Costa Rica – Day 5

Date: February 28

I LOVE the sea. Although I haven’t accomplished it yet, getting SCUBA certified is high on my list of life goals. But for now, I am okay viewing the sea creatures floating on the surface. This excursion was the one I, personally, was looking forward to the most. I love wildlife and observing different creatures and living in the Mid-West of USA, I don’t get to see sea life that often. Doing so is always a treat.

We had an appointment with Costa Rica Dive and Surf for them to take us out to Caño Island for what we understood was to be some stellar snorkeling. The dive shop treated us to some banana bread, coffee, and juice while we signed in and were fitted for snorkels, fins, and masks. The coffee was great, banana bread a little dry (my in-laws make the best banana bread), and I skipped the juice. I already had a sun shirt I was planning to wear snorkeling, but the rest of the fam were given a complimentary swim shirt to borrow for the day. We were encouraged to put sunscreen on now, so it all didn’t wash off near the reef, and to leave our water bottles because they would have one on the boat for us. Jill thought she would still bring hers because she really likes being hydrated.

Once we got through the spiel about what we were doing and how to stay safe, we walked to the beach where we hung out a couple days earlier. There was a boat that we had to wade out to, and we were off. The drive was a little over an hour, but time flies when you’re looking at the beautiful jungle covered mountains and crystal blue sea all around you. The captain even let me drive for a while. I thought he was kidding when he first asked, but he was persistent, so I took him up on it.

Once we arrived at the island, our guide prepped us a little more, handed out our snorkeling gear, and explained we were going to a non-typical spot to snorkel due to low visibility around the island from recent rain. We took a short drive west of the island and jumped in above a spot where cliffs and coral jetted out from the deep ocean floor.

We immediately saw some fish and a white tipped shark, but the current was crazy strong. It wasn’t long before we had been swept well beyond the coral area and were looking at an empty ocean. Our boat captain threw out a rope for us to grab and started towing us back to the coral, but the current was so strong we weren’t covering much ground (or ocean), and the force of the water was super intense. I was originally a bit bummed that I didn’t bring my GoPro, but after experiencing the fast current, I’m glad I didn’t, because I’m sure I would have lost it.

While the boat was attempting to pull us back, our guide shouted “Manta! Manta!” and free dove down to point at an enormous ray, effortlessly “flying” through the water. This thing probably weighed 1000 pounds, but it was still a bit difficult to see from all the air bubbles that the boat motor was kicking up. You had to push your head deeper in the water to get past the bubbles to see it, but it was a magnificent sight.

After getting drug around for about 15 minutes with very little progress made, the guide had us all get back into the boat. He informed us we were going to the east side of the island, where they typically don’t let the tourists go, but were making an exception because of the poor conditions.

While we cruised over to our new location, we were given our water bottles and a container of cut up watermelon and pineapple. I immediately gulped down some water, washing away the salt water I swallowed getting drug around the Pacific for the last 15 minutes, but the real treat was the fruit. It was cold and juicy and was exactly what we needed after being in the ocean.

Not even a full minute after we stopped at our new location, a Green Sea Turtle surfaced, taking a breath before diving back into the water. Then another. We anxiously jumped in the water to find them both swimming around, diving down for a snack from the ocean floor before coming back up for a quick breath. The guide said it was fine for us to free dive at our own risk, so I handed my life jacket off to Jill, took a deep breath, and dove headfirst down towards the larger turtle. About 10 foot down, I cleared my ears by pinching my nose and blowing pressure in them and got about 10 feet from the turtle before heading back to the surface for a breath.

I did that several times to get a closer look at all the fish around the island. In addition to the turtles, we saw another white tipped shark, tons of puffer fish, a pennant bannerfish, some blue tang, barracuda, trigger fish, and a bunch of colorful parrot fish. To my surprise, one of the times I was looking up to make sure I didn’t bonk anybody when I resurfaced, Mattix was on his way down. He was free diving too! I stopped him to make sure he was comfortable and safe, and he asked how I went down so far without my head feeling like it was going to explode. I showed him how to clear his ears and he had a blast getting closer looks at all the sea life.

I’m never ready to come in when the time is up. Our guide told us to head back, and I reluctantly swam to the boat, still keeping my eyes in the water, soaking in all the beauty of the diverse sea below me.

We got to hang out on the island a bit before heading back. The beach had nice soft sand and there were some trees and a creek running along the back side of the Ranger Station on the island. There were hermit crabs everywhere and someone had set half of a coconut on a log. The crabs feasted on the coconut meat. It was pretty hot, so we stayed in the shade as much as possible. One of Mattix’s teachers challenged him to make something artsy while on vacation so he pieced together some debris from the beach to spell out “Costa Rica”.

After about 20 minutes on the beach, we got back on the boat and headed back to the mainland. By this time the high tide had come in and there wasn’t much beach left. We walked back to the dive shop, and they fed us some delicious burritos for lunch. It was then that Jill realized she had left her water bottle on the boat. Our guide was kind enough to ride his bike to where the boat was and get it back for her. Thanks Guillermo!

We headed back to Casa Futura (our Air BnB) and relaxed by the pool a bit. My ears, neck, and the back of my calves were super sun burnt from not re-applying sunscreen while snorkeling, but I’m sure the reef appreciated not having that sunscreen floating around its beautiful waters. We enjoyed another gorgeous sunset and retired to bed fairly early to prepare ourselves for another beautiful day in paradise.