Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Having had enough of Bahia Ballena we left early for Islas Tortugas. We had reasonable winds starting around 15 knots though gradually waning in strength as we approached Islas Tortugas. We had to tack our way upwind as the wind was from the north east. With the wind dying on us we motor sailed the last couple of miles.

Islas Tortugas are a popular day trip destination. Advertisements for trips out here are advertised all around the tourist areas such as Jaco. As expected, when we arrived there were plenty of tourist boats out around the snorkeling areas and up by the beach on the south-eastern island.

We picked a place away from the crowds to first go snorkeling. The attraction was a rock arch we could swim through. The visibility was fair but we did see a lot of fish. We then decided to go for a second snorkel around where the tourist boats were. There were abundant fish as well as abundant day-trippers in the water. The fish seemed very tame so my guess was they were being fed by the tour operators.

We spent the afternoon waiting out the day-trippers who eventually departed the nearby beach. Around 4pm we went ashore to look around. The beach itself was picturesque but was spoiled by the deck chairs and empty cook areas. There was also a demarcation line behind which some folks lived and was deemed private. We explored the length of the beach taking pictures before heading back to Dignity for the evening. On the way back to the boat we stopped to say Hello to the couple on a motor cruiser, Emma Jo, who had showed up in the afternoon. At first we wondered if the boat was Navigator with whom we transited the canal back in January. Turned out we’d seen the boat before in Golfito when it had been crewed by friends of theirs. The couple had moved back aboard in Punternhas recently and are now on their way up to Seattle.

Today is our last full day with Ella aboard. Our plan is to head around the corner to Islas Jesuita/Cedros and then on to Puntarenhas tomorrow to drop her and John off. We’ll meet up with John again on Friday back down in Bahia Herradura when he should be accompanied with Jess and Ben who are due to arrive at the airport just before Ella leaves.

In the morning I dropped of Ella and John on the beach so they could have breakfast then catch the bus to Montezuma. Helen and I stayed aboard most of the day. We spent a while researching our plans for when Ben and Jess are with us and are beginning to finalize our plans. We did go ashore once to pick up bread but that was about it.

With John and Ella having decided to spend the day on the boat, Helen and I set off in the morning to Montezuma. We had been told the day before that the bus to Montezuma should pass by around 9am having left the ferry at Paquera around 8:30am. We wanted to walk from the nearby fishing village to the main road so John dropped us off before 8:30am. It was fortunate we were this early as the bus came by around 8:40am – we only just caught it.

The bus had seen better days. The seats were in tatters and it sounded like the back end of the bus was about to fall off – and that was on the paved roads. It was worse when we hit the unpaved road that led from Cobana to Montezuma. The final stretch was down a very steep road which the bus driver, to our relief, took very carefully.

The bus finally stopped in a shady patch right off the beach in Montezuma. We spent a short while having a brief look around the town. It is not big but it is very quaint. Effort has been made to keep all the buildings in good order. The majority of visitors there are young, many tattooed and many with dreadlocks. The occasional wafts of smoke had smells in keeping with the place.

Not wanting to be caught out in the midday heat we decided to walk to the Montezuma Waterfalls early on. They turned out to be nearby. A short walk along the road by the beach and about five minutes more beyond brought us to a bridge. After crossing over there was a path upriver with a small sign to the waterfalls.

Very soon we reached a place where small trickles of water were falling over a wide section of rock. Being in the dry season we had to imagine what this place could have looked like during the rainy season. Even so it was quite nice.

The path climbed up this section into a shaded river section with a path along side. Within another ten minutes we reached the main falls.

I’m terrible at estimating distances but I would guess they were about sixty feet high tumbling into a deep, cool pool at the bottom. Being a Sunday the area was already well occupied by a number of locals who were enjoying themselves in the pool and jumping off from various rocks around the falls.

Helen and I took a swim ourselves. The pool felt pretty chilly getting in but was soon very refreshing.

Once we’d had enough of the place we headed back into town where we had an early lunch at the restaurant overlooking the main beach. The food was very nice although a little more expensive than the usual fare. Sometimes it’s worth it for the location.

Quite unexpectedly we were given some entertainment of a sort. A local runabout was anchored off the beach. The waves were quite choppy and can only have started coming over the stern as soon the boat was sinking and all the gear aboard floated off.

Fortunately the boat had some buoyancy and didn’t completely sink. Also, the gear aboard headed ashore. Soon the situation was noticed and a growing collection of individuals rallied round to rescue the gear and the boat. More pictures of this can be found in the slideshow at the end of this blog.

We decided to catch the 2pm bus back to Tambor. Having sat, sweating to death, on the wrong bus for 20 minutes or so we moved onto the correct bus which arrived and departed late. This bus was faster and more comfortable than the earlier bus. We took the bus into ‘town’ and walked the beach back to the fishing village. John picked us up when we radioed in.

