12/28
Our anchorage for three-and-a-half weeks in San Diego was next to the Coast Guard Academy, one block away from the airport, across the bay from the Navy base and about one mile from downtown. It was a hornet’s nest of activity, a thunderstorm of noise and we figured we’d never see anything like it again.
No doubt about it, this Costa Rican estuary that sucks in and spits out a sea of water twice each day is far different from San Diego Bay in almost every aspect, but it just might be as busy and it certainly is less predictable.
Hours before sunrise the first fishing boats steam past us down river. Between the noise of the engines and the Spanish flying back and forth fast and furious, it’s enough to get us up from our bunk and into the cockpit, where we sip coffee and take in the show. Every one who passes gives us a friendly wave, and when we pull out the camera it nets us enthusiastic thumbs-up, hello-how-are-you two-armed gestures and very big smiles.
Boats aren’t the only thing we could sit and watch all day in the Estero Chicarita and the Rio Ciruelitas that feeds it. The wildlife here is diverse and plentiful. The sky is always full of an assortment of pelicans, frigates, hawks, turkey vultures, terns, spoonbills, herons, and other birds we can’t identify. Lots of wee critters live in the mangroves and somewhere up the river are those elusive crocodiles. Big ones, they tell me.
We’ve never tired of the nonstop activity, but the clock is ticking and we know we need to get our show back on the road. The owner of the catamaran captained by our new friend, Allan, has arrived and invited us to join them at Bahia Ballena – a coastal area to the south -- for a few days. So, we’ll take the boat out there until after New Year’s.
Bruce and Jan
No doubt about it, this Costa Rican estuary that sucks in and spits out a sea of water twice each day is far different from San Diego Bay in almost every aspect, but it just might be as busy and it certainly is less predictable.
Hours before sunrise the first fishing boats steam past us down river. Between the noise of the engines and the Spanish flying back and forth fast and furious, it’s enough to get us up from our bunk and into the cockpit, where we sip coffee and take in the show. Every one who passes gives us a friendly wave, and when we pull out the camera it nets us enthusiastic thumbs-up, hello-how-are-you two-armed gestures and very big smiles.
Boats aren’t the only thing we could sit and watch all day in the Estero Chicarita and the Rio Ciruelitas that feeds it. The wildlife here is diverse and plentiful. The sky is always full of an assortment of pelicans, frigates, hawks, turkey vultures, terns, spoonbills, herons, and other birds we can’t identify. Lots of wee critters live in the mangroves and somewhere up the river are those elusive crocodiles. Big ones, they tell me.
We’ve never tired of the nonstop activity, but the clock is ticking and we know we need to get our show back on the road. The owner of the catamaran captained by our new friend, Allan, has arrived and invited us to join them at Bahia Ballena – a coastal area to the south -- for a few days. So, we’ll take the boat out there until after New Year’s.
Bruce and Jan
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