Costa Rica: Part Three

We arrived back in Costa Rica after a five day adventure traveling westward and stopping three places to anchor and rest along the Panamanian coast. We were able to visit with our friends Ray and Paddy before she flew to England for three weeks. In the time we spent here at their dock we were keeping a watchful eye on Ray and their place. Bill assembled and tried out our new, lightweight dinghy complete with beach wheels. He also painted the top of the boat and all the decks, so Grey Wolf looks mighty spiffy again! The salt air is a killer on anything on the boat's exterior, including paint. Rain is now a daily event here, if not two or three times in one day! The air temperature is rather moderate now and life would be wonderful here if not for the humidity. It could be worse, though!

Before Paddy left, she and Alice had the opportunity of visiting Bob Beatham's Finca (farm) in the highlands about an hour from Golfito. What a beautiful collection of plants he has and what a delight to listen to him describe their uses, both culinary and medicinal! The pink torch ginger shown above was photographed there. The birds turned out nicely and provided a marvelous opportunity for photos, too. One of the workers tried to direct our eyes to a long-tailed fowl in the top of the trees, but we missed it. Another day Alice saw a red-beaked toucan but she was without camera- darn...

By the time we were ready to head back to Panama Alice had developed some strange malady that affected her joints, especially in her shoulders and hands. In spite of the fact that she really did not want to leave Bill alone again, Bill insisted she book a flight home to get medical care. She will fly home from Panama City on June 24 and will be home two months. Bill will get to enjoy Islas Las Perlas without her, unfortunately. He will have to take lots of cool photos~