Feb trip to Costa Rica

[ggthatcher]

Hi,
Looking for some pointers or advice.

It appears that I'm going to be in San Jose Costa Rica in late January or early Feb. It makes sense to get in some leisure activities while there. From some time ago, I recall a recommendation somewhere to Rocket Frog dive shop in Playa Ocotal so I called there this morning.
Sounds like a flight from San Jose to Liberia ($150) or a private company bus ($50) are the best ways to get up to the NW coast. Any other thoughts on getting from the city up to that area?

Any comments on Rocket Frog?

Recommendations on location to stay? I prefer small, almost B&B places. Anything above 2 stories is not high on my list. Easy access to food, sights, people watching, etc is a perk.

Anything else I should think about?
Thanks

[BillZ]

We took the bus from San Jose and it's not that bad - more like a shuttle in a mini van, not a city bus. The other option would be to rent a car. Costa Rica driving is a bit of an adventure but not overly difficult. If you do rent a car get something with high clearance, some of the dirt roads in the beach towns are pretty rough.


I don't know anything about Rocket Frog, we went out with Rich Coast Diving out of Playa Del Coco and they were pretty good. Cosa Rica diving is ok - but not spectacular. There is no coral to speak of but you will see reef sharks, rays and turtles. If you can arrange it see if you can get a charter out to Bat Island to dive with the Bull Sharks. When we were there the weather didn't cooperate but some divers that had done the trip the previous week said it was really cool.

[Scubie Doo]

I dove with rocket frog last feb, they are phenomenal. There boats are very fast and they are really nice. Water temp was in the 60's and viz was about 35 feet. I wore a 5/4/3 wetsuit and was cold. Several divers in 3mm bailed on the second dive. It is similar to diving the PNW with huge schools of tropical fish. It is (at least during my trip) not tropical diving. Here are a few pics from the trip.

http://www.jessemillerphotography.com/T ... Rica-2014/

[ggthatcher]

Wow. Fantastic pictures. Thanks for sharing them!

[Tom Nic]

I dove with rocket frog last feb, they are phenomenal. There boats are very fast and they are really nice. Water temp was in the 60's and viz was about 35 feet. I wore a 5/4/3 wetsuit and was cold. Several divers in 3mm bailed on the second dive. It is similar to diving the PNW with huge schools of tropical fish. It is (at least during my trip) not tropical diving. Here are a few pics from the trip.

http://www.jessemillerphotography.com/T ... Rica-2014/

Yep, nice pics!

Sounds like on a winter trip it would almost be worth bringing the dry suit!

[WylerBear]

I was there in March a couple of years ago and the water was much cooler than they led us to believe it was going to be. By the end of the trip, everyone had added at least another 2 or 3mm suit over the 3 or 5mm that they already had on. Just be prepared. If I was going to go back, I would seriously consider taking my drysuit and a light undergarment. We dove with Deep Blue Divers and they were really great. We wanted to dive a lot more than they were used to but they had no trouble accomodating us. Visited the Rocket Frog shop and they seemed really great too. Have a great trip.