We arrived Bahia Santa Elena, Costa Rico shortly after our estimated time of arrival, which was early afternoon. We were very excited to have made another landfall into another country after 30 hours at sea. Arctic Vixen had sailed a bit further off the coast so they arrive shortly after we had set anchor. Bahia Santa Elena is a beautiful bay that is outlined with the uninhabited land of the Santa Rosa National Park. Punta Isla and Punta Alajo mark the opening of the bay, in which each have very large rocky islands that lie offshore from the points. The bay tucks back from the ocean allowing the anchorage to be fairly calm even in strong papagayo winds. Mangroves where all along the shoreline. Other than strong gusty winds coming over the hillside, this was a very peaceful and isolated anchorage that was a great introduction to Costa Rico.
At the head of the cove, near the entrance of the bay we spotted the beach that was mentioned in the guide to be "shell beach" and was known to have paper nautilus shells on it. We had made plans to go ashore with Arctic Vixen to explore the area and hike over to shell beach during the day. Five of us piled into one dinghy and headed to shore to explore. We quickly found out that it was further around the point to get access to shell beach. We decided to land the dinghy on the bay side of the point and walk around. Well that was easier said than done! The walk was picking your way through the dry rocks, avoiding the slimed slippery rocks, crossing over shale slabs at times to the very windy ocean side of the opening of the bay. The wind not only had picked up but there was a venturi affect through the small islands that outlined the bay. It was that kind of wind that you could lean against and not fall over when walking against it. Once we got to the beach we were pleasantly surprised to find various seashell treasures. Amazingly we did find paper nautilus shells!