Costa Rica Dive & Adventure ~ Volcanos, Cloud Forest & Beach
Trip Leader: Rebecca Metcalfe, NAUI Instructor
Arrival: Sunday, April 4, 2025: An uneventful (i.e., just what you want) travel day from Toronto to Liberia, Costa Rica for 20 excited travellers, meeting our two buddies from BC at the Liberia airport, for a total group of 22 under the care of our spectacular trip leader, Rebecca Metcalfe. We were met by the “Bill Beard’s Costa Rica” guides at the airport, for the ride to La Fortuna and Hotel Magic Mountain, taking in our first interesting views of the Costa Rican landscape as we stopped along the way overlooking Lake Arenal and the volcano. Thanks to everyone on the trip for contributing photos.
“Pura vida” is a quintessential Costa Rican phrase that translates to “pure life“, but signifies a broader concept of embracing life, living simply, and appreciating the good things. It’s a way of life that reflects the Costa Rican spirit of optimism and contentment. It encapsulates a lifestyle of appreciating the simple pleasures, being optimistic, living in the moment, and finding joy in the everyday. The phrase embodies a positive and carefree spirit. In essence, “Pura Vida” is a symbol of the Costa Rican culture, representing a joyful and appreciative approach to life, which is reflected in the country’s beautiful landscapes and friendly people. Without an army to support, they spend their federal funds on education and health care (not so much on road maintenance).
Monday, April 5
Rainforest Hike at “Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges”: The Arenal Volcano and the surrounding area is home to some spectacular wildlife and natural beauty, and of course it was raining in the rainforest! As the day progressed, the sun came out and it was beautiful and lush with the perfect temperature of 20-24 degrees C. Check out the railing in the picture which looks natural, but is made of concrete instead of wood to deter the termites from destroying it!
The Hanging Bridges: And then for the fun part, we crossed six different hanging bridges, suspended, with a little bit of twist and swing above the jungle floor far below – very exciting. It was fun to look over the rail down to the forest depths and see a creek winding by.
We spotted interesting trees, enormous leaves, colourful birds such as the Rufous Motmot, a yellow viper and many brightly coloured Strawberry Poison-dart Frogs as we walked through the 250 hectares of tropical rainforest. The poison dart frogs are also called Blue Jean Frogs due to their red body and blue legs.
Tortilla Making: At the home of Dona Mara, we began by wearing the obligatory chefs’ aprons and hats. With our guide Tony’s assistance, Dona Mara taught us how to make the tortilla mix, then we made our own tortillas from little balls of dough. She cooked them for us on her huge wood burning stove before we devoured them, in the traditional way, slathered with her homemade sour cream. Dona Mara and her family served us a delicious traditional Costa Rican meal with beans, rice, chicken, salads. Oh my goodness, it was so delicious!
Waterfall swim: After lunch, we visited a most beautiful waterfall location, La Fortuna Waterfall, many of us enjoyed a swim after walking down the 530 steps to the pool below the waterfall. The waterfall drops 70 meters into a sparkling pool. It seems that these picturesque, romantic locations are just too much temptation for some tourists.
Tony found a well-camouflaged sloth for us to view through the dense foliage above the waterfalls. Sloths have their own biosphere of fungus and insects, such as moths, living in their fur ~ a tasty snack when they get hungry. They come down from the treetops once a week to make a pile for the moths to lay their eggs in. When the eggs hatch, they find the perfect habitat ~ a sloth’s furry body!
Sloth Conservation: Did you know you can adopt a sloth?
Hot Springs: Our next stop was the beautiful Ecotermales Hot Springs and Wellness Temple with lush gardens and pathways, a series of warm water pools and waterfalls. Waiters served us wine, piña coladas, rum punch, anything we desired as we floated happily, chatted and played for several hours before dinner beside the spa. There are five volcanic hot-spring-fed pools that range in temperature from 37 to 41 degrees C, and a freshwater pool. A very magical setting, even in the rain!
And that’s the end of our amazing first day of touring the Costa Rican rainforest.
Tuesday, April 6
To the bus! In preparation for our coffee farm & chocolate tour, we stopped off at the chocolate shop to load up on chocolate bar souvenirs and Costa Rica’s arabian coffee to take home. This is a family-owned plantation and business called “North Fields”, specializing in craft coffee, artisanal chocolate and sugar cane, located in the heart of La Fortuna. It was the beginning of our CTM (CostaRican Tropical Massage) as we drove through the twisty-turny bumpy roads past wind farms and the lovely Lake Arenal once again.
