BAHIA DRAKE (Drake Bay)

We headed the 12 miles to the mainland to settle in for the night at Drake Bay.  It’s a wide sweeping bay and not too protected.  It has a reputation for being swelly but it was our only logical destination that that could be reached before dark.  We pulled in and anchored in a shallow depth of 10’.  There were two other sailboats anchored nearby, one from Portland, Oregon and the other from San Diego.  It was comforting having neighbors nearby for the night.

The setting was wide and sweeping.  This bay is said to be where Sir Francis Drake, the first English navigator to sail around the world, landed in 1579.  It’s a remote area, only accessible by boat.  We gazed at The Drake Wilderness Resort with it’s green lawns, cabanas, and hammocks that  overlooked the bay.  A small native village was nestled in the crescent of the bay.  It was a picturesque setting as the huts were snuggled in among the grey trunked palm trees.  It was beautiful and peaceful.  The sky seemed immense with dramatic bursting with rain filled clouds, that whipped in all directions.  The beaches were a dark volcanic sand color.  Different colored pongas were beached on the shore and a few ticos were riding horses across the sand.  This was our back drop to the nearby hills covered in thick green foliage.  There were funny looking little fishing boats hovering about us in the bay.  The fishermen were cleaning fish and throwing the guts in the water.  As quickly as the fish guts left their hand a flock of pelicans would swoop down to snatch up every scrap almost before it reached the sea.  or five  pongas fished together.  Each ponga would have two fishermen in it and you could here them chatting away as they went about their daily routine. 

Drake Bay now marked our position at a latitude where we could expect heavy rain showers.  We made ourselves a few margaritas and sat on the back of the boat and watched as the thunder clouds slowly marched in and curled around the bay getting ready to release their overfilled cheeks.  We sat back and enjoyed the surroundings. 

We had a quiet evening with dinner on the boat and decided to explore this place in the morning.

CLICK on ANY PICTURE to ENLARGE

It was the first solid peaceful nights sleep that we’ve had in awhile.  There was no rolling as we expected.  Again, in the early morning, the fishermen were back, floating and working nearby our boat.  After some breakfast, we got the dinghy out and decided to give it a try on this shore.  We surveyed the shore and decided on the best approach. After a few tense moments and bitter words, Larry ran it to shore with no problem.  We landed easily and pulled the dinghy to a high spot where we decided it was a safe place.    We pulled it up far enough so as not to have to worry about the tide coming in and taking it away. 

I was immediately struck by the abundance of shells on the beach and began collecting.  Ziggy was just happy to be on land and was running about wildly.  There were a handful of  “eco” tourists who had just landed by ponga on the shore nearby.  They were greeted by their guides and were then being transported to one of the few wilderness lodges in the area.  To reach this bay they had to have taken a small plane to Sierpe, a village nearby.  They would  then be loaded into a small ponga-like launch and motored down the picturesque Sierpe River to the mouth of the Drake Bay.  There is no road to this area.  You can only reach this destination by small plane and then boat or arrive like we did.  It is noted for it’s remoteness and close proximity to Corcovado National Park so it is a popular destination for eco travelers with a bent on communing with nature and an appetite for rigorous hiking.

 The park is huge with some 132,00 acres of pure wilderness.  It is a true tropical rain forest with an annual rainfall of over 200 inches each year!  It is a sanctuary for endangered wildlife and boasts a healthy jaguar population that has tripled since the park was established.  This is a rariety since a jaguar needs 40 square miles to support its voracious appetite for prey animals.  300 species of birds are said to live in Corcovao and the park is said to have an abundance of wild orchids and bromeliads.  So imagine the size and beauty of this area.

We walked around the small “village” which looked much better from the boat.  We became dehydrated from the heat and stopped at a little “tienda” for something to drink.  We managed to get two soft drinks (warm by the way, since they have no refrigeration).  The bottles were so dusty that we poured the drinks into our mouths rather than put them in contact with our lips.  Another sailboat that was anchored said there were a couple of “sodas” (restaurants) and “tiendas”  (stores).  This description was quite a stretch of the imagination.  It was very primitive to say the least.  After a long hot look around, we decided to get back in the dinghy and check out the Drake Wilderness Lodge on the point of the bay.  Our sailboat neighbor had told us how to get ourselves into the small hidden inlet to the resort.  We had to go in between the waves to find their dinghy dock.  It was manageable but the inflatable dinghy doesn’t have much power and to race between the waves was not too easy. 

