We were excited about today’s trip to the animal sanctuary. The local we had talked to made it sound super great. Most of the animals were illegally poached and domesticated, then confiscated and brought to the sanctuary for reintroduction into the wild. Some were legally domesticated and voluntarily turned in by people who realized the animals would be happier in the wild. Some were sick or injured and brought there for care. Since most of the animals were once domesticated, they will run up and play with visitors.

We were told not to wear any kind of sunscreen or bug spray or lotions or perfumes because the animals will rub up against you and get the toxins on their fur, then ingest the toxins when they clean their fur. We were careful as we got ready to not put anything on that could be potentially harmful to an animal.

We had booked the trip through the ungodly expensive marina. The nice man who arranged the booking told us that we needed to take a water taxi there, which would cost $100.00 USD. $100??? “How far is it?” we asked. “5.5 miles”, he replied. Figures. So far as we can tell, Golfito caters to high end and low end tourists only, with not much on offer for middle of the road people like us. For example, under the “Activities” section in Lonely Planet is camping at $15 per day USD (three meals included) or fishing at $750.00 per day USD. And that is pretty much all the activities listed. Since the marina is definitely one of the pricier spots in town, we figured they were just trying to screw the dumb tourists with an exorbitant water taxi ride.

We said we’d take our own dinghy. We normally don’t like to take our dinghy so far, but we felt like we had no choice. We were given a tourist map that had the rehab center marked on it. You know, those cute, cartoonish-like maps that point out all the touristy things to do in the area. The tourist maps tend to be drawn freehand, not to scale, and are often skewed so things look closer/farther/bigger/smaller as suits their purpose. There was no legend/key on it at all to give an accurate sense of distance, but we figured that the map would work out OK since we knew how far we needed to go.

So, this morning we left at 0730, figuring we’d make it to the sanctuary by 0900 with no problems. The sanctuary only does one tour daily at 0900, so we didn’t want to be late and miss the tour. We motored through the small channel that led us into Golfo Dulce and headed north in the bay. We watched the shore closely, but it just didn’t line up with the map. When we got to the 5 mile mark, our eyes were peeled for anything that looked like it could be the sanctuary. The landscape is mostly sheer cliffs covered in dense jungle foliage that rise dramatically out of the water, but here and there are small beaches with a little building tucked discreetly in the trees.

At the 7.5 mile mark we came to a small stretch of sand that looked like it could be the right place. And we saw a building with a small sign posted in front of it. Aha! We must have found it. As we always do with a beach landing, we pulled into shallow water, got out and walked to the beach, floating the dinghy behind us until she hit the sand. The shore is littered with thousands of fairly large rocks, and as we were floating her in, we could hear her banging up against the rocks. On shore, we assumed our usual positions to pick the dinghy up and carry her up the beach to a safe spot. But, we found out that Christi could not pick up her side of the dinghy at all. The new engine weighs significantly more than the old one and she just couldn’t manage the extra weight.

It was an outgoing tide, so we figured that it was safe to simply leave the dinghy where she was and put out the anchor. The dinghy wouldn’t go anywhere. But, being as the tide swing here is about 15 feet, we were worried about getting it launched again once the tour was over. Maybe we could get someone from the habitat to help us launch it. The first photo is facing north, the second facing south, both taken from where the dinghy was beached.

We walked over to the building and were disappointed to see it was a hotel. There was a local boy sitting on a bench in front of the hotel. We asked him where we were on the map and were really unhappy to find that we were still quite far south from where we were trying to go. Given that the map is imprecise, it was hard to judge distance accurately, but we’d guess we still had another 3 miles to go. It was now 0940. Three miles would take us another 45 minutes. If we showed up at 1030, would the habitat tell us we were too late and turn us away? And, we’d probably still have the challenge of the rocky shore to contend with.

