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Cocos Islands & Costa Rica On June 3rd Dominique and LeRoy set out on another one of those special trips. This time it was Costa Rica and the Cocos Islands. As usual the trip starts out with a few minor problems. As the various flights are under 4 hours the airline is not going to feed us, so Dominique makes some ham and cheese sandwiches to take with us. Good idea..well immigration in Puerto Rico didn't think so. When Dominique arrives at the desk they ask her whats in the tin foil. She says ham and cheese sandwiches. The officer says you can't take the ham into the United States so you will have to remove it from the sandwich, she does after about 15 minutes of picking the ham out. The line of people behind her is huge, but they seem to be entertained by whats going on. After the ham is out, Dominique casually says that the ham was originally from the U.S. The officer says if it left the U.S it is no longer from there..OK..Anyway we arrive in San Jose, Costa Rica in the evening and are taken to our hotel 'The Grano de Oro'. I must say that this is one of the nicest places I have ever stayed. The hotel is actually a converted old mansion and it is truly lovely. Beautiful wood furnishings, flowers all around and its very small and personal. We check in and are greeted with a warm and friendly welcome (we like this place). Next morning after a breakfast in the garden we are off on a rainforest tram ride. For 2 hours we are the only ones in the tram with a very knowledgeable guide, who is explaining every piece of flora and fauna to us. The rainforest is fantastic. Just like 'Jurassic Park'. The next day June 5th is the reason we came here. We are booked on the Undersea Hunter for 10 days of diving out on the Cocos Islands. They are located about 350 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. After a one and half hour bus ride we arrive at Puntarenas where the boat is docked. The crew welcomes us aboard and shows us to our cabin. The only description you can give about this boat is 'incredible'. This is a divers boat...polished wood everywhere...queen size bed, shower etc. very clean... After we are on board for awhile getting all our gear sorted out and stowed away we have the briefing. We are in the main salon, which serves as the dining room and video watching area along with the main gathering spot.. The room is also polished wood, wall the wall carpet and many beautiful underwater pictures adorning the walls. We are introduced to the crew and our other diving companions. The head divemaster Ofer Ketter suggests those of us who are not certified in Nitrox should take the course as we travel to the Island. The trip takes about 36 hours. Dominique and I sign up along with three others. We are a total of 13 divers. The trip over was a little rough, but I didn't see any seasickness. Arriving at the Cocos Islands is truly magical. You see this lush green island with waterfalls cascading down the cliffs, all we could say was WOW! After another briefing we are told we are all going to take a check out dive..we are also told that this will be the best check out dive we have ever taken. We are to dive out of two Pangas 7 & 6 divers per boat. After a 10 minute boat ride to and area call Manuelita Rock, we are in the water and down about 50 feet. First, 6 or 7 hammerheads come by to see us. Over a dozen Marble rays swim by followed shortly thereafter by two green turtles and then at the end of the dive we film a huge school of whitetip sharks in a feeding frenzy..yeh, it was an OK check out dive!! Now I'm not going to go into detail on every dive, but those of you who know me, know I wouldn't say the following if it wasn't true. I've been diving since 1955 and the next 9 days of diving off the Undersea Hunter around the Cocos Islands was the best I have ever seen. Example, dive site 'Dirty Rock': over a dozen Eagle Rays swim by...30 to 50 schooling Hammerhead sharks are with us....over 1000 schooling jacks in mid water, and on and on... Now during this trip there was some minor competition between the two Pangas...one team was 'blue' ours was 'yellow'. Each boat went to different dive site so at the end we would get together and see who saw what. Well on one occasion we return from our dive yelling that we swam with Manta Rays and a pod of Dolphins. 'Blue' team is very quiet so we ask what happened..their answer was 'we swam with a 40' whale shark...well thats as good as it gets. The last day we are on a dive site called Alcyone (named by Jacques Cousteau). This dive is a seamount and the shallowest point is about 100 feet. 10 minutes into the dive I hear yelling underwater and search the area to see whats happening. I see Lisa, ('yellow team' guru) (not our daughter) pointing into the blue..I strain my eyes for a second and then it appears...a 'Whale Shark', 30' long and it stays with us the whole dive...we have closeup video of this beautiful fish, along with Dominique holding on to its pectoral fin for a ride...FANTASTIC.. Well there is a lot more to tell and you should know that this is advanced diving on nitrox, average depth around 80' most of the time along with some currents, so its not for the faint of heart. Captain Nelson, Ofer and crew are excellent....very safety minded and very professional. On our return to the mainland we went white water rafting down the Picuare River and stayed overnight in a beautiful eco lodge in the rain forest. Also went Canoping over the rainforest.....Incredible trip....I could go on for a lot longer but better yet, come to St. Maarten and see the video... Happy Diving, LeRoy |