On the street outside the Hotel Bahia del Sol in El Salvador is a small tienda where we could buy paper products and some fresh vegetables. One Sunday afternoon we heard from our friends on Mita Kuuluu that they had kittens that needed a home – in particular the sweet yellow type. We wanted another cat but had planned on waiting until after we traveled in Peru so we didn’t have to find a cat sitter. And of course we didn’t want a sweet kitty, we wanted another feisty calico. As we walked into the tienda and the tiniest little furball of fleas and bones with calico markings came running right to me and pounced firmly on my feet.
The next morning Rob was on the chicken bus into San Salvador looking for cat supplies, a tougher task that you might think since the Salvadorians don’t generally keep cats as pets. Monday night we went back to the tienda and picked up our new crew member, who Rob named Maya. We took her to the vet two days later and found out she was 5.5 weeks old and weighed less than a pound. Her fleas were gone by then thanks to some Advantage and she was starting to put some meat on her bones.
Her first trip offshore was our passage from El Salvador to Costa Rica less than a week later. Crossing the bar to get out of Bahia was extremely calm, but the seas were lumpy and confused outside because a hurricane had formed a few days earlier and gone ashore further south. Maya did marvelous the entire passage, even when the boat was pitching and rolling as we sailed through one squall and electrical storm after another.
We stopped in Bahia Santa Elena three days later and immediately loved Costa Rica. We were the only boat in the bay and it reminded us more of home than anyplace we had been in the last two years (except the howler monkeys and parrots of course). The next day we had a spectacular sail across the Gulf of Papagayo and moved down to Playa del Coco to get checked in to Costa Rica, where we’re now on anchor in Bahia Culebra at a little beach called Playa Panama. In another day or two when we’ve both shaken the colds we brought from El Salvador we’ll move south through Costa Rica. We’re definitely looking forward to coming back here in the winter when it’s not raining every night. There’s a dive shop on every corner in this little town and we’re certainly interested to see what’s underwater.
Today on Yohelah we’re having tons of fun watching Maya grow and play and learn to climb…..
