Adventures in Golfito Costa Rica

A small bay tucked along the eastern side of Golfo Dulce, Golfito Bay harbors the small marinas of Banana Bay and Fishhook. Nestled between those two is Land and Sea Services, a cruiser friendly clubhouse. We anchored in the bay just a few hundred yards from the marinas and met up with our buddies from S/V Gaia and S/V Mabrouka again. The marinas are very small, but friendly, unlike the larger ones farther north which cater to the sport fishing boats and often treat cruisers like second class citizens. Here the atmosphere is laid back and relaxed, although it's not a tourist town by any means.

Originally Golfito was home to a thriving banana industry, but circumstances conspired to end the prosperity in this small town in the 1980's and today it struggles to survive. Originally built as a company town by United Fruit Company in 1939, this quaint town sported neat houses, a school, hospital, roads, and of course a huge dock for the export of bananas. But in the 1980's the fruit workers were influenced by Communist supporters and they decided to strike in solidarity with the palm oil workers who were already walking the picket line for higher wages. The Costa Rican government was in the process of raising taxes and an export tax was added to the cost of exporting the bananas around this same time. So the plan backfired when United Fruit ran the numbers, and decided to simply close up shop instead of paying the higher wages and taxes, leaving Golfito a virtual ghost town overnight. Locals say everything came to a standstill when the company who built the town pulled out, and not even the bartenders and prostitutes could find work.

Thus began the era of quiet desperation in this community, which eventually led to higher crime rates, petty theft and more recently, armed home invasions. The town's proximity to the Panamanian border makes it a prime candidate for drug smuggling as well, and we saw several US Coast Guard ships in the bay who's crews told us they were patrolling the area for drug smuggling activity.

Our personal experience here included having our dinghy and outboard motor stolen while we had dinner with friends down below deck one evening. It happened just after sunset and although we usually lock up the dinghy at night, we had not done so just yet. Our security camera caught a man casing the boat shortly before sunset, and then again just afterwards. The lines were cut with a very sharp knife and the dinghy and motor, which was locked to it, were floated off and never seen again.

Police were called within minutes, and a call put out on VHF, but in typical Central American style, nothing was done by the officials. No one here really cares if some gringo gets their dinghy stolen, or anything else for that matter. The next day we filed a report at the police office and although we saw a boat matching the photo several times over the next few days, nothing was done by officials. When we offered a $500 reward, the man and the boat were never seen again. Two weeks later an officer finally showed up to ask for serial numbers, explaining to us that he planned to check the local boats. Waste of time, and very typical Tica attitude...too little, too late, too bad. 

But fortunately of us, we had insurance, good insurance with GEICO. A big shout out to them for promptly jumping on the case, getting us back into a dinghy that had to be shipped all the way from FL and an outboard from San Jose. They paid the claim and got us on our way. Thanks, GEICO! You're not just a funny lizard!

New Achilles RIB dinghy and Yamaha outboard courtesy of GEICO marine insurance. They even covered the expense of shipping it from FL since this was an exact replacement of our 6 mo old stolen Achilles and they don't sell those in Costa Rica. Way to go GEICO!