June 11, 2002. Golfito, Costa Rica.

N 8 deg. 36′ 25″

W 83 deg. 12′ 35″

We arrived in Golfito today after 11 hours of motoring from Drake Bay. Yesterday was a busy day. We found out that our two AGM batteries are dead. One of them is our starter battery and we discovered the problem when the engine refused to start.

 

We can also start the engine with our house batteries so we were not stranded, but we will have to replace them as soon as we can. Our house batteries do not seem in the greatest of health either but hopefully they have another year in them. Because it rains so much here, we have had to discharge the batteries more deeply than in Mexico, where the solar panels recharged them daily without trouble. Now we recharge them during brief sunny and windy periods and when we are motoring, and have to depend on stored power for 2 or 3 days at a time.

Yesterday we also finished the fourth and last load of upholstery covers for the salon couches. They look much brighter! The rainy weather makes the forests here very lush but it also makes mold and mildew thrive. Next laundry load will include our pillows which have acquired a sickeningly sweet yeasty smell which we attribute to some tropical mold. Bugs thrive too. Would you believe that bugs would prosper in crushed red pepper flakes? I noticed that the flakes had caked together and upon closer inspection they were crawling with tiny bugs, different from weevils. The eggs must have been there all along as the container is well sealed. I bought it in the US five years ago. Bugs like cumin seeds too.

After laundry, we went up the mangrove river in Drake’s bay and spotted several bright green lizards (nearly neon green) which we had not seen before, as well as a beautiful specimen of the basilisk. I never thought I would grow fond of lizards, but seeing so many different kinds scampering around, each with their own character and coloring, is quite fun. The basilisk (triple-crested lizard) is even capable of climbing right up a coconut tree and running on the surface of the water. The lizards are not overly afraid of humans so you can get relatively close.

We also went hiking along the trail to the Corcovado park, which was following the coast just inside the lush jungle forest. We saw many wild hibiscus and wild begonias as well as pretty much any house plant you have seen in the north, but in larger size. The park was too far to reach in one afternoon but the vegetation along the the trail was similar to the one in the park. Unfortunately, we failed to see the scarlet macaws (red parrots) we were hoping to see on the way. We finished the day with delicious overpriced drinks at one of the resort in Drake’s bay. The bar was overlooking the bay and the lush grounds full of tropical flowers. It seems like a great place for a luxurious get-away vacation far from any city, with nothing to do but kayaking, hiking, diving, observing wildlife and admiring the wild vegetation.

I have talked about rain a fair amount, but to give you an idea of the volume of water we get, here is a comparison: it rains as much here in a month during the rainy season as it does an entire year in Seattle! (that is 200 inches (500 cm) of rain during the 6 months of rainy season.) That makes the trees grow really tall and green, the lizards quite happy and the molds ambitious. The rains have one positive side-effect (besides water for laundry), it is now cooler. The average temperature during the day is in the mid-eighties instead of mid-nineties (30 C instead of 35 C).

I think I forgot to mention that the large cockroaches that live here are predators for scorpions. They have a neat trick, they land on the scorpion’s back and the scorpion, as defense, tries to hit the cockroach with its poisonous tail, but ends up hitting itself as the dart goes through the cockroach’s wings, into the scorpion’s own body.

Tomorrow, we will go shopping for batteries and food in Golfito which is a small town in the Golfo Dulce.

We hope all is well with you.

Cheers, Birgitta and Clark.

PS: The computer is still working fine (we are babying it) but we have had trouble connecting to winlink by radio which is why you are getting several logs together.