Scuba Diving Certifications

Located in the southern Caribbean province of Limon, the dive shop has full access to Costa Rica's only pristine coral reef ecosystem. We are 80 km (50 miles) from the nearest city and our largely unexplored barrier reef stretches from the town of Puerto Viejo to the Panamanian boarder and offers you more than 25 fixed dive locations ranging from shallow coral gardens to deep, fringing reefs and vertical walls dropping to over 140 feet!

Angelfish, parrotfish, triggerfish, sharks and different species of jack and snapper are among the 475 species of discovered fish. Brown and black coral, sheet coral and lettuce coral are a few of the 31 discovered types of coral you will encounter on your dives.

The best time of the year for top dive conditions - good visibility (20-30 meters or 60-90 feet) and no current, are from mid January through May and August through November.

All divers must reserve a spot on the boat the day before diving. This is necessary because we order lunch the night before based on how many divers are going out the following day. We ask all divers to show up at 8:15 to prepare for our 9:00 departure. Our diving tours depart at 9:00am and include the boat ride to our dive sites, our boat captain, your divemaster/guide, sandwiches, fruits, beverages and all necessary diving equipment.

DOLPHIN/SNORKEL TOURS

We like to think of this outing as the "Perfect Tour" because it provides something for everyone!

The best time to see dolphins is early in the morning, so we ask all dolphin tour customers to arrive at 8:00 so we can depart by 8:30. The boat ride for this tour is 45 minutes as we make our way to the area of the Vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo refuge, located in Punta Mona, near the Panama border.

Although there is no guarantee of sightings, we see dolphins 80% of the time. In this area you will have the opportunity to see 7 different species including The Bottle Nose, The Atlantic Spotted and the Brazilian Tucuxi. Sometimes we see two, sometimes many more. They can be very shy or they can swim along the side of the boat. Usually people who go on the dolphin tour will combine it with a snorkeling safari or a diving excursion, so the boat returns to Puerto Viejo around 3:00pm.

Our dolphin tours are $55 and include round-trip boat transportation to Punta Mona, lunch, beverages and a guide to point out the dolphins and other interesting sights along the journey.

Discover Scuba - This is a quick 2-hour course designed to familiarize the new diver with equipment and safety. Completion of this course allows the diver to participate in diving during his or her stay in Puerto Viejo or any other PADI-certified dive shop for up to 90 days.

Scuba Diver - A short course which certifies the new diver to participate in diving for 1 year. Full certification then becomes available at a discount.

Open Water Referral - A good option for the new diver to complete their pool lessons and classroom work at home, and then complete their final open water dives with us in beautiful, warm Caribbean waters.

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Open Water Course

Our open water course is $325 and includes all equipment for diving, the diving instructor fee, the boat rides with our captain to the dive sites, lunches and beverages. The open water book is $40, this includes all course work required for your open water certification, the PIC form (the form sent to PADI [Professional Association of Diving Instructors] after completion of the course) and the hologram to authenticate your certification.

The course can be completed in 3-4 days depending on weather conditions. The first day is spent watching the open water DVD and working through the corresponding textbook at your own convenience. There are 5 chapters, all of these have short quizzes, with a final exam at the end of the book. The quizzes and final exam are all multiple-choice. If the weather is good, you can start your confined water dives with our instructor in the pool area in front of the dive shop as soon as the second day. The next two days you will go for two open water dives per day from the boat with our instructor perfecting the skills you have learned from your confined water dives. During these dives our instructor will show you many of the beautiful fish and other reef life found in our beautiful Caribbean Sea. After this is completed, our instructor will help you fill out your PIC form and then you will send it to PADI. You will receive a temporary diving card from us until your official PADI open water diver�s license arrives to your house from California a few weeks later. This license has no expiration and is valid all over the world, wherever you decide to dive.

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Price from	$15
General Location	Puerto Viejo Centro
Duration	6 hrs
Cost Includes	Beverages, Diving, Guide, Sandwiches, Snorkeling & Swimming. Dive Prices are including equipment... $20 discounts if you have your own equipment.
Meeting Time	8:15 AM
Meeting Location	Puerto Viejo center Edificio Manuel Leon.
Launch Time	8:45 AM
Launch Locaiton	Puerto Viejo center Edificio Manuel Leon.
What To Bring	Sunscreen, hat, towel and swimwear
Tour Options	Intro to Scuba      $ 15   Discover Scuba      $ 65   Scuba Diver      $ 275   Open Water      $ 345   Advanced Open Water      $ 295   Rescue Diver      $ 345   Emergency First Response      $ 100   Dive Master      $ 595
Policies	Click here to display Reservation Policies Once your payment has been made to us you will be sent a receipt via e-mail. Once we and the service provider(s) have confirmed the tour or accommodation we will then send you a confirmation letter. Once the reservation is made you will receive a confirmation number via e-mail. We make every effort to keep all rates and information in our website current, however at times our service providers are slow to notify us of changes or through unforeseen circumstances information my have changed. Rates and information are subject to change. If anything has changed from what your reservations order was for we will notify you and request approval before confirming your reservation. Tropical Reservations does not accept any responsibility for loss or damage incurred during your stay. Tropical reservations respects and upholds all policies made by the providers who's services are offered through our website. Please check individual service provider's policies or contact us if you have questions. If Tropical Reservations needs to cancel a reservation due to problems out of our control such as an "act of God", we will first try to offer an alternative. If the alternative is not acceptable, we will refund the payment made to us for the service, minus the transfer fees and individual charges made by the service provider(s). Tropical Reservations reserves the right to change the route of any tour or transportation service if it is considered to be beneficial to the client for safety or other reasons. The following fees apply if you cancel your reservation: 30 days or more prior to confirmation date, a $20 service fee will be charged.* 20-29 days prior to confirmation date, a $30 service fee will be charged.* 10-19 days prior to confirmation date $40 service fee will be charged* 4-9 days or less prior to confirmation date 50% will be charged* 3 days or less prior to confirmation date 100% will be charged. In case of a "no show" the service that you have booked will be charged in full. * In addition to the PayPal transaction fee. Additional fees may be taken depending on the individual service provider's policies but only if they apply.
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