IN COSTA RICA 20 - 26 FEBRUARY 2009 - revised 27 Feb

Friday 20 February - a day of doing the bureacratic stuff and exploring Golfito. This small town used to be a big banana exporting port but something happened in the 1980s and this ceased see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golfito Lonely Plant says that the place is slowly being swallowed by the jungle - this is so. It has one main street which runs up the side of the bay. There is a large commercial jetty and a number of smaller jetties and three boat service providers, one of which is a small marina.
In order to complete formalities (called Pratique for shipping) we had to go first to the Port Captain, then Quarantine, then Immigration, the Customs, then a bank to pay a fee,then back to Quaratine and finally the Port Captain. They were all in different places. Fortunately Golfito is a small place !
By this time it was well past lunch so after finding a small local restaurant to recharge we spent the afternoon in an internet cafe, then food shopping and back to an evening on board.

Saturday 21 February - a day of practical things (looking for spare parts for the outboard and towed generator) we had lunch in a nice restuarant (Samoa del Sur) and returned to the yacht for the afternoon. David fixed the towed generator (by attaching the old outboard propellor where the correct propellor had fallen off. This is simply a steel rod about 2 feet long attached to a long rope. When towed the propellor spins the rod and the rope which, when twisted enough, turns a small generator tied to the guardrails in the stern. Simple. And it works when the yacht is going fast enough).
The day ended with a lovely sunset.

Sunday 22 Feb
Lieing at a bouy is not very exciting, so we left early this morning and went out into the Golfo Dulce to find a smallprivate botanical garden we had heard about - Casa Orquidae - two bays up from Golfito. This has been created since 1974 by a couple of north americans. Most beautiful plants and flowers - many types of ginger, and many orchids (including, again, the Crucifix orchid which grows wild in the Andes) See pictures here : http://picasaweb.google.com/Stephen.Couling/CasaOrchidae#

In the afternoon we had some wind to sail with and practised our Man Overboard Drills unti the wind died away to nothing and forced us to motor back.


Monday 23 Feb
The plan now was to stay in Golfito until Friday and I was getting cabin fever ! Time for some space so I jumped on the afternoon ferry to Puerto Jimenez, the port for the Osa Peninsula across the Golfo Dulce. After a very fast launch ride throuh windy and chopy water I arrived at Puerto Jimenez and walked a dusty road into the town. After some searching I found a reasonable and cheap backpackers and settled in. I had met a young 'Tico' (what Costa Ricans call themselves) who offered to be my guide to the Corcovado National Park. I was not sureabut this but decided to go ahead so we went to buy food for the morrow. We also went to a creek to see some caimans) ´friendly´crocodiles ' harmless apparently. http://picasaweb.google.com/Stephen.Couling/WildAnimalsOsaPeninsula02#
For info on the National Park go here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corcovado_National_Park

Tuesday 24 Feb
Overnight I was not well and still feeling sick at 5.00 in the morning I cancelled my trip with Manuel. After a quiet morning wandering around until I felt better, I met a young couple of north americans (Todd and Meredith) who were staying in his brother's house up in the jungle in a place called Dos Brasos de Rio Tigre (Two arms of the River Tiger). They were returning that afternoon so I decided to go with them and see somewhere off the beaten track.

We went in a 'Collectivo" (local bus - a minivan) which rattled its way slowly up the dusty dirt road which was full of rocks and pot-holes. I love local transport in other countries! It is truly an authentic experience. All that was missing were the chickens !

Dos Brasos is a small place at the end of the road across the bridge over the Rio Tigre - an old gold mining town now of about 200 people. Todd & Meredith found Val who owns a lodge up in the hills called Bolita - I paid for one night. We then went to Todd's brother's house (see pictures) which is lovely - all open as this is tropical jungle. As long as there is a mosquito net over the beds walls are not necessary - just a large roof to keep off the rain. I left them there and walked over the Rio Tigre and up into the hills, up a long winding path finally coming to the lodge pouring sweat in the evening gloom. A group of 5 french people were already there with dinner ready to which they invited me. Very friendly - so I joined them and enjoyed a wonderful evening of my broken french and their (rather less) broken english. The kitchen area and eating area was the open space under the platform which formed the sleeping space. Very simple, very rustic. http://picasaweb.google.com/Stephen.Couling/PuertaJiminezToBolita#


Wednesday 25 Feb
I woke before dawn and heard howler monkeys and heard more birds than I saw. After breakfast the french group went back to Dos Brasos and I set off for the hills. Up and up and eventually came to GotoGo lookout with view right over the Golfo Dulce. the paths are well keptbut in places very narrow. The hills here are steep sided -typical river valley hills covered in tall trees, undergrowth and some flowers. Right now everything is very dry - there has been no rain since before December. This is not the dry of the Australian bush - it is much greener here and the the vegetation clearly is not the burning type although if it was really dry I imagine it would go up.

From time to time the canopy was disturbed by monkeys although mostly to high or far away to see clearly. No ground animals crossed my path, but I did not mind. Walking amongst the trees up and down the trail was just wonderful. I came down a long hill and suddenly found myself on the edge of a landslip. I could see the trail on the other side of the 30 metre gap - so with very carefully I traversed it trying not to look too far down into the chasm that held the river - some 50 metres down there. Safely on the other side I came to a waterfall with a deep pool beneath it. The cool water was bliss after the morning's walk. Great place for lunch.

The only way out now was down the river - going back up the trail was pointless. But there wa no trail I could see, so after a few minutes of clambering over rocks I jumped in the shallow water. Somehow books wet with warm water are not nealy so bad ! Much the best ad fastest way of getting down stream.

This was a gold mining area and there is still gold to be found in the river - gold dust. I came across three men panning for gold -all on their ownpatch of river. They greeted me with friendly 'Holas!' - one showed me the tiniest speck of gold in his pan - I was not even sure myself but smiled encouragingly. Photos here : http://picasaweb.google.com/Stephen.Couling/DosBrasos#

At length I came back to Dos Brasos in the mid afternoon and checked into Los Maneros - this had once been the local bar, brothel and jail - the toilet being one cell and the shower the other cell...... I wandered around this very rural village in the late afternoon feeling totally at peace with the world. And i the evening joined three local ex-pat north americans for dinner. Everyone goes to bed early - sunset is at 7.00pm and we were gone to bed by 9.00

Thursday 26 Feb
Up at 5.00 and the the return collectivo to Puerto Jiminez - somehow not quite so unnerving this time. Another fast ride back to Golfito and return to the yacht to find David and Sarah had also gone to the other side. They returned late afternoon to say they had been on a guided tour in the other direction to me and had seen more wildlife - monkeys, birds and a Sloth - David said "it wasn't doing anything" - funny that !

Then in the evening we had a tremendous rain storm - vast volumes of water fell - the dinghy had 6 inches of water in it when we eventually got to it. The locals (ticos) will be happy - they have been complaining of no rain.

And so we prepare to depart for Panama. Farewell to Costa Rica - a very lovely place

Enjoy the pictures - you should be able to browse in all my public albums. I don't have time to label them all but I expect they give a good impression of things I have seen. Isn't the internet wonderful ....