Paperwork Cha-Cha.....legally in Costa Rica at last!!!

Well, this morning we started "deja-vu all over again" (May Day holiday is over)!!! After an hour wait at the side of the road, we hopped bus #1 towards Playa de Coco. It lets us off 3 miles out of town (why???), and we catch a cab (the same friendly one we took yesterday back to Playa Panama!). Meeting with the Capitan del Puerto went well enough, filling out the requisite papers, with multiple carbon copies (this is where carbon paper goes to die!!!) and the usual flurry of stamps. Then the 5 minute walk to Migracion (Immigration) office. We had nearly all of the required paperwork with us in photocopy form for her, except that she wanted the paperwork from our last 5 ports visited. Why in the world would she care where we were over the past several months in Mexico??? No one ever told us about this curve ball! So off to get these copies. Plenty of nice stamps all around, including our passports, which now sport lovely 90 day visas.

Then back to the Port Captain to proudly display our new stamps. He was suitably impressed (NOT!), and sent us to the Liberia airport to meet with the Aduana (customs) officer. After another 1 hour wait for the bus, we head out for the 40 minute drive to the airport. Bus drops us at the turnoff, and we hike the 1+ mile to the terminal. When we ask to speak with the office of the Aduana, no one had a clue what we were talking about.....hmmmmm....didn't they get the email that we were coming??? Guess not...
;-( Finally after 30 minutes of waiting and speaking to several folks, all of whom were honestly trying to help, we were told that the Aduana office is not, in fact, IN the airport, as we'd been told, but NEAR the airport.....back out the road we hiked in on, to the main road.

There Mr. Aduana looks through our paperwork, and asks for his copy of our passports (we had left copies with other 2 offices already). No problem...we came prepared with these! We give him his, and he looks confused....it's not stamped!!!! Seems he wants his copy to have the same stamp as is in our passports. He sends us next door to use a copy machine, but it's broken!!! Things were looking a bit bleak for a few minutes, as he realized that we had no car, and he was not going to accept a copy without the official stamp!!! Finally he fired up his scanner, and scanned and printed to his heart's content.....and EUREKA!!! We're legally in Costa Rica at last!!!

While waiting around in Mr. Aduana's office, we met an interesting chap also there on some business. Martin, a Czech diamond dealer immigrant to the US over 30 years ago, and now calling Costa Rica his home, offered us a ride as far as he was going. We jumped in the truck, and enjoyed the miles rolling by as we learned of his fascinating history, and he likewise enjoyed hearing about the sailing life. Along the way, he said he needed to stop at a little Italian store...just take a few minutes. We walked into a most amazing little grocery...in the middle of Nowhere, Costa Rica. Everything in the store was Italian grocery fare...5 types of gnochi, a whole wall of pastas, sauces, prosciuttos, salamis, cheeses, wines, oils, tomatoes...you get the picture!

Like Martin, we bought our share, and when the spree was over, he graciously gave us a ride all the way out to Bravo, still bobbing at anchor at Playa Panama. A perfect finale to the Paperwork Cha Cha!!! Thanks again, Martin!

But wait...this cha cha ain't quite over!!! Tomorrow we're planning on leaving this area, and will have to SIGN OUT with the same Port Captain that we SIGNED IN with today!!! (as the saying goes, "the more things change, the more they remain the same!!!")

After the requisite bus rides from and to the boat, we'll head south again, exploring some promising dive sites that we've been hearing about! Stay tuned...

Beach Vibe in Northern Costa Rica

Now sitting in Beach Bums Bar and Grill in Playa de Coco.  Advertised "coldest beer on the beach" and "free wifi".....got all the major food groups covered, so in we go!!

We spent the past 10 days or so enjoying a couple of isolated parks in the north.  First, Bahia St. Elena, where we spent nearly 1 week waiting out the papagayo winds....they do hang around, bringing gusts over 40 knots day and night, in between several minutes of no wind at all. 

A bit frustrating, but we took the opportunity to do a fun hike on shore, up a stream bed to a beautiful waterfall.  Though this is the end of "dry season", there was still a fine deep pool inviting us in for a swim.....poison frogs and fer de lances be damned!!!  The water felt perfect after the hot jungle hike, and the only biters were a couple of tiny red fire ants....yikes, I can see why staking your enemy out on top of an ant hill is a fate commanding such respect!!!  These lil' bastards pack a wallop!!!

