Sunday we took the tender into the village of Santa Catalina – it’s very laid back with plenty of surfers & divers around, staying in the small hostels & home stays. We shouted ourselves to a chicken & fish lunch at a restaurant on the beach & had a good wander around. Every now & then a bloke on his horse would pop out of the scrub, trot down the beach to the village – one guy even had his gas bottle strapped to his saddle, must have needed refilling. The terrain on the south coast of Panama his pretty steep & rugged with heaps of rainforest, perhaps this is the best way (& maybe only way) to get around!
Monday we picked up anchor early & headed to the Secas Islands where we anchored off Isla Cavada. These islands are north of the Coiba National Park & are just as beautiful without the hefty anchoring & park fees. Isla Cavada has been developed – has an airstrip & a resort with luxury tents at $600+ a night – we didn’t see anyone on shore! The water was really clear & blue, the nicest we’ve seen for a while.
Tuesday was another early start & unfortunately a whole day of motoring to get us to Puerto Armuelles, our check out point for Panama. We arrived just on dark & anchored near a huge jetty which is no longer used apart from fishermen. Shortly after our arrival we were visited by a boat containing the local AMP (Maritime Authority) guy & his offsider. They wanted to see our paperwork assuming we were checking into Panama. When we explained we were wanting to check out they expressed their surprise at the lack of paperwork we had been given at our Porvenir (San Blas) check in. All we had was our cruising permit & receipts from Immigration saying we paid our $100 check in fee. Apparently we also were supposed to have a National Zarpe indicating our intention to cruise through Panama & also a form from Quarantine & Customs. We knew nothing of this & explained that Porvenir had only provided the cruising permit - there is no Quarantine or Customs at Porvenir. After offering the guys a beer – they took a Coke each - we arranged to meet at his office the next day at 9am to get all this sorted out.
After another beach landing in the dinghy we head to the AMP office in Armuelles to start the never ending process of paperwork. Renaldo ended up being a really nice guy. He drove us to Immigration & then took us on a tour of his town which he was very proud of pointing out the best supermarket, airport, fire station & hospital. Then we had to visit Quarantine, Customs & the Merchant marine office before finally ending back at the AMP office. It took 3 hours! So much paperwork....doing 4 copies of each!! Finally we had all the necessary stuff to leave Panama. We walked down through town & found a small cafe (hole in the wall really) & celebrated with a hamburger each & a big bottle of water. Our cheapest lunch yet – only $4.75!! We love Panama!! After grabbing a few groceries we headed back to PANNIKIN, upped anchor & sailed down the coast under pouring rain to Punta Balsa where we anchored for the night.
Thursday was another long day of motoring due to no wind. We left Panama behind & now are in Costa Rica. We arrived at the surf spot called Pavones late afternoon – it is one of Costa Rica’s longest left waves. Again much to Steve’s despair there was not much swell & no waves. There were a couple of guys out having not much luck so we continued on to the town of Golfito. It was absolutely pouring when we arrived & nearly dark. We anchored off the 3 small marinas & cracked a beer.
Friday was another day of paperwork. We met Mark & Kathy from SWEET CHARIOT at the Land Sea Services dock & decided to do our paperwork together. They are heading south to Panama & then through the Canal to the San Blas. Land Sea Services is where most cruisers go - Tim & Katie have been in Costa Rica for 20 years & have basically expanded their home to accommodate cruisers. We were able to leave our tender at their dock & we moved PANNIKIN to one of their mooring balls to feel a bit safer. Costa Rica is notorious for crime & having PANNIKIN closer to shore & in the line of security lights made us happier. Land Sea provides a dinghy dock, showers, wifi, cruisers clubhouse, laundry service & a self serve fridge stocked with beer! There are four mooring balls at $12 per night for first seven nights & then $10 per night after that. While we were chatting with Tim about check in procedures he spotted a huge crocodile swimming through the bay. He’d never seen one that big so close to town – it was about 12 feet! Welcome to Costa Rica!!! Once we had PANNIKIN moored it was time to set off with Mark & Kathy to do our check in paperwork. We decided to walk instead of taking the bus or a taxi so it took us most of the day! Again four copies of passports, boat rego papers, crew list, zarpe etc etc etc were needed – a complete paperwork nightmare - immigration, Customs & then Port Authority captain (who had mysteriously disappeared much to his secretary’s distress!). More waiting there. We stopped at the Banco National for Mark & Kathy to pay their Costa Rica exit fee. It took an hour before they were served – only 1 teller! Now we understand why the bank had toilets & free coffee! . Everyone was very friendly though & we did get to see most of the town. Steve attempted to get a sim card for internet – that was the easy part – trying to get credit for the sim card was not! After a very late lunch at a great little cafe we headed back to PANNIKIN to catch up on emails. After feeding a gigantic green turtle bananas from the dock it was happy hour drinks at Land Sea at 6pm where we chatted to Mark & Kathy about Panama & the San Blas. Showed them where we have anchored & stuff so hopefully they have a bit more information now. They also started to tell us about El Salvador & Mexico.
This morning after a cuppa we were invited onto SWEET CHARIOT to discuss more about Mexico. Mark & Kathy gave us one of their Mexican cruising guides which is really lovely of them. We’ve got all their favourite places marked & now we have an idea of where to go & what to see. Thank you so much guys!
At the moment Steve is off again trying to get credit for the phone while I catch up on computer work. We have to fuel the boat & get some groceries before heading off in the morning. Hopefully our laundry will be back this afternoon. I can hear the howler monkeys calling nearby! Lots of wildlife in Costa Rica!