sailing Costa Rica | A Family Afloat

January 16, We had wind for a great sail down to Bahia Drake, our first stop on the Osa Peninsula. What a beautiful sight! A lot less travelled and a lot more rain, the Osa Peninsula’s rain forest is dense and attractive. After dropping the hook under sail, we immediately got the paddle boards out with just enough time to venture up the river against the current. This was by far one of the coolest jungle sightseeing experiences yet. The next day we took a hike in the jungle and along the beach. We took a dip and rinsed off in some much needed fresh water. On our way back we encountered a group of rambunctious Capuchin Monkeys. I will admit there was a few moments of “I’m not so comfortable with this”.

January 18th, we made our way south the Matapalo. We actually had good wind again for this stretch. We only motored for 2 1/2 hours, and that was mostly to give our batteries a boost and to get safely into the anchorage. Just before lunch we caught a yellowfin tuna! Sushi time! This was the first fish we’ve caught since November ! We anchor at 4pm and Christian was off the boat heading to surf by 4:15. I stayed behind to prep our Tuna dinner of Poke appetizer, a few Nigiri Sushi pieces, and Garlic Ginger seared Tuna with rice and beans for the main course. Yum!

We had two full days of double surf sessions. Christian took his SUP with an anchor and his board up around the corner to Matapalo break in the mornings. I surfed both days just in front of our boat. Both evening, we surfed together at a place just east of us, in which we paddle boarded to and anchored them just off of the break. Taj joined us the second evening with his Boogie board. He caught a few good ones right next to me! The third morning there, Christian went his way for his surf and I took Nina and Taj on a hike to the waterfalls. It was a beautiful hike, with lots of rainforest views. It was so nice to take a freshwater shower under the falls.

Josie and TajNina

We then sailed off the hook and over to Jimenez to stock up on food and fuel and get at little wifi time in.

We started Costa Rica off strong first with heavy winds pushing us out of our first anchorage and then with a zip line canopy tour with Vista Los Sueños Canopy tour company.

January 3rd, after our 19 day passage we thought we would have a great nights rest anchored in Punta Leona, Costa Rica. We thought wrong. Upon going to bed we had light onshore winds, most likely Papagoyo related, but not strong enough to be a concern. By midnight, they got stronger, then by 2 am we were sitting a lee shore with wind blowing 20 with gusts of about 25. No fun! We were about to pull up anchor and head south around the corner when we realized the windless wasn’t working! It was dark, windy, we were tired, there was no way we were going to pull are anchor up by hand. (I’m sure we could have if we had to.) We were solid in our holding, so we opted to sleep in the dodger and take watches until the morning. Needless to say, we didn’t sleep well at all. First thing in the morning light, the wind had calmed a bit, we pulled up the anchor and sailed out and down to the next anchorage, Herradura.

Although sleep deprived, we were so excited to get our legs on land. Shortly after dropping the hook, we rowed into shore, where we tied our dinghy up on the beach and walked into town. We spent the entire day walking around, just getting a feel for Costa Rica. The Spanish is different, faster with different words. Most people speak English here though. Figuring out the money was a challenge too. The Colones is 560 per the US dollar. After having the Mexican Pesos figured out, now we had to adjust to Colones. We quickly discovered that Costa Rica has about the same prices for everything as the US and double the prices for anything related to marina fees and boat related costs. We will not be staying in any marinas here if we can help it. One thing we loved and worth the money here, was the fried plantains. We had “nachos” with friend green plantain instead of chips as part of our first Costa Rican meal. Yum!

During our 5+ miles walk about, we stumbled upon a Canopy Zip Line tour company called Vista Los Sueños Rainforest Tours. We decided to splurge this one time and schedule a 10 platform zip line experience for the next day. Everyone was so excited! First thing the next morning, we rowed to shore and made our way up town to Vista Los Sueños for our 10 am tour. We were the first of our tour group to arrive, so we given bracelets stating we were #1, which meant that we got to go first! The staff at Los Sueños were super nice. They are all bilingual and well trained. After a safety intro, we took a tractor ride up the rainforest’s hill to platform 1 of 10. After another quick instructional talk it was time to start. I went first, followed by Ellamae, then Taj (yes, Taj went all by himself!), followed by Nina, then Christian.

The tour itself was about 2 hours. We all had a blast! At the completion, they give you a nice cup of seasonal fruit.

Afterward, we got a shuttle ride into Jaco, the tourist surf town nearby. We were in search of coffee and wifi, but instead found an acai bowl/yoga studio place called B-Fresh that offered amazing smoothies, acai bowls, panini sandwiches, kombucha on tap, and cold brew coffee for the after fruit sugar crash. It felt like we were in California again, in a good way. The prices were expensive as far as our cruising status was concerned, but still a little cheaper than California.

Before heading back to the boat we tried our first Costa Rican “Soda” place for dinner. A Soda is basically a cheaper typical food restaurant. Sometimes more like fast food, and not quite as expensive as a tourist oriented restaurant. It was good, but it was not the Mexican food we had been spoiled with for the last 2 years.