After the winds finally died down, we had a beautiful sail around 20 miles south to Islas Murcielagos...."Bat Islands".  Also a national park, and protected from fishing, the underwater critters have a great reputation here.  And it lived up to it's billing.  Day one we did some snorkel recon, and though the clarity and viz weren't quite as good as hoped, the size and diversity of the critters was exceptional.  So we did a fun dive the following day.  Saw sea turtles, large jack crevalles, and some nurse sharks cruising along the bottom.

Yesterday we headed over to Playa Panama in Bahia Culebra.  We still need to clear into the country, and the northernmost spot to do so is the beach town of Playa de Coco.  The beach dinghy landing there can be a bit challenging in the surf, so we're just north at Playa Panama, a 2 bus - 8 mile trip into town!!  Came in to town this morning to do the "paperwork cha cha" with the port capitan, immigration, and customs office (out at the airport 1 hour away), but found the offices are closed today, due to May 1 holiday!!!  So we're enjoying our first day in a town for a couple of weeks, and will play "groundhog day" tomorrow, when we do it all again!!!   For now, better have another Imperial cerveza.....

Fishing report:  been great, if you like to eat skipjack tuna.  We don't.  We just keep reeling them in, and releasing them just as fast.  Yesterday we caught a very small dorado, but released it as well.  Ready for a keeper!!!

Engine report:  We've developed a small hole in our exhaust water injection elbow...a custom welded fitting where cooling water mixes with hot exhaust gases, creating a highly corrosive elixer.  Sure enough, after around 900 hours on the "new" engine, it's developed a hole, leaking a bit of this noxious slurry out onto the hose below.  Yesterday's fix involved gooping a blob of gasket cement around the hole, then wrapping the shebang with a beer can and 3 hose clamps.  Hopefully it'll hold until we can get to a welding shop, perhaps in southern Costa Rica in a month or so.  Not to worry....we've got plenty of beer aboard for raw materials!!!

You might recall our description in the last post of the squalls appearing like moles on the radar screen.....Here's what it looked like from that vantage.  We've just altered course to port, to try to shoot between the two rascals about 10 miles dead ahead.  We were heading to the right, to the right of the upper big blogs, when the one started to appear to it's right....causing us to "reevaluate our options".   Below was a view toward land, about 25 miles away, with a look at the storm cells brewing over Nicaragua, before they came our way.....

High Stakes Game of "Whack-a-Mole"

We arrived yesterday in Bahia Santa Elena, Costa Rica, after sailing for the past 2 days and nights down the Nicaraguan coast. We left Bahia del Sol at high tide on Friday afternoon, escorted again through the surf by the dynamic jet-ski pilot duo of Rogelio at the helm and Bill on the radio. This crossing was more boisterous than our inbound crossing of the bar. The pilots read the wave sets well, though, telling us when to hold our position while waiting for another wave to break before applying full throttle to get through before the next set began. A bit tense, but not to worry, it all worked out fine. Hopefully will have some pictures to post when we are next connected to the internet (this post comes via Winlink on ham radio).

The first night was relatively uneventful. We had light winds for the entire passage, never seeing more than 10 knots of breeze, and more often winds were in the 4-8 knot range. We saw a fair bit of lightning on the first night, but it was far in the distance, seemingly over land (we were typically 20-30 miles off shore). A couple of squalls appeared on radar, but also far off, and not in our path.

While on watch on the second night, though, things got interesting! Several convection cells appeared on the radar, some ahead of us, and some behind. As we altered course to avoid the cell blobs, with their major lightning activity, some would begin to dissolve, while others appeared, as if intentionally trying to block our path!! No matter which way we turned, we'd soon see a new cell starting to grow in our way. Left....right....more right....left.....Finally after around 4 hours we were through the area, and all of the lightning was behind us. Yeee-hah.....dodged another bullet!!!

The lightning was intense, some of the brightest we've seen yet, in what has become a nightly display. While in El Salvador, we made up a readily deployable mast ground wire. Using heavy gauge 1/0 welding cable with a big lug on one end, we have it bolted to the mast near the deck. When we see lightning, we throw the 15' long cable into the water, trailing it alongside the boat. The hope is that, should we be hit, this will provide an easy path for the jolt to get to ground, rather than arcing through the hull with possible unsavory consequences. Hopefully we'll never see it tested, but at least we feel that it may provide a bit of protection. Of course, we also put all of our portable electronics in the oven when entering "the zone" for extra precaution. Does it work????? Who knows, but it can't hurt (unless we fire up the oven and fry 3 laptops!!!)

