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2008/07/31 New since last visit! Hits: 203 |
From St. Elena to Playa del Coco
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Our track to Playa del Coco, Bahia Culebra, Costa Rica Click on map for larger version click HERE to see our track in Google Earth |
We did the dinghy drill the night before, so when we got up bright and early at 5:30 am it was easy to get the boat ready to go, pulling in the canvas cover for the dodger and winches, starting the motor, and raising the anchor, by 6:00 am. Our friends on GALLIVANT had decided to do the same leg and were pulling their anchor up as we passed by them on way out of Bahia Elena. Surprisingly, there was a little breeze, and so as soon as we cleared the mouth of the bay, we put up the mainsail to motor-sail.
Just outside of the bay, we were joined by several dolphins who stayed with us for 10-15 minutes as we made 6 or so knots southward. They were pretty and persistent enough that I was able to get the camera and go up to the bow and take some pics (and movies) of them.
After about an hour and a half, with GALLIVANT visible behind us, we reached Punta Elena and were rewarded with a dramatic view of the Islas Murcielagos, or the Bat Islands. We had decided to go around the outside of the islands to get to Coco, but once we could see them clearly, we could tell that we would save some time by going thru them. There is a passable gap between the "Main" islands and the "Little" Bat Islands, so we pointed the boat at it. There were a couple of reefs to be cautious about, but there was a good 1/2 mile between them, so it was a pretty easy cut.
 Panorama of Punta Elena and the 'main' Bat Islands to Port, taken on our way to Cocos |
As we adjusted our heading to go thru the gap, it brought the wind on a favorable point ... directly off our starboard beam, as it picked up to 12 or so knots. So, we turned off the motor and sailed. It's always such a relief to turn off the motor and hear only the sound of the water and wind moving the boat along. We made pretty good time while it lasted, even reaching 7.4 knots at one point.
 Dolphins off the Bow |
They're very playful looking. At about 2 feet in length and width, they make a distinctive slapping sound when the jump as high as 6 feet out of the water, perhaps do a forward flip, and land back with a splash. Several of them would pop up in a row, one behind the other, like children playing "follow the leader", boing boing boing! We saw perhaps ten or fifteen schools, each containing between four and ten manta rays, in the couple of hours it took us to go from the Bat islands to Coco.
A word about the naming of the bays here. Technically, when you leave the Bat Islands, you cross the Gulf of Papagayos, after which the famed winds are named. However, it's not a very big gulf, perhaps 30 miles in extent. Next south is a very large bay called Bahia Culebra, about 10 miles or so in extent. Maybe the Gulf of Papagayos includes Bahia Culebra, maybe it doesn't; its not clear from the charts. Within Bahia Culebra are a number of smaller bays and beaches, one of which is Coco. Playa del Coco is the beach within Bahia Coco which is where the small town of Coco is located, a fishing village com tourist/expats/building-condos kinda place.
About noon we pulled into Bahia Coco. There's a reef that juts out from the beach right in the center of the bay. The local boats anchor to the right of the reef, visiting boats anchor to the left of the reef. So we took up a place to the left of the reef, dropped our anchor, set it, and rapidly did the dinghy drill so that we could begin the exciting process of checking in (and because we wanted to make sure we got checked in BEFORE our ship's document expired). GALLIVANT was about an hour behind us; we could see her coming in the bay as we were taking the dinghy to shore.
From Bahia St. Elena to Playa Coco
| 1. Leaving Bahia St. Elena 2. GALLIVANT slightly behind us 3. Punta Elena 4. Trish, as we round Punta Elena 5. The Little Bat Islands off our starboard as we cut thru the islands |
 Port Captains Office |
We brought the dinghy into shore thru a small 1 foot or so break, trying for the first time the new Dinghy Wheels which Tom had brought to us in Zihuatanejo and which I had mounted in Huatulco. This was the first time we had tried them and we were very pleased when we motored right thru the break, the rear of the dinghy raised up (protecting the motor and propeller), and we hopped off and easily wheeled her up the beach to a lightpole, where we cable-locked her before proceeding into town on foot.
