Located in Central America between Nicaragua and Panama, Costa Rica is one of the region’s most popular tourism centers. The country is most popular due to its natural beauty and in its national parks you can see coati, sloths, capuchin monkeys, ocelets, pumas and jaguars, as well as some of Costa Rica’s amazing birdlife, reptiles and snakes. You can also partake in adventure sports such as canopy tours, ziplining, trekking, white-water rafting, canoeing and repelling. The country is also home to 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sites including the remote Cocos Island, where you can encounter huge schools of hammerhead sharks. It is estimated that 80% of its visitors come for eco-tourism activities, and tourism accounts for 8% of its GDP.

The first known confirmed case of COVID arrived on 22 February 2020. Following several more cases in early March, the Costa Rican government responded by suspended school attendance and setting up a Central American pandemic response agreement with other regional countries. Soon bars, beaches, churches and other public gathering places were closed. A state of national emergency was declared on 16 March 2020 and most public sector workers were laid off temporarily. Its international borders were closed on 18 March. The first major wave arrived in June and lasted until January 2021. During this time the government felt confident to re-open its borders to tourism in November 2020. Entry requirements include the completion of a health pass or proof of full vaccine. Non-vaccinated visitors must have travel insurance that includes potential quarantine costs. Further information can be found here: Costa Rica Tourism Board entry requirements. Since then, the country has also seen a still active surge in cases and deaths from May 2021. To date 450,000 cases have been confirmed with 5,400, ranking it 60th in the world in terms of declared deaths per capita. Worst hit regions are San Jose (the Capital) and Alajuela. Roughly 40% of the population has been fully vaccinated.

The once-in-a-lifetime Cocos Island liveaboard diving cruises have been operating successfully throughout 2021. This small and remote Pacific island 340 miles (550 km) offshore is the place for scuba divers to witness vast schools of scalloped hammerhead sharks, Galapagos, tiger, silky, oceanic blacktip, silvertip, and whitetip reef sharks. There are also many rays species, with both manta rays and whale sharks also visiting between June and December.

Elsewhere along the Pacific Coast, divers can enjoy daytrips to see other attractions. Bat Islands features bull sharks between May and October, Caño Island is the place to be to see whales, mantas, dolphins, eagle rays and reef sharks, and giant manta rays visit Las Catalinas between December and May.

We hope that you will soon have the opportunity to discover the beauty of Costa Rica, both above and beneath the waves.