Here's the tale of a fateful trip........
First of all the crew: Capitan Alain - a very, very interesting man. He and his wife Lucy arrived in Esterillos Oeste last November. Over a year prior to their arrival, Alain and Lucy had come to Costa Rica for a short vacation. When they returned to their home in Ontario Canada they discussed the move with their children, whom all agreed to go, and then proceeded to sell their 20 year business of training and selling sled dogs. Once the house and business were sold, they drove a pick-up truck towing a 20 something foot long trailer to Florida. From their they flew, while all their material possessions were shipped to Limon on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. I can't remember just exactly how they ended up in Esterillos but when they arrived they had no contacts and it wasn't until they were in Esterillos that someone referred them to the Tico family of Moncho and Margarita, the family I know very well and love dearly, that they had a place to park their trailer and stay. Moncho's property is right on the beach. This is prime land in Esterillos and so Alain and Lucy had beach front property to live on - a dream come true for just about anyone. Alain and Lucy speak French and English. When the family arrived here, the 3 teenagers: Cal 16, Emily !5, and Alex 13 only spoke French. After having lived with a Tico family for over 7 months now, they all do very well with spanish.
Within a month of having arrived in CR, Alain bought a boat. His dream was to give fishing and dolphin tours to provide an income for his family. Alain had never owned a boat before, did not know the ocean and does not know how to swim.....but he had a dream and nothing was going to stop him. This is Alain.
I could go on and on and on about the trials, joys, mishaps and challenges of this family but that is not today's story.
I have written several times about Minior, the Tico fisherman, who is the oldest son of Moncho and Margarita and my dear friend. It is his son William, age 19, that Alain hired to be his capitan. When Alain first started going out on the sea in this boat I was constantly asked to join them for fishing, etc. Not that I was afraid, but I knew better and waited almost 4 months before ever getting on. Since then I have been out with them at least 8 times for local fishing, dolphin tours, etc. I always get to go for free since I am now a good friend of the family plus I take a lot of photos and have helped them with their advertising.
The passengers: Me, Chad, Erin, Erin's sister Chelsey and her boyfriend JP - all 4 from San Diego. I have written about Chad and Erin before. The are the young couple, ages 25 and 27, who drove a suburban here from San Diego last February. With many surf stops along the way, it took them 40 days to arrive in Esterillos. The first couple days here in Esterillos they were staying at Brett's cabinas in the middle of town. Within 15 minutes of my first meeting them, I referred them to my friends Fred and Brigitte who own the Presidential Palace and needed someone to stay at their house for the whole month of March. Both Fred and Bri were going to be coming and going most of that month and needed someone to be there full time even when they were home. Chad and Erin were perfect! Then the first of April they moved into a house they have rented just around the corner from where I live. With them, that also made the long trip here, is Rhino. He is a 3 year old golden lab and is the very coolest dog I have ever known except for my own D.O.G. back in California.
Since April, Chad and Erin have had a constant flow of visitors: Erin's brother and his girlfriend who became the fiance before they left here, Chad's parents who are my age - almost - so much fun, 2 of Erin's best friends from San Diego, and for the last 10 days Erin's sister Chelsey and JP. With each of these visitors I was very involved. I spent a considerable amount of time with all of these people that I know all of them very well and love them just as much. Just before Chad's parents arrived - about 3 weeks ago, Chad proposed to Erin while visiting Aernal Volcano the night before they picked up his parents in Liberia. The date has not yet been set, but I will for sure be in attendance at this wedding in San Diego when ever it will be. I look forward to seeing all their friends and family again at that time.
Now...finally, the trip. I had told Chad and Erin about Tortuga Island. I went there a year ago last May with my friends Doug and Melanie from Arroyo Grande. From Herradura, it takes about an hour by boat to get there. Esterillos is about 35 minutes down the coast from Herradura so of course we knew getting to the island would take longer.
We could have taken a boat out of Herradura and it would have been like all the other regular tours but we all decided to go with Alain since he had never been there before and wanted to go to see if he could make this a regular tour with his boat. We all wanted something different..........we certainly got it.
We decided to leave at 6:30am but it was almost 7 by the time we got it all together. 3 days prior to this trip we have been experiencing a red tide. I am not sure what causes it but the result is dead fish and other sea life on the beach, a fowl smell, the water is a muddy red color and it is bad to swim, surf, etc, in. It has affected miles of coastline north and south of us. We did not know if this would also be a problem at Tortuga since it is in the bay north of were we live. But......we were going anyway no matter what, even dispute the huge storm the night before and threatening thunderheads way out to sea. This is after all the rainy season.
