Dive Review of Summer-Salt in
Costa Rica/Guanacaste - Playa del Coco

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Summer-Salt, Jun, 2008, by Bill DuBois, TX, USA ( 2 reports). Report 4163.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Hotel Puerta del Sol (arranged through Summer-Salt and with no independent website) is clean and comfortable, though hardly posh. The onsite Italian restaurant is suprisingly good -- very good, in fact. It's a ten minute walk from that hotel to the dive op. Summer-Salt is run by Swiss natives Sandra and Patrick Odermatt. The two boats are small (21' and 25') and fairly fast, though the smaller one needs a motor-remount, I think; I wish that the boats had more shade. Patrick is easy to work with and tries hard to accommodate particular requests as to diving sites and the like; I could not have been happier with his attitude. Divemasters Eddie and Elgin, and the boat captains, were attentive and helpful, though occasionally I thought that the DMs moved a bit too fast underwater. We dove the Bats twice (doing third dives at Black Rock), the Cats once and local dives at Argentina Point and Monkey Head. Visibility was good at all sites. Many whitetips, at least five or six mantas at the Bats and Black Rock, squadrons of eagle rays and large schools of fish at Black Rock, occasional eagle rays at other spots, and a huge school -- hundreds -- of barracudas at the Cats. Numerous reef fish, scorpion fish, octopi, eels, etc. at most all sites. Regrettably, no bullsharks at the Bats. This is NOT clear-water Caribbean diving -- "good" viz is probably 60 feet -- and there is some surge and current. At the same time, the quantity and diversity of marine life is wonderful, and the locale certainly worth a visit. Newer divers might have less fun due to surge and current (which obviously are quite variable). I'd recommend Summer-Salt without hesitation.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Cozumel, Belize, Hawaii, Florida, Australia, Indonesia
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	calm, choppy, surge
Water Temp	80-0°F / 27--18°C	Wetsuit Thickness	0
Water Visibility	30-60 Ft/ 9-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Generally, follow divemaster at the Bat and Cat Islands, with more flexibility at the "local" dives, and ability to "dive your air".
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	The dive op uses small day-boats that have no separate facility for photographers.

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Dive Review of Summer-Salt in Costa Rica/Guanacaste - Playa del Coco

Summer-Salt, Jun, 2008,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Summer-Salt in
Costa Rica/Guanacaste - Playa del Coco