It was a smooth ride until around 0430, when the wind picked up to low 20’s. After dawn, we moved closer in to shore where, where the wind was only 1 – 4 knots apparent and the seas were smooth. Man, talk about a drastic difference! No wonder they advise running so close to shore. It was another gorgeous, cloudless day.

Eric saw a turtle this morning. What made him notice it was he saw a bird standing on the water. Not sitting, standing. He did a double take and realized the bird was standing on a turtle that was swimming in the water. Eric tried to get a photo, but the bird sensed the camera being turned on and flew off. He took a photo of the turtle, but you can’t really see it in the photo. It looks like a smudge. Christi thinks she may have seen a turtle shortly afterwards, but isn’t sure. It was farther out.

At 1300, Christi also saw bird standing on a turtle. We had thought it was a freak occurrence the first time, but now we think it could be a common behavior. As she was watching the duo, suddenly a four foot sailfish leapt out of the water in the distance. It smashed back down into the water and a couple seconds leapt up again. It jumped at least half a dozen times in total, each time landing hard. At 1330, a half dozen or so dolphins came to play at the bow of the boat. At 1400, a couple of them were still playing. Usually, they don’t stay that long. Maybe it is luck and coincidence that we are seeing so much sea life now and saw so little in the rest of the world, but it seems to us that the sea life along the west coast of the Americas is the most active in the world.

It was another pitch black night. Since there are no clouds in the sky, the stars are incredibly vibrant, twinkling away like millions of diamonds reflecting a bright light. At around 2000, the wind picked up to 20 – 22 knots straight on the nose and the seas had picked up a little, too, so we didn’t really want to move away from shore where the wind and seas would be worse. But, just as we feared, in the dark we got disconcertingly close to a fishing net and barely avoided it in time, so we moved farther out. We figured our overall safety is worth a little discomfort. And, it turned out the seas weren’t that bad. Yes, they are head seas and head seas aren’t fun, but it really wasn’t bad.

We experienced a few minor problems today, too. At 1600, Eric checked the DC water maker. The filter looks to be clogged, so he shut it off. The two watermakers share a filter, so we will have to change it when we get to Mexico. We have plenty of water for the time being as long as we take short showers and don’t do laundry. The downstairs AC unit is still clogged. We had hoped it would magically fix itself, but no such luck. And our starboard side navigation light went out again.

Day 3

It was a long night. First of all, dark nights tend to drag by slower in general. Something about not being able to see adds a layer of anxiety that makes you keep wishing it were dawn already. Second, as time dragged on, our perspective on how uncomfortable the ride was changed. The seas were consistent all night. The waves were small but rapid. They weren’t sharp, so it was not an uncomfortable motion, but we were still consistently bouncing. It felt like being on a bumpy roller coaster. Occasionally, we would get a bigger wave that made us feel like we had caught air, which is kind of like a roller coaster, too. And, we all know that no matter how much fun a particular roller coaster is, there is only so many times in a row you can ride it before you have had enough and are ready to get off the ride. Only, we can’t get off. While it was certainly not an uncomfortable motion, we are so tired of the constant up and down.

From midnight to dawn, the wind continued to lighten up, but the seas stayed exactly the same. As the sun rose, the wind was down to only 10 knots apparent. It had to flatten out soon, right? Once it was light enough out, we could see there was only about 6 inches of wind chop. The swells were about 3 feet, and while they were coming at rapid intervals, they were gentle swells without any sharpness to them. If we were going south, it would feel flat as a pancake to us. If the waves were coming from the beam, we would barely feel it. But it was directly on our nose, so we were hobby horsing like crazy.

In the late morning, the seas improved a little bit for a few hours, but by late afternoon it was back to being the same as it was earlier in the day. Our speed has been abysmally slow, at one point in time getting all the way down to the high 2’s. No, that is not a typo. The currents were against us. The current finally let up some. We picked up the RPM’s from 1700 to 1850 to help keep us on schedule, but even at the higher RPM we are only averaging about 5.5 knots.

After dark, a radar target suddenly appeared right next to us on the screen. The target literally came out of nowhere. Eric took evasive measures and moved away. It turned out to be a little fishing panga that was sitting in place and not moving. The fisherman did have a flashlight with him, which he turned on after we had already moved away. Had he not appeared on radar, we wouldn’t have hit him, but we might have hit his net. And being as it was so dark out, there was no way we would have seen him at all had the radar not gone off.

We are still seeing sea life. Eric saw 5 turtles and Christi saw one. Also, a bird has taken up residence in our cockpit, and Eric has made friends with it. We suspect he is injured. He has been back there an unusually long time.

Christi is feeling restless. She thinks she needed a few more days on dry land before heading out. We spent 2 days at sea getting to Nicaragua, 3 days on land in Nicaragua, and are now on a 5 day passage, so for this 10 day period will be at a 70% sea time ratio. We have more or less figured out that we are happiest when we have a 25% or less sea time ratio. The higher over 25% the number goes, the less happy we are about moving.

It was just the two of us. We love it when we get private tours! At first we followed a main road that headed out of town, riding in traffic along with all the regular cars. We stopped at a gas station and filled up, then continued on. It was another gorgeous day. On the outskirts of town, the main road was lined mostly with small bungalow style houses on good size lots, but not too far out the landscape changed to mostly undeveloped.

We turned off onto a steep, winding dirt road that took us up a big hill to a radio tower on the top. The road was dry and dusty, and the wind only aggravated the dust. From the top, there was a stunning 360 degree views. Facing south we could see the town of San Juan del Sur and the bay. Facing north we could see Lake Nicaragua and its two volcanoes.

Right now it is the dry season, so the scenery was pretty brown. But in the rainy season, this area becomes a lush jungle with lots of monkeys and other wildlife around. Right now most of the wildlife has retreated inland where there is more food. The wind was really screaming up here.

The tour guide wanted to relax for a while and enjoy the view, but being as we were in a hurry to leave town, we insisted on moving on as soon as we were done snapping pictures. We hopped back on the ATVs and followed the main road back towards town. While still on the outskirts, we turned off on another dirt road that also winded up a hill. It wasn’t long before we came to a neighborhood of high end residential homes. Here the road suddenly was paved. Most were custom, but there were a couple small track home developments. We wonder if these are the ones we saw from the bay.

The upscale neighborhood came to an end. We knew exactly where the neighborhood boundary was when the road went back to being dirt. Beyond it, there was an agricultural area with quite a few cows. It looks like they also grow crops here, as well, but we couldn’t tell what kind. Beyond the farm, the land became mostly undeveloped, dotted here and there with an eclectic mix of houses and a few hotels. Just like in town, some of the houses were really nice, but most were small, average quality bungalows that were well maintained. We made a turn and a minute later came out at a pretty beach.

We think he said the beach is called Matilda’s, but Matilda’s isn’t listed as a real place in Lonely Planet, so we could be confused. It may have been Bahia Majagual. There were only a few people there and the guide said it is never crowded, so it is one of his favorite spots. Normally, the tour takes ½ hour break here so everyone can go for a swim, but we insisted on leaving as soon as we took photos. The guide was taken aback, saying he’s never had anyone in such a rush before. Didn’t we want to enjoy the scenery and give our behinds a break?

We hopped back on the ATV’s and followed a different road that headed southeast and paralleled the coast. We couldn’t see the water, though. From where we were, in the middle of a dense forest of mostly leafless trees, you’d never even realize the beach was so darn close. Actually, one species of tree was in full bloom, bursting with colorful flowers. We didn’t see very many of them, but every time we did, we appreciated the sharp color contrast.

This road was pretty bad. It was especially steep and bumpy, and was totally rutted out in some spots. We gingerly maneuvered our way down the road until we emerged at the popular surfing beach called Playa Madera. We mentioned that San Juan del Sur is a popular vacation destination for Nicaraguans, but it is also a popular destination for surfers, specifically for this particular beach, which apparently has awesome waves. Visually speaking, it looks almost the same as the last beach we were at, except there were a lot of people here, some surfing and some laying out.