The lodge welcomed us in and served us fresh homemade guava juice and invited us to lunch!  It was a casual rustic place but very friendly and hospitable. Lunch was served at 12:00 and they told us to make ourselves at home.  Ziggy was invited too.  I immediately dove into the swimming pool that overlooked the bay and ocean.  The pool was filled with clear blue sea water, no chemicals.  The nearby lawns had palm trees with hammocks suspended from them.  There were exotic flowers and the sounds of birds everywhere.  Lunch was great.  Everyone was very friendly and we sat with some of the guests of the lodge.  We were invited to come back for dinner and told to call the on the radio and they would send a launch out to pick us up.

The owner of the lodge also told us to take the dinghy further back into the inlet.  He said that at high tide you can kayak or motor a dinghy quite a ways into the jungle and can even take a swim at the end in a natural pool.  As it was high tide and slack water, it was the only time you could do that.  We carefully maneuvered the dinghy slowly back into the jungle inlet.  The foliage and trees rose straight up a few hundred feet with long tarzan vines hanging over the water.  We passed several submerged rocks and a  rustic suspension walking bridge.  There were beautiful flowering trees and banana plants, and jungle foliage of all kinds.  It was spectacular.  We went as far as we could in the dinghy avoiding the shallow spots.  The inlet was getting much narrower than we felt was comfortable for us in the dinghy so we headed back with the memory of a great experience.  Wow, this place had so much to offer!

This was more than we expected for an anchorage.  It had been minimally written up in the books.  It had been described merely as a rolly anchorage.  Either we hit it at an unusual time or everything was proving to be the opposite.  We went back to the boat and rested that afternoon.  I added more shells to my collection.

We called the Drake Wilderness Lodge to have the launch pick us up at 5:00 so we would have enough time to walk a path into the jungle to see and here the birds and monkeys at dusk.  Dinner was equally as pleasant.  We started with cocktails in their rustic open air bar and then walked the pathway to their screened in dining room.  The dining room consisted of two large picnic tables but elegantly dressed with table clothes, candles and tropical flowers. 

Dinner wasn’t as memorable as lunch but we had a chance to meet the rest of the guests and hear about their adventures in the park.  We decided that night that this anchorage was one of our favorite spots of the whole trip.

COSTA RICA COASTGUARD

Wishing we had more time, but knowing we had to continue on to meet our schedule, we left early in the morning heading south to Golfito where we would meet up with Dave Wyman and the Surbecks.  We had about a 6 hour cruise to get there and had plenty of time.  I was driving the boat while Larry was busy checking the engine room.  I was still in my pajamas as we left early.  We were passing the Corcovao Park on our left as we headed south.  I notice a large ship ahead on a peculiar course.  It seemed to be heading straight for me but a ways out.  I changed course to make way and then they changed course and cut across the path in front of us.  I called Larry up out of the engine room and we both were puzzled.  Was this a “pirate” (me thinking) or was the guy asleep or busy doing something else.  As we got closer, we could see in the binoculars that it was the Costa Rican Coast Guard.  Larry hailed them on the radio but they did not answer.  I looked at them through the binoculars as they had stopped now.  They didn’t seem to be paying us any attention and were busy on deck . 

 They were busy getting their dinghy down and weren’t waving at us, so we figured they were going into the park.  We continued on still enjoying the good weather and scenery when all of a sudden we saw the coast guard in their zodiac racing up on our starboard side waving at us to pull over.  We immediately came to a stop and greeted them on the cockpit.  They boarded our vessel right away.  We had some initial trouble understanding what they wanted.  They asked to come inside so we figured they were going to search the vessel.  We invited them to sit down at the salon table and soon they asked for something to drink.  Cokes again on ice.  I think it must be an excuse to cool off in the AC and get a cold drink.  So I was busy answering his questions as one of them filled out a questionnaire about our boat. Larry was busy serving drinks to everybody inside and even outside on the swim step and to the guys in their zodiac.  They had questions like, how much fuel, how big was the boat, etc.  After about ten minutes the head guy had completed his form and carefully removed the antiquated carbon copy paper and gave us a copy.  We said our goodbyes and sent them off with a couple six packs of Coca Cola.  We decided we were going to load up on soft drinks and beer for these special occasions. 

Now we head for Golfito