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| Diving Safaris is owned and run by its
owners, Earl Gibbs and Bobbie Jo, with help from their two
daughters, Kelley and Karie Jo. Earl, Bobbie Jo and Kelley are all
PADI Open Water Scuba trainers and Karie is a Divemaster in
training.
In 1997, Diving Safaris owners Earl
and Bobbie Jo, were itching to live their dream, to own their own
dive shop in a tropical country where they could dive, have fun and
raise their daughters. When they saw an
ad for a dive shop for sale in Costa Rica, they saw their chance.
Originally from Pagosa Springs, Colorado, Earl was a deputy sheriff
who also worked in the search and recovery team, while owning a
small dive shop, called Pagosah High Dive. Bobbie Jo owned her own
business as a child day care provider. Living and diving in Costa
Rica was a huge change, but one they happily made. In the winter of
1997, Earl and Bobbie Jo bought the dive shop and moved the whole
family down to Costa Rica.
Learning to adapt and run a business
in Costa Rica was quite an experience. With the help of friends
and locals, Diving Safaris is now one of the most well known dive
shops in Costa Rica. We are a 5 Star PADI Dive Center, located in
Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We offer a variety of PADI
courses, from Discover Scuba through to Divemaster. There are over
25 different local and advanced dive sites; including Catalina
Islands and Isla Murcielagos (Bat ISlands).
We are open all year long (except
for January 1st) and with the seasons and water conditions changing
so much, we have a variety of marine life, including: mantas, whale
sharks, turtles, bull sharks, white tip reef sharks, seahorses,
thousands of schooling rays and much, MUCH, more. Come dive with us
and discover a whole other
Costa Rica —underwater.
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| Diving Safaris is the
oldest dive shop in the area, having been created by
another diving enthusiast over 20 years ago. It has
since continued to be one of the best dive shops in
the area, offering small, personalized dive
vacations to customers around the world.
Diving Safaris is located in Playa
Hermosa, Guanacaste, next to Hermosa del Mar on the right hand side.
The dive shop has been located in Playa Hermosa since we bought it
in 1997 and it is a fabulous location! We are located with-in
walking distance of all the hotels in Hermosa and only a short drive
to Playa Panama or Playa del Coco.
Our dive shop is located on a
beautiful property with a large yard, beautiful gardens and several
fruit trees. We also have a small pool and a large parking lot.
Our shop hours are from 7:00 AM
till 5:00 PM, with some one to answer the phones till 8:PM. We are
open every day, Monday through Sunday, all year long except for
January 1st. |
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The Diving Safaris' team of
professionals have many years of experience
and work together to make sure your diving
experience is safe, fun and memorable. It is
our goal to make our customers feel like
family and friends. |
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Shop Owners |
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- Bobbie Jo
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PADI Open Water Scuba
Instructor, NITROX
Instructor, marketing
and shop manager
- Originally from:
Texas, USA
- Favorite fish:
Coronet fish, moorish
idols, eagle rays,
juvenile high hats,
mantas and many more
- Favorite dive site:
Virador
- Favorite Restaurant:
Villa del Sueno and
Gingers
- Hobbies: Diving,
Parelli Natural
Horsemanship, yoga,
dancing, watching the
sunset and rise,
reading, and hanging out
with family and friends
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- Karie Jo
-
PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, EFR Instructor, website
designer, marketing and
assistant manager
- Originally from:
Colorado, USA
- Favorite fish:
MANTAS!!!!
- Favorite dive site:
All local sites!
- Favorite Restaurant:
Gingers and Papagayo
Sushi Boat (sushi!!)
