Scuba Diving With The Sharks Off Cano Island

If you have read any of my articles, you know that I love living in the Costa Ballena on Costa Rica South Pacific zone because of the beautiful beaches but it did take some time to convince, “the wife” to also love it.

We have been to Cano Island more times than I can count. It is a fun day trip from Dominical, where we live, and the boat ride out to the island is always relaxing.

Most days you will see dolphins, turtles and depending on the month, migrating whales. Each time we have been, I have snorkeled and enjoyed it immensely being that there are plenty of fish to see, the water is warm and most days the visibility is very good.

My wife, Lynda, is not terribly impressed with snorkeling being that she is a scuba diver. So finally after a dive hiatus of 15 years, my wife decided it was time to leave me floating on a life vest while she went diving.

I was fine with that because of the amount of fish I see above the water, I really didn’t think it would be that much different being 60 feet under, but was I wrong!

We departed from Playa Pinuelas with Kumari from Mystic Dive. She is by far the best dive instructor in Costa Ballena with a wealth of knowledge from living in the South Pacific Coast for 15 years.

We took a 90 minute boat ride where we saw dolphins, turtles and pelicans and arrived at Cano Island happy enough with the enjoyable boat adventure.

Lynda’s first dive site was Los Arcos (The Arches), which has unique volcanic rock formations formed in the shape of arches. This area was full of beautiful coral, a school of jacks were swimming all around (at least that is what she says) and then she saw sharks! White tipped reef sharks.

She said her heart skipped a beat knowing that there were at least 8 sharks directly below her on the ocean floor ranging in size from 5-8 feet long.

White tipped reef sharks are not known to be aggressive but looking at them I know I would have had flash backs from the movie Jaws.

She did say that after that first heart stopping moment, she was then giddy with excitement and couldn’t stop thinking that she was swimming with sharks!

Exhilarating doesn’t even come close to how she must have felt. When she came up from that first dive she was non-stop about all the beautiful corals, the schools of fish and the sharks. I don’t know how many times she made me watch the videos except of course the camera battery died before she got any shark coverage. Hmmmm how convenient!

Her 2nd dive of the day was to El Barco (The Wreck). There is no real shipwreck as the name implies but there are a variety of rock formations, more fish like puffers, parrot fish, angel fish, plentiful amounts of hard coral, sea fans and more sharks!

Because Cano Island is a Costa Rican protected biological reserve the area is teeming with flora and fauna and stunning marine life. Many places claim to have spectacular diving and they do, but I can honestly say diving Costa Rica’s Cano Island is absolutely outstanding.

There are five different dive sites:

1. El Diablo.
2. The Arches.
3. El Paraiso.
4. El Barco and …
5. Cueva del Tiburon.

The sites are strictly regulated so that there are not too many divers in any one spot.

Maybe soon I will try it out but for now, excited that she has found another hobby to keep her loving the life and living the dream.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.