After seeing Nana off in Playas del Coco on July 7th, we had to say another farewell to our long-time cruising buddies on s/v Trinity as we had an appointment to keep at the end of the month to ship the boat back to Seattle from Golfito in Southern Costa Rica and needed to get moving.  Trinity is on an open-ended voyage and elected to spend more time in the Papagayo Gulf and so we both wished each other fair winds and following seas and sailed off down and around the Nicoya Peninsula and into the Gulf of Nicoya, where we spent over a week before hurrying through Central Costa Rica to Golfito and the Golfo Dulce.  Our new good friends on m/v Wayfinder were on the same schedule, heading for an appointment of transiting the Panama Canal in September, and so we spent the next few weeks in their company.

Along the way, we spent several nights anchored off of the Oasis hotel on Playa Naranjo in the Gulf of Nicoya, a very cruiser friendly place, before heading to Punta Leona, which was the exact opposite.  The staff at the Oasis were incredibly friendly and helpful, letting us hang out by the pool, play with their tame parrots and even borrow a car to make a fuel run!  By contrast, the security staff at the hotel at Punta Leona all but chased us off the beach and wanted us to by $20 per day resort bracelets just to enter the grocery store!  We only stayed one night there, but that was one night too many as our dinghy and outboard motor were stolen off the stern of our boat while we slept!  We usually lift the dingy up on the davits and lock it to the boat at night, but we feel asleep early and forgot to do that.  Wouldn't you know, the one time we forget...

What can you do?  Nothing really.  There's no one to report it to and nothing they could do about it anyway, so we simply left at first light for friendlier ports farther south.  Mike and Sarah from m/v Wayfinder were kind enough to give us rides ashore for the next few days and we visited both Manuel Antonio National Park and Drakes Bay together.

Manuel Antonio National Park is incredibly lush and tropical, the most visited National Park in Costa Rica.  We saw many species of birds, "Jesus Christ" lizards (the ones that walk on water) White-Throated Capuchin Monkeys (video) and even a Three-towed Tree Sloth (Video). 

After Drake's Bay, we made our last stop in Puerto Jiminez in the Golfo Dulce, where we fed crocodiles and visited the wonderful butterfly gardens of the Crocodile Lodge there, before finally arriving in Golfito on July 24th.  At this writing, we are currently on the docks of the King and Bartlett Marina in Golfito (highly recommended) awaiting arrival of the transport freighter, which has been delayed a few days transiting the Panama Canal on the way here from Florida (they are dredging the canal).  Loading is now scheduled for July 31st.