Punta Leona,
Costa Rica
Grace uses email as a primary means of communication.
Have not been keeping my journal up; I guess because we''ve been anchored in the beautiful port of Punta Leona, Costa Rica for over a week , and I've been really lazy. We were getting ready to leave for the Galapagos when Erin and Jay decided to come for a visit, so we decided we needed to wait until after their vacations because there was no way, we could find, for them to get into and out of the Galapagos. Our propane tanks are full-our diesel tanks are full-because we rented a car, took our jerry cans ashore in the dinghy, drove to a filling station, filled the cans, brought them back, put them in our dinghy which was bobbing and weaving and trying to escape into the ocean (surely did protest hauling fuel)-launched the dinghy through the waves and made it safely to Gracie. Do you know how much 6 gallons of diesel fuel weighs? It took 13- 6 gallon jugs to fill our tanks so this meant we had to launch through the surf twice.We drove down to Quepos which has a dock that looks like something out of starwars,it's 100's of feet in the air-built for tankers and commercial boats-too intimidating for us. It would be necessary to call a panga taxi-take the taxi to the dock-load the fuel into the panga-take the panga back to Gracie. The tide on this side of Central America is approximately 10 feet or more so its difficult to use or build docks. When the tide goes out, you see this vast expanse of land that your boat might be sitting on if you're not watching the fathometer. Jerry keeps telling me it's no big deal. You just tip over a little-then when the tide comes in you just float again. This is one experience I would like to forego. Twice we have touched bottom, and it was as hard on me as on our bottom paint
We have kept our rental car for the time Erin & Jay will be here. They fly in on Wednesday, and Jerry has been looking at surfboards all week. Jaco, 8 miles south of us or it feels south, I guess west since Central America lies more east and west than north and south, is the little town of Jaco, surfboard heaven. The waves do not inspire me with any great confidence. We eat at a restaurant on a hill , about a 1000 feet straight up, where you can watch the waves gather far out to sea, and Jerry instructs me on the ones that will be a good ride-for someone else. It's hard to believe that people come especially to ride these waves,100's no 1000,s of young people from the states.
We had to drive to Puntarenos to get our propane bottles filled because the connections which are used on U.S. bottles are different from the bottles here. We had directions from several different people, everyone knows where a place is but not specifically. We went to the gas depot near the shipyard, and he told us we needed to go to the farm in Puerto Culebra or wait until Tuesday this was Saturday. We set out to find the farm which another man had told us was just before the bridge where we would see a big Z-turn right and we would see all these tanks. A 1/2 dozen bridges-many right turns-no big Z's and no tanks, we headed home. The next day we decided to try again prepared to leave the tank until Tuesday, if necessary. We stopped at several places where people gave us many directions, none of which we really understood well. One thing to remember in Costa Rica is that all roads-even important ones- which turn off the main road are dirt paths through the jungle. Our car knows how to U-turn well. One last road to the right-bumping and swerving through the jungle-one more turn and then around a truck with a big Z-tanks-tanks-everywhere. We found it. We're rich-we can cook. Is that good? I never thought there would come a time in my life when a full propane tank meant wealth.
On the way back, we crossed a bridge where crocodiles were supposed to be browsing and were they. My first sighting of crocodiles au naturel. Oh, what big teeth they have and what short tempers. They stay close to the bridge because people throw chickens at them. They look like they could handle a lot of chickens but how beautiful in their awesomely ugly way.
- 27 may 2000