Isla del Caño Snorkeling Tour

The journey to Isla del Caño begins the moment we leave the dock. For the first hour, we navigate through the Sierpe River and the Térraba-Sierpe wetland — the largest wetland in Costa Rica — where monkeys sometimes appear in the canopy and crocodiles rest on the banks. Then the river opens into the Pacific, and everything changes.

This stretch of ocean is one of the best cetacean-watching corridors in the world. Dolphins ride our bow wake. In season — December through April and July through October — humpback whales pass through on their migrations. We have had guests cry at the sight of them.

After approximately 1.5 hours on the water, Isla del Caño appears.

The island is a Biological Reserve. More than half of it is closed to visitors — permanently reserved for coral research and conservation. What remains open is extraordinary. We do two snorkeling sessions of approximately one hour each, in water where white-tipped reef sharks glide calmly below you, hawksbill sea turtles surface a few feet from your mask, spotted eagle rays sweep across the sandy bottom, and reef fish move in formations so dense you lose count.

You do not need to be an experienced snorkeler. The water is calm, the reef is shallow, and we are in the water with you the entire time.

Between sessions, we visit the island itself — which is as remarkable above the water as below it. Isla del Caño was a sacred site for the indigenous peoples of southern Costa Rica. It served as a cemetery for community leaders and as a trading hub connecting cultures from what is now Costa Rica to Panama. Evidence of this history sits in plain sight: perfectly spherical stone spheres, some weighing up to a ton, made from materials that do not exist naturally on the island. They were brought from the mainland — by people working with the technology of their time. Nobody knows exactly how.

For lunch, we return to Isla Violines — a deserted mainland beach accessible only by boat, where the food is fresh, the water is calm, and the only crowds are the seabirds.