Playa Cocos
We had a nice sail from Bahia Santa Elena to Playa Cocos with flat water and about 15 knots of wind and arrived mid-afternoon. Saltbreaker, a Valiant 32 from San Francisco, arrived about 2 hours after us. We had met them in Bahia Santa Elena, and they’re heading south like us and also across to the Marquesas. They are 2 brothers and a friend, all in their 20’s, and it’s great to see some young people out cruising and enjoying life. Most of the cruisers are people around our age. The next morning Karen, Ed, and Connie went ashore to check in with the port captain, and Larry stayed on the boat because he had hurt his back and could barely move. After checking in with the port captain, we went to Immigration and Karen filled out their paperwork. They said the Captain (Larry) had to sign the papers and when Karen explained why he was not here with us, they got annoyed and insisted that only he could sign the papers and said they would go out to the boat to see Larry and have him sign the papers. Maybe they thought we had tossed Larry overboard!! So the immigration man, the port captain, and Ed all went out to the boat to see Larry. When they got there and met Larry they wanted to see another form of ID, even though they had his passport, (jeeesh!) so he showed them his drivers license. Then when we thought that was taken care of, they said he would have to get off the boat because only the captain could go to customs and fill out the paperwork! Jeeesh, again! Why didn’t they tell us that to begin with instead of going out to the boat?! Poor Larry had a hard time crawling off the boat into a panga and coming ashore with a beach landing. Customs was at the airport about an hour away, but fortunately our new friends from Saltbreaker had access to a car (because their parents had flown in to Cocos to meet them and rented a car) so they took Larry and saved him a $40 taxi ride. So while Larry was gone to Customs, Karen, Ed, and Connie enjoyed lunch and a stroll along the beach. They have a pretty walkway and park like grounds along the beach. Cocos is a cute little town with a lot of tourists. We stopped at a pizza place to use their free wifi and met the owner who was a Canadian who had fallen in love with Costa Rica and had been there for quite a few years. We have met many Canadians who live in Mexico or Central America.