Trip Report

Punta Maria was definitely one of our favorite hotspots this trip! We saw so many Galapagos sharks there, as well as blacktips, hammerheads and even three silvertips out in the blue.

Visibility was great pretty much all week long, at times exceeding 100+ft. We arrived to dive Cocos Island our first day to sunny weather and a flat ocean. Our checkout dive was calm with almost no current, good visibility and schools of grunts and snappers and a few hammerheads passing by. Our dives around Manuelita had a mild to strong current, and at Manuelita Outside we joked it was like diving in “fish soup” with so many jacks in the midst of courtship. We also saw some big yellowfin tuna and a green turtle there. This week at Manuelita Channel we had some exceptional dives, including one with two tigers, various hammerheads, a pair of eagle rays and even a cow-nose ray (a species that is very rarely seen at Cocos Island).

Dirty Rock saw some nice activity, with hammerheads at the cleaning station and massive clouds of jacks to finish up our dives. The cherry on top was a huge 3m/10ft marlin that passed right next to us at one point, right at the pinnacle.

To the south side of the island, Dos Amigos Grande had very good visibility with three eagle rays and a female tiger shark. Dos Amigos Pequeno had some solid hammerhead activity, plus a blacktip and Galapagos shark. Pajara was full of black durgons mating. We took a break from diving toward the end of the week for an island hike. Frogfish were super prevalent on our afternoon dives, especially at Pajara and Manuelita Coral Garden. We also whitetip reef sharks hunting during the day at Submerged Rock. Alcyone had very strong current at times, and we saw hammerheads out in the blue. All in all, this was another unforgettable trip to Cocos Island!