Yesterday we started the day with Gallo Pinto for breakfast followed by a nice walk around downtown Turrialba. The first photo is a typical street scene and the second is the town square, which is probably the most attractive part of town.

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.