14 November 2013 Golfito, Costa Rica
Tim told us about a hike that goes up into the rainforest along the ridge above the town, so we put on our boots and set out mid-morning. The hike is along a rough concrete/dirt road that starts next to the football field about ¼ mile south of Land Sea Services. We started off walking past houses, but after ¼ mile they petered out and we were into the jungle. It’s a steep road and slippery in places because of green slime caused by the rain that seems to fall every day here.
After an hour of climbing, the road levelled out and went along the ridge past a number of Fincas (farms). There are a couple of places where it was clear enough to get a good view of the bay, but mostly we were walking through thick jungle. After 2½ hours, the road started to descend steeply, so we turned around and walked back. (Tim told us later that we should have carried on a little bit further and we’d have come to the end of the road at an antennae station – ah well.)
We saw lots of wildlife – a couple of Chestnut Mandibled Toucans, a troop of White Faced Capuchin Monkeys and a White-nosed Capamundi, which was wandering around at the edge of the road, very unconcerned about us being fifteen foot away. The best of all was spotting a Sloth sitting in the crook of a tree dozing with a small baby in it arms. We've been trying to find a sloth for five months, but they're incredibly well camouflaged, so it’s good to finally see one close up – we can leave Central America now.
We arrived back at the boat in the middle of the afternoon and, after a refreshing shower in the Cruiser’s clubhouse, we collapsed onto the boat. Later in the afternoon, I tried to start the generator to charge our batteries, but something blew and the control panel went completely dead. I spent twenty minutes trying to find out what had gone on, but ran out of time – I’ll have to sort it out tomorrow.
We went to the Banana Bay Marina bar for happy hour and dinner with John & Debbie from “Moon Shadow”. It’s first time we've been out for an evening meal for six weeks, so we had burger and chips – bring on the unsaturated fat.
15 November 2013 Golfito, Costa Rica
I had a very restless night worrying about the generator and hoping that it’s something that I can sort out without having to wait here in Golfito for parts to be shipped in. My biggest worry was that I’d blown up the control panel, which based on previous purchases from Fischer Panda, would be very expensive.
It took me most of the morning to investigate and fix the problem. I eventually found a blown fuse hidden away on the control panel circuit board. Further investigation revealed that one of the rubber mountings on the earth isolation relay had broken and I suspect that the "positive" terminal had shorted out on the generator engine casing. So, when I pressed the pre-heat button, the 12V signal from the control panel completed a circuit to earth and the fuse blew. A bit complicated, but it’s nice to know why a fuse blew.
I've replaced the 2A fuse on the control panel circuit board. I've also remounted the earth isolation relay and moved the bridging diode to the other side of the relay terminals to keep it away from the generator engine. Hopefully, that will stop the problem reoccurring.
In the afternoon, we wandered down the road and found a scruffy looking supermarket that has a surprisingly good selection of food. We also found a brilliant vegetable shop with loads of fresh produce – they even had a cauliflower.
16 November 2013 Golfito, Costa Rica
Glenys continued on her Internet campaign to find somewhere to go horse riding and came across a small place about 10 kilometres away. We asked Tim to ring them up and we've arranged to go for a short horse ride tomorrow morning for only $20 each, which seems to be a bargain.
We went for a walk along a road, which is at the other side of the Duty Free Zone. A taxi dropped us off in the small village of Ureña for only $2.50 – taxis are so cheap here as long as you stay on the main routes. Once past the houses, we followed a gravel road which goes through the rainforest towards the town of Gamba. It’s not as pleasant as the walk that we did the other day, but it got us off the boat. After walking for 90 minutes, we had our sandwiches sat on the side of a river under a bridge, with our hot feet cooling off in the water. The only wildlife that we saw was a pair of Crested Guans, which are as big as a chicken and live in the trees. Unfortunately, they were too far away to get a good picture, but they look like the Chacalacas that we saw in Trinidad.
A local bus took us from Ureña back to the boat for 50 cents and we spent the late afternoon trying to get cool. This bay is so airless and unless it rains, the air is heavy with humidity. I wouldn't like to live here.
17 November 2013 Golfito, Costa Ricaa
A car picked us up and took us out to “Cataratas y Senderos Avellan”, which is 6 kilometres along the road where we walked yesterday. Our horses were already saddled up and waiting for us. The ride took us along the gravel road for a ½ mile and then down into the river. It was lovely riding along the winding river - the horses were very responsive and coped well with dropping down banks and wading through two feet of water.
At one point, our guide had to chop through a tree that had fallen across the river, but the trunk was only six inches in diameter and he soon had it out of our way with his sharp machete. Our progress up the river was eventually stopped by a huge tree blocking the whole river, so we went back along the river to our starting point. The ride was only just over an hour, but was very enjoyable and interesting. This has whetted Glenys’ appetite and she can’t wait to get to Ecuador to do more riding.
“Cataratas y Senderos Avellan” is owned by a Costa Rican family, and they've made their finca into a bit of a tourist attraction. They have a restaurant, a trail to some waterfalls, zip lines, horse riding and camping. We walked out to the very nice waterfall with Vernesto, who is the owner of the place. He told us that they get very few tourists coming out, which is a pity because they are very friendly people and the place is lovely. Most tourists go out to the Peninsula de Ora and don’t stay in the Golfito area very long.
