Paperwork Cha- Cha
07 April 2008 | Playa del Coco, Costa Rica
Amy
Moved Sunshine over to Playa del Coco early in the morning to check in with the Port Captain & Immigration. Jim first went on shore around 8:30. Called us around 11- he had the handheld VHF with him, and said the Immigration lady needed us all to come to her office. So after he came back to get us, and finished it was after 2 by the time all the paperwork cha-cha was complete. So that sounds about par for the course, from what we read, it can take 2-4 hours or 2-4 days depending on the day, the location of the port and clearance officials, etc. There is no landing dock here, so it's a beach entrance which with the surf and tides makes for some interesting landings, and obviously the reason why the officials do not come out to your boat. Jim finished with the customs agent at 2:00, then went to the Internet café to get information on getting my Dad to Panama either by bus or plane. After going those 4 days nearly non-stop, except to sleep, it's just not something easily done- especially with kids, and definitely not something we want to do long term, we decided it would be too strenuous to get him to Panama by the 14th to catch his flight. Besides we'd have to miss out on a lot of things we really want to see along the way that we will not have the opportunity to do again on this side of the canal. And Dad really is itching to get home and finish up on the work that needs done on their new house.
We got back to Sunshine around 5:30, and had BLT's for dinner. It was the first time we had bacon since leaving Michigan, except for the one time we each had a piece & 1/4 up in Chalatango. With going over the info Jim got for Dad, it looks like he'll be leaving tomorrow, and so he got his belongings packed and ready to go ashore in the morning, get checked off our crew list and catch a bus at 2 in the afternoon for San Jose, to get on another bus to Panama at 11 p.m. to go 16 hours on the bus to there. He also once there, since the bus takes him right to the airport, may look in to a flight from CR to Panama to catch his return flight home.