The boy invited us to walk around the hotel’s grounds, saying we’d see all the same animals here as we would at the sanctuary. We thought that sounded like a great plan, that is, until we eyed the dinghy. The tide was rapidly going out. Kosmopolitan was on completely dry ground now, and would need a fair amount of dragging over the rocks to get her launched. And this was within 10 minutes of beaching her. If we hang out here for much longer, we could very well be stuck until the next high tide. We decided we needed to leave right then and go back to Kosmos. We practically ran back over to the dinghy and tried to launch her as gingerly as we could, wincing each and every time she bounced over the rocks. We were relieved when she was floating in water deep enough that we could get in and start her up.

We really enjoyed the ride back. On the way up, we were focused on looking for our destination and hadn’t paid much attention the plants and wildlife. The jungle is lush and gorgeous, filled with exotic and interesting looking plants. The air is sweet and aromatic, almost intoxicating. You can almost feel how clean and full of oxygen the air is as it infuses with your lungs. We saw several types of beautiful birds, but are sad to report we couldn’t identify any of them. We also noticed quite a few low buildings that were barely visible behind the vegetation. In and amongst enjoying the scenery, we did beat ourselves up some. We kept asking ourselves why we didn’t try to make arrangements for a land taxi to take us to the sanctuary. It simply hadn’t occurred to us at the time, and now we were feeling pretty dumb for not doing so. Here is a shot of Eric driving in Golfo Dulce.

When we got back to Golfito town, we went to lunch at a restaurant that is supposed to have good local food. We weren’t sure what we were expecting in terms of typical local décor, but this definitely wasn’t it. It looked like a fast food restaurant with Formica tables and small vinyl bench seats, white walls and colorful trim. We both ordered casados, which is the most typical meal served in Costa Rica (also popular in Panama). The word “casado” literally means “married”, but in terms of food means a “set meal”. You could choose beef, chicken, pork, fish or liver, all served with black beans, rice, a small green salad, a pasta salad, and a pan fried rip plantain. Eric got fish, Christi got chicken. Both sauces were red, but the sauces were very different from one another. Christi’s was quite bland, and she thinks the chicken was boiled in the sauce. Eric’s sauce had mushrooms and bell peppers (capsicum) and was more flavorful. The fish was cooked separately and the sauce put on after. The pasta salad had a lot of mayonnaise, as well as corn, carrot, and just a little bit of fish in it. It was surprisingly good. The best thing on the plate was the plantain. It was yummy! The portions were quite large. It is definitely a hearty meal at quite a low price. The picture is of Eric’s fish, but Christi’s chicken looked almost exactly the same, except for no mushrooms and bell pepper in the sauce.

We again considered hiking in the mountain reserve behind Golfito, but once again decided it was too darn hot outside for vigorous exercise. Instead, we went back to Kosmos and got her ready to be left alone for a few days. Most everything we did was part of the usual routine, but one thing that isn’t standard is we brought the dinghy up and secured it. Tim will take us to shore tomorrow, and it is safer for the dinghy to be up and away.

This will be the longest we have ever left Kosmos without being plugged into power, so we decided to clean out the refrigerator and will turn it off in the morning. We left the refrigerator on in France because it was cool out and the fridge didn’t have to use a lot of energy to stay at proper temperature. But here it is roasting hot, so we think the fridge will suck too much electricity. Plus, the weather has been cloudy, so we can’t count on the solar panels working to full capacity. We also packed for tomorrow’s trip.

We have done a lot of whining lately about spending too much time aboard and are afraid that we may have given the impression that we don’t enjoy being on Kosmos. We want to clarify that we love Kosmos and love being aboard her when it is calm. However, when an anchorage is rolly, we prefer to spend more time on land. Too much rocking makes us blue. When we got to the calm marina in Colon, we were instantly over our depression that developed in the San Blas and were happy to spend the majority of our days on board. Likewise, when we arrived here in Golfito, we instantly overcame our depression from Panama City. Since arriving here in Golfito, we have chosen to spend the majority of our days aboard, and are more than happy to do so. It is really a fantastic anchorage.

It was a pretty sunset.