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Scuba Diving in Costa Rica
Dive Site: Bajo del Diablo
Location: Isla del Cano, Costa Rica
Description: Rocky reef with valleys
Depth: 6 - 24 metres (20 - 80 feet)
Visibility: 10 - 25 metres (30 - 80 feet)
Rating: *****
This is Isla del Caño's best dive site. It can be a difficult site to dive if currents are particularly strong, so on some days divers are not taken to it. It is also a more advanced dive site due to the fact that there are frequently strong currents here which can change during the dive, so if you have a lot of beginners with you on the boat it is unlikely that you will get to this site.
We dived Bajo del Diablo three times whilst in Costa Rica. You spend the dive travelling between the rocky pinnacles and the valleys between them. Often as you head around the next corner you will find yourself fighting a strong current before you get into the lee of the next valley. As you shelter you will find yourself amongst hundreds if not thousands of snapper and grunts. Jacks and white tip reef sharks are everywhere and up near the surface large shoals of mullet cruise interspersed with needlefish. There are also some fan corals, black coral and gorgonians here making it a more attractive reef than the other sites around Caño Island. There is a narrow swim-through in one place but please only go through this if you have excellent buoyancy control as there are some fan corals growing on the walls and not much more than a diver width in space.
At points along the reef there are some circular metal discs (see second photo page) that look a bit like wheels and there is a large drum barrel that could be mistaken for a boiler but I don't believe it is because the metal is not thick enough. I asked the dive guide if he knew what these objects were or where they had come from, but he had no idea. There is a similar corroded metal barrel on the beach at Caño Island where you stop for lunch. Perhaps they are all part of a ships cargo, washed up a long time ago. If you know any details about these objects please let us know.
Reader Reviews:
Underwater rock formation with many canyons to explore. Schools of barracuda, jacks, pompanos, multitude of reef fish and white tip reef sharks.
Oceans Unlimited
Dove this site in April of 2005, some of the best diving I have done. I have dove in the Great Barrier Reef and at Sipadan, and Cano had the big sharks (bulls and tigers), huge school of barracuda (about 5000 or more), manta rays. Worth the trip!!!
Gregg Witkin
view more Bajo del Diablo photos
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