I kicked off Sunday with a little research into our future travels along the west coast of Costa Rica. There are some particularly interesting areas such as the active volcano Arenal and the Osa Peninsula which I’d like to make sure we fit in. As I go I’m making records of possible anchorages.
The day promised to be hot as ever with little or no wind. Early on I spotted Gerald from Whiskers dinghying back to his boat with jerry cans filled with water. He came by and we had a little chat. The upshot of this is we agreed to share a cab to the nearby Caribe Plaza (which we’d walked to a few days ago) to enjoy the air conditioning during the midday heat and, perhaps, to do a little shopping.
At 11am we all headed to the dinghy dock and caught a cab to the mall. The cab only cost $2.50 which amongst four of us is next to nothing. The cool air of the mall was most welcome. We wandered around all together sharing stories and laughs. We had lunch at the fast food joints on the second floor. As meat is quite cheap here fast food includes pretty good food. I had ribs and Helen had steak strips in a bun.
After lunch we headed for the Carrefour supermarket downstairs. I took a closer look at booze prices. With the kids coming at Xmas and the prospect of difficulties provisioning at Colon, Panama (due to the Panama Yacht Club being demolished recently) having a decent stock is important. Turns out the beer prices are pretty good. 330cl cans of decent beer can be had for under 60c and 500cl bottles for 50c. I filled half a shopping trolley. We also picked up a few different bottles of $5 wine to try out over the next few nights.
Back on the boat it was stifling. We decided to do the wash and run the air conditioning. This is the first time we’ve run it outside of testing it. It was a luxury but bliss. Sadly, within a couple of hours we’d lost the benefit of it and the boat was now hotter inside than out. The 95F water can’t help.
Shortly after having an evening snack Dianne and Gerald passed by and said hello. We encouraged them aboard as we’d opened one of the bottles of wine and they could try it out. One thing led to another and we ended up trying all the bottles we’d bought. We’re a bad influence on each other.
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