At first glance from shore the swell was small. And even as we headed out the swell was still small. But the further we went, the higher it got. Still we forged on keeping an eye on the rain clouds to the south but also enjoying the dolphins and sea turtles once we cleared the red tide.
As I said, I have been to Tortuga Island before. I couldn't remember exactly where it was but I knew when we passed the huge inlet to the bay we were not taking the direct route. I assumed (first mistake) we were heading for the peninsula and would then go up from there. Then we passed Montezuma. Another place I have been. A very beautiful quaint remote village near the tip of the peninsula. At that moment I suddenly realized neither Alain or William had any idea where we were going. Straight ahead and right off the tip of the peninsula was a hugh rock. Actually is was an island but all rock - a very, very large rock. This is where they were headed. By now the swell was very, very high. The highest I have ever been in but still I could see land (when the boat was at the top of a wave, not when we were between) I was concerned but not yet afraid. Finally I said something. Chad was sitting up by Alain whom I could not see. I told Chad we were going the wrong direction and that Tortuga Island was in the bay which was now way behind us. There was a short discussion between Alain and William in spanish that I could not hear and probably would not have understood. Then Alain told Chad "Today, Pat is going to see a different Tortuga Island - see that island (the rock we were headed for) - doesn't it look like a turtle". I wish I could have seen the look on my face. All I could say was "WHAT". I then told Erin who was sitting next to me that these guys had no idea where we were going. I asked if there was a map on board - the answer was no. Almost immediately we all knew we were headed the wrong direction. About 2 minutes later Alain had William turn the boat around and head for the bay.
Going past the Nicoya Peninsula was breathtaking and once we actually got into the bay the swell got smaller. Then we had to find the island. Tortuga is not a single island that just sticks out on it is own. It is part of a group of islands that sort of blend in with the coast. I wasn't sure exactly where it was, just the general area. Now that we were in milder water it was just humorous that we were all looking for this island. I saw a boat and suggested we go and ask. As we headed that direction the area seemed more familiar and as we came around a point I recognized the beach uphead. We were all very excited to know we had reached it and I am positive Alain was very relieved. It had taken almost 3 hours to get here for a trip that should have been an hour and a half.
Tortuga is a large island but 95 percent is private. The beach is a beautiful, brilliant white, while the perfect 82-85 degree temperature water is turquoise. This is the kind of island you see in a Corona commercial. We unloaded the cooler and got set up. I immediately went to rent a kayak. The next several hours were spent playing in the water, kayaking, snorkeling, eating, etc, etc.
During this time, Alain discovered the motor would not start.
Many attempts were made and 2 other boats came to assist, but still it did not start.
This island is for day use only, there are no restaurants, no hotels, just one small tourist shop that sells sodas.
Once a day a large catamaran comes over from Puntaranes which is a large fishing/shipping port about and hour and a half north of where I live. The boat holds 50 passengers plus a rather large staff. It was this capitan that Alain talked to and paid them to tow the boat back to the mainland. About 4pm my friends and I boarded the party boat while Alain and William remained with the Mackarel being towed behind the Calypso. While the 5 of us drank and enjoyed the fresh fruit and other appetizers being passed by the waiters on board, poor Alain and William just sat in their boat.
The trip back took over and hour and a half. The sunset cruise passed several islands I had never seen before. The 5 of us sat with our feet in a small wading pool enjoying the trip, the music, the food, everything.
When we got to Punteranes it was almost dark. Alain had called his wife Lucy and had her meet us there with the truck and trailer. When Lucy left Esterillos to meet us at the dock, she started out with 4 tires on the trailer. When she arrived, there were only 3. Alain's boat was still in the water and he was looking for someone to pull it to a dock he could load it from. The 5 of us had about a one minute discussion about what to do and immediately decided to go with a taxi.
We arrived home about 8pm. The next day I spoke with Alain. He told me it was 11 by the time they got home. It had taken a long time to get the boat loaded, the spare tire he had did not fit and so the drive home was very, very slow.
For myself and my 5 friends the day had been a wonderful adventure. Alain learned a lot from this trip - most important - know where you are going before you head out.
We will always remember Tortuga and forever be grateful it was not Gulligan's.
I constantly say this - everyday here is an adventure.
May each of you see your life as an adventure. Live it to the fullest and find something to be grateful for every single day.
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