Scuba diving in Quepos and the Manuel Antonio National is a great experience. With the Volcanic rock reef that we have here, many people don’t even realize the amount of underwater life you can find. To make it easier, we have come up with some great information to give you an idea about what you are going to find here and what to expect.
When is the best time of year to come?
Costa Rica is divided into two seasons Green (Rainy) season and dry season. Green season starts from April/May to December and dry season is from December to April. During rainy season in Quepos it is quite often sunny in the mornings and then with a couple of hours of heavy rain in the afternoon. In Quepos/ Manuel Antonio visibility can vary between seasons because of the rain. Therefore visibility ranges from about 4-10m. During dry season the visibility varies from about 7-22m. Green season is the quietest time of year to come whereas dry season is a lot busier because of the holidays. Busy dive boats here we come!
Local reef life
Our reefs are packed full of life! We have a wide variety of marine life varying from the tiny nudibranchs to the big long-tail stingrays. Other animals that you can see here are an abundance of fish, octopus, moray eels, starfish, lobsters, white tipped reef sharks, turtles and much more. If you’re lucky enough you might even be able to see the rarer animals such as spotted eagle rays, harlequin shrimp, frogfish, guitarfish and flounders.
What are the Dive sites like?
The dive sites in Manuel Antonio are made up of volcanic rock with a lot of soft corals. We have dive sites that have canyons as their main features such as Geo’s Ridge and Canyon Reef. Geo’s Ridge is a dive site that has 4-5 main canyons that have a lot of soft corals and schools of brightly coloured fish. Canyon reef is another one of our dive sites that is made up of canyons running parallel to Isla Larga.
Another one of our dive sites is called Surruchos and we mainly do clean up dives here. Surruchos is not part of the national park so a significant amount of people fish at this dive site and therefore there is a lot of fishing line and rope here. A slightly deeper dive site is Captain’s Rock where there is an abundance of octopus and soft coral. You can even see the octopus mating here from June to August. With the mix of canyons, sand patches and pinnacles, there really is a lot to see.
Boat Vs Shore.
All of our dives are from a boat, we go from our shop based in the Marina in Quepos and is about a 10-20 minute boat ride to Manuel Antonio National Park. The only shore dives that we do are for some clean up dives. This is due to the fact that it is very silty around the shore so the reef is better offshore.
Additional things to think about
Thermoclines are usually more present during February to March so get your socks on! However, the cold water tends to bring in more stingrays. We also have humpback whales that come here through September to October and again in January. They can be heard underwater and you might be treated to a show during the surface interval.
So with all of these fun things to think about why wouldn’t you want to come diving in Quepos. The reef is a great place to explore and learn to scuba dive.