Rebecca, “we follow you to the ends of the earth”, even through a CTM!
Monteverde: Onwards and upwards towards the cloud forest area of Monteverde. We stopped for lunch at the attractive village of Santa Elena in Monteverde for another delicious lunch with a choice of traditional Costa Rican cuisine and pizza. Reports are that the pizza was heavenly!
Coffee Plantation Tour: Our next stop was Don Juan’s Coffee Tour. We learned about the history, tradition and production of coffee from our guide, Mario, full of humour and interesting tid bits.
Cacao: Learning about the growth, harvest and production of cacao to chocolate – and watching Karen enjoy it! Sucking on the cacao seeds wasn’t much to write about, but Mario did his magic, transforming the product into a sweet sampling for us to try. Seconds, please!
Sugar Cane: Making our own sugar cane juice, thanks to Karen, Les and Ian. The tough stalk of sugar cane was pulled through a press as it was cranked hard by our valiant volunteers. The sweet juice flowed through the press to the pitcher below. Then we each got to sample the prized liquid.
Burbi Lodge: We arrived at our second accommodation in the late afternoon in time for a catered dinner at Burbi Lodge. The scenery surrounding our secluded accommodation in the cloud forest was gorgeous from a distance, the rooms were really nice, and the landscape full of ducks!
Wednesday, April 7, 2025
Cloud Forest:
Here’s the description, “Established in 1972 by a coalition of scientists from the Tropical Science Center and Quakers from the local community to protect one of the last stretches of pristine cloud forest in Central America, the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve is a pioneering and progressive model of conservation and ecotourism based on research and education on biodiversity for 50 years. This natural jewel offers 3,500 hectares housing 2.5% of the world’s biodiversity, which is why it is fiercely protected, the cloud forest being one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world.”
Resplendent Quetzal: Our guide, Joseph, showed us on the map the location of the cloud forest within Costa Rica, and gave us a very thorough introduction to the weather systems that created the cloud forest. Soon after we started our walk, there was great excitement as the elusive male “Resplendent Quetzal” was spotted very close to our walking path. Below its white tail feathers, you will see the very long green tail feathers that reach down almost to the bottom edge of the photo.
We also saw hummingbird nests, watched as the mother hummingbird landed on the nest and fed her babies, and saw the most amazing trees and wildlife, including the long nosed coati. At the end of our hike we enjoyed the Hummingbird Gallery ~ especially Tom who unexpectedly stopped inches away from a hummingbird on a feeder. It fluffed up his hair as it flew past.
Completing our thrilling day in the cloud forest was a trip into town for sightseeing, souvenir shopping (yes, we found a sloth tea towel), and lunch together at a local restaurant. After a refreshing leisure time, with help picking out the perfectly imperfect shirt for Tom, and later at Burbi Lake, we returned to town for a delicious dinner together at Restaurante Tramonti, including a three course meal with wine.
Thursday, April 8, 2025
To the beach! But first another CTM as pictured below (CostaRican Tropical Massage), a fascinating bus trip through the cloud forest, rainforest, into the dry tropics, and another waterfall swim!
Waterfalls: This was a beauty, with a hiking trail walkway down to the beach, tiny lake created by a beautiful set of waterfalls, lovely beach, little fishies snapping at our legs, and monkeys hanging in the trees. The swimming was fun and refreshing. A great chance to use our new Blue North Scuba towels, a present to each of us from Rebecca. Thank you! They are great.
at Llanos del Cortés Waterfalls
Diving: April 9-12, 2025
Rocket Frog Divers: Pit stop at Rocket Frog on April 8 to find our suitcases, transfer our scuba equipment to gear bags ready for the boat tomorrow. Despite the fact that there was a miscommunication in their dive shop and they weren’t expecting us until tomorrow, they welcomed us, sorted our rental requirements, checked our waivers, provided an orientation and stowed all of our 13 dive bags aboard their boat, the Devil Ray, to be ready to take us diving the next day.
Secrets Papagaya: April 8-13, 2025
We arrived at our beautiful resort, west of Liberia, on the Pacific coast, and met up for dinner at one of the resort’s five restaurants, Seaside Grill – just in time for Liana’s birthday!
April 9-12, 2025 – Diving!
Devil Ray: With excitement, we met at the beach for pickup on the Devil Ray dive boat. We were divided in three groups, each with a dive guide, Antonella, Ashton and Charlie, on a very comfortable dive boat with adequate space and shade, fresh water, delicious pineapple slices and a wide array of cookie choices.
