Punta Uva Dive Center Location
 Whether you do a PADI scuba diving course with us, exploring dives, or a snorkeling adventure, your day will be unforgettable.
Punta Uva Dive Center is set up in where for many is the most beautiful beach on the Caribbean coast. Rated as one of the Top 5 Beaches in the world by Travel & Leisure Magazine.
Our Beach Front Dive Shop is a few barefoot steps away from the turquoise warm waters of the Caribbean Sea.
Our two-story house is an ideal spot for underwater & nature lovers. Amidst the green rainforest, the only sounds you will hear are those of the sea, birds and howler monkeys.
The plethora of life found here is just amazing. You will easily spot sloths, monkeys, toucans, the majestic morpho butterfly, and the giant green iguana to name just a few. Someone said it’s paradise itself.
Our PADI training facility was planned as a unique educational atmosphere. It has a lounge area for viewing audiovisual material and a hammock area to chill out while reading.
Enjoy and explore the magic ambience of Punta Uva’s perfect beach by trekking along a 30 minute breathtaking jungle path or visit “Punta Uva Lounge.” It is the perfect spot to hang around & eat delicious sea food or homemade burgers, while enjoying a Daiquiri, Sex On The Beach, or a cold beer during the marvellous sunset.
Diving Punta Uva Beach
 Costa Rica’s Caribbean Sea coast offers a wonderful underwater adventure: Punta Uva Beach, located at the very heart of the Gandoca Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge. This stunning fringing reef (a growing reef close to the shore) offers a unique marine biodiversity, packed with fish and living coral, only 4 minutes away from our beach front Dive Shop!
Sea rods, sea fans, elk horn coral, brain coral, fire coral, not to mention the beautiful tropical fish like the parrot fish, angel fish, scorpion fish, barracuda, butterfly fish, trunk fish, spotted eagle ray, green moray, and thousands more, including the evasive nurse shark and black tip Shark. Very often you will see spiny lobster, octopus –at night- , crabs, and the whole invertebrate family; nudibranchs, Spanish dancers, and more.
If it is your first time into the underwater kingdom and you are starting with your scuba lessons it is hard to imagine a more spectacular environment. Shore dives with sand patches are a must for beginner divers and open water scuba lessons. If you are an experienced diver get ready for the adventure: the underwater journey, the ultimate rainforest, the friendly “pura vida” atmosphere of the people will mix to give you a lifetime experience!
Caribbean Life
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Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast is a different world than the rest of the country. The coast was mostly inhabited by the BriBri and Cabecar indigenous tribes for the last 4.000 years, until the 19th century when Jamaicans were brought onto the banana and cacao plantations as cheap man labour.
Main languages of the area are Spanish as the national language and English because of its Jamaican roots, which became the “Patua” dialect, which is shared with all the Afro Caribbean community from San Andres to Bonaire.
”Pura vida” way of life is about these: swinging in a hammock, relaxing in the Caribbean atmosphere, and enjoying one of the most gorgeous beaches that we feel so proud to live in. With a good book, surfing or snorkeling on the reef just offshore, for many Punta Uva Beach is the most beautiful beach on the Caribbean coast.
Puerto Viejo is packed with bars, restaurants and night life. Some DSL internet cafes, a bank, pharmacy, a clinic, art galleries, car rentals and many kinds of shops are available here.
“Old harbour” gained much of its popularity due to its famous left hand wave “Salsa Brava”. In the last 20 years surfers from all over the world came to ride it. With “word of mouth” the town has grown quickly. It may lack its initial fishermen look-like town, but it won’t ever loose its Caribbean vibe.
As time has passed, the beaches from south of Puerto Viejo up to Manzanillo have become very popular. The secret went out and soon people started to inhabit these paradise Caribbean beaches: Cocles, Playa Chiquita, Punta Uva Beach and Manzanillo. The route south of town connected these beaches by car, bus or, the most common way, by bicycle.
People are drawn here for its quietness, stunning landscape and the beautiful Caribbean turquoise sea. Of all these beaches Punta Uva is the most secluded, the safest to swim and the most ideal place to learn scuba diving or just snorkel its famous live coral reef.
Gandoca Manzanillo National l Wildlife Refuge
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The Gandoca Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge is situated in one of the most stunningly beautiful regions of Costa Rica. Fine sandy beaches, gentle waves, coral reefs near the surface of the sea all make this region a paradise for nature lovers and underwater enthusiasts. The coral reef right across from Punta Uva is a big favorite with scuba divers with its beautiful variety of coral reefs and the colourful sea creatures like fish, sea anemones, sea urchins and sponges.
This 25,000 acre refuge, including 12,000 marine acres, is without doubt one of the most beautiful and scenic sites in the country. The Refuge protects the lowlands of the southern Caribbean coastal region of Costa Rica. This coastal zone is between the mouths of the Rio Cocles and the Rio Sixaola, which forms the border with Panama, stretching for 30 kilometres along Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. The refuge was established in 1985 in partnership with the Costa Rican Ministry of the Environment. A co-management plan implemented in the refuge (the first of its kind in a Costa Rican protected area) has served as a model of communities, NGOs, and governments working together for the benefit of local people and the area's unique biological resources.
Among the plethora of wildlife found here are; crocodiles, pacas, West Indian manatees, caimans, tapirs, tarpons, dolphins, green sea turtles, leatherback sea turtles, frigate birds, woodpeckers, parakeets, eagles, pelicans, toucans and motmots. Inhabiting the lovely coral reef here are many brightly colour fish and marine life including the blue parrot fish, angel fish, sea anemones, urchins, Venus sea fans, shrimps, oysters, sea cucumbers, lobsters and sponges. |
