Dive Conditions

Visibility: 50ft

Water Temp. 75°F

Currents

mild

strong

Weather

Climate

sunny

rainy

Sea

calm

choppy

Crossings

to Cocos Island

calm

choppy

to Puntarenas

calm

choppy

Sea Hunter

Photo by Catherine Cushenan @catsharks

We’re just back from another trip to paradise! On the crossing back to the mainland, we spotted a family of 5 orcas and we sailed beside them for over 40 minutes! One of our guests, Catherine Cushenan, caught some spectacular drone footage (see below). You can check out more of her work at @catsharks on Instagram.

The crossing to Cocos Island was a bit rough, which is to be expected at this time of year, but we all made it in one piece. The first day was nice, with an easy check out dive and lots of whitetips, colorful fish, tiger sharks and some hammerheads.

At Punta Maria we saw Glaapagos sharks coming into the cleaning station, and some marble rays as well as bluefin trevally hunting around the pinnacle. Then during the safety stop, a giant manta came and played with us for over 20 minutes!

At Dirty Rock we saw hammerheads at the cleaning station and schools of 50+ out in the blue. The huge school of jacks we saw there was amazing!

On afternoon dives at Viking Rock we saw lots of small creatures, from moray eels to mants shrimp, as well as bigger pelagics like manta rays. At Pajara we encountered tiger sharks and sea horses.

Photo by Catherine Cushenan @catsharks

We had fantastic visibility at Submerged Rock, with so much life in the swimthrough including whitetips, snappers, black jacks and 3 octopuses.

At Alcyone we saw hammerheads streaming in to use the cleaning station, as well as Galapagos sharks, blacktips and tunas hunting. Out in the blue there were schools of 70+ hammerheads.

Our final day at Cocos, we observed 4 tiger sharks, 1 giant manta ray, a mobula ray, eagle rays and some hammerheads at Manuelita Channel. Then there were hammerheads and frogfish in the Coral Garden. Lastly, Small Dos Amigos gave us a phenomenal sendoff with 5 Galapagos using the cleaning stations, as well as hammerheads and wahoos at the safety stop!

Then of course we encountered the pod of orcas on the crossing back to Puntarenas. What an incredible way to wrap up this expedition!