Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

Puerto Viejo de Talamanca lies on Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coast, where fringing reefs, patch reefs, carbonate banks, and rocky formations occur between Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo. Dive sites in the wider area include shallow coral communities, sandy channels, small wrecks, and reef habitat used by tropical fishes, moray eels, crustaceans, rays, and sea turtles. Conditions are strongly influenced by rainfall, river sediment, waves, and coastal currents, making visibility more variable than at many Caribbean destinations. Several local reefs have also been damaged by sedimentation, pollution, coral extraction, warming seas, and the region’s tectonic history. Diving therefore documents both Caribbean biodiversity and a reef system shaped by continuing environmental and geological change.

Fun Fact: Puerto Viejo stands partly on an ancient coral reef that was uplifted above sea level by tectonic activity.