Drakes Bay



Jerry & Lauren crossing a creek..keep your feet up!

Sam's horse actually drinking fresh water. Lauren watching

We come into town a-hoopin' and a-hollerin! .

 As with most great plans, we didn't stay at Quepos as we thought.  Due to the high cost of slips at the marina ($150/night), no mooring balls, and with the anchorage being very rolly and too deep to anchor comfortably, we decided for a (slow) overnight sail to Drakes Bay.
 We couldn't go too fast or we would arrive at Drakes bay in the darkness of night...which is not a good option to enter an unfamilure bay at night. With only 7 knots of wind we put the sails up for the next 11 hours it was peaceful, calm, and Nancy got some sleep below till her watch at 1am...and of course thats when the rain started. Oh well, we arrived at Drakes Bay at daylight with rain and another rolly anchorage.
The Oso Peninsula covers nearly 500 square miles and most is in the Corcovado National Park.
The next day I put out a stern anchor and this worked great to keep Windfall pointed to the large swells enterning the bay. It's much more relaxing for Windfall to take the swells head on than to roll side to side...trust me! SOMF also put out thier stern anchor...much better!
Drakes Bay is named after Sir Francis Drake who landed here in 1579. Rumor is he buried gold treasure at the...now don't as me, if I knew where it was I wouldn't be telling you this!
We took the dinghy to the (small) dinghy dock and explored the village. After a quick stop at the a small  "Soda" (store) for cold bottles of water, we spotted several Scarlett Macaw Parrots in the tree  not more than 50 feet away. Lauren and Nancy began taking pictures of these beautiful red, blue, and yellow colored birds.
We continued our tour of the village with a stop at the market, and it just happened to be the day the produce truck parks outside. We bought fresh bananas, apples, and a pineapple. I've got to say that I never knew just how sweet a pineapple could be till we tasted these. These pineapples are the sweetest, juciest, and most delicious I've ever tasted.
We noticed a guide trip on horseback available, within a shot time we we signed up for a trip in the morning.
Ok, here we are, four gringos ready for our steeds.... Our guide "Oly" said we would ride the beach, then a mountian trail, and we would see some huge rocks that are perfectly round...no reason known why the natives did this , how they made the rocks so perfectly round, or why at the locations  were picked.
We mounted our horses and off we went...The Four Gringos...and Oly. The beach was beautiful, our horses wanted to drink saltwater standing in the small waves...Hmmm, this should have been an indicator of how smart these horses were.
We left the beach and took to a mountain trail, 6 miles of steep, winding, mud trail where our horses were slipping and sliding.

Bronk Buster Nancy - Yee Haaaa!

irlJerry's horse was the slow-poke, always far behind. He actually named his horse "Old Spice" but saw no reason to rush his horse on the trip.  Nancy's horse actually slipped and fell to all four knees, but, like a true rodeo bronk buster, "Cowgirl Nancy" stayed mounted and rode it all the way! I swear she yelled Yee-Haaaa!..Ok, maybe she did forget the Yee part of it, because all I actually heard was AHHHHHHH!
Let me just say that after 5 1/2 hours of trial riding, bronk busting, and saddle sitting the "Four Gringos" could hardly walk afterward! A cold brew at the nearby waterhole sure helped to sooth the saddle sores.
As we boarded the dinghy and started back to the boat, a "small" gotor was spotted 20 feet ahead. Gulp!  Later, Jerry mentioned he needs to clean the bottom of his boat...and I was thinking "Gator, the other white meat"...no make that "Jerry, the other white meat"!

Would you cross this knowing we just saw an alligator?

We instead headed up the small river we were in for a short dinghy "jungle tour"...and oh, how beautiful it was. The water was nice and cool, a swinging bridge crossed the river leading to an wildnerness lodge for those eco-minded tourist.
We like it here so much we've decided to stay another day, our firends aboard "Sunnyside Up" just entered the bay and dropped anchor. Time to break out the Captain Morgan and make a toast to Sir Francis Drake for finding this perfect tropical location....just for us!
Next stop Puerto Jimeniz