Brief from the Reef: Cocos Island- Scalloped Potatoes or Scalloped Hammerheads?

3 Oct, 2013

Hello Recipient,

Remember when we invited you to go on a photo expedition to Cocos Island with Andy and Allison? Well, they are back home and have stories to share with us! Check out the trip report below and then read on to find a special offer for Cocos.

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Close passes by whitetip reef sharks, several scalloped hammerheads, and even a large tiger shark! And this was our first dive of the trip. And just like that, we forgot about the rough trip to Cocos Island (let’s just say that not many passengers showed up for meals during the crossing).

Believe it or not, this was the slowest dive we experienced the whole trip.

The shark action amped up the very next day, and everyone was treated to schooling hammerheads, dense schools of jacks, and close encounters with a young whale shark at Dirty Rock.

The Galapagos sharks were a big draw at Punta Maria and Alcyone – and Alcyone also delivered overhead schools of scalloped hammerheads, as well as playful mobula rays, massive numbers of snapper, graceful silky sharks, and curious dolphins on our safety stops.

However, the real showstopper site for our group was Manuelita, where the cleaning stations were incredibly busy, frequented by a school of scalloped hammerheads that seemed completely oblivious to our presence (and our cameras)! As if this wasn’t enough we saw a large tiger shark on multiple dives (including a particularly spooky night dive). For good reason, this site quickly became a group favorite, and we spent our last 2 days diving it as much as possible.

Soon it was time to pull anchor and begin the long trip back to Puntarenas. Fortunately, the passage back to mainland Costa Rica was so calm and sunny that several divers spent the afternoon on the sundeck snacking on cookies and discussing their favorite dives of the trip. The final evening, we showed group video and compared images, and we were blown away by the incredible close encounters we had with sharks, rays, schooling fish, and more sharks throughout our dives.

At the end of the night we all agreed – absolutely nothing compares to Cocos Island. We will be back!

Andy Sallmon & Allison Vitsky

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Sharks over sweaters, mantas over mashed potatoes and turtles over turkeys.
Now that you’ve been reminded about the wonderful diving in Cocos, you probably want to book a trip there ASAP! What are you doing over Thanksgiving? Would you believe we have an incredible discount from Undersea Hunter? If you can go to Cocos over Thanksgiving, we can offer an $800 discount. That’s right, you can have scalloped hammerheads instead of scalloped potatoes for Thanksgiving this year.

The details are here, but better call us fast if you’re interested. This deal won’t last long.
Reef & Rainforest Dive & Adventure Travel are the experts when it comes to planning action packed shark diving adventures. Whether you can go Thanksgiving or not, give us a call now so we can start planning your next diving adventure.

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