The guide again tried to entice us to rest, but we were raring to go. We navigated down the bad road and made a turn onto a much better road. After a few minutes we came to the gate of a private community. The road became paved right at the gate. Our guide went to talk to the guard, and a minute later, the gate was opened and we made our way inside. We realized we were on the northwest side of the bay. The assessment that we initially made that the houses on this side looked to be expensive was right on. Every house in the community was custom built, and they were all the kind of thing you would see in Beverly Hills. Ralph had told us that most of the houses in here were second homes for wealthy Nicaraguans, and our guide confirmed it. Wow. It looks like the lots were all pre-graded with utilities already in, and thus are ready to build on. Less than half the lots actually have homes on them.

We stopped at an empty lot with a pretty view of the San Juan del Sur bay.

The giant statue of Jesus was on a small peak just above where we were standing. His body was mostly completed, but he is still missing a head and half an arm. From there, we headed back down the hill and back to the ATV office. The tour normally lasts a solid 4 hours, but because we cut every stop short, we finished in only 3 hours. We really enjoyed it and are glad we delayed leaving this morning to do it. We were absolutely filthy, covered in a thick layer of dirt.

Renda and their friend Jorge had wanted to see Kosmos, so we went by the hotel to get them and bring them back to Kosmos with us. Ralph wound up driving all of us over to the Port Captain’s office. We can’t believe he let us in his car when we were so dirty. Eric checked out with the Port Captain, which only took a few minutes. Then we all piled into the water taxi and went over to Kosmos. We gave them the super quick tour and said our goodbyes. Kosmos was super filthy, so we were a little embarrassed as we walked them around the exterior. When we had arrived, she was already encrusted with salt from the rough passage. And in the few days we had been here, the wind had blown a thick layer of dust all over her.

We did a few last minute “get ready to go things”. One of them was rigging up the paravanes. Not going to make that mistake ever again! We have to say that getting ready to go is so much easier when you don’t have to deal with the dinghy. Getting the dinghy up and secured takes a lot of time. We were hesitant about leaving because the wind was absolutely screaming, still in the low 30’s. This bay is part of a wind tunnel from the Atlantic, and Ralph had assured us that once we had gone out a few miles, the wind would dissipate. At 1600, we finally pulled up anchor, which was again a little bit of a challenge. When we turned around and headed out, we were moving with the wind and were comfortably flying along.

As promised, once we had gotten around the corner, the wind died down. There was almost a visible line that we crossed where suddenly the wind was light and the seas were flat. It was kind of weird that it was such a sharp change. From there on out, it was a pleasant run. We saw dozens and dozens of dolphins frolicking in the water all the way around us. About a dozen were playing along the waterline, but many more were entertaining themselves further away from us. They are the spotted variety.

While we were getting ready, Eric had turned on the generator and started making water. Not too long after we were in the calm water, Eric noticed the salt concentration was going up on the AC water maker, so he turned it off and turned on the DC water maker, instead. All seemed to work fine with the DC system.

As it does in the tropics, the sun set at around 1800. It is a new moon tonight, so it is completely and totally pitch black outside right now. The conventional wisdom for this area is hug the coast for protection from the strong wind and ugly swells that are typical through here. But we were uncomfortable with being close to shore, knowing that we wouldn’t be able to see the little fishing pangas that don’t always show up on radar. We decided to move away from the coast. Given that the conditions were so mild, we still had a good ride. Even out so much farther than recommended, we still are running closer to shore than we normally like to.

Then we walked around town a little more, checking out a few shops. Unfortunately, Mike hadn’t completed his paper, so we had to cut sightseeing short. It was OK though, downtown is small, and we were pretty sure we had seen most of it when we turned around and headed back to the hotel. Something that we found particularly amusing was an ox drawn cart was parallel parked in front of a small store between two cars.

At the hotel, Mike went to work on his paper and Eric got on our website to load blogs. Grrr… we’d been hacked again. We hate it when that happens. So, Eric worked on unhacking us instead. He was unsuccessful.

Mike left for the airport at noon, taking a taxi all the way to Managua. We saw him off, then walked down to the waterfront for lunch. Unfortunately, we picked seats a tad too close to the beach. The wind was again super strong and consistently blew a thin layer of sand onto our table (and food and drinks) throughout the meal.

After lunch, we treated ourselves to a visit to the local spa. The spa is located on the grounds of a hotel at the very top of the big hill. It was definitely quite the climb to get up there, and again we were huffing and puffing when we arrived at the hotel. We were taken aback when we saw three monkeys in a large cage, two of the three being a mama and baby. We stopped to watch the monkeys and read the sign. It looks like there is an animal sanctuary and free veterinary clinic on the hotel grounds somewhere. Locals bring in sick, abused and/or abandoned animals. The sign said that most of the wild animals are returned to the wild, but that these could not be for some reason. The monkeys are adorable and so fun to watch. They climbed and swung all over the walls, ceiling and toys in the cage, entertaining themselves and us. Their tails are pretty incredible. The monkeys use their tails almost like a third hand, grabbing on to things with it and pulling it to them, or hanging off a ledge solely holding on with their tail. At one point the baby nursed, which was really cute to watch.

At the spa, Eric got a massage and Christi got a facial. We met some cruisers there and wound up talking with them for a couple hours. They were going south and we were going north, so we gave one another the low down on what to see/do/expect at the various stops along the way. They also told us that the wind speed has been “mild” in only the 30’s. A couple weeks before, winds were over 100 knots. They themselves had been unable to measure it because their wind meter broke when the wind got to the high 80’s! Oy vey! We had so much fun talking with them that we lost track of time. When we looked at the clock, we were aghast. Oh no, the sun was setting! The twilight was beautiful, but sadly, we couldn’t enjoy it.

We more or less ran all the way down the mountain and over to the water taxi stand, praying that the water taxi driver hadn’t left for the day. We were so relieved when we saw him. He said he had stuck around longer than normal to wait for us, knowing we needed a ride back. He is such a nice guy. Everyone we have met has been so nice.

When we got back to Kosmos, we checked the weather and saw the forecast was phenomenally good. We wanted to stay in San Juan del Sur for several more days, but we knew we needed to move with the weather. If we didn’t leave with this weather window, we could very well get stuck for a couple of weeks waiting on another one. The ideal window is expected to last for 5 days, which would get us past the dreaded Gulf of Tehuantepec and into southern Mexico. We were sad about missing El Salvador and Guatemala, but the weather was just too good to not keep going. We keep telling ourselves that it is OK to zoom through this part of the world because it is so easy for us to come back here again in the future.

Today we headed into shore at 0800. When we climbed into the water taxi, we saw that there was a small cruise ship anchored in the bay. We had all our check out paperwork with us, intending to visit the Immigration Officer this evening. We went by the Port Captain’s office, who told us we needed to go to Immigration first. He told us that today she hadn’t gone to the border because she needed to be here to check the cruise ship passengers in and out. All the cruise ship passengers had been checked in, and she was at her house until it was time to check the passengers back out. Eric walked over to her house while Christi visited with the Port Captain.

Check out was more or less the same as check in. Eric waited in her living room as she called her office and they processed the paperwork together over the phone. It again took a long time. Christi had a lovely visit with the Port Captain, chatting about our respective families and travels. The Port Captain is trying to learn English, so now and again he would say a phrase in English and be incredibly proud of himself. And sometimes Christi would not be able to finish what she was trying to say because she didn’t know the necessary words, but he seemed to be able to understand her over all.

We met at the American cafe for breakfast. We absolutely needed to order that awesome French toast dish for ourselves! Then we went back to Ralph’s hotel to use the internet. Today Eric managed to find the problem and fix the hack. Yay! Ralph had also arranged for a reporter from the local weekly newspaper to meet us at the hotel for an interview. There is a big enough ex-pat community in San Juan del Sur that the paper is printed in both English and Spanish. It was exciting to be interviewed. We felt important.