We had a nice lunch. It was the inevitable chicken, rice and beans, but was very tasty and they had a jar of chilli pickled vegetables – I’ve got to get a jar of those. It cost us $85 in all, including the horse riding, a guide taking us up to the waterfall, lunch and the transport from Golfito - a bargain. If you go to Golfito, drop in to see them - http://www.avellancr.com
Back on the boat, we spent the afternoon surfing the internet - Glenys planning horse riding trips in Ecuador and I discovered that there are some brilliant places to go trekking and mountain climbing in the Ecuadorian Andes - I can't wait to get there.
18 November 2013 Golfito, Costa Rica
We’re planning to head down to Ecuador this week. The rhumb line from here to Puerto Amistad is 580 miles on a course of 165 degrees, but we’ll probably end up sailing nearly 700 miles in a dog leg. The winds for the first part of the trip will be from the west, but will gradually back to the south. So our plan is to set out on starboard tack, lay a south-west course and then gradually let the wind push us onto a more south easterly course as it backs. Hopefully, we’ll be able to stay on starboard tack all the way and not be too hard on the wind. I downloaded a GRIB file and it looks good to leave on the 22nd when the winds are forecast to be 10 knots from the west.
Glenys finished off the deployment bag that she has been making for our series storm drogue. This is a 100m long rope with 132 small cones sewn on to it, which, if we are caught in a really bad storm, we can deploy off of the back of the boat to slow us down.
The deployment bag is designed to ensure that the rope doesn't tangle when it’s being deployed. I've based it on the same principals as a parachute container with flaps and I’ll stow the line in a figure of eight to prevent tangles. It all seemed to pack away nicely – I just hope that it works. If we have to use this drogue, it will be a horrible storm and I want it to be as easy to deploy as possible – the nightmare scenario is getting it all tangled up.
It absolutely threw it down in the afternoon, so we hunkered down and did some more internet browsing of activities in Ecuador. Glenys has short-listed a couple of riding places around Quito and I've discovered a volcano called Cotopaxi, which at 5,897m is the third highest volcano in the world and the second highest mountain in Ecuador. The route goes up a permanent glacier through some steep icy terrain - looks like a “must do” trip to me.
19 November 2013 Golfito, Costa Rica
We went for another hike on the ridge above the town. This time we followed a sign to a tree top canopy zip line place. It’s a pleasant 3 kilometre walk along a very rough dirt and gravel track, but I would imagine that it could get very muddy if it rained a lot. We saw some more Crested Guans, a Chestnut Mandibled Toucan and a flock of eight or so Fiery Billed Aracaris. There’s also lots of Razor Grass around on the side of the road, which looks very innocuous, but if you brush against it with bare skin it gives you a nasty cut.
When we stopped for lunch, we saw a green and black Poison Dart Frog similar to the one that we saw on the mainland in Bocas del Torro. There’s a lot of wildlife around here. Back on the boat, as the sun went down, we watched eight Scarlet Macaws flying overhead to roost on a tree on the ridge above us along with a couple of hundred Vultures.
20 November 2013 Golfito, Costa Rica
We’re just waiting for the weather now - we've got another two days to go.
In the middle of the morning, we nipped into Banana Marina and filled up with diesel and fresh water. The marina charges a little bit more than the town fuel dock, but we could get water there and we didn't have to jostle for a place with fishing boats and pangas. In the afternoon, we went for a walk - mostly to get off the boat and check what time the immigration office opens tomorrow – eight o'clock apparently.
I hate waiting around like this, I just want to go.
21 November 2013 Golfito, Costa Rica
We spent today getting ready to leave tomorrow. I downloaded a GRIB file and it still looks good - the winds will be a bit light tomorrow, but will be from the west and are forecast to increase overnight. After a couple of days, we should have 15 knot winds from the SSW. The ITCZ doesn't look to be too active on our route as well - fingers crossed.
I’m still going with our plan of heading south-west for a day before we turn towards Ecuador, but I’ll be keeping a wary eye on the currents as well - I don’t want to be pushed too far west. I'm not sure what currents we’ll encounter because the Humboldt Current swirls around with some reverse eddies in this area.
The first major chore of the day was to get our international exit zarpe. It wasn't as tedious as the clearing in process – Immigration were very helpful and friendly and Customs only took fifteen minutes. The major delay was waiting for half an hour in a bank to pay a $20 fee for the Port Captain to produce the zarpe. Having got our receipt, printing out the zarpe only took ten minutes, so we were done and dusted within 2 hours.
Our next stop was at the supermarket, where we stocked up on the usual stuff – mostly liquids like beer, wine, orange juice, milk and coca cola. On the way back to the boat, we spotted a pair of Scarlet Macaws in a sea almond tree munching away on the nuts, nice to see them up close at last.
After lunch, I paid our bill at Land Sea Services. It was only $130 for nine days on a mooring and three big loads of laundry, which was a bargain. We then lifted the dinghy on deck and tidied up after being in one port for over a week. Glenys cooked a Cassoulet and left it pressurised in the pressure cooker, so that we can eat it for dinner for the first two days at sea. We're ready to go.
It absolutely threw it down in the evening – hopefully it will be nice and dry in the morning.