SailingKnitter

Pura Vida translates as Pure Life or the good life. This local phrase acurately describes our stay here in Golfito so far. Sure, we have chores - doesn't everyone? But even when performing our supposedly dreary little duties we are having fun.
One of our recent chores was to "check-in" with the local Port Captain. This is just a formality, but following through and showing respect to this local authority may make our exit from the country easier when the time comes. So, we hiked about a mile over to his "office". This facility certainly isn't what you'd expect in the states...but hey, the buiding keeps out the rain doesn't it? The surprise was in the structure next door to the port captain's office.

The Port Captain's office is at the foot of a pier that was once, up until sometime in the 1980's, a big banana export facility. Because of a disagreement between the United Fruit Company, the town, and the unions, United Fruit pulled out of Golfito and moved to the Caribbean side of the country. Now, this pier is used for just local business and some bulk palm oil transport. Well, when the banana business was closed - they left behind the buildings, and their locomotives! The trains were used to transport the bananas from the surrounding areas to the warehouses and then loaded onto freighters and shipped around the world.

There was someone actually living in the passanger car! The warehouses in the area are in the process of being torn down (yeah, it's been almost 20 years) so I don't know what is going to happen to the train here.

Soon we were hungry, so we found a little "soda" which is what they call the smaller diners here in Costa Rica. Prices are about the same for food and supplies here in Costa Rica as in the USA. But, for the price of a fast food meal in the US we got THIS!


Red beans, rice, cabbage salad, grilled steak with onions, squash, and fried bananas. YUMMY! All eaten in the sea breeze because most buildings here are open-air with just steel grates for closing time.

This building is the LAND SEA cruiser's hangout here in Golfito. We are anchored in the bay here just ouside of this business. For $5 per day, we have access to the dinghy dock to park our inflatable dinghy. Plus, we can use the facilities here which include showers, restrooms, cable TV, free WiFi, book exchange, cruiser's club house upstairs and the deck on the main level. The proprietors, Tim & Katy also provide cold beer for $1.50 and fruit drinks & soda for $1 from the cooler on the honor system. For $2 per kilo, we can have our laundry done for us at the facility by a local woman.

What a life! We are coming here every day and just hanging out. There are always other cruisers and some locals coming by to chat. We've learned so much about the places that we will be sailing to soon, and have shared our knowledge about where we have been. We have made friends with the resident doggies too. This is the boxer "Riley" snuggling in my lap while I knit on plain black socks for my son, Brett (who insists that he only wears black socks these days - does he know how hard it is for old-lady eyes to see black sock yarn?).

And here is "Vinny" who just had to get into the photo of a vest that I've been knitting these past couple of days. This is for the Akkol Orphanage in Kazakhstan and is knit with my leftover yarns of Lopi-Lett wool. I just have a few inches of the back and the neck and armhole finishing to go. Wow! Knitting at 5-sts per inch sure goes fast.

But, I just got notice that I need to knit a second sock for each of TWO designs of mine that will be in a soon-to-be-released book. Thank goodness I have the yarn! So, that is what I will concentrate on for the next week. So much for my personal knitting and relaxing projects...

Speaking of which...Jonesy absolutely hates these socks. He says they are "garish" and he thinks the yellow is awful (it is brighter than what is in this photo). What do you think? I have finished one sock already and was planning to send these to the kids in Kazakhstan. Are they too much? Should I go ahead and knit the second sock or rip? The yarn is some that I dyed myself many, many years ago which I think is Henry's Attic Kona superwash wool.

So, here's a photo of Jonesy relaxing on the deck with his new red bucket. Because of the relentless tropical sun, our plastic products need replacing fairly regularly. Also, that's my woven plastic purse with the blue and red stripes. Because I travel to shore in a dinghy every day - - - a dinghy that is old and leaks - - and sometimes we land through the surf - - I had to get a plastic purse. My other totes would get all wet and salty and nasty. This one I can just rinse off!

So, this is my laptop on the table up in the cruiser's club house which is kinda like a tree house. I've got CNN on the TV, the big fan blowing and now a couple of other female cruisers have joined me at the table to play on our computers. The walls are painted with the names and motifs from all of the different boats that have visited this sweet spot in the tropics.

Out on the upstairs deck using his computer was Sean (age 12), who is a cruising kid from Canada that we first met up in El Salvador. I taught him and his younger brother how to knit because they wanted to learn.

Check out this sign - "American Style Financing"? Does that mean that I won't have to put any money down, won't have to prove that I qualify for the loan, can live in the place for months before being evicted, then can leave without paying a cent and let the taxpayers bail out the bank that was left holding the bad loan? Sign me up!