So we arrived in this beautiful bay, Santa Elena, yesterday morning. It's a large bay, but deep, and completely protected from any swells or waves. We were escorted in by a huge pod of spotted dolphins, and more turtles (olive ridleys) than we've ever seen. One other boat in the bay, but a long way off. The jungle sounds are fantastic, as the area is known for it's parrots, sea birds, and others. We also heard numerous howler monkeys in the evening. Yesterday remained calm, and we lounged about, reading and catching up on needed sleep after the previous night's game of "Whack-a-Mole".

During the night, as forecast, the weather changed. We now have a "papagayo", a gap wind coming across from the Caribbean, similar to the "T-pecker" which we described a few weeks ago. It will likely keep blowing for the next several days, with typical gusts so far around 20-25 knots. No waves, though, so we're comfortable, and using the time to catch up with boat chores, reading, games and videos. Perhaps launch the dinghy tomorrow in the lulls, to explore some of the hikes on shore that we've heard about. The diving and snorkeling are supposed to be great around here as well, but we'll need to let the winds die down a bit before heading out of the bay.

Exploring Suchitoto

Along with crews from a few other boats staying at Bahia del Sol, we hired a van for a trip to Suchitoto, a pretty, colonial treasure of a town about 2-1/2 hours north of us.  The town is known for it's vibrant art community, with numerous small galleries and cooperatives scattered about. 
We stayed at an amazing little hotel, the Los Almendros de San Lorenzo.   Owned by Joaquin, the former El Salvadoran ambassador to France and his partner, the renovated hacienda was a like an intimate museum displaying the owners diverse and extremely high quality art collection in every nook and cranny.

Stencil seen on doorways of homes throughout Suchitoto

The town itself was in an area which served as a stronghold of the guerilla movement, the FMLN, fighting the U.S. backed military junta government during the bloody 12 year El Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992).  

"In this house, we want a life free from violence against women"

To this day the town shows a left leaning spirit, with women's rights issues, Catholic sisters working for the rights of the poor, and other indicators that the movement, while no longer violent in El Salvador, remains a watchdog for human rights and land reform.  

The Bravo crew spent one evening enjoying a few beers at the El Necio bar, a funky pub owned by Jerry, a former guerilla, with leftist posters on all walls, and flags of communist countries hanging from the ceiling.  Reminded Adam of coffee houses in Greenwich Village in the 60's and 70's.  Given the recent history, though, this had a much more real feel to it.


 

Monument to the FMLN in a local park.  Check out the little hollow on the ground below the sculpture.  (see detail below)

 Cindi enjoyed an afternoon at a women's cooperative, where they raise money making a variety of crafts with indigo, a natural dye from plants harvested in the region.  
Together with a few of the other women we traveled with, they learned to make tie dyed indigo scarves.

  

 
 

The town of Suchitoto is very well preserved, as both sides during the war agreed to spare the buildings from destruction.  We enjoyed our walks around, exploring the little side streets as we made our way down toward the lake below.  

Cindi, with the weight of the world on her shoulders!

A delightful mix of old and new technologies!!!

 All in all, this was a great excursion, where we learned more about El Salvador, her people, and history, within the context of a pretty, unique little town.

'Bravo' Stars in a "BEE" Movie!!!

Over the past 4 or 5 days, Bravo has been involved in a seemingly insurmountable battle against a swarm of honey bees.  One morning, a few scouts came aboard, and evidently liked what they found.  The next morning there were a few more, and then more, and more still.  Now, your trusty 'Bravo' team has nothing against bees, per se.  In fact, Adam used to have a few hives of his own.

Adam zaps a few of the early scouts.

But when we're waking up to 10-20 in the cabin, things have gone too far!!!

"Houston, we've got a problem!!!"

We borrowed a pail of shredded coconuts from the marina, and lit it with a torch to smoke the lil demons out.  This seemed to have the desired effect.  Success!!!   Ummmmm.....not so fast!!!

