SailingKnitter

Just for fun, we rode the bus from Golfito here in coastal Costa Rica to the border with Panama. It takes a little over an hour and costs $1.50US each way. Such a bargain for being able to see some of the interior of this beautiful country. We rode past huge Palm tree plantations of the types of palms which produce the fruit (like dates) that palm oil is extracted from, and we gazed up at cloud enshrouded rainforest mountains.

At the border, there is a "Duty Free Zone" where you can buy all sorts of liquor and other goodies without having to pay the heavy Costa Rican duties. All we bought was a 2-litre bottle of Panama Jack Spiced Rum for $8.50 - an order from a fellow cruiser. The "Zone" itself is seedy. Just a couple of larger stores crowded with various merchandise and lots of scruffy stalls jammed with everything we never wanted. So, we ate lunch at a chinese restaurant which was very good and grabbed the next bus back to Costa Rica.

Today, we did the paperwork Cha-Cha to get permission to exit Costa Rica and take our boat with us. First, we walked to the Immigration office where we gave them lots of copies of documents (passports, US ownership papers, and crew list) and got back assorted papers to deliver elsewhere. Lots of vigorous rubber stamping was done and carbon paper employed. Next was a bus ride to Customs. Here, we gave them more copies of our documents and some of the papers from immigration. Our third stop was with the National Bank where we had to pay $20 for an "International Zarpe" document to be typed up which is permission to leave the country with our boat. Finally, we boarded another bus to take us to the Port Captain's office where again, lots of rubber stamping, carbon paper was used, and multi-colored documents exchanged and we were done! Whew!

So, tomorrow we set sail early in the morning to go see the Western islands of Panama. First stop will be Bahia Honda. We have provisioned the boat with fuel and food and are all ready to spend a couple of weeks or more in fairly isolated places. We'll miss this sweet spot in Costa Rica though. We'll miss all the little doggies here at the Land Sea Cruiser hangout. Yep, we'll even miss little Vinny who just had to romp in the fabric that I was using to sew up slipcovers for the cockpit cushions.

We'll miss Tim's bananas ripening on the hook and the orchids that Katy grows on the deck. Oh, and we'll sorely miss the great BBQ bring-your-own-meat dinners that she has thrown for all of us cruisers. Last night Katy whipped up a giant super-duper salad, brown rice, and steamed fresh vegetables. Tim managed the grill and we threw on some chicken breasts with BBQ sauce. The combination of great conversations, good food, plenty of adult beverages and a tropical rain storm made for a memorable evening.











We'll even miss the funny little cartoon character-looking fishing boats that noisily motor past us all day. But, they sure do bring home the best fish! Red snapper, mahi-mahi, and grouper. Okay, I won't miss the bad karioke singing sounds that travel over the water from the fishermen bars in the shacks along the shore at night.











What do folks do who want to go cruising in other locations of the world but don't want to sail/motor the boat there themselves? Well, they hire space on one of these ships!

Several of the boats here in Golfito were waiting for this freighter from YachtPath to pick them up and take their yachts to Fort Lauderdale Florida! First, several boats were unloaded by two giant cranes by putting slings under the yachts and swinging them over the side and down into the water.

Next, they hoisted up the four yachts waiting here and off the big freighter went! Sure, those other cruisers will beat us to Florida by a couple of years - but we'll have more fun!