.......

We arrived at the Liberia airport on Saturday (20 Aug). All travelers
accounted for, all luggage present. The airport is rather small. One
arrival gate, two departure gates. Clearing customs was easy. The
only bag we had that drew any interest was the scuba gear - as always.

45 minutes to hotel via travel agency limo. We stayed on the
Guancaste Penninsula at the Grand Papagayo Occidental. Nice place.
Friendly staff. Well maintained.

Scuba diving was arranged on-site with Diving Safaris on Playa Hermosa
beach. It was a 5 minute ride from the hotel to the dive shop. They
pick you up at the hotel and drop you off on the return. The owner is
an ex-pat and the shop is well equipped to handle your diving needs.
Nitrox is also available. We had our own gear - but the rental
equipment looked extremely well maintained and in good shape. I
didn't hear anyone complain about their rental gear.

Since we were traveling with family, we only were able to make 2
days/four dives. Wish we could have done more!

Diving:

Put your required diving stuff in a mesh bag at the shop and the staff
hauls it out to the boat and sets it up for you. Once we got on the
boat, a check of our gear showed everything set up correctly. Tanks
had been checked, pressurized, then turned off. Before getting in the
water, they verified you had turned your tank on. Water temp was in
the high 70's low 80's. We hit a thermocline once and that knocked
the temp down to 75 degrees. Vis varied, depending on dive site, from
50 to 80 feet. Our max depth was about 80 feet. There are deeper
dives but there realy wasn't a need to go deeper. Dive sites had
current and/or surge - but not really too bad overall. Max divers on
boat was 12 on day one (we split into two groups). Second day was
only four divers. Boat(s) are large enough and in good repair with
required emergency gear onboard.

Critters:

White tip sharks, small bull-nose sharks, several large Manta Rays,
sea turtles from small to large, moray eels in great abundance, one
octopus that the divemaster made friends with. Puffers out the wazoo.
Schools of fish (drum) that if I moved slowly enough, would surround
me. My wife "lost" me in one of the schools. (I came back from
'school' much to her chagrin) Small critters in abundance as well and
I am still going through the books trying to identify all that we saw.
The divemaster was very good at spotting the small critters and gave
us enough time to look at them.

Above Water:

Had howler monkeys at the hotel (on the beach) all 7 days. We called
it monkey hunting at 0530. We booked a 'safari'. Had a guide for the
entire day all to ourselves (5 of us in his land rover). Tourism is
probably about 20 years behind Cozumel - so this was a rare treat for
us. Roads are pretty rough - we travelled mostly on dirt roads to get
to our destinations. Temps in the high 80's to mid 90's. Since this
is the beginning of their wet season, we had rain showers in the
afternoon that lasted a 1/2 +/-. Watching the lightening from our
room was spectacular.

Safari on the river:

Crocs, white faced monkeys, iguanas, bats, egrets, small wood storks,
parrots, etc.

Food:

The native food (that we experienced outside ot the hotel) was
outstanding. While it's a simple and basic diet, it was very good.
Chicken, pork, rice, beans, potatoes, greens, etc.

Leaving the country:

Oh brother! They need to work on this. Four airlines, four planes,
all checking in at once. This is an open air aiport so you won't get
a/c.

1. Check-in. Do the customs clearing, check your bags, get boarding
pass. On our departure day - computers were down so everything was
hand written.

2. Pay your departure tax ($26 US p/p). Only three windows to pay
this, so the line started growing here.

3. Go through security checkpoint. Bottle neck!!! One check point
for all four airlines. We arrived early enough that we were able to
clear everything within 2 hours. But as the line grew longer, the
airport personel would come through the line looking for travelers
that were departing before us and then would move them up to the front
of the line. Not too much of a problem, but we were standing in the
sun waiting........and then it rained - - heavy.

To accomplish steps 1-3 you had to cross the lines of those waiting to
check in, pay the tax, and clear security. Lots of
back and forth. Not a big deal - just a glitch in how they do it -
according to 'my' standards LOL.

We had a great time above and below. Didn't even feel the need to go
out to Bat Island of the Cat Islands.

The question we always ask ourselves is "would we go back"? On this
trip the answer was "In a New York minute".

Safe diving,
Ivanna and Ivan


Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention
of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved
body, but rather to skid in broadside, throughly used
up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
----WOW----what a ride!