We went to lunch with Ralph and Renda at yet another restaurant on the beach. Today we got fresh fish with jalapeno sauce. We were wondering if it would be a lightly spicy sauce, like Costa Rica, or a fiery sauce, like in Mexico. It was something in the middle. It was similar to the Costa Rican sauce in that it was a cream sauce with jalapenos, but they used much hotter peppers than in Costa Rica. They also had a lot of onions cooked into the sauce here, whereas the sauce in Costa Rica had no onion at all. We loved it. We’d say on the whole, the local Nicaraguan food is very similar to the Costa Rican food.

After lunch, we tried to book an ATV tour for the afternoon. They weren’t running a tour today, but we could go tomorrow morning. We looked at each other. We really should leave first thing in the morning… but the tour sounded really fun… so we booked it. The tour was supposed to end at 1300, and we could pull out by 1330 as long as we got everything ready to go tonight. We headed back to Kosmos, intending to get her completely ready for sea. Of course, we didn’t. We are such procrastinators.

Our downstairs air conditioner appears to have a clog in the sea water intake and it stopped working. Oh, and while we’re talking about how the boat is performing, we’ll mention something we find interesting. Since we have gotten into the cold water of the Pacific, we have noticed there is often condensation on the sea strainers, generator and water maker.

In the bay there were about a dozen or so moorings with small fishing boats on them. There were also a couple of sailboats on moorings, as well. One was Ralph’s and the other was dismasted, so we guess that one doesn’t go out too often. There were about a dozen of so cruiser-looking sailboats anchored in the bay.

Something that really surprised us was how little we were moving. You would think with so much wind we would be rocking like crazy, but we weren’t. Being so close to the shoreline, there was no fetch and it was relatively calm and peaceful. To Christi and Eric, it was virtually flat, but Mike could really feel the motion, even as small as it was.

Ralph had told us to go to the Port Captain first thing. It was way too windy to get the dinghy down, so we were relieved that there was a water taxi service. We were in the middle of explaining to Mike that we couldn’t go to shore for a minimum of an hour or two because we needed make sure that the anchor was really set when the water taxi pulled up to us with the Port Captain and two soldiers in camouflage. Awesome! We could get the paperwork taken care of without getting off the boat.

The Port Captain is a nice guy and the paperwork only took about 15 minutes or so. None of them spoke any English at all, but we did OK conducting the paperwork in Spanish. Our Spanish is definitely improving! After he finished the paperwork, he told his soldiers to inspect the boat. One soldier opened up ever cabinet and floor board in the rooms he inspected. The other soldier just glanced around his rooms. Meanwhile, Eric chatted with the Port Captain. The Port Captain warned us not to leave the boat unattended because of the winds.

At around 1400, Ralph arrived in the water taxi. By then, we had sat for long enough that we felt comfortable leaving Kosmos. We had 300 feet of chain out in about 30 feet (and count about 8 feet up to the bow roller, so 8 to one scope) and didn’t seem to be going anywhere. And after the last 17 hours of miserable seas, we were eager to stand on dry land for a while. We got Mike’s luggage and piled into the water taxi. Eric and Christi were crestfallen when we noticed that the paravane chain had rubbed against the side of the boat, making some black streaks. Leaving the paravanes unrigged turned out to be a bad idea. Hopefully it will come out.

The water taxi dropped us off at a staircase carved into the sea wall at the port building. The staircase was worn in some spots and a touch dicey, particularly holding the luggage. Ralph told us the Japanese had built the port building, intending to send fishing fleets here. But the fleets never materialized and the building now sat empty.

As we left the water taxi and loaded into Ralph’s car, we kept an eye out for the Port Captain. The last thing we needed was to be busted for leaving the boat unattended. The coast looked clear. We headed over to the hotel that Ralph and his wife, Renda, built and run. Mike absolutely needed to get his paper finished, and he knew he would get sick if he tried to use the computer while on board Kosmos, so he was checking into the hotel.

The drive through downtown was quick. While we drove, Ralph explained that San Juan del Sur is the favorite vacation destination for the wealthy Nicaraguans and is basically a resort town. Ralph’s hotel is absolutely adorable. It is near the top of the hill and has great views of the bay. No wonder he could see us come in!

We met Renda, who was running out the door to an appointment. Mike dropped off his stuff and the four of us walked down the short, but steep, hill into downtown. It was a beautiful day, sunny with clear skies. Thanks to the wind, it wasn’t at all hot, a welcome difference from Golfito. As we had suspected, the thatched roofed buildings along the shore are indeed restaurants and we went to one of them for lunch. Christi ordered fish tacos and Eric ordered chicken tacos. They were delicious, though different than Mexican style. Both sets of meat were chopped into small chunks and deep fried in a tasty batter with a lot of pepper in it. They were served in a deep fried flour tortilla shell along with chopped lettuce, and the top was smothered in a thick layer of melted cheese. The first photo is a shot of Kosmos from the restaurant. The camera is looking northwest and is zoomed in so you can see Kosmos better. You can also see some of the houses on the hill in the background. The second shot taken from the same spot, but is facing southeast and zoomed out.

After lunch we went back to the hotel. Mike worked on his paper while Eric and Christi used the internet. Eric and Christi were basically killing time until we could go to the Immigration Officer’s house. Both Ralph and the Port Captain explained that the Immigration Officer works at the southern border and does cruiser check in’s/out’s in the evening when she gets home from work. She only lives two houses up the hill from Ralph, but the hill is so steep that the “road” is a set of stairs. In this photo is Ralph’s hotel. You can see the roof of the next house up. The Immigration Officer is one more house up, and the staircase gets steeper beyond the scope of this photo.

At 1600, Eric and Christi climbed up the stairs, crossing our fingers that she was already back. We might have been too early. As we passed the house in the photo, we saw that their yard is full of chickens and pigs. And one of the pigs is absolutely enormous. Even though we are now used to seeing livestock around town, we still are amused by it.

We emerged at the cross road, knowing the house should be right at the corner. But at first we didn’t see it. Humph. How could we possibly miss a bright purple house? Then we looked up. Oh. The small gate in front of us was the property entrance, opening to a long staircase taking us even farther up the hill to the house. When we arrived at her door, we were huffing and puffing. We were invited in and told to have a seat. Her house is large. The lower third of the exterior walls are concrete, with concrete support pillars, just like John’s house in Carti. The rest of the structure is wood. The ceiling and interior walls are all made of unfinished plywood. We wondered if the house was under construction or if plywood is just what is used locally for interiors.

The Immigration Officer took our paperwork and got on the phone with her office, where the person at the other end of the line was physically processing our paperwork. It took a long time, though the fact that Mike was leaving via airplane added an extra layer of complication in the processing. She had to notify the airport office of Mike’s arrival so that there wouldn’t be any issues with checking him out tomorrow.

Once the paperwork was completed, we stopped by the hotel to say goodnight to Mike and Ralph, then walked back over to the water taxi stop. Like many places we have been with water taxi service, the taxi only runs from sunrise to sunset, so we needed to get going.

On foot, we got a better look at the town than we had in the car. We think the town is cute, but we know most Americans would probably think it was a hovel. Only a few roads are paved. As is common with third world countries, the sidewalks are weird. Like most third world countries, quality of construction varies wildly, ranging from shacks to super nice. There are definitely a lot more nice places than run down places. Many of the buildings look to be pretty new, and most of the older buildings are well maintained. Construction style is also quite varied, as well, ranging from small, boxy bungalows to Victorian mansions. There are bars on some of the windows, and some razor wire topped fences here and there, but much less of it than you see in Costa Rica.

It seemed like the entire town was down at the waterfront this evening. There were many vendors selling assorted tourist goods, such as jewelry, sunglasses and t-shirts. There were also lot of people simply hanging out. Most were sitting on the sidewalks in small groups and chatting with their friends, but a shocking number were actually sitting on the road, with oncoming cars veering around them. We thought it was kind of crazy, but it seems as if it is normal around here. And, of course, there were tons of people on the beach — walking around, playing in the water, and playing volleyball and baseball in the sand. Everyone seemed to be reveling in the almost perfect early evening weather. We were, too.

