Southern Coast of Costa Rica

From Quepos, we pointed our bow to the southeast, our track more east than south now, and slid down the coast to Bahia Drake on the north coast of the Oso peninsula, a very wild and splendid old growth jungle. This is where Sir Francis Drake supposedly came to hide his pirate treasures during the 16th century. The coastline is rocky and steep with trees clinging to every rock all the way to the waterline where small caves open to the rough surf, perfect places to hide treasure!

The Corcovado National Park provides protected habitat on the peninsula for felines such as Jaguars, Ocelots, Margays, and Pumas as well as primates such as Howler, White faced and Squirrel monkeys. The rare and unusual Baird's taper can be found roaming the trails along with collared peccaries and anteaters. I was most excited to finally see wild Scarlet macaws flying through the trees! These impressive birds reminded me of the Phoenix from the Harry Potter movies with their pointed fan shaped tail and bright coloring. We always saw them in pairs, usually chortling loudly at one another like an old married couple!

Unfortunately, Chris and I were both recovering from serious upper respiratory infections while we were anchored in Bahia Drake, so we missed the chance to sail out to Cano island for the SCUBA diving, supposedly some of the best in the country.

Continuing along the coast we sailed with Spinner, Bottlenose, and Pantropical spotted dolphins as we rounded the point and sailed into the Golfo Dulce, meaning "sweet gulf". Puerto Jimenez lies on the west side of the gulf while the protected inner bay of Golfito lies to the east. This was our destination and where we would spend several weeks in September at anchor while we explored the countryside.

Rounding the point headed into Golfo Dulce

 At anchor in Golfito.