Quepos Cigars - Best in Costa Rica

Just our good luck to happen upon Norma's Cigar Shop in Quepos! We stopped in to pick up some cigars for Chris and ended up making a new friend.

Chris with Norma

Norma has lived in Quepos for many years and she turned out to be a wealth of information about the area, where to find parts and anything else we needed. Her husband works on AC systems and was able to assist us in repairing our air conditioning on board Sirena, a necessity in this hot, humid climate.

One day Norma demonstrated how cigars are rolled. First she laid out a wrapper leaf, usually from Costa Rica, or Nicaragua. Removing the central vein in order to keep the wrapper smooth for a uniform burn, she stretched it out diagonally on a flat surface.

Removing the vein from the wrapper leaf, cutting and wetting it for wrapping.

Selecting long leaf filler tobacco. Some are mild and others more robust in flavor.

Next she selected long leaf filler tobacco and bunched it very tightly together. Laying the filler across the wrapper she began to roll the cigar, tucking in the filler leaves as she proceeded.

Once completely rolled, the wrapped cigar is tightly packed into a mold and placed in a press to allow the cigar to dry into the proper shape and uniform size.

Once out of the mold, the end is cut to the desired length and the other end is covered with a small circular cutout of wrapper leaf.

The sample was not in the mold long enough so it's a little wrinkled, but the other cigars were also hand rolled by Norma and they're some of the best we've had!

Be sure to stop by if you find yourself in Quepos and in need of a good cigar!

Manuel Antonio National Park

One of the gems of Costa Rica's park system is Parque National Manuel Antonio. Comprising nearly 1,700 acres of land and 136,000 acres of marine habitat it contains many of Costa Rica's most unique animals, many of them endangered. There are marked trails throughout the park, so visitors may wander at will through the jungle and see several species of monkey and two species of tree sloths amongst the 109 mammal species and 184 bird species found here.

Ubiquitous deer seem to be the same as back home 

and they make for good prey for the large wild cats here including Cougars and Jaguars.

A Costa Rican Raccoon

Well camouflaged with fur the color of tree bark, 

this tree sloth sits at the junction of several branches with his back to the camera 

 In this photo he turns slightly to look over his left shoulder.

A yellow boa constrictor hangs overhead in Playa Biesanz.

Quepos Reunion

Headed down the coast we stopped in a small anchorage just south of Quepos and Marina Pez Vela. Lo and behold several of our sailing buddies were already here! It was a happy reunion to see Jon and Shannon of S/V Prism and Jess and Josh of S/V Oleada. The anchorage was tucked in just off Playa Biesanz,  meaning Secret Beach, appropriately named for the small stretch of sand at the bottom of a steep hill covered in thick jungle growth. Howler monkeys sometimes romped in the sand and one day I spotted a yellow boa constrictor hanging in a tree overhead.

We anchored out with Prism, Oleate, Gaia, Mabrouka, and another boat whose name I don't recall owned by a family from Germany. For almost a month we stayed there enjoying the snorkeling along the rocks and reef nearby. Everyone put out stern anchors to minimize roll and keep us oriented towards the incoming swell. It was a fun time hanging out with all of our buddies. The hike up the trail from the beach to the road was fun for exercise, but a big pain for hauling supplies!

At anchor in Playa Biesanz south of Quepos, Costa Rica

Trees cover the hillsides and stretch their branches towards the western sky.

A steep, winding path takes us up to the road and on to civilization.

Hermit crabs skitter through the mangroves.

Lots of time for boat projects! Here Jon helps sew a new hoisting tab onto our mainsail.

Ninja and LoWang enjoyed the new deck chairs we purchased in Quepos.

Gulf de Nicoya, Costa Rica

The Gulf of Nicoya is the middle one of three large gulfs along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It has many popular tourist beaches and towns and includes the port of Puntarenas as well as the upscale sport fishing marina of Los Suenos. We spent nearly a month exploring this gulf, staying mostly along the western side where there are fewer towns and people, therefore clearer water and better snorkeling and diving. We especially enjoyed Isla Tortugas, where several small rocks are clustered about which marine life abounds! The tour boats bring visitors daily, but early mornings and evenings we had the place to ourselves. Large schools of reef fish swarmed the area due to the fishing ban here and we enjoyed several dives and plenty of snorkeling.

Next stop was up the coast at Isla Cedros where we found a calm, protected anchorage, but dirtier water, so we didn't swim. S/V Gaia and S/V Mabrouka shared the anchorage here with us and everyone made good use of the time and calm water to work on boat projects!

S/V Gaia at anchor at Isla Cedros

Isla Cedros is a protected habitat for howler monkeys 

and nesting ground for several species of parrot.

Ninja hanging out on deck at Isla Cedros watching for parrots to fly overhead.

Across the gulf lies Puntarenas port, an industrial wasteland rife with crime and filth. Contrasting this  further down the coast is Los Suenos Marina, an upscale private resort and marina where slips cost $275 per night. Sadly, it is a common situation here in Costa Rica to see poverty in close proximity to wealth. Los Suenos caters to the wealthy sport fishermen and the owner, from Canada, dislikes sailing vessels so we were treated rather rudely by the staff and only stopped in for fuel before heading south.

It's a shame that unlike Mexico, where cruisers are valued as customers, in Costa Rica cruisers are treated like second class citizens. Combine this attitude with the high prices on EVERYTHING here and the 90 day limit on having your boat in the country without having to pay high import duties, and its no wonder that the sailing business has dried up. Costa Rica spends a lot of money promoting the country as a great place to retire, but if you're going to retire here you'd better have a big nest egg or be prepared to eat rice and beans while living in a dirt floored hovel. There's not a lot in between!

Tamarindo to Samara, Costa Rica

Our next stop down the coast of Pacific Costa Rica was the popular surfing community of Tamarindo.

This picture perfect beach was a great place to hang out and we found the town to be a fun mix of surf shops, good restaurant/ bars and a variety of shops selling goods made here in CR. The people are amazing friendly and many of them spoke English, happy to practice language skills with us.

Unfortunately, what makes for good surfing makes for poor anchorage...swell of the waves coming in from the ocean. We anchored in an area that appeared to be safe near the mooring bouys where the other boats were located. We dug the anchor in well since the bottom was rock and sand mixed, but when the afternoon wind picked up we still found our boat dragging anchor. One afternoon we found ourselves racing back to the boat in a local panga as two other local pangas held lines on our boat to keep it from dragging anchor towards the reef! Too close for comfort, we up anchored that afternoon and moved to a safer anchorage for the night. S/V Gaia and S/V Mabruka were anchored near us and they both dragged anchor as well, just not as much since their boats are much lighter. Once the wind picks up the rocky bottom just can't hold the boats sufficiently. Thank goodness for the kind hearted locals who helped save Sirena!

Onward southeast towards the Gulfo de Nicoya we sailed past verdant rocky islets lush with tropical flora.

The passage south afforded us some great sailing weather along Costa Rica's Pacific coast. Thanks to Roy from S/V Mabruka for the photos of Sirena under sail!

We had a visitor along the way.

Did some fishing too!

We stopped briefly in an anchorage in Bahia Samara with a tiny island protecting it from the ocean swell and we enjoyed some beautiful sunsets.

Island at Bahia Samara. I swam the 1/2 mile out to the island one morning and enjoyed the most perfect clean white sand ever known to exist.

Sirena at anchor in Bahia Samara on a cloudy afternoon.

Sirena and Mabrouka at anchor in Samara