We looked outside, and they had swarmed to the aft rail, around a fender and the GPS antennas.  Their queen must have been there, and the gang was rallying to her defense!  There were hundreds if not thousands of the little buggers.

Things were looking pretty grim aboard the good ship, until Dena, a "bee whisperer" and fellow cruiser from the boat Talaria heard of our plight.  It seems Dena's family used to be commercial bee keepers, and as a girl, she put in many an hour dealing with swarms.  She jumped into the fray like a real trooper, trying to sweep the rascals into a bucket.  Bare handed, I might add.  This girl has cajones!!!

Well, 'plan A' didn't work out too well.  Several bee stings later, it was time to bring out the big guns.  After dark, when the bees were catching a few zzzzz's, we fired up 'Bravo's' shop vacuum, and went deep!!!  Sucked literally a couple of pounds of bees into the vac, and bundled the whole thing into a garbage bag.




The next day, they were back.  We vacuumed up more with a friends vac, and added a bit of Raid to the garbage sacks, to hasten the passage of the pesky beasts to the happy hive in the sky.

Took a few more days till they got the message, but happily, for today, 'Bravo' is a bee free zone!!!  Hopefully this story will need no update!!!   Case closed!!!

El Salvador rambles

El Salvador navy.....a Vietnam relic.....Apocalypse Now, 2012 edition!!!

We've been really enjoying our explorations of nearby towns around Bahia del Sol.  As we reported a few days ago, we took the dinghy up the estuary to Herradura, a little fishing village on the water.  Just got a few photos back from the lab...

Food court at the market...served in baggies w/ a fork.....tasty business!!!

Internet cafe

Herradura recycling center

Two days ago we took the bus to visit the small city of Zacatecoluca.  About 2 hours away, this bustling city gave us a good taste of the local landscape.  The bus ride itself is quite a scene.  Much like the Tokyo subways, they have a guy who's job it is to pack as many aboard as possible.  We stood for about 1-1/4 hours before we could grab a seat.  Counted about 120 people total on the old school bus!!!  Vendors come aboard often, pushing their way down the aisle through the crowd, selling water in baggies, papusas (a local delicacy...a thick corn tortilla filled with bean paste), vegetables, and other treats.  Then the conductor climbs over people, both sitting and standing, continually shaking his change bag to collect fares.  You know how in the US you see women putting on makeup in their rear view mirror as they drive???  Here we had a woman on the bus putting on deodorant in the 90 degree heat.  How considerate of her fellow travelers!!!  Great stuff!!!

Mass transit, Zacatecoluca style

Typical Zacatecoluca street scene

Cindi especially liked the pharmacy at the central market!  "Que necesita???  Tenemos!!!"  (what do you need??...we have it!!!)

Bahia del Sol....'Bravo' goes to summer camp!!!

The last week has been eventful.  We cleared out of Mexico in Chiapas.  The "paperwork cha cha" was quite a process.  It included trips to the port captain and customs offices, and the airport for the immigration officer.  Fees were due, requiring trips to bank machines (or bank), and back again.  We were clearing out with two other boats, so we all went together, driven and greatly assisted by Guillermo from the Marina.  All told it took nearly 4 hours, and we were told that this was very quick!!!  I can see why people often use an agent to help out.  The next morning, the navy and port captain came by to inspect the boats, with along with drug dog "Gamma", a friendly german shephard.  Fresh brewed Chiapas coffee all around, Bravo passed inspection, and was free to leave Mexico, in fact HAD to leave within 48 hours.

Leaving Mexico was emotional for us.  This country has been so welcoming, and the people so warm to us everywhere we traveled.  It was also our intro to this cruising lifestyle, and a great intro it was..."Cruising Light" as we call it...everything you need is available, perhaps with a bit more effort than in the states, but with a bit of perseverence, it's all doable.  Not always the case as we venture further afield.

Breakwater leaving Puerto Chiapas

But we headed out, and immediately had the best sailing conditions that either of us could remember on this entire journey.  With winds between 15 and 22 knots over the starboard quarter, 'Bravo' flew along on the flat seas at a 7.5 knot average, quick for us.  And it lasted all day, and all of the first night of the two night passage past Guatemala to El Salvador.  But this created a real dilemma for us.  One that we've never faced before.....there is a bar crossing to get into the estuary in Bahia del Sol, El Salvador.  We can only get in at high tide, and a pilot boat is required on a jet ski to guide us across the bar through the breaking surf.  Getting there early would just mean bobbing around outside the surf waiting for the high tide at 11 am.  So the entire second day and night we had to continually work to slow the boat down...double reefed main strapped in way too tight, and no headsail, had us crawling along at 4 knots in the glorious sailing breeze.....ARGHHHHH, how frustrating!!!