Back on Kosmos, we had a quiet night and went to bed early.

Evidence has been found in Nicaragua indicating that humans lived there at least 6000 years ago, and maybe even as far back as 8,000 years ago. When the Spaniards first arrived, there were three distinct people groups. In the east were hunters/gatherers believed to have originally migrated north from Colombia. The central and western regions were populated by tribes related to the Aztecs and Maya, who were farmers that had migrated southwards from Mexico.

Columbus was the first to “find” Nicaragua in 1502, about the same time he “found” Costa Rica. As you have already read in the Histories of Panama and Costa Rica, colonization of the Atlantic American coast didn’t pan out for the Spaniards. It wasn’t until Panama City was established on the Pacific coast that active colonization of the Americas began. In 1524, the first exploration party arrived in Nicaragua, and a few months later, settlers began conquering lands from the Indians. The Pacific coast and central part of Nicaragua were overtaken by the Spaniards, but the Atlantic coast was left alone. Most indigenous in the conquered areas were murdered by the Spaniards or died of European disease. It is believed that by 1575, about 650,000 indigenous peoples had died in Nicaragua alone. Those that survived were enslaved, forced to work in the Spaniard’s new plantations, in the mines in the north of Nicaragua, or sent to be slaves in Panama or Peru.

In 1633, the British pirates set up a successful colony on the Atlantic coast, a base camp for their raiding parties. The pirates frequently sacked various cities in Nicaragua, which weakened the Spanish. They also befriended and armed the indigenous peoples. The British formally claimed the Atlantic coast in 1655. A very different culture developed in the British areas from the Spanish areas.

In the Spanish areas, there was an ongoing battle about trade policies. The wealthy, backed by the Catholic Church, wanted to keep trade monopolies in place. The anti-clerical ‘liberals’ wanted a free trade system. There were several minor civil wars and rebellions, but they were quickly suppressed.

Like Costa Rica, Spanish Nicaragua became independent of Spain in 1821 and joined the Central American Federation as a semi-autonomous state. Civil war broke out over who would fill the power vacuum, liberals vs. conservatives. Mexico also tried to conquer Nicaragua as a territory but was repelled. The Federation collapsed in 1838 and Nicaragua became a completely independent nation, still at war.

In 1848, gold was discovered in California. Just like Panama, tens of thousands of people going from the eastern US to California (and vice versa) took a land short cut through Nicaragua rather than sailing all the way around South America. In 1855, with the civil war escalating, the liberals hired American mercenaries led by William Walker. Instead of aiding the liberals, Walker (financially aided by Vanderbilt, Morgan and Garrison) grew his army to be over 1200 people and seized control of the Nicaraguan government. The US immediately recognized sovereignty of the new government. The Nicaraguans fought Walker, and the other Central American countries joined in to help. Walker had managed to make Vanderbilt really mad, so Vanderbilt helped to finance the opposition. Walker was defeated in 1857. Needless to say, the Nicaraguans weren’t too happy with the liberals for inviting Walker in and the Conservatives won the ensuing elections. The conservatives stayed in power for 30 years and had a cozy relationship with the US.

In 1893, the liberals staged a coup and took control of the government under new President Zelaya. Ever since 1633, there had been occasional battles with the British over control of the east coast. Zelaya, backed by US troops, got full control of the area in 1894. So, the US was pretty unhappy when Zelaya said no to the inter-oceanic canal that the Americans had spent the last 25 years planning to build. Instead, The US picked up the abandoned French construction in Panama. Zelaya then changed his mind and decided he did want a canal through Nicaragua, after all, and started negotiating with Germany and Japan for rights. This made the US very mad. Zelaya was also trying to re-unite Central America and was aiding liberalist factions in the surrounding countries, and the US feared Panama would be included. The US labeled Zelaya a tyrant and gave aid to Nicaraguan groups that opposed Zelaya.

In December 1909, American marines invaded Nicaragua and managed to get control of the government, installing a cabinet of leaders who were US friendly. The US physically occupied Nicaragua with troops until 1933. In 1927, rebel groups started fighting to get the US out. While the US did eventually succumb to pressure and go, they still continued to train and arm a group of US loyalists that had significant political clout within Nicaragua. The loyalists were led by Samoza. Samoza was elected president in 1936, winning the democratic election with an amazing 99.9% of all votes cast.

Samoza immediately consolidated power, making himself a dictator. His rule was characterized by brutality, despotism and systematic corruption. To scare people from rebelling, Samoza did things like drag brutally tortured, dead bodies of rebels in the streets. The Samoza family stayed in power until 1979. In the early 60’s, inspired by the Cuban Revolution, where the Cubans ousted a US backed leader, an insurgent group was set up called the Sandinistas. The Cuban Revolution provided not just hope, but also weapons and funding. The Sandinistas were mostly university students that most people didn’t take too seriously. At this point, most workers were impoverished. Many people had been forced off family farms that had been given to US companies for big cotton and cattle plantations. The plantations were using pesticides that were illegal in the US, causing health problems for the laborers. 17% of Nicaraguans were dying from polluted water, contaminated from both chemical runoff and lack of proper sewage. US owned logging companies were clear cutting the forests, creating soil erosion issues.

In 1972, there was an earthquake in the capital city of Managua that killed 6,000 people and left 500,000 homeless. Countries from all over the world sent aid to help the people, and the Samozas embezzled most of it. The people were outraged and the Sandinistas gained a major political foothold, and escalated violent attacks against Samoza. In 1978, yet another civil war ensued, and in 1979, the Sandinistas defeated the Samozas. The country was in total shambles. The Sandinistas started instituting major socialistic reforms that got applause, such as providing health care and public education. But when they started nationalizing many businesses and redistributing land, many anti-communist countries became worried.

Within days of taking office as the new US president in 1981, Regan started funding a civil war, backing the former Samoza supporters who now called themselves “Contras”. He also instituted an economic blockade, including food and medicine. Of course, the Soviet Union jumped in to help the Sandinistas.

The civil war lasted until 1987, ending with a peace treaty brokered by Costa Rica (link to history of Costa Rica here). 110,000 people had died. Part of the peace treaty included not accepting any more military aid from any country, but at this point, it looked like arms aid had come to an end, anyway, on both sides. The Soviet Union was months away from collapsing and too mired in its own problems to worry about Nicaragua. Reagan had just gotten busted for funding the war when Congress specifically told him he wasn’t allowed to. *

The country was in ruins. Nicaragua held elections and power passed peacefully. The US ended its embargo. The new leader de-centralized government and brought political and economic stability. Nicaragua started to re-build. In 1998, a hurricane blew through that killed 4,000 people and destroyed 70% of the country’s infrastructure. They re-built again. In early 2004, the World Bank agreed to write off 80 per cent of the country’s debt to the institution – a sum of around $3 billion, which significantly helped the nation.

Sadly, Nicaragua was hit by a category 5 hurricane in 2007.

Nicaragua is still the poorest country in Latin America. Agriculture is the main component of Nicaragua’s economy, with coffee, sugar, bananas and meat the principal exports. Maize, beans and rice are grown for domestic consumption. The principal manufacturing industries are food, drinks, the production of chemicals and oil refining. There is also a small mining industry working deposits of gold, silver, lead and zinc.

