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The Island of Sharks
A visit to Cocos in Costa Rica has long been on my wish-list and this year the time has finally come.
We started our trip with two nights in San José to ensure that everyone gets their diving equipment in case of missing luggage, fortunately, everything arrived on time. So we had a day to kill and we ended up visiting San José Downtown. It was a nice excursion with a couple of interesting old buildings and a fascinating museum showing artifacts of the Native Americans before the Spanish arrived.
The next morning we boarded the Okeanos Aggressor I and got ready for our 36 hour trip to the island. Departing the harbour we spotted many Pelicans.
Farther out lots of Mobula Rays that were jumping out of the water doing somersaults. After a while we were also joined by a pod of dolphins.
Once at our destination we started diving right away. The main reason for my visit was to see Hammerhead Sharks and I was not disappointed. Already during our checkout dive I spotted one swimming past. In the end we saw Hammerhead Sharks on 20 out of 21 dives! (Granted sometimes only a shadow, but still!)
Our time of visit coincided with the rainy season and so we had clouds and rain showers daily, however, from time to time we also saw beautiful landscapes with rainbows!
Sharks weren't the only inhabitants of the reefs, we also spotted lots of Marble Rays, Lobsters, Butterflyfish, Sea Urchins, Pufferfish and from time to time even a Yellowfin Tuna.
In case you are wondering, these are pufferfish, and not Tuna ;)
During the first land visit we could stroll past the ranger accommodation and their garden to the "El Copey" bridge, which was constructed exclusively from confiscated fishing nets.
The two dive spots we visited the most were both fantastic. At Punta Maria, we regularly encountered several Galapagos Sharks and Hammerhead Sharks (which often took a look at us during our safety stop). At Dirty Rock we also regularly spotted Hammerhead Sharks and hundreds of Bigeye Trevalleys.
The second land trip, was highly anticipated by me, because it gave me the opportunity to look for a geocache. After a strenuous climb I could not only enjoy a beautiful view, but also find the Cache, my first one in Costa Rica!
Cocos is not only fascinating under water, but also above, because it boasts a huge number of birds, which often followed our dive boat or were waiting for us when we ascended.
Due to heavy currents we could not dive all the sites, but we did manage to visit Alcyone three times and there we saw large schools of Hammerhead Sharks (at least 60) circling above us. Unfortunately, the visibility was not that great, so my pictures tended to work better in black and white.
From time to time, I also managed to look for the smaller things, because there was plenty. Especially a huge number of Blennies sitting in and on the rocks. This one wanted to say hi ;)
On the way to the last dive we saw a Humpback Whale breaching on the horizon which was a promising start. During the dive we then visited two frogfishes (who probably were relieved when all the paparazzi departed ;) ).
The way back to the mainland was "only" 32 hours, but because the waves were hitting the boat sideways, it ended up being the rougher journey and I was relieved when we finally reached the harbour.
All in all I had a fantastic time and really enjoyed all the great diving :).
This guy distracted me from Shark watching for a bit.
Labels: diving, pictures, traveling, vacation
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