Catalina Islands dive trip

The Catalinas are about twenty rocky islets and outcrops off the coast south of Coco, visible from the beaches around Potrero and Flamingo, and they are where divers in Guanacaste go to look for giant Pacific manta rays. The mantas, four to seven metres across, are around from November to May.

The diving is harder than the local sites. Walls drop past 30 metres, the current can run strong, and boats drift with divers instead of anchoring, so dive shops keep the Catalinas for advanced divers. In return there are whitetip reef sharks in a channel at La Pared, schools of cownose and mobula rays, eagle rays, jacks and more coral than on the inshore rocks. Visibility is usually better than near the coast, roughly 12 to 30 metres, with a cold layer at depth.

A trip is two dives, sometimes three, and from Coco the boat ride is under an hour, with boats back by early afternoon.