*Side notes… During the ensuing US investigation, it was revealed that Reagan didn’t use tax dollars to fund the Contras. They got the money from three sources. 1. They solicited “donations” from wealthy American republicans, Saudi Arabia, Brunei, and a private Saudi arms dealer. 2. They struck a deal with an Iranian arms dealer. While Reagan said publicly “America will never make concessions to terrorists”, the US military was in the middle of selling Iran 1500 weapons over a two year period. The hope was that by selling Iran the weapons, the Iranians would release the American hostages. Only one hostage was released and some were killed anyway. The profits from the Iranian arms sale were given to the Contras. 3. The CIA helped the Contras set up, then protected, a drug trafficking network where the Contras bought drugs from Columbia then sold them to drug dealers in the United States. The drug sales profits were used to buy arms. Unfortunately, the investigation was never fully completed. When George HW Bush was elected president in 1988, he pardoned almost everyone at the White House, military and CIA who was involved, effectively slamming the case shut. The full extent of the details had never been revealed. Most involved later admitted they withheld evidence from the investigators, flat out lied to investigators, or simply refused to testify. Subordinates got pinned with all the blame, and no one was punished. At the time, Bush testified that he was “out of the loop”, but after he lost the presidential re-election in 1992, it was revealed that Bush was one of the few who knew all the intimate details of the Contra fundings.

By morning, the ocean was still as calm as a lake. Here is the sunrise.

There were tons and tons of sportfishers out, and the wakes of their boats was about the only movement on the water. It was wonderful. Mike is prone to seasickness, but he was feeling great. Although, he never tried to read, not wanting to push his luck. Instead, he watched the horizon intently.

Not too long after sunrise, Mike saw a school of dolphins in the distance. Then he saw a sailfish. A little while later, he saw another pod of dolphins. This pod swam up to the boat and rode the bow wake for a few minutes. Since the water was so flat and calm, we could see them especially clearly. It was really exciting for all of us, but especially Mike.

At 1030, the seas picked up some, but it was just small swells and the ride was still nice.
Mike saw dolphins again around lunch time, but they just passed by and didn’t stop and play. And at 1400, he spotted a 4th pod. This time two of the pod came and played on the bow for just a minute or two, then swam off. Once again, we could see them incredibly well. At 1430, Mike spotted a turtle. A little while later, he noticed a bird hovering around the boat that hung around for at least a half hour. The bird must have thought we were a fishing boat.

As the day wore on, the seas picked up a touch more, but it was still a good ride. At around 1630 we saw not one, but two pods of dolphins. The first set stayed quite a while and played on the bow, but the second set just quickly passed by. At 1530, we saw yet another pod of dolphins that also passed by quickly. Mike wins the “best sea life spotter” to ever have been on Kosmos. It makes us wonder about how much sea life we have missed out on seeing since we generally don’t watch the horizon consistently, just scan around us every few minutes to make sure there is nothing to hit.

We paralleled the shore all day, close enough to clearly see land. The mountains are pretty. The landscape seems to be getting dryer the farther north we go. After sunset, it was another pitch black night. The seas picked up a touch more.

At around 2100, the wind suddenly jumped from 0 – 2 knots real to 9 knots real, hitting us on the starboard nose (front right quarter of the boat). By 2130, we could feel the waves also seriously increasing. By 2230, the wind was about 11 – 15 knots real, with gusts in the 20’s. It was suddenly a very bumpy ride. Since it was so dark, we couldn’t see the waves, but they felt like they were small, sharp and frequent. The motion is similar to what we experienced in the Med, and actually, the drastic change in waves in such a short timeframe is also similar to the Med.

At 2320 we made a slight turn, which changed the angle the waves were hitting us by just a little. The waves were still coming from the right corner, but now they were closer to the nose than the side. That definitely made the ride more painful. Our speed slowed by a full knot. We had been cruising in the high 6 knot range at 1700 RPM and we were down to the high 5’s at the same RPM. We started taking a lot of water over the bow, with the windshield consistently hit with sea spray.

The wind continued to steadily increase. By around midnight it was up to 16 – 17 real, still with gusts in the 20’s. When Mike came upstairs to do his watch, he reported that he woke up with a sore hand from holding on to the edge of the bed so tightly in his sleep. He had a dream that we told him the sea sickness pills we gave him were really placebos and he was avoiding seasickness all on his own power.

At around 0600, we turned again, this time enough so that the waves were now right on the nose. The waves instantly felt bigger and we were definitely bouncing up and down more violently. Eric doesn’t do well in head seas and immediately started to feel bad. Mike astutely commented that when the waves were coming from the corner, there was a little bit of a side to side motion in addition to the bouncing up and down. When we turned into the seas head on, the side to side motion vanished altogether. Mike didn’t like the stronger up and down motion, but seemed to be glad there wasn’t motion from multiple directions anymore. Mike wasn’t sick at all, which surprised us all, most especially him. It must have been the dream, proving to him his own power of personal strength. Or it could have been the real seasickness drugs that he was taking like clockwork.

By 1000, the winds were up to 20 – 27 knots real, with gusts in the high 30’s. The sea spray was coming over the bow like crazy.

Eric was sitting in the helm chair when an especially large wave came over the top of the pilot house and in through the hatch, leaving Eric pretty darn wet. Of course, we closed the hatch. By then, our speed was down to the high 4’s. Mike stared intently at the clock, willing time to go by faster. Eric and Christi have learned the hard way not to do that – it just makes you more miserable to see time drag on so slowly.

At around 1100, we neared the entrance to the bay and the winds picked up to a consistent 38 knots real. Unbelievable! Hmmm…. This is not good. When Eric had made his list of potential places to stop along the west coast of the Americas, San Juan del Sur had not been on the list. The cruising guide made it sound pretty bad, mostly because at this time of year there are consistently strong winds and the anchorage didn’t sound like it was protected enough. Ralph, the crew member on the Nordhavn 57 we mentioned in the marina in Colon, had told us that the cruising guide was totally wrong about San Juan del Sur. Ralph is an American who currently lives in San Juan del Sur. He has a sailboat that he keeps in the bay and assured us that the bay is sufficiently protected and that the town is great. He strongly encouraged us to go to San Juan del Sur to visit him and we added it to our itinerary.

The entrance of the bay is surrounded by big dry, brown hills covered with trees that look dead. A few houses dot the hills on the left side of the entrance, and other than that, there is pretty much no development at all. At about 1130, we turned into the bay. Even with the protection of the hills, the wind was still screaming at 34 knots. We hope to God Ralph is right about sufficient protection, because right now it was looking pretty dicey to us.

We had emailed Ralph and told him our ETA, so he was watching for us. When he saw us come in, he hailed us on the radio and instructed us on where to anchor, telling us to pull uncomfortably close to the shoreline and put out as much chain as we could. We did as instructed. We dropped anchor at a place that looked to be pretty darn far from any of the other boats in the anchorage, but when Kosmos settled in, it was too close to another boat. Christi went back out into the wind and pulled up the anchor. Pulling up anchor turned out to be a delicate process. We were so close to shore that Eric couldn’t gun the engine too much, but the wind was pushing us back so hard that Eric absolutely had to consistently drive forward to keep slack in the chain. Once the chain was up, we picked a new spot, just as close to the shoreline, and again dropped anchor. This time Kosmos settled into a better place.

To be continued…

After our walk, we headed out of town. It was time to get back to Kosmos in Golfito. We headed northeast towards San Jose, again guessing at where we needed to go. We drove through mostly farmland. They seem to grow a lot of sugar cane around here, although there were many other crops we couldn’t readily identify. After only making a couple wrong turns, we connected with the Pan American highway shortly before reaching the big city.

Now would be a good time to mention that the main highways tend to have pretty good road signs, but the smaller roads generally don’t have good signage. Over the last few days we frequently stopped and asked locals for directions. Everyone was always friendly and always tried hard to help us find where we were going. Also, on the whole, the roads are pretty darn good. We only went down a few bad roads, all duly noted. Also, there is a lot of traffic on the roads, much more than you would expect in even the most remote places. There is also a lot of trucking, which makes sense since they export so much agriculture.

Once on the highway, we knew exactly where we were going, which took a lot of stress off. And, the biggest stress relief of all was that it was sunny and bright out. We did hit a little bit of fog at the highest altitudes, but the fog wasn’t thick and visibility was OK.

