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Cocos & Malpelo
 

Cocos Dive Liveaboard & Wildlife of Costa Rica
14 days $4,275 & 17 days $4,665 (20th Jun - 3rd / 6th July 2010)

Cocos Malpelo Islands Dive Liveaboard Costa Rica diving holiday
from 11 days $3695

Malpelo & Coiba Islands Dive & Wildlife
( 12 days from £2,390)

Panama Diving & Wildlife Yacht Safaris
( 10 days £1,795)
Eastern Pacific Islands of Coiba & the Gulf of Chiriqui

Cocos Island is a thickly forested Garden of Eden some 300 miles off the Costa Rican coast.  It is renowned for its large schools of hammerhead sharks.  You can also find huge numbers of other pelagics like white tips, giant moray eels, dolphins, sail fish, marbled rays and the odd whale shark.  Other common encounters are large schools of tuna, jacks, silky sharks, silver tip sharks, marlin, Creole fish, green turtles and octopus.

Inland Cocos is equally inspiring, with lush rainforests in which endemics such as the Cocos Island cuckoo have evolved in isolation far out in the Pacific.  This endemism is even evident underwater with seven unique species  of fish here including the Red-lipped Batfish.

Diving here is necessarily by self-sufficient dive liveaboard.  We arrange trips to both islands using fully equipped liveaboards, as well as the unique experience of exploring underwater by means of a  submersible.

Malpelo is a small collection of rock islands situated slight south and 340 nautical miles east of Cocos Island within Colombian territorial waters.  Like Cocos, these islands are protected, with a 6 miles fishing exclusion zone.  The result is a similarly incredible concentration of pelagic species.  Schools of hammerheads can reach up to 300 in number, often mixing with large numbers of silky sharks.  Galapagos sharks can also be found here and the rare sight of clusters of free swimming moray eels.  On the rocks you can see the world’s second largest colony of Masked Booby amounting to approximately 25,000 birds.

Aqua-Firma specialises in combining the Best of Above and Below Water travel, which for Cocos and Malpelo can easily include Costa Rica as well as Panama and Nicaragua.  Please refer to our web pages for travel ideas in these countries, or Contact Us.

Click Here for sample 14 day itinerary.  For 12 day itinerary take off two days diving in Cocos.

Prices (2010)

11/12* days from US$3,695 pp sharing quad cabin
14 days from US$4,095 pp sharing quad cabin

*tide dependent. Same time spent at Cocos Island

Add US$390 pp for deluxe double cabin

Single supplement for single occupancy hotel room and transfers add $195

Prices include
All transfers from arrival in San Jose to delivery back to San Jose airport
3 nights in high quality boutique hotel in San Jose.
All meals onboard.
Breakfasts in San Jose
Diving
Beer
Non-alcoholic drinks
Dive master service
3 - 4 dives per day with air fills, tanks and weights.

Prices exclude
International flights
Wine onboard
Dive kit rental
Visas
Tips
Items of a personal nature
National Park entry fee of US$175 (12 day trip)
or US$245 (14 day trip)
International departure tax (US$20 at latest check)
NITROX available at $100 for the duration (subject to confirmation at time of booking).

Aqua-Firma is a specialist at tailor made travel in Costa Rica, so please contact us to discuss how you can experience the best Wilderness and Wildlife above and below the water in Central America.

Aqua-Firma is fully bonded to arrange international flights if you wish.


Photographs kindly provided by Avi Klapfer, okeanos, Fred Garth, Undersea Hunter, Ofer Ketter & Thomas Reich

cocos & malpelo  -  dive  -  environment scuba okeanos aggressor costa rica  - diving worldwide

 

 

 Click here for information about when to go to Cocos.