- Hobbies: Parelli
Natural Horsemanship,
diving, art, cooking,
reading, website
designing, photography
and writing
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"Meet the Crew" |
| Instructors |
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| Divemasters |
- Marco
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PADI Divemaster, and handy man
- Originally from:
- Favorite fish:
- Favorite dive site:
- Favorite Restaurant:
- Hobbies:
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Meet the Crew |
| Boat Captains |
- Nito
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Captain of the Giorgiana
and non-current PADI
Divemaster, has worked
for Diving Safaris since
1996
- Originally from:
Guanacaste, CR
- Favorite fish:
Frog fish
- Favorite dive site:
Virador
- Favorite Restaurant:
Villa del Sueno
- Hobbies: Likes to
hang out with his family
and friends
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- Luis
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Captain of Mi Reina
Grace, PADI Advanced
certified, has worked
for Diving Safaris since
1993
- Originally from:
Guanacaste, CR
- Favorite fish:
All rays, seahorses
- Favorite dive site:
Virador
- Favorite Restaurant:
Milanes
- Hobbies: diving,
dancing, soccer, going
to the beach
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- Moica
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Main compressor
operator, back up
boat captain
- Originally from:
Guanacaste, CR
- Favorite fish:
Whale shark, amberjacks,
and sharks
- Favorite dive site:
Argentina Pt
- Favorite Restaurant:
Paso Real
- Hobbies:
Sport-fishing, movies,
dancing and meeting new
people
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| <<<Back to
Meet the Crew |
| Divemasters in Training |
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Meet the Crew |
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| The Giorgiana is a 47
foot Aluminum Stryker, a classic. She has
been outfitted to be used for scuba diving,
so she has spacious room, offering shady
areas, plus a sun deck. She also has a
large platform for easy entry into the
water, plus a strong ladder for climbing
back aboard. Mode of exit is the giant
stride.
We use her for local diving trips
and snorkel excursions. She can comfortably hold up to 15 divers,
plus crew but she is registered to take up to 21 people. |
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| Mi Reina Grace is a 28ft
fast boat equipped with a Suzuki 140hp
4-stroke engine. The boat has both
shaded and sunny areas to relax in. Mode of
water entry is the back roll and to climb
back up, we use a ladder. She is a great
boat for diving, fishing, snorkeling,
estuary tours and bay trips. We generally
use her for both local and Catalina dive
trips. She can comfortable hold up to nine
divers, including staff but is licensed to
hold 10 people. She is a fun boat for
small groups. |
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Playa Hermosa is a safe, friendly, quiet community
that offers many choices of quality hotels and fine dining. Its
beautiful marbled sand beach offers excellent snorkelling and superb
sunsets. Hermosa is located 30 minutes from the Daniel Oduber
International airport and is a central area for going to the
volcanoes and other national parks such as Palo Verde, Manuel
Antonio, Santa Rosa, Rincon de la Vieja and more.
Some of our favorite hotels areVilla del Sueńo,La Finisterra,
and El Velero. |
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These hotels are also some of our favorite
restaurants. Villa del Sueno offers superb seafood and beef, plus a
variety of pasta dishes and desserts. El Velero is a great place to
watch the sunset, since it’s right on the beach, plus they have
great BBQ and seafood. Other favourites are: Gingers, Pescado Loco
and the local pizza joint. There are two grocery stores in Hermosa:
Mini Luperon and Mini Super Dayi —all with-in walking distance!
If you crave night life, shopping and good eating,
Playa del Coco is the place to go. This now big fishing town is only
a 15 minute Taxi ride away and it houses some of the best night
clubs, restaurant and bars in the area.
Coco is a great place to walk around, since most
of its activities are located in central Coco —or near the beach.
During the day, there is great shopping to be found at all the local
boutique stores and when you get hungry, there are some very yummy
restaurants.
If you want a good sandwich and fruit smoothies, go
to Donde Luiskas, near the Luperon Supermarket. If you are craving
sushi, the Papagayo Sushi Boat is the place to go. It is located
right on the main road in Coco and is super easy to recognize since
it's a boat. For some great seafood or if you want to try some cuts
from Costa Rica’s national beef, Papagayo Seafood and Steak house
have some great food; these two restaurants are located on the main
road. For desert, we recommend stopping at Heladeria 0037, an
Italian ice cream (gelato) shop located in Coco Bay Hotel.