Our diving centred around the volcanic pinnacles of local sites along the coast of the Gulf of Papagayo, plus a day-trip to The Catalinas located further offshore, an archipelago of rocky islets. Visibility was on average about 8-9 m., so not without challenges to actually spot the sea creatures around us (“like Tobermory at the Tugs on a bad day” teased one diver). The water temp ranged from 23 to 29 degrees C. The marine life was varied and plentiful, including groups of white tip sharks on most dives, an array of stingrays including long tail rays, devil rays, leopard rays and spotted eagle rays, an abundance of puffer fish in all sizes, multiple varieties of eels, starfish and sea urchins (including the most venomous “flower urchin”), octopus, turtles, scorpion fish, frog fish and sea horses. Our dives at The Catalinas featured a visit by a pacific giant manta, and we found ourselves enveloped in large schools of fish as we managed the surge, current, thermoclines, and low visibility. Those who skipped one of the dives were entertained in style by devil rays cavorting in acrobatic display, jumping above the surface of the water, probably showing off for their mates. They like to play as much as we do!
Scroll to the bottom of this web page to see the Dive Logs.
(after diving, of course!)
Secrets Papagayo:
A gorgeous resort, beautiful gardens, lovely rooms, stunning views of the ocean, fabulous hard packed beach to walk on, plentiful food and beverages, and of course, the best company anyone could wish for!
Evening entertainment at Secrets Papagayo included Karaoke, Beatles concert, Trivia and Fire dancing.
Playas del Coco: Last day trip into town for sightseeing, ambience, souvenirs, boutiques, shopping entertainment, street octopus and sticking your head in a shark’s mouth!
.
Costa Rica Dive Log with Rocket Frog Divers
Here’s the log info from Antonella, one of the Rocket Frog guides. Depths and times are specific to her own dives (and the visibility estimates might be a bit optimistic!) Dive location names are useful and some have links to Rocket Frog’s dive site descriptions. What great memories!
Dive 1: Meros
April 9, 2025 aboard Devil Ray
Captain: Jose
Dive Site Depths: 12 m
Dive Times: 60 min
Temperature: 29 C
Visibility: 20 m
Dive 2: Punta Ballena
April 9, 2025 aboard Devil Ray
Captain: Jose
Dive Site Depths: 20.4 m
Dive Times: 52 min
Temperature: 29 C
Visibility: 20 m
Dive 3: Virador (Turning Point) beside Monkey Head Rock
April 10, 2025 aboard Devil Ray
Captain: Nelson
Dive Site Depths: 19.6 m
Dive Times: 49 min
Temperature: 25 C
Visibility: 15 m
https://www.scuba-dive-costa-rica.com/local-dive-sites/virador/
Dive 4: Cabeza de mono
April 10, 2025 aboard Devil Ray Captain: Nelson
Dive Site Depths: 18.2 m
Dive Times: 52 min
Temperature: 26 C
Visibility: 15 m
https://www.scuba-dive-costa-rica.com/monkey-head-2/
Dive 5: Punta Sur, at Catalina Island
April 11, 2025 aboard Devil Ray
Captain: Jose
Dive Site Depths: 16.8 m
Dive Times: 44 min
Temperature: 24 C
Visibility: 10-15 m
https://www.scuba-dive-costa-rica.com/the-catalinas/
Dive 6: Brumel, at Catalina Island
April 11, 2025 aboard Devil Ray
Captain: Jose
Dive Site Depths: 15.1 m
Dive Times: 49 min
Temperature: 25 C
Visibility: 10 m
https://www.scuba-dive-costa-rica.com/the-catalinas/
Dive 7: Argentina
April 12, 2025 aboard Devil Ray
Captain: Jose
Dive Site Depths: 1751 m
Dive Times: 60 min
Temperature: 27 C
Visibility: 15 m
https://www.scuba-dive-costa-rica.com/argentina-point-local-dive-site-in-costa-rica/
Dive 8: Tortuga
April 12, 2025 aboard Devil Ray
Captain: Jose
Dive Site Depths: 20.8 m
Dive Times: 50 min
Temperature: 26 C
Visibility: 15 m
https://www.scuba-dive-costa-rica.com/tortuga-shark-diving-in-costa-rica/
Wishing you Pura Vida until the next trip!
Thank you Rebecca for another amazing adventure.
Blue North Scuba Club 