Quepos – Slow Dancers Voyage

We spent a little over 2 weeks in Quepos getting our alternator fixed. During this time we explored the Quepos area.

The marina was beautiful and the people so friendly! The locals and tourists know the marina as the "ritzy" part of town. It has the best restaurants and shops in Quepos along with a concierge, car rentals, dive shop, catamarans for tours and a marine store.

The little town of Quepos was a 10 minute walk away. One of our first orders of business was finding a spark plug and a socket to repair our portable generator. We wandered around the town and found a ferreteria (hardware store) and used our Google translate to ask for a socket. Huh?? We even showed the guy….blank stare. Another guy came over and understood, but no, they didn't have one. We asked where we could go to find one. The description was a bit vague as none of these small towns have very well defined addresses. We wandered down the street like the lost gringos that we were and finally saw what he was describing, an auto parts store! OK, here we go. Got the point across and yes, score! Unfortunately, even with our new purchases, the generator still would not start.

Next up, finding a small engine repair shop to look at the generator. Easier said than done! First off, we needed to find one. We asked around and got a recommendation. Then we had to get there and find out if they worked on generators. We found a taxi, told the driver that we wanted to go to Bloquera Comercial, about three miles away, and that we wanted him to wait. Then we had to get our point across to the shop owner who only spoke Spanish and was not really interested in learning any new English words. Ken did a really good job of communicating with our repair guy and we left the generator in his capable hands. Back to the marina to wait 2-3 days and he would call us…..call us? How will we communicate? Well, he called, and Ken saved the day with his increased ability to communicate in Spanish.

We spent a week cleaning and waxing Slow Dancer to get rid of the gray film left from El Salvador's constant burning of sugar cane and trash. She looks like a new boat now!

OK, now time for some fun. We joined the local people at their Friday night Farmer's Market. Along with the stalls and stalls of fresh produce, we enjoyed the fiesta type atmosphere. This is an all-town family event!

We spent one day hiking in Manuel Antonio Park to see all of the rain forest animals and plants. We saw Howler Monkeys, Capuchin Monkeys, Squirrel Monkeys, sloths, Caymans, Agouti and a million birds and reptiles. It was an amazing day.

Sadly, our time in Costa Rica is about to end as we are only given 90 days to explore this amazing country. Now on to Golfito to check out of Costa Rica and enter Panama!