Costa Rica is easily known as the diverse eco-destination on the planet, bundled with rain forests, cloud forests, volcanoes, mountains, whitewater rapids, and white-sand surf beaches. And under that pristine Pacific water lies giants: hammer heads, tiger sharks and whale sharks, beasts bigger than your average car. At Costa Rica’s Cocos Island, scuba divers are all but ensured to spot the mega sharks. A protected national park about 36 hours by boat from the mainland, Cocos is decently far enough from land that creatures such as mantas and humpback whales converge to play. It’s also among the few locations where hammerheads will school. After the sharks mate, they’re unsurprisingly wounded and bruised; Cocos is their preferred cleaning station where barber fish eat parasites out of postcoital injuries while you watch. Sharks are plentiful throughout the year, and while the rainy season’s upsurge may prolong your boat crossing from the months of May to November, the cooler currents can also make for bigger deep-sea animals.

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