Christmas 2011 in Golfito
30 December 2011
Virginia and Dennis Johns
We celebrated Christmas in Golfito, Costa Rica. It was hard not being with family, but we were surrounded by friends which made the holiday very enjoyable. The Curry family (friends of ours from Santa Barbara) were vacationing in Costa Rica for the holiday and just happened to be right across the bay from us near Puerto Jimenez. They took the ferry over on Saturday and spent Christmas Eve on Libertad. So we had a bit of home with us on Christmas morning! We skyped Darren and his family with video and got to see our granddaughters in their fancy new dresses and Kira without her braces (which had just been taken off a few days ago). We also called our parents later in the day. Felt great to be able to connect with them. Christmas dinner was a potluck with 12 other cruisers. Tim and Katie of LandSea (Tierra Mar) graciously hosted us on their big covered patio . Two of the cruisers had gone to the Panama border and bought turkeys for the feast. We each brought side dishes. We tried to make it somewhat traditional with mashed potatoes, stuffing, “the green bean casserole”, jello salad, and sweet potatoes (among other things). I made the sweet potatoes, but had to actually use camotes – the local variety which are a different color than what we are used to, but with pineapple and brown sugar glaze they tasted very similar. We got a big downpour of rain during dinner, but we were nice and dry on the patio. We exchanged white elephant gifts which added more fun to the event. There were cruisers from Australia, Germany, Washington, and California there. There were three boats from California, us along with one from Ventura and another from Channel Islands. Katie and Tim were also from Santa Barbara prior to relocating to Golfito. Small world.
We will be enroute to Panama on New Year’s Eve – Happy New Year all!