After a few minutes of looking for it, we found the Port Captain's Office (the green building 1/2 block from the beach in the center of the 'y'), and entered the most air-conditioned building in Coco. And the Capitan himself was one of the nicest we've met on our whole journey thus far. Although he spoke no English, we were rapidly processed, especially since I had thought to bring four copies of our passports, our Zarpe from Nicaragua, and our ship's document. And we were surprised, when, since we thought no-one ever really looked at these things, the Capitan pointed out that our ship's document expired in 2 days, and that it would have to be renewed or we could not leave the country! I was glad that at that point I knew our new document was already in Costa Rica thanks to notification emails from DHL that I received over the SSB-sailmail. With a smile, he gave us copies of papers to carry to the immigration office, about 2 blocks up the street, which we were to return to him after getting them stamped there.
 Monkeys on the Roof! |
Back outside, it was hot again as we made the two block walk up to the Immigration Office, a white residential type house with blue trim, set back from the street on the right. When we entered the office, we were met by another very friendly person, a jolly Tica woman who sang songs along with the radio as she processed our papers. Her air conditioner was broken, but her good spirits made the place very welcoming. After about 20 minutes there (as she had to fax our passports and get an official ok for us to enter the country), Bruce and Marianne from GALLIVANT came in and joined the paperwork party.
Our papers were done a few minutes before theirs and they wanted to go to the bank as well, so we told them we would meet them at a certain bar after the process was completed to have a few beers. We left the immigration office and walked back to the (very nicely air conditioned) Port Captain's office, where he took his copies of some papers, stamped a bunch of other ones, gave some to us, and conveyed to us that we needed to return to his office the next morning at 9:00 am for the third leg of the check-in triumvirate: Customs. We felt pretty good about Costa Rica so far, especially since there is no cost whatsoever for checking in or out of the country, and so we left his office and did what we normally do when making landfall. We found the nearest bar and ordered "the coldest beer in Coco", at a place called "Andre's".
While we were sitting there drinking Pilsens and chatting with the locals, a couple of large monkeys made their way over the roof tops across the street. It was really cool (although it was still pretty hot too) to see these big guys; we can hear them in the hills when they "roar" but to see them is pretty rare, especially right in town. After awhile, Bruce and Marion joined us for beers (we were on our third or fourth by that point!), as we all enjoyed the cold beer and warm people until eventually the sun began to set and we all decided to go back to our respective boats.
The Town of Playa Coco
| 1. 2. DITTY on the beach (with new wheels), Playa del Coco 3. Main Street 4. Dive Shop 5. Artisans Market 6. Grocery Shopping 7. Rhapsody at Anchor 8. 9. Dogs at Playa del Coco Sunset 10. Sunset off the stern |
Inland to Ciudad Liberia
The next morning, at 9:00 am, we were greeted at the Port Captain's office by an official from Customs, who had driven from the airport in Liberia to Cocos to process our paperwork. They were very friendly and in a few minutes we were finally completely cleared into Costa Rica. In addition to getting our passports stamped and getting tourist visas, we also had "local" Zarpes for the boat which entitled us to cruise the waters of Northern Costa Rica as far south as the Gulf of Nicoya, at which point we will have to get another local Zarpe for southern Costa Rican waters.
From the blessedly air conditioned office of the Port Captain, we went across the street to an internet cafe / phone center, where we called the main DHL office in the big city of San Jose and found that the package containing our ship's document had in fact been successfully delivered to the state capitol town of Liberia, about 30 miles away. So without further ado, we went to the bus stop, and after hurriedly exchanging $5 for 2500 Colones, we paid 400 Colones each (about 80 cents) for the bus ride to Liberia. Way inexpensive, eh?
After about an hour of winding our way thru the rural locale on good, recently paved roads, we found ourselves entering the town of Liberia at about 11:00 am. From the bus stop in Liberia, we grabbed a cab and told him to take us to the DHL office, which he did. There, a few minutes later, after signing for it, we opened the envelope and had our new ship's document in hand. Relief!
We spent a couple of hours in Liberia, going to an auto-parts store to get a fuel pump, and having a nice lunch at an outside cafe, and doing a little sight seeing. Then we took a cab back to the bus station and returned to Coco, the dinghy, and the boat for dinner.