Panga working his long line off the Guatemala coast.

Even 20 miles out, we passed many long lines floating between two unmarked buoys on our trip down the coast.  Actually they're not entirely unmarked.....oftentimes there is a scrap of black plastic bag tied to a stick in a floating plastic bottle!!!  A bit tough to see in the dark.  Happily we avoided snagging any, though there were several quick evasive maneuvers!!!

3 foot barracuda had a mouth full of razors!!!

Fishing was good on this short passage.  Report:  2 skipjack tuna, 1 baby dorado, 1 barracuda, 1 20 lb. jack crevalle, and finally, 1 nice dorado.  Quite the assortment!  All except the last were thrown back, but the dorado that we kept was a tasty treat!

We finally arrived at the pilot meeting place a bit early, and bobbed about with s/v Panache and s/v Belle Star, both also waiting to cross into the estuary.  The crossing has a serious reputation, but we were confident in both our jet ski pilot team and in 'Bravo' to hang ten and surf in safely. 

Note the pilot coming out through the surf in the center!

The waves looked pretty daunting from outside the line of breakers.  'Bravo' was the first boat called, and as the waves built behind us, the pilot would send instructions over the radio......"big push coming.....hit full throttle NOW.....a bit to the right.....looking good.....another push....." and so on, for a couple of minutes, and we were in!  Easy peasy!!!  As pilot Bill from s/v Mita Kuulu said later, this really was an ideal day to cross the bar.  The photos weren't as impressive as those taken of a few other boats earlier in the year in bigger seas, but we were certainly not complaining as we whooped and hollered and settled into the calm water inside the surf line.

Yeeeee hah.....we're surfing now!!!

We were directed to an open slip at the marina, where we were met by officers from the customs, immigration, and port captain offices.  They escorted us up to the AIR CONDITIONED office resort hotel at the head of the dock, we quickly handled the paperwork, and bingo, we've arrived in El Salvador, and hoisted the new flag.  I mean, how much easier could entering a new country be?????

So, what's the deal here, you ask.....the 'Bravo' crew in a resort?????  Are our heroes hanging up their adventurer's shoes and settling into a new cushy lifestyle???  Well.....a bit of yes, and a bit of no.....This is the destination of something called the "Cruiser's Rally to El Salvador".  Not really a rally in the traditional sense, it is rather a gathering place at this hotel/marina where cruisers are made to feel incredibly welcome, with activities, inland travel opportunities, and exploration of the local villages along the estuary all possible.  It's spearheaded by Bill and Jeanne, a couple of cruisers on s/v Mita Kuulu who visited here a few years ago and fell in love with the country, it's people, and opportunities for unspoiled tourism. 

Based on our first 2 days here, we get it!!!  Here we are at a beautiful resort with 2 pools, for $23/day at a dock (free at anchor).  Beers are $1, we get 30% off everything else at the restaurant and bar (already pretty cheap).  We took a 4 mile dinghy ride up into the estuary yesterday, to the tiny fishing town of Herradura.  Walking up the main street, we were greeted with smiles and waves everywhere.  Other than a few other cruisers, no gringos visit here.  Tourism is not part of their program, and we enjoyed the authentic ambiance of the town.  Picked up a few needed fruits and veggies, and dinghies back to the boat.  Spent the afternoon swimming a mile or so away in the estuary, at a palapa built on stilts, out in the middle of the bay.  People can just drive their boats out there and tie up to enjoy an afternoon in the shaded hammocks, enjoying the swimming and cold cervezas.  Very popular with the locals, it was a great way to spend an afternoon.

Practice makes perfect.....time to quit while ahead!

Adam took casting net lessons from bar pilot Rogelio and his friend Daniel.  They make it look really easy.  Always wanted to learn to throw one of these rascals...takes a while to get the hang of it.












We're now busy with boat projects, and planning some inland travel possibilities in El Salvador.  Volcanoes, Mayan villages, and jungles await!!!  Stay tuned.....