Since the seas had been so calm on this passage, we pulled into Golfo Dulce (Sweet Gulf) at around 0230, hours earlier than we anticipated when we plotted the course. Going in at night was of zero concern, though, because the visibility was like daylight. We could see the land on both sides of us clearly, as well as floating obstacles like tree trunks. And yes, we did see a few tree trunks in there! The aroma in the bay was so strong that it was almost overwhelming rich, fertile soil and sweet tropical plants. It smelled so good. The wind picked up and the water got a touch of wind chop, but it was still a great ride. Here is a shot of the moon after the wind picked up. Note how clear the mountain is.
We meandered forward slowly, killing time until dawn when we could pull into the port. With the first rays of light, we brought in the paravanes. There was a huge tree limb stuck on one of them! Also, both chains were partially covered with small bits of clear, slimy stuff. We both think they are jelly fish parts. We can’t imagine what else they could possibly be. Here is the sun rising over the mountains.
Once the paravanes were in, we turned into the small channel that took us from the main bay into Golfito, a small bay within the bay. The town along Golfito Bay has the same name. The first shot is looking back at the channel entrance from inside Golfito, the second is looking forward at the town.
There are two tiny marinas here that are both ungodly expensive, a mooring field and an anchorage. We called on the radio to inquire as to exactly where the anchorage parameters were. Someone named Tim responded right away. He let us know that the dinghy dock fee is $5.00 per day, or for $8.00 per day we could stay on the moorings with free dinghy dock access. And free wifi. The wifi sold us and we decided to pick up a mooring. We decided to try a technique we have seen other boats use, which is grab the mooring from the back of the boat and then walk the line to the front. That turned out to be a bad plan. The line got stuck on the stabilizer fin. The second time around we tried it the usual way and got hooked onto the mooring with no problems.
It was only 0700 and already ungodly hot and intensely bright outside. We were both hungry, tired, and hot, and thus grumpy. We broke down and turned on the air. We just couldn’t take the heat! The air conditioning took the edge off and we were instantly in better moods. The anchorage was flat as a pancake, which is wonderful. We’re talking so flat you could easily forget you are on a boat.
Once we had cooled off, we got dinghy down, which is so easy to do when there is no wind and flat water. Then we put up the canvas covers. It was so blindingly bright that we couldn’t bear to be in the pilot house without them. We got together the paperwork for the officials, then took showers. By the time we finally left Kosmos, it was 0915.
The moorings are owned by Land & Sea, who also provides the dinghy dock. Tim met us at the dinghy dock and gave us a tour of the “clubhouse”. Tim and his wife, Katie, are the owners are former cruisers. They have set up an ideal cruiser’s club. They provide potable water, restroom & shower facilities, trash receptacles, a nice lounge to hang out in for cruisers only, and unlimited wife all included in the $8.00 per day fee. As you may have guessed, they don’t actually make any money off the moorings, it is really more for a courtesy than anything else. Land and Sea makes their money off the other multiple services they offer, like laundry, bottom cleaning, travel agent, and their art gallery. We were really impressed by the gallery. They don’t have many pieces up for sale, but what they have is really awesome and unique art. Katie hand selects everything and it is all made by local artists. We rarely buy any souvenirs, but we were so impressed by the traditional ceremonial masks that the local indigenous tribe makes that we had to buy one. We chatted with Tim for a while and got the scoop on the happenings in Golfito.
We decided to have breakfast before we started the check in process. We went next door to the marina and had a traditional American breakfast. While there, we met an ex-pat who recommended that we visit a nearby animal sanctuary where they re-introduce domesticated animals into the wild. She booked a tour for us for the day after tomorrow. There was also a pretty good size earthquake, strong enough and long enough to send everyone running for cover. Eric thinks it was a 4.5, though that is his opinion and not scientific fact. A few minutes later we were graced with a good size, but definitely smaller, after shock. Of course, being Californians, earthquakes don’t phase us at all. We think of everyone in the place, we were probably the least bothered.
We caught a taxi and went to the Port Captain’s office, located about 2.25 kilometers north in more or less the center of town. Golfito is built along the narrow strip of flat land that parallels the bay. Directly behind the flat strip is an enormous mountain range that is part of a national park and cannot be developed. Consequently, the town is long and skinny.
From what we could see, Golfito looks like an average town. It is definitely third world, with the open sewers and an apparent lack of building codes, but most of buildings look solidly built and well maintained, with very few around that look like they are in desperate need of repair. Yes, most of the buildings look like they could use a coat of paint, but not much more work than that. And in the tropics, buildings need to be painted every year. We passed a nice looking park with some higher end looking homes near it. The low buildings are framed by the green and lush mountains rising dramatically up behind them, giving the town kind of a quiet mountain resort sort of feel. Here are a couple of shots around town, the last being the park mentioned above.
The Port Captain greeted us warmly and reviewed all our paperwork, then said it looked good and handed it back to us. We were wondering why he wasn’t processing our paperwork when he told us the Port Captain is the last stop in the check in process, not the first. Oops! We needed to go to immigration first.
We hopped back in the cab, which delivered us to a single story building halfway between Land and Sea and the Port Captain. Oddly, instead of going into the building, you sit outside in chairs provided and talk to the immigration officer through a glass window. There is a small slit in the glass for handing over paperwork, very similar to the security glass at all-night gas stations. The officer was really nice, but like in Panama, there were several forms that all had to be processed by hand, and the paperwork took a long time.
The next stop was customs, located in the Free Trade Zone in the northern end of town. The Free Trade Zone is a duty free shopping center for Costa Rican residents, and many Costa Ricans will come here for the weekend to shop their heart out. We were a little concerned about how we were going to get into the Zone since we weren’t residents. As we approached the zone, traffic seriously slowed down and we could see a line of cars ahead. We crept past zillions of vendors in little, poorly constructed stalls selling a wide assortment of goods, from foods to movies to toys to clothes and everything else you can imagine. The cab driver told us they were along the outer fence and not part of the Zone. He dropped us off at the front gate and we quickly found what looked like administrative offices just beyond the gate. Once again, the paperwork was slow but the people were pleasant.
The next stop was quarantine. We hopped back in the cab, which took us to a bright yellow building fairly close to the Port Captain’s office. We walked up the stairs. The door was locked. It was around noon, so we figured she was at lunch and would be back soon. We went to the restaurant on the first floor and killed time. After an hour we were commenting about how she should be back soon. One of the restaurant workers overheard us and said she wouldn’t be back until 1430. Oh. We really didn’t want to sit there for another hour and a half, so we went back to Land and Sea and visited with Tim some more.
We arrived back at the quarantine office at 1450, figuring we’d give her a few minutes to settle back in from lunch before we walked in. We caught her walking out the door. She said she was closing for the day. What? Closing after only 20 minutes? She told us she’d meet us at Land & Sea at 0900 tomorrow morning so she could inspect the boat. Shoot. We were hoping to avoid inspection.
We got lunch at the other marina in town, also a very short walk from Land and Sea. While eating, there were two more after shocks, neither as big as the initial quake. After lunch, we decided we needed to get out of the heat. In the late afternoon, we were hit with an incredibly hard rain shower. It was so hard that the dinghy was almost full of water and had to be bailed out. Kosmos is all nice and clean now! We love these hard rains.
We are sad to report the internet connection is painfully slow, but hey, what can you expect for free, right? We had a quiet afternoon and were in bed early.