The discussed plan for today is to swap places. Helen and I will relax on the boat while John and Ella repeat our trip to Montezuma. We want to spend some time researching what to do while Ben and Jess are with us as their time is limited. We have already decided to meet up back at Herradura so they can try out surfing. Helen, having watched us train, is keen to give it a go too. Beyond that we may well just visit Montezuma again and on to Tortuga. We want to spend a few nights inshore so we need to figure that all out.

We hoped for wind. We did. And that’s what we got. 30+ knots of it. Not suspecting the conditions ahead of us we raised full sails while leaving Bahia Herradura. The wind was soon in the the 20s so we reefed both the main and the head sail. As the wind steadily grew we eventually were down to three reefs in the head sail and two in the main. Due to the mountains around us the apparent wind would change from off the beam to close hauled and back again several times necessitating constant watching and trimming of the sails. We had to explain to Ella that sailing was usually a lot more relaxed than this.

We arrived in Bahia Ballena without having had to turn the genset on for the entire trip which is always nice. We anchored up close to a small fishing village where the holding is good. After lunch it was down to doing not a lot for a while as the heat was quite oppressive.

Around 3:30 we went for a walkabout. This involved a beach landing in which noone got seriously wet. As it was close to low tide we had a lot of beach to drag the dinghy up so we could chain it to a tree. Ashore the small town of Tambor was quite pleasant. A few shops and restaurants in a sleepy atmosphere. Walking along the main road we heard howler monkeys and were soon treated to the sight of five in a nearby tree.

I was able to find the times of busses to Montezuma at a nearby hotel. They didn’t know the return times so we’ll have to figure that out when we’re there today.

On the way back we sat down at a beach bar for a few beers. At the end we were joined by a local bloke who probably wanted to scrounge a beer but we didn’t encourage him.

As indicated earlier, today we’re bussing it to Montezuma which should be interesting.

My feet are so stiff. And everywhere else it seems. Here’s why.

After a little lie in we took the dinghy ashore chaining it up to a sturdy tree as we were expecting to leave it for some time. We walked to the bus stop where we could take a ride to Jaco. We only had to wait 10 minutes for the next bus although I don’t know how often they really ran – perhaps hourly. The bus ride took nearly an hour to deposit us in Jaco.

For a seaside town, Jaco is rather differently laid out. Most of the shops and restaurants are on a street parallel to the beach one block out. There are very few signs of commerce along the beach with mainly the backs of hotels, walls and the odd corner restaurant facing the beach.

Our original idea was to surf rent boards for the day and just give it a go. After chatting to some folks on the beach we decided that taking an introductory lesson was the right way to go. In fact the first thing we learned was that right then was a bad time to go surfing as the tide was reaching its ebb and it would be better to wait until the lesson which was at 3pm.

We wandered around town for a while and settled on a restaurant serving an interesting variety of burgers which didn’t disappoint. After lunch we separated to wonder around some more before meeting up back on the beach half an hour before our lesson. Helen had decided not to try out surfing as she was worried about her healing knee so she looked after all our gear. Ella, John and I took our boards out a little early to learn the obvious – that without some instruction we had no idea what we were doing.

Our lesson started a little late which means on time for Central America. The lesson really came in two parts. The first was safety – how to keep yourself and others safe while surfing. The second was how and when to stand up. We had a number of practice sessions on surfboards laid on the sand before going out with separate instructors in groups of two or three.

The progression was worked out quite well as our next task was to stand up on the board while being pushed by the instructor at exactly the right time. At this stage we didn’t have to worry about paddling the board forward or timing our stand. I managed to get stood up on each occasion. The stance we had to make on the board was very similar to one of our old karate fighting stances so the positioning felt quite natural as did shifting weight forward and backward to control the speed. Likewise, the balancing and turning was similar to snowboarding.

After four goes of being pushed the next step was to paddle and stand up in accordance to the instructors called instructions. This was a little more difficult but the results were certainly fun. The surf was building and we were going gradually further out so the runs were getting longer and longer. The downside of this was there was more and more surf to wade back through to start again.

Just when I was feeling completely exhausted we were taken back to the beach for some additional verbal instruction / reinforcement accompanied with fresh fruit and water. We were soon back out again for another grueling half an hour before the whole lesson was up. That was all certainly enough for me. We had learned some valuable lessons – enough to be able to rent boards ourselves some day.

This morning I ache all over. Don’t know how Ella and John feel but I guess it will be much the same when they’re up and about.

Today we’ll be setting off for Bahia Ballena and the town of Tambor. I can hear the wind gen turning so maybe, just maybe, we’ll sail some of the way there.