Night life does not begin till 10pm and most clubs
are open air, which is very nice. The three main hot spots, Lizard
Lounge, Z Lounge and Zouk Santana are all located in a triangle from
each other, so bar hopping is popular and a lot of people like to
hang out in the street.
Playa de Coco has four large supermarkets, several
pharmacies, two banks and a post office. For your banking
needs we recommend BAC San Jose which is located next to Automercado. |
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Since the ocean is our place of work, we try hard to
keep it clean and educate those around us about protecting our
environment.
Project AWARE Foundation, the dive industry’s leading
environmental organization, coordinates underwater clean up events
and urges divers and volunteers to jump in their wetsuits, pull on
their gloves and make a splash for trash! Project AWARE also
inspires conservation by incorporating its messages in dive training
materials as well as creating awareness and education campaigns like
Protect the Sharks, Protect the Living Reef and AWARE Kids |
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| Each year Kelley, along with other Diving
Safaris staff, organizes an underwater /
beach cleanup in Playa Hermosa to celebrate
International Clean Up Day. Kelley
collects donations from the local businesses,
talks to the children at our school and gets
the community together for a big clean up. Everyone
always has a great time; we end the day with
a raffle, lots of laughter, and hotdogs.
If you are
planning a trip to Costa Rica during
September and are interested in giving us a
hand, then contact us for more information
about this wonderful event. |
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Freckles is a beach dog that
followed one of our
employees back to the shop
one day. She was a stubborn
little puppy and refused to
leave —she stole our hearts
right away.
When she is working she
guards the shop, on her time
off she enjoys going to feed
the horses and playing fetch
in the yard or on the beach.
She really likes toys —hint
hint | |
| We adopted
Roxie in 2007 as a pup. She is a wonderful, playful dog with
a free spirit.
She loves chewing on
coconuts, going for a swim on the beach, playing fetch and
going for car rides.
Roxie is not one for toys
(unless they belong to Freckles) , but she eats just about
anything. Her favorite is Mantequilla (butter) cookies.
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Dirty
Harrieta —or is it Guacamolista Brava? It does not matter,
she is a dog of many names.
Like all of our dogs, Harry
(as we call her for short) is a street dog. Kelley found
her, along with her eight brothers and sisters, outside a
fried chicken joint, in a box. They had been dumped. Harry
stole our hearts from day one.
She is very smart and loves
playing with our other dog, Roxie. Roxie is like her adopted
mom. | |
| Oliver, named
after Oliver Twist, is our orphan cat. Karie raised him from
a two week old kitten and my, what a beautiful cat he
became!
Oliver enjoys taunting all the
other cats, eating cantaloupe, mango and other weird foods. |
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Jose, short
for No Way Jose!, just showed up at Karie and Bobbie Jo's
house one day. He was skinny, afraid and had a very bad
limp. After closer inspection, we found that he had most
likely broken one of his back legs. It took a while, but
Jose has turned into a wonderful cat that loves to be pet,
and despite his hurt leg, he gets around quite well —even
climbs trees!
Jose
likes having his belly rubbed. | |
| Kalli is the
youngest cat in our pride. We found her wandering a road
near Diving Safaris. When we picked her up, we discovered
she had a collar cut all around her neck.
She is still a kitten and
is our only lap cat. If you spend any time sitting on our
front porch, you will most likely get a visit from Kalli.
She loves attention and is a very sweet cat. |
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This is Annie
—no, she is not dead, she is sleeping. This is what she doesall day long.
Annie walked into dive shop
owner Bobbie Jo's house one day and never left. She has made
her self quite at home, as you can see. If you stop by the
dive shop, you will most likely find her snoozing on the
front counter. What a life. |
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Sneakers made the big move from Colorado to Costa
Rica with the rest of the family back in 1997. She
is about 14 years old and is the queen.
She does not like
being petted very much, but does enjoy cat treats and
long afternoon naps in the sun.
Her secret for
staying so fit is daily kitty yoga. |
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