Friday, March 26, 2010

it's still hot here in golfito

Land Sea Services - their houseboat anchored next to us here in Golfito

down the way from us here in Golfito


view of approaching rain around a large rock while anchored in manuel antonio


downpour while motorsailing


what we were motorsailing into after leaving Isla del Cano


anchoring on the large mooring off Isla del Cano


watching the rain and lightening at the north end of Quepos


it was a tight squeeze into the fuel dock at Los Suenos marina


at the fuel dock looking toward Jimmy T's gourmet store


sunset at Bahia Ballena


sunset at Guacamaya


Marina Papagayos - at $2/ft no wonder there are empty slips - can you spot us?


the beach at Playa del Coco


some of the regular vendors at Playa del Coco


goesalthia meiantha tree on Isla del Cano


enormous leaves everywhere




some kinda lizard (I'll look for ID later) on Isla del Cano




leaving the Pt. Captain's office in Golfito we spotted this train


hats for sale in the mercado surrounding the duty free shops


Land Sea Services where we're moored in Golfito

just after the rain yesterday Dockwise Yacht Transport freighter (they transport boats all over the world) was getting ready to leave here in Golfito


view from where we're moored here in Golfito


another view down the way from our mooring


sunset last night after the rain


from the cemetary a view of us at anchor behind the houseboat


from the cemetary


once again it's a race against the clock to share our adventures with you before losing our wifi connection. what follows is a condensed version of what happened after we left marina papagayo march 17.
check-out was easy at playa del coco, though getting to shore was not. with our national zarpe complete, we motorsailed over to guacamaya (whaaa kaa my ya) where we enjoyed swimming around the boat and snorkling at a nearby reef. then it was on to bahia ballena, arriving the next morning exhausted. we spent a good part of the day napping. we watched the clouds amass into billowy backdrops for the hills, wondering how it would impact the weather. next day we crossed the bay to fuel up at los suenos marina, a very swanky spot tightly packed with big power boats. the highlight was the well-stocked gourmet store jimmy t's. 9:30am wasn't too early to enjoy a dos pinos ice cream bar. later we munched on potato salad for me and corn beef for jim. we arrived in quepos in the afternoon motoring around to find just the right spot to anchor. the north end of quepos next to the marina construction wasn't it. punta quepos looked like a lush tropical cove, the perfect spot - until we hit a rock with our keel. no that wasn't a good spot. by now the clouds had turned angry grey over quepos to the north with periodic lightening. we rounded the corner to manuel antonio just as the sun was closing in on the horizon. this anchorage was fringed with parque nacional manuel antonio and close enough to hear the wildlife. with only one other sailboat, it was the perfect anchorage. we huddled under the biminey when the rain came and watched the lightening show off in the distance. despite the closeness of the lightening (mostly cloud to cloud and not bolt to land), we felt safe and secure inside this little bay with hills higher than our mast. the next morning we left before sunrise and headed over to bahia drake (drah-kay) to anchor midafternoon. we finally inflated the dinghy - no easy task in this heat so felt like it took forever. jim checked the keel for damage (a dent removing some bottom paint - we were lucky!). next morning we motored over to Isla del CaƱo where we hiked through the forest among some amazing trees. we left late afternoon to motor sail all night. we were treated to a continuous lightening show moving all around us. sure it was incredibly awesome, but i'd rather not see it from our boat while motoring. we grabbed a mooring at land sea services in golfito and have been enjoying wifi ever since. check-in and out was easy. we even managed to get to the duty free shops. robert, the freezer repairman, came today and apparently our freezer needs a major overhaul. we're hoping to get it taken care of in panama city next week. in the meantime we're gorging ourselves with my precious morningstar veggie products. last evening around dusk we could see rain mist at the far end of the bay. a couple minutes later we heard it pounding on land just down the way from us. then we were treated to cool air and good hard rain lasting maybe 10 minutes. all too soon it moved to the other end of the bay. it seems to do this regularly.
that's it for now. i hope to give more information tomorrow before we leave for puerto amuelles, panama.

No comments: