Cocos Island, Costa Rica

Cocos Island is often rated one of the top 10 best places to scuba dive in the world, and was described by Jacques Couteau as “The most beautiful island in the world.” Unfortunately, it’s a very difficult place to get to because it’s so far off the coast.

Also a World Heritage site, Cocos Island is a Costa Rica National Park too, and is uninhabited except for wildlife, park rangers, and a few tourists. Cocos has amazing white sand beaches with crystal clear water, but the tourists don’t spend a lot of time there.

A friend of mine who went on a dive trip spanning several days to Cocos, said that they were diving four times a day, and had the option to skip a dive and hit the beach instead. But the diving was so good, that not a single person on the boat wanted to miss even one dive to explore the island itself! He said they dove until their ears and lips hurt and they just kept diving.

Expect to see the largest quantity and largest sized species of every type of Pacific fish and mammal in the ocean at Isla de Coco. My friend saw a 5-meter (16 foot) galapagos shark, which is nearly the size of a full grown Great White Shark, and also one of the world’s most dangerous and aggressive species. The shark passed very close to the divers, then turned around and went past again, checking them out before deciding they probably weren’t very tasty.

He described seeing a shark cleaning station, where all the divers sat behind a large rock and waited for various sharks in various sizes to land on the rock and sit patiently while cleaning fish combed their skin for parasites and other tasty morsels, much like in the movie A Shark Tale with the voice of Will Smith. They were so close to these large sharks that they were occasionally slapped by their tale fins as they squirmed into position for their detailing.

Cocos Island Scuba Video: Scuba in a huge school of fish

Because of the great distance to the island, a scuba diving adventure to Cocos is quite costly. The following is a list of companies that will take you on your Cocos Island adventure:

Visit Cocos Island.com: Travel and Tours info for “La Isla de Coco”, as Cocos Island is known in Spanish. Everything from the fish to the fauna is covered, plus the scuba dive spots, etc.

Cocos Island Dive Companies:

The Aggressor: 10 day trips with 7 days of diving

Undersea Hunter: 10 day trips $4000-$5000/box