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What The Pros Say

Brian Bolton

Panamic Fan Worm. By Brian Bolton

History

The owner of Costa Rica Dive, Rolando Arburola, is licensed by the Costa Rican Tourism Board as a Guide in Costa Rica. The company is incorporated in the State of Florida and operates as a comprehensive travel service and guide service for Costa Rica. The emphasis is on groups interested in diving.

Rolando Arburola worked with the legendary Bill Beard for many years as his guide, partner and close friend. About four years ago, Beard sold his diving operation to Earle Gibbs and the name of the operation changed to Diving Safaris. The same has also been registered as B.J. Diving Safaris and is still sometimes referred to as Bill Beards Diving Safaris, even though Gibbs owns it. Nevertheless, Arburola continued to work with Beard as his land guide until last year when Arburola broke away, taking a number of clients, and started his own business, “Costa Rica Dive.” Since Arburola possessed the Costa Rican guide license, he offered to purchase the interest in Beard’s land operation in Costa Rica and apparently completed the transaction in the spring of 2003. Arburola then incorporated in the State of Florida and began booking tour packages and arranging contracts with various dive resorts an inland resorts from the Isla del Cano north to the Guanacaste province and east to the Caribbean. He has also developed a substantial business booking inland land trips for divers from the Monteverde Cloud Forest to the Arenal area. His web page at CostaRicaDive.Com provides useful information for divers including weather conditions, water temperature, etc. His page, interestingly enough, looks very similar to the web page of his old mentor and it appears that he has learned much about the business from him.

Initial Service

Our plan was to be picked up by Costa Rica Dive in San Jose upon arrival, travel to Ocotal Dive Resort, and dive for 4 days then travel to Monteverde Cloud Forest staying one day for hiking and horseback riding, with our last two days spent hiking the La Paz Waterfall Gardens and Poas Volcano. The itinerary scheduled our guide to drive us the first day to Ocotal and give us an orientation on the way then, pick us up at Ocotal at check out 4 days later and stay with us for the remainder of the trip as field a guide, eventually dropping us off at the San Jose airport for departure.

Rolando Arburola was waiting for us upon our arrival at the San Jose airport on July 22nd with two helpers who shagged our luggage and loaded it into a Toyota F4Runner 4x4. We felt safe in a foreign airport having Rolando and his assistants pick us up and guard and pack our rather expensive equipment. We carry our own diving gear in two large bags along with a large carry-on regulator bag, two Pelican cases with photo gear and two bags containing clothes. Rolando and his assistants took care to ask what contents were in which bags so as to not damage our gear when loading. We then left San Jose on a four-hour trip to Ocotal with Rolando giving us much advice along the way while pointing out various places of interest.

Travel Tips

While driving to Ocotal, we were advised to change our dollars into denominations no greater than twenty-dollar bills, as many local establishments will not take credit cards, travelers checks or larger bills. We were further advised to change our dollars into colones, the local currency, because tourists often lose on the exchange rate when local vendors provide change for dollars in colones. Rolando politely offered to drive us to a bank to make the cash exchanges if we so desired. We accepted his offer converting some travelers checks into colones and we certainly appreciated this advice as the trip progressed. We made sure that, whenever possible, we identified the cost of food or other items in colones and paid with them. We were also advised that gratuities are usually added onto meal checks and that many tourists end up paying a double gratuity when they fail to look closely at the tab. The gratuity, we were told, is usually 10% and no more is expected. For the time we were at Ocotal Dive Resort without a guide, we were given the name and cell phone number of a specific taxi driver in Coco, Eddie, who we could call for transportation. We were advised to not order taxi services through any resorts as the front desk usually adds on a commission for the taxi that often significantly increases the price of the service. We contacted Eddie on three occasions and he provided good service as represented by Rolando.