People come to Nosara for the surf and stay for what is in the water. You do not need a long boat ride or a group of forty to see it. Most of it is within an hour of the beach at Garza.
Dolphins, all year
Spotted and spinner dolphins live here. They are not a seasonal event. They travel in pods, sometimes large ones, and they turn up on boat tours, snorkeling trips and fishing days without being looked for. They will run alongside the boat, feed around bait balls, and cross open water in a line.
Humpbacks, August to November
Humpback whales migrate through the water off Garza every year. The main window is August to November, with some sightings January to March. What you see is breaching, tail slaps, and mothers moving slowly with calves. Nosara is one of the more reliable places on this coast during the migration.
Nobody can promise you a whale. The captain knows where they have been that week, and that is the whole of the advantage.
Turtles, and the arribada at Ostional
Turtles are in the water year round, around the reefs and on the way out to the fishing grounds. The bigger event is on land. Ostional, north of Nosara, is one of the most active olive ridley nesting sites in the world. During an arribada thousands of turtles come ashore over several nights. Green turtles are common here too.
Rays, bait balls and the reef
Manta rays and eagle rays, schools of reef fish, and bait balls that pull in whatever is hunting that day. Snorkeling on a calm morning is when you see the most, because visibility drops as the day’s wind comes up.
On land, from the boat and the road
White-faced capuchins in the trees near the beaches, the riverbeds and the jungle roads. Howler monkeys you hear before you see, early morning and near sunset. Pelicans, frigatebirds, herons, parrots and parakeets, with the most activity around the estuaries and over bait balls offshore.
Those birds are useful. When frigatebirds start working a patch of water, there is bait under it, and under the bait there is usually something worth casting at. That is how a captain finds fish without a sounder telling him to.
How to actually see it
- Go in the morning. Lighter wind, flatter water, better visibility. Every trip here leaves early for a reason.
- Go by boat rather than from the sand. A captain reading bird behaviour and surface movement finds more in three hours than you will find in a week from the beach.
- Snorkel on the calm days. The offshore islands by boat, where the visibility is better, and the sheltered coves inside the bay when the swell is up outside.
- Take the fishing trip anyway. A lot of the whale and dolphin encounters happen on days nobody booked to look for them.
Watching it without wrecking it
Keep a distance. No sudden changes of speed or direction near animals. Nothing gets fed and nothing gets touched. We do not sit on top of a pod for an hour because a guest wants a better photograph. Those rules are why the animals are still here to look at.
Quick version
- Year round: dolphins, sea turtles, reef fish, rays.
- August to November: humpback whales, with some sightings January to March.
- Ostional arribadas: several nights at a time, timing varies by month.
- Any of it: better in the morning.