There was a lot of work being done to the road in the most mountainous of areas, so there were a few short traffic delays. Big swaths of foliage has been destroyed along the side of the mountain. We aren’t sure if they are reinforcing the cliff walls to prevent landslides or if they are trying to cut the cliffs back to widen the road. At one point, while we were stopped, we could see a crane up on the hill above the road shoveling dirt. We watched a steady stream of dirt and rocks come flying down. We were glad we weren’t getting pelted with the debris.

We stopped at a cute café near the mountain peak and had casados for lunch. The food was some the best we have had in all of Costa Rica so far. Tico food is not at all what we had expected. We had expected it to be more or less the same as Mexican food, including being incredibly spicy. But Tico food is definitely different, and definitely mild. Even their bottled sauces are not spicy, closer to a Worcester in the sense that it is flavorful but not spicy, than to a Tabasco type sauce. We have noticed that restaurants geared for locals, serving only Tico food, are really inexpensive. Restaurants geared at tourists, with more varied menus, tend to be similar in price to the US. For that matter, tourist activities are also comparable in price to the US.

We made it back to Golfito in the late afternoon. We were happy to hear from Tim that the battery never dipped below the 50% mark and never needed to be charged. Yay. The solar panels really do work! Tim delivered us back to Kosmos. We got ourselves situated on board and sat outside to watch the beautiful sunset. We decided we were too tired to go out for dinner and crashed early.

This morning we were out the door at 0730. We wanted to get all our paperwork done before it was time to return the car. We got copies of Mike’s passport at Land and Sea, then headed over to the officials to start the check out process. The bank wasn’t open yet. Neither was immigration. So, we went to the grocery store and stocked up on food for the passage. Then we dropped Mike off at Land and Sea, along with the groceries, so he could work in the cruiser’s lounge on a paper for one of his MBA classes.

After dropping off Mike, we went back to bank. This time the line was short and we were in and out in a half hour. Then we went to immigration. Someone arrived literally seconds before us, so we had to wait while the only immigration officer took care of his paperwork. By the time our paperwork was done, it was time to return the car. Darn. We caught a cab back to the duty free zone to check out with customs. Then we caught a cab to the port captain and got the all clear to leave. Phew. Costa Rica has almost as many stops to make for check out as check in!

We caught a cab back to Land and Sea and paid our bill. We grabbed Mike and the three of us went out for a farewell to Costa Rica lunch at the marina next door. After lunch, we went back to Kosmos, got the dinghy up, and pulled out of Golfito at 1430. Since we were leaving so far behind schedule, Eric decided not to bother re-rigging up the paravanes. It was supposed to be calm, so we wouldn’t need them.

At first, the wind was 6 to 8 knots real on the nose and there were small, choppy wind waves in both Golfo Dulce and in the ocean that made the ride a little bit lurchy. Really, the waves were small and it was a nice ride overall, but lurchy is not a common feeling for us. Shortly after sunset, the wind died down to 1 – 4 knots real on the nose, the wind chop vanished, and the ride became almost silky. It is wonderful. As of this writing at 2330, it is pitch black out. The moon should be rising soon, but hasn’t yet. It is cloudy out, so for the most part the night is black, but every now and again the stars peek out from behind the clouds and glow brightly against the black sky.

And, a blog question:

Q: How do you clean the keel coolers? What do you hold onto?
A: There is really nothing to hold on to. You kind of have to lean your upper body against the hull and tread water to stay in place while you work. We have tried just about everything for scraping the coolers and we have decided that the 5 in 1 painting tool is the best. There are some oddly angled knifes that can get in the crevices better than just a plain scraper tool can.

We all piled into the van and met everyone else already inside. We were surprised to find out there were 5 staff for 5 only passengers. Two were to be in the raft with us, one was the van driver, one a rescue kayaker, and one a photographer who would be kayaking around us and taking photos.

Turrialba is supposed to have some of the best white water rafting in the entire world. So, we expected it to be a short drive over to the river. At first we were on a nicely paved road, and the scenery was much the same as we have seen the last couple of days. Here are a couple shots we took while driving.

The three of us were surprised at how far away from Turrialba we had driven when we finally turned off into a national park. The driver paid the entrance fee. Ah, we thought, we must be here now. But we weren’t. It was still a long drive over to the river, on a bad, windy dirt road that required us to drive slowly.

The nature reserve is beautiful, with thick, rich forest. At one point, one of the staff noticed a turtle in a pond off the side of the road and pointed him out. Being in the middle of the forest kind of makes you sad about the fact that so much of the forest in Costa Rica has been cut down and is now just plain grassland.

We finally pulled up to the river after a solid hour and a half of driving. The river looked to be pretty low, but we were assured there was still plenty of water for a good ride. The staff got the kayaks and rafts ready, then handed out helmets and paddles and did the safety lecture. The lecture was pretty dull until the guide said “if you fall out of the raft you could get trapped underneath it. If you do get trapped, this is what you need to do….” Christi perked right up at that. What? You can get trapped under the raft and drown? Christi resolved right then that she wasn’t going to fall out. Period.

While the raft was still safely onshore, we all piled in and practiced our strokes. The guide called out commands, such as “paddle forward” or “backward”, and we all responded with furious arm motions. Eric was in the front along with another passenger, Christi and Mike were in the middle, and the two staff were at the back. Confident we knew what we were doing, the guide pushed us off and into the calm, smooth water. Within a few seconds, we happened upon the first rapid, a small little guy. The guide went through the entire repertoire of commands, making sure we fully grasped what we were supposed to do when each command was called. We made it through the first rapid without anyone falling out, so we were off to a good start!

We drifted along for a couple minutes on the flat, calm water before coming to another rapid, this one bigger than the last. The instructions that the guide called out seemed a bit counter-intuitive. In the dinghy, we always try to take waves head on, but we took this rapid sideways. The orders were rapid fire, with him screaming “forward”, “backwards”, “forward” so fast that we could only get a paddle or two in before we had to switch directions. We got splashed with water and it was cold, much colder than Christi cared for. She reaffirmed her resolution to not fall out.

We paddled for about 2 ½ hours before we took a break. During the calm sections, we peacefully floated along, enjoying the mostly pristine scenery.

We passed by a couple of eco-tourist hotels totally in the middle of nowhere and went through an Indian reservation. Rather than using bridges to get over the river, the Indians use zip lines, which we found really interesting. We passed a number of pretty waterfalls. At one point we were ordered to paddle right into a waterfall, where Eric was completely and totally drenched. Our guide steered us into a waterfall a second time, this time targeting Christi for the drenching, but she was wise to the trick and managed to avoid getting directly under the waterfall. Here is Eric with the waterfall that drenched him in the background.

We saw several interesting animals, particularly birds. One kind of bird makes unusual looking tear shaped nests that actually hang off the tree branches, looking something like giant Christmas tree ornaments, and there were lots of them in the trees. Once in a while we’d paddle a little to straighten ourselves out, or to gain a little more momentum before hitting a rapid, but for the most part we just drifted.

As nice as drifting along was, the rapids are what made the trip thrilling. Sometimes we’d go for several minutes between rapids, sometimes they would come one right after another in succession. When going through a rapid, we almost always paddled vigorously. Some of the rapids were small, comparable to what we experienced in Bali (http://kosmos.liveflux.net/blog/2008/02/05/whitewater-rafting-trip-in-ubud/). Most were medium sized, which gave us a rush without actually making us scared. And some were really big — category 3’s and one level 4. On those we often thought someone might fall out of the raft and a couple times thought the raft might completely flip. We’d be ordered to get as low as we could in the raft and everyone would duck for cover, while still simultaneously trying to paddle with all our might. We’d be doused with water coming up over the sides of the raft. But no one fell out and the only thing that went wrong was at one point Christi accidentally smacked Mike in the face with her paddle. He saw stars for a minute, but recovered just fine.

Here are some shots the photographer took of us on a rapid. The first is entering it, the second is in it, and the third is coming out of it.

And here are the photos of a different rapid. Once again shot one is about to go in, shot two is in it, and shot three is leaving it.

