Flamingo’s and Potrero’s defining geographic features are their beaches and the Pacific Ocean. Plenty of activities can lure you out of your hotel, away from the restaurant table – even off the beach – and onto or under the water.
Diving
This nutrient-rich sector of the Pacific Ocean brings about a rich marine life, says Eduardo Muñoz, manager of Aquacenter, based in the Flamingo Marina Resort. You’ll find huge schools of white-tip sharks, stingrays, manta rays – really all types of rays – as well as sea turtles and spotted and bottlenose dolphins in the depths here. The area is the closest population center to the Catalina Islands, 10 km off the coast and one of the country’s premier dive sites. That’s a 20-25 minute boat ride, Muñoz boasts, considered quite a short journey in diving circles.
There’s something to see all year, and Muñoz says he secretly prefers the less windy May-November season, which corresponds exactly to Costa Rica’s low tourist season. “It’s a much less choppy ride to the dive site,” he smiles. With no rivers flowing into the Pacific along this section of coast, visibility remains good all year, a claim other parts of the country can’t make about their dive conditions. Expect to see at least 30 feet, with distances extending to 100 feet during the May-November period, yet another case for low-season diving.
Fishing
There’s good reason why USA Today named this section of the north Pacific coast one of the top ten fishing spots in the world. As with diving, the sportfishing season is nearly year-round here too, explains Darrell Furton of Billfish Safaris. January-March sees marlin (blue, black, and striped), and when the waters begin to warm up in May, expect to find dorado and sailfish (sailfish have become a mostly year-round phenomenon here).
Furton boasts that some 39 world fishing records are held here, including one for a 300-pound yellow-fin tuna. Also, as with diving, trips to the site are short: drops in the ocean floor mean prime fishing can be found as close as 30 km offshore. Fifty km takes you to depths of 1,000 feet. “Go fishing in Florida and Mexico, and you’d travel four to five hours to encounter those depths,” Furton says.
Sailing
The famed Papagayo winds and the protected seclusion of Potrero Bay combine to create some of the world’s top sailing conditions between December and April, says Jim McKee, owner of the 52-foot cutter rig sloop Shannon and longtime expert on these parts. You might encounter 14- to 16-foot waves outside the confines of the cove, but the mountains on the north side of the 8-km-long bay temper the force of the 20-30 knot winds and flatten the water, making for a surprisingly smooth ride, McKee explains.
Toss in the opportunity to see abundant marine life: Dolphins, manta rays, and tuna are apt to leap from the surface of the water, and, if you’re lucky, you might sight an occasional migrating humpback whale. The boats based here offer excursions to suit every timeframe and give you a relaxing few hours on the waves with sandwiches and an open bar, some with an opportunity for snorkeling. Excursions leave most afternoons. Those famed Guanacaste sunsets top off the day.
