In case you missed the news we are off again for another 60 day sailing adventure. With any luck we will make the sail from Golfito, Costa Rica to Panama City, transit the Panama Canal, and get to spend some time in the San Blas Islands of Panama before we head home in January. Once again I will try to entertain you and maybe educate you about Latin America with some highlights of our trip. As always…. if you find our vacation boring feel free to hit the “Drop me from your e-mail list” button on your computer.
To get back to Golfito we were facing a long flight from CA to Costa Rica and then an eight hour bus ride through the mountains. Andrea, however, found us a $12 flight from San Jose, CR to Golfito. That’s right, $12. Skeptic that I am I had some serious doubts about the reliability of a $12 flight, but that’s cheap, could be an adventure, the pilot wouldn’t go with you if it wasn’t safe, so why not? Is this a second hand airplane? Do they save money on maintenance? Do they pack the plane with a little too much weight? Is it a scam? What are we getting into here?
First problem was that the cabbie at Alajeula airport in San Jose did not know where the airport was for the puddle jumper flight so we spent a few chaotic moments yelling in English at a Costa Rican who spoke about as much English as a sheepdog. He kept taking us back to the Alajuela airport which we knew was wrong, but we couldn’t explain where right was. He couldn’t read a map or the directions we had so there was quite a bit of “incomprehensible yelling” before we finally headed off in the right direction. When we did find the airplane we had to climb on a scale along with our luggage to see if we were light enough to fly. Fortunately I had been watching my weight all summer and we passed. Then we waited in line with several other thin people next to a sign that said “Wait here for Pilot”. Duh! We weren’t going to go anywhere without him, but it was reassuring to know that he was willing to go along with us. Actually the sign said “Favor espere por el piloto” which I had quickly mis-translated as “Please “hope” for the pilot… which I did.
The flight itself was anticlimactic. The very small plane got us off the ground with only a little hesitation and we were off to Golfito. Other than a runway full of dogs nipping at the wheels as we took off this was just like flying any of the big airlines, and the very slow speed landing was… different. The dogs might not have had to run to catch the plane when it landed.
The boat had survived the “green season” very nicely, thank you. Our friend Caesar had aired it regularly (after each rainfall) all summer and only faintest traces of mold/mildew were discernible. I will state flat out that “it rains a whole lot in paradise”. Someone in the Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce came up with a fantastic idea of renaming one of Costa Rica’s two seasons as the “green season”. Dry season and green season. No bad seasons. It is green season now with no signs of letting up. During the parts of the green season that we have seen the days start out hot and humid building towards the torrential rainfalls that start everyday at 3 PM and last sometimes all night. Buckets of rain. More rain than I have seen anyplace or anytime in my life. Likely more rain than Noah saw, although he started in a desert so it might have seemed like more to him. Green season, very clever, the touristicas will never figure it out. Put one over on them we did.
What caused us to stay in Golfito for the summer (rather than sailing to Panama last June) was a faulty transmission for which I needed a part that had apparently fallen overboard while I wasn’t looking. Armed with a new part obtained at home we were confident that it would take us just a day or so to be on our way south. Okay, maybe a few days. But no sooner had we fixed the starboard (right) engine that we developed a carburetor leak in the port (left) engine. Since we were fixing that leak anyway we decided to open up the fully operational starboard engine carburetor “just in case”. It seems that this now caused the good engine (starboard) to start leaking too. Worse… What could be worse you say?... since we only had one gasket we could only repair one engine. Yes, our one day, then a few days, is now one week. But at least it’s paradise. Pass the umbrella, Andrea.
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