We found out quickly that the rapids can be deceiving. Sometimes we’d approach one that looked small, but turned out to be a biggy, and other times a rapid would look huge and really be a piece of cake. The steering continued to be counter-intuitive as the guide navigated us around hazards he knew were in the water but we couldn’t see from the angle we were at. We frequently looked back to see rocks and other obstacles in the middle of the rapid we’d just come down that we hadn’t seen from the other side. Twice we went through amazingly tight passes, so tight we doubted we could clear it. Often, it looked like we were going to crash into the giant boulders on the sides of the river, but our guide was really good and actual contact with the rocks was pretty rare. The few times we did crash into rocks or caught the bottom of the raft on a rock or other obstacle, the rugged little rubber raft would just bounce and slide right off of it with no problems. Why isn’t our dinghy as durable?

During the whole ride, the safety kayaker was always close to us. He was in one of the smallest kayaks we have ever seen – very fast and super maneuverable. Every time we were drifting, he would practice his tricks, doing Eskimo rolls, flinging himself out of the water and catching air, etc. He effortlessly glided down the rapids, making them look easy. He was so good and absolutely fascinating to watch. Christi went through a kayaking phase once and could truly appreciate how much skill his tricks required.

We stopped for lunch on a sandy beach. The staff flipped over the raft and used it as a table. Right then, it started to rain. The staff went to work preparing the food while the clients rested. They are skilled at chopping, too! We watched as they made a tuna salad with cucumber, made fresh guacamole, and sliced up mangos. They laid it out on the table with beans, cheese, tortillas, bread and lunch meat, trying hard to keep the food dry with the rain. We like this photo of the staff making lunch because it gives you a good sense of the setting.

The clients were all wet and cold. Christi’s hands were numb and she found a warm rock to defrost her hands on while lunch was being prepared. Mike and one of the other passengers were already starting to feel sore from all the paddling. As soon as the food was ready, we ate quickly and were back on the water within a half hour. This time we switched seats, with Mike and Christi in front and Eric and the other guy in the middle. We were all paddling with the opposite arm now, too. Within a couple minutes everyone agreed that the front seat is more thrilling, kind of like being in the front car of a roller coaster, but that the middle seat is more comfortable, particularly in the rapids. In the middle you can brace yourself against the raft better than you can in the front. Also, you don’t get nearly as much water splashed on you in the middle. And, most importantly, you can hear the commands a lot better in the middle seat than you can in the front seat.

The second part of the trip had significantly less rapids than the first part did, and most of them were small rapids, though there were a few doozies that came out of nowhere. The second half we actually paddled quite a lot in the calm sections to keep our speed up. As we were quietly paddling during an especially long stretch of flat water, Mike commented that he felt like we were in Apocalypse Now and was braced for the arrows to start shooting at us.

At one point we came to an area with a rocky cliff overhanging the river. The staff asked if anyone wanted to climb up to the top of the ledge and jump into the river. Only Mike volunteered. He hesitantly climbed up to the top of the 20 foot ledge and quickly jumped off, making a big splash as he entered the water.

Instead of retrieving him up right away, the staff let him float down the river for a little ways. He floated under a waterfall, which was neat. Mike said it was fun and was surprised at how strong the current was and how fast he moved down the river.

After a few minutes, they loaded him back into the raft and shortly thereafter, we found ourselves in a town. Within a couple more minutes, we had pulled over to something along the lines of a rugged boat launch where the van was waiting. We had done a total of 18 miles, most of it before lunch. The second part of the paddle only lasted about an hour, which was fine. Mike and the other sore guy were glad about. They mumbled something about being eager to get back to their hotels to take some vitamin I. Christi was really cold and eager to get into dry clothes. The men all hoisted the raft up the ramp and over to the van. The crew went about loading and securing the rest of the gear while the guests went inside a bathroom in a bar to change into dry clothes.

It was a long drive back. Right after we were dropped off at our hotel, we found a near by restaurant and had dinner, then went back to the hotel and crashed. We were all really tired.

Christi took a deep breath and waited for the signal. They said go and nudged her a little. She thought “This is insane”, and suddenly she was in the air, screaming at the top of her lungs as she initially swung down towards the ground, then went flying up towards the highest branches of the trees surrounding us. She clutched onto the rope for dear life, praying it didn’t break right then. The staff had a hard time getting her slowed down and stopped. She kept flying back and forth for much longer than most everyone else. Finally, they got her stopped and unhooked.

Then it was Eric’s turn. Out of nowhere, the wind picked up and it started to drizzle a little bit just as he was getting harnessed in. When he jumped, he let out a loud yell that resembled George’s scream from “George of the Jungle”. It was a bit garbled because he had a hard time overriding the instinctual scream that rumbled up from his gut. But most everyone in the group knew what he was attempting and it got a laugh from the spectators. As the staff grabbed at his feet to try to get him to slow down, they yanked one of his shoes off and it went flying into the jungle behind us. That got another laugh from the crowd.

Then it was Mike’s turn. And it right then, the drizzle turned to real rain. Of course, the rain didn’t affect anything. Here is Mike looking contemplatively at the rest of us below.

Mike jumped off the platform and quietly swung away until the staff stopped and retrieved him. Here he is swinging happily.

Christi and Eric were surprised that he didn’t make a peep. Mike tried to look on the ground for Eric’s shoe, but trying to focus on the ground was making him a little nauseous, so he abandoned the effort. Once Mike was down, the group was herded over to the next zip line, the longest one yet. Eric hung back and waited as a couple of the staff members went searching for his lost shoe. Fortunately, they found it. When they picked it up, they found a small frog inside it and showed it to Eric. Check out the cool colors.

We all really liked the Tarzan swing. We thought it was an awesome change of pace. There were four more zip lines, two of them being the longest runs of all at 984 feet (300 meters) and 1410 feet (430 meters). On those two, the runs were so long that you couldn’t see the ending platform from the starting platform. You just jumped off, hoping that there really was an ending platform somewhere out there. On those two runs, we also got to incredibly fast speeds. They were awesome! All in all, the adventure park was a fun experience and we are all eager to go again. Here is Eric nearing the end of the longest run of all.

We took off our harnesses and piled into the bus. On the way back to the hotel, the bus driver spotted some Howler monkeys in the trees and pulled over so we could watch them. There were at least four of them, and they were the most active Christi has seen yet. They were all jumping from branch to branch and climbing up and down the trunk. We got really good looks at them and enjoyed watching them. But, again, they weren’t howling.

When the bus dropped us off, we checked out of hotel and got lunch in downtown La Fortuna. Then we headed southwest towards the town of Turrialba, which is pretty close to San Jose. We decided not to go back through San Jose and instead took the mountain roads around the big city. The clerk at the hotel had assured us it would be faster and easier to avoid San Jose and its traffic. We estimated the drive would take 4 hours. We left La Fortuna at 1400, figuring we would arrive in Turrialba at about sunset. Once again, Eric was driving by instinct and sense of direction instead of using a detailed map. His instincts had been spot on yesterday and the day before, but today they weren’t quite as sharp. We made a few wrong turns that combined cost us quite a bit of time. At one point, we were driving along towards what we thought was a connecting highway. When the highway didn’t materialize, we turned around and drove back about ½ hour, only to find out we had turned around just a mile or two shy of the highway. So we lost a full hour with that detour.

At another point in time, we noticed that we were being followed by a truck full of late teen boys, so we pulled over at a store to let them pass. They parked behind us. We killed time by asking the locals outside the store for directions and chatting with them for a few minutes, asking them if they knew the boys who were following us. The boys eventually drove off.

While we took completely different roads today than we did yesterday, on the whole, today’s drive was quite similar to yesterday’s – lots of undeveloped land, some farms, some residences, and a few small, non-descript towns. Just like the rest of the country, the quality of housing varied drastically. For part of the drive we were on fairly straight roads, but a big chunk of drive time was spent on steep, winding mountain roads. Fortunately, there was no fog, though it was cloudy and did rain on and off for most of the afternoon. This is a nice picture we got of the countryside.

