Catalina Islands

Playas del Coco · Guanacaste · Costa Rica

The Catalina Islands are a scattered archipelago of rocky volcanic islets rising from the Pacific Ocean roughly 20 kilometres off the Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica. These barren, sun-blasted rocks look unremarkable from the surface, but beneath the waterline they harbour one of Central America's most exciting dive destinations. The islands sit within the biological corridor that connects the Costa Rican mainland to the legendary Cocos Island 500 kilometres offshore, and the same nutrient-rich currents that make Cocos a world-class dive destination wash through here, bringing large pelagic species within reach of recreational divers on day trips from the beach. I descended at a site called The Point on a January morning, the water a rich green from the phytoplankton bloom that signals productive ocean. Visibility was about twelve metres, not crystal-clear but atmospheric, like diving through an emerald fog. The rocky pinnacle dropped away beneath me in steps and ledges, each one hosting cleaning stations where whitetip reef sharks lay stacked on rocky shelves while small wrasses worked along their gills. Then the first manta appeared. She materialized from the green water above and to my left, a giant Pacific manta with a wingspan I estimated at four metres, her ventral surface white with distinctive spot patterns. She banked into a slow, sweeping turn over the cleaning station, and I could see the remoras clinging to her belly and the small cleaner fish rising to meet her. For the next twenty minutes, she and a second, smaller manta circled the pinnacle in deliberate, unhurried passes, each approach bringing them within three to four metres of our group. The encounter was mesmerising in its quiet power. The Catalina Islands also deliver consistent bull shark encounters, particularly at deeper sites from 25 to 35 metres where these stocky, powerful sharks cruise the rocky terrain. Unlike the mantas, the bulls are less predictable but no less impressive, appearing from the green murk with an intensity that raises your heart rate. Spotted eagle rays frequent the sandy channels between pinnacles, their spotted wings undulating in characteristic flight.