Cocos Island is an island in the Pacific Ocean located 550 kilometers/342 miles southwest of Costa Rica's Puntarenas Province. This is an extremely popular diving destination with around 15 dive sites, which are so fantastic they are often visited multiple times on one trip. This remote location provides a unique experience of having the island's waters to yourself to admire the flourishing biodiversity, including a large number of large marine species that roam the waters. The flourishing biodiversity is not represented in large coral reefs but by unique rock formations where multiple species have made their homes. One of the main highlights here, which is also usually one of the main reasons divers want to dive here, is the hammerhead sharks.
Not just a few hammerhead sharks, no, entire schools of them for a truly unique and exhilarating experience. Conditions here can be more challenging, so divers are required to be advanced.
The only way to visit Cocos Island is by liveaboard due to its remote location, so there are no dive centers or dive resorts that visit this location for a day.
Cocos Island lies out in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding this island are numerous types of dives. There are no shallow, colourful coral reefs to explore here, but the unique rock formations here provide divers with an exhilarating diving experience. All diving here is done from Liveaboards and divers and for some of the dive sites it is preferred to be at least Advanced to dive here, due to currents and depths. There is one coral garden here which is a preferred dive site for night dives due to the high abundance of critters which inhabit the garden. There are some impressive rock formations in the form of large seamounts, pinnacles, immense boulders and archways. There are strong currents here which allow for some impressive drift dives. The main type of diving here, though, is the dives where divers look out into the blue and admire the spectacular large marine species gliding by out in the blue. There are also opportunities for Tec divers here.
The weather conditions on Cocos Island are slightly temperamental. It is almost always cloudy and humid here, with an average temperature throughout the year of 27°C/81°F. The summer, in this case, the rainy season, has its pros and cons. The cons are more rain showers, less visibility, and rougher waters, but the pro, and this makes it worth it, is the extreme increase in large marine species, which make their appearance here due to the increase in nutrients in the water. December to May is the dry season, also known as the 'winter' season. During this time, the water is very calm for a more pleasant sailing experience, and the visibility increases. The water temperature at Cocos Island ranges between 24°C–29°C/75°F–84°F. The visibility ranges between 10 meters/33 feet and 35 meters/115 feet on the best days.
Wildlife Sightings are Based on User Generated Content