Daytrip to Ciudad Liberia
| 1. Zocalo 2. Cathedral 3. Colonial Building 4. Fruit for sale on street 5. Bus Station |
Other Cruisers
One thing that I don't seem to do is get a lot of pictures of the other cruisers, many of whom have been such an important part of our journey. And as we travel further south, the number of cruisers is dwindling, till now there are only a handful, maybe 8-10 boats around, that are still on their way to Panama or Ecuador. One couple that we've clearly grown to like very much is Bruce and Marianne on GALLIVANT. We've been buddy-boating off and on since we left Nicaragua about a month ago, and here in Coco, they invited us over for sunset drinks one night. I brought my camera and got a few shots of their boat.
 Bruce and Marianne of GALLIVANT |
As I gather it, Bruce and Marianne have been cruising off and on for about 6 years. Marianne is from Australia and Bruce is mainly from the state of Washington. Bruce has a long history of building houses. He built his first house at the age of 16, and he still has it! They have since built many houses and some apartment complexes. Remotely managing these allows them to live the cruising lifestyle.
Their Tayana 42 is a very seaworthy and comfortable boat. They've done a lot to keep it in the great condition it's in, including a full repower (new engine) and hundreds of small personal touches as well. They gave us a brief tour of the boat as we had cocktails. Did I mention that Marianne makes the BEST dips?! As we whiled away the gorgeous sunset, we all told a bit about ourselves and got into some funny stories, none funnier than Bruce's story about the Gorillas.
Bruce and Marianne were in Zaire one time and went on this pygmy-guided expedition to see some Gorillas. Bruce and Marianne and the other guests lined up to take pictures of this gorilla troupe about 200 yards away. While they're snapping their pictures, the dominant male of the group starts charging towards the tourists. Well, Bruce has his eye glued to the camera viewfinder and is thinking things like "wow what great shots" as this gorilla quickly closes the gap. When the gorilla is only about 100 FEET away, Bruce looks around to the other tourists and his wife, but they are GONE! He looks behind him and sees them all high-tailing it up the hill, leaving him all alone with this Gorilla bearing down on him. The way he tells it is SO hilarious. Bruce said "you've never anyone run so fast" as he attempted to put some distance between him and the charging, large, agressive, male gorilla. Finally, the gorilla stopped (once the last tourist had finally been run off!) and began pounding his chest as if to say "ha ha ha GOT YOU darned tourists!", like he does this every day. We were all in tears as Bruce told us this story.
So you see, Bruce and Marianne are examples of the kind of great people we are meeting while cruising, and their boat, GALLIVANT, an example of the well-cared for vessels that are obviously so well loved.
Another such example is DELFIN SOLO, pictured below, which arrived in Coco later that week with Tahsin and Rengin aboard. We'd gotten to know them in Huatulco and Barillas and its always a pleasure when a boat with people you know and like pulls into port.
Visiting other Cruisers in Coco
| 1. 2. 3. Onboard GALLIVANT 4. Marianne and Trish on GALLIVANT 5. Onboard GALLIVANT 6. Trish and Marianne, Sunset, GALLIVANT 7. DELFIN SOLO at anchor, Playa del Coco |
Our Tenth Anniversary Dinner
 Trish and Me, 10th Anniversary Dinner |
Our fifth day in Coco just happened to correspond to ten years to the day since Trish and I met at the New Orleans Jazz Festival on May 2, 1998, so we decided to celebrate our tenth anniversary by going to the fanciest restaurant in town, the Cafe de Playa Coco. We brought the dinghy into shore at our usual place and took a cab ($2) to the restaurant. It's also beach club and small resort, and the grounds are just beautiful.
We had romantic cocktails as the sun set. We could see RHAPSODY at anchor thru the palm trees and it was all very picturesque. The service was excellent and the food was exquisite. I had steak & lobster and Trish opted for a grilled fish (Corvina, I think). We both heartily enjoyed the meal and reminisced over our ten years together, culminating thus far in Costa Rica, as we are living the dream of sailing thru Central America. It feels pretty darned good!
Here's to our happy future together!
Our Tenth Anniversary dinner
| 1. Trish entering Cafe de Playa del Coco 2. Grounds 3. Sunset at Cafe Playa (1) 4. Sunset at Cafe Playa (2) 5. Cafe de Playa Coco |
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