It got dark while we were on some of the windiest of the mountain roads. While it made navigation a little harder, driving at night was fine. The highways don’t have sidewalks, and there are often pedestrians walking on the roads. One of the reasons why they warn tourists not to drive at night is because of the potential hazards with hard to see pedestrians. There were, indeed, people walking on the road after dark, but they were careful to stay off to the side of the road. At around 2000, we finally pulled into Turrialba.

Like Heredia, the streets are one way with visible signs, but the streets aren’t as logically organized in a nice grid as Heredia. Because the streets were difficult to navigate, we had a hard time finding the hotel. We looped around downtown several times before finally figuring out where the hotel was, and more importantly, how to get to it via the one way street system. We got to see a lot of town as we drove and it reminds us a lot of Heredia. The buildings are all packed in close together, and are mostly older, but well maintained, and 1 – 3 stories tall. There are bars on every window and door, though there isn’t as much extreme stuff, like razor wire, as in Heredia. Also, there seems to be less residential mixed in and amongst the commercial here. Pretty much everything in town was already closed. We suppose it is safe to say this isn’t a wild party town! Something that struck us as odd is that there are a lot of shoe stores in this little town. You’d think we were in Italy with all the shoes.

Once we got to the hotel, we dropped off our stuff. The clerk at the hotel told us to take our car over to a nearby fenced parking lot with a 24 hour security guard. There was a truck in the parking lot with livestock, which we found amusing. We walked around in search of a restaurant for dinner. We hadn’t noticed much as we drove, so we pretty much settled for the first place we came across that was open, a small bakery. We scarfed down some empenadas (meat stuffed in a puff pastry) and headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow was going to be another active day with an early morning start, and we needed our sleep.

At 0730, we headed over to the little restaurant on the hotel grounds where we were served Gallo Pinto, the traditional Tico breakfast of two scrambled eggs accompanied with a big mound of rice and beans mixed together, a piece of cheese, and a piece of pan fried ripe plantain. Butterflies flitted about while we ate. It was almost surreal.

Yesterday, we booked a zip line canopy tour for this morning. At 0930, a van picked us up and took us to their facility on the slopes of the volcano just outside of downtown La Fortuna. We stepped off the bus onto a covered patio where several staff members were waiting with harnesses and leather gloves we were told were the brakes. The three of us were amongst the first to be strapped in, and we waited while everyone else in the rather large group was harnessed in.

Then we were marched over to a little zip line set up just a few feet above the ground, basically two cables strung between two trees. A staff person demonstrated how to do it. Let the staff person clip your harness to a pulley on one of the cables, sit back almost like you are in a chair, and hold the other cable with the leather hand break to control your speed. The demonstrator glided effortlessly across the cable and showed everyone how to stop. Then each one of us did a practice run, which went quite smoothly. Even though we were close enough to the ground that we could stop and stand up, it still was a thrill to go flying down the cable. Stopping was a piece of cake. Here is Christi on the practice run.

As we came off the practice run, we were loaded into a truck. We were lucky because we were one of the first to do the practice run, so we got a seat on one of the benches inside the truck’s bed. The people who were at the tail end of the practice run were strapped into benches on the outside of the truck bed. Many staff members also strapped themselves onto the exterior benches. We were surprised by the number of staff that went up with us.

The little truck was so loaded down with people that we couldn’t believe it was capable of moving at all, let alone climbing a hill. We were surprised when we saw how steep the road was, and shocked at how far we climbed up this steep mountain road. Every time we caught a glimpse of the view below, La Fortuna was smaller and the countryside around it more sweeping. After what seemed like forever, we finally made it to the end of the road and everyone piled out. Did we mention that we were really high up?

We all marched up a set of stairs probably equivalent to a 2 ½ story climb, which led to a large platform. We all stood in line on the platform and watched a staff person hook himself to the line and go zipping off. When he was safely landed and unhooked at the other side, another staff person hooked on and zipped off, and so on until only one staff member was left on the platform with us

Then he started allowing the clients to go, carefully hooking each person in and reviewing the procedure before sending each person on their way. Once again, they only allowed one person to be on the cable at a time, and it seemed to take a long time for the clients to get unhooked from the cable on the other side, which was making the line move slowly. We somehow managed to be the very last ones in line, and it was getting to be a very long wait. We were starting to think that if things continue to progress this slowly, this wasn’t going to be all that much fun.

Finally, it was Eric’s turn. He was hooked in, went flying down the line, and landed at the small platform on the other side. Flying is probably the right word, because it did kind of feel like flying. It was a tad bit scary to be so high up in the trees, but with the two cables and the harness, he knew it was safe. It was definitely a rush. Then Mike went. Here he is nearing the platform at the end of the first run.

Christi was the very last to go. She was one of the many who had a hard time getting herself unhooked from the cable on the other side. She was really stuck, and to get her unhooked, the staff member had to actually pick her up and hold her up in the air by a few inches as he unhooked. Now she knows first hand why the line was moving so slow.

As soon as we unhooked from the first cable, we were immediately attached to another cable and sent on our way again. Here is a photo of each of us on the second run. Christi is first, just launching off the platform. Eric is second, in the middle of the run. Mike is last, at the end of the run just before stopping.

There turned out to be a total of 10 runs before we got to the “Tarzan Swing”. Each run was progressively longer, steeper, faster and more thrilling. Initially, we were completely surrounded by dense forest and couldn’t see how far it was down to the ground below. But after the third or fourth run, we came out from the forest and found ourselves above a cleared field that was a long, long, long way down, which added to the thrill.

Another thing that added to the excitement was the sound of the pulley moving along on the cables. The faster we went, the louder, more high pitched, and fervent the whine became. We never had to wait for more than 3 or 4 minutes, so we never lost the momentum of the excitement, and it just kept getting more and more fun.

The first run was 98 feet (30 meters) long and took about 5 seconds. The longest run before the Tarzan swing was 640 feet (190 meters) long and we’re not sure how long it lasted. It seemed like a long time, though! They definitely were smart about warming people up. After doing the shorter runs in the dense trees, we never hesitated to go on the long runs with nothing but air below us. Had we started on a longer run, we may have had doubts, and if we started with the longest run, Christi probably would have chickened out.

At a couple of the platforms, we saw cool looking birds. One was hanging out in a tree. Another one was gracefully gliding through the air right at our eye level. How crazy is it to be eye level with the gliding birds!

We found stopping was not nearly as easy when you are really zooming along at very high speeds. Christi had an especially hard time with stopping, frequently making contact with the tree at the end. She never “crashed”, but usually hit the tree with her feet and bounced back off of it while the staff member grabbed at her to help interrupt the momentum.

Since Christi was last, after she went, the staff person would zip in right behind her, then cut to the head of the line, and zip over to the next empty platform, ready and waiting for when the group started to come through.

Just as the zip lines were starting to lose their novelty, we came to the Tarzan swing. Here we had to stop and wait in line again. By the time we arrived, more than half the group had already gone, so the line wasn’t very long. At first, we couldn’t see much. We watched as someone walked out to the edge of a platform, was handed a rope to hold on to with her hands, then was also harnessed to the rope. Then they pushed her off the platform and she screamed like crazy. Christi’s stomach did a flip flop listening to the scream.

After a couple more people, we were close enough to see over the edge of the platform. The ground was a long way below the platform edge, far enough that a fall would result in at least every limb being broken in multiple places. Three or four staff were waiting on the ground directly below the rope, and much of the rest of our group was watching intently from off to the side. As soon as the person jumped, he was swinging wildly through the trees. The momentum was taking him very high up into the air, almost as high as the platform, as he went back and forth. He screamed a few obscenities as he registered the shock of not being on solid ground anymore. After a couple passes, the staff started grabbing at him to slow him down. Once he was slowed down enough, they took hold of him, stopped him, and unhooked him. It looked so intense. Wow. And we thought the zip lines were a rush!

To be continued…