Continued from two days ago”¦ We took a moment to take in the surroundings. While the outside of the bay looked almost desolate, the inside is quite built up. Just like on the outside, there seem to be a lot of trees that all look dead at the moment, with very little greenery. Directly in front of us was a nice beach lined with thatched roof buildings that we would bet are restaurants. The hills above are mostly built up, as well. It looked to be primarily residential. Most of the homes are unique, but we could see a couple of track housing developments. The tightly packed track homes with their identical roofs almost looked like a scar on the hillside. On the southeast side (our right) there was a commercial looking port building and boat yard. To the northwest side (our left), there were expensive looking houses and several mid-rise concrete buildings under construction. The top of the hill had something weird at the top of it. Eric pulled the binoculars out and saw that it is a half built statue, probably of Jesus.
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.