Twelve years ago Marina Flamingo in Bahia Potrero was a thriving sportfishing hangout with fuel dock, bar/restaurant/resort, etc. Interlude stopped here on Kurt's delivery of her from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco Bay in 2000. It is always sad to see a place change for the worse and there is probably an interesting story why the place was shut down in 2003 by 27 armed police and taken over as a Coast Guard base.
We anchored just outside the old marina breakwater (10d26.56'N, 85d46.91'W, 30 ft) in Bahia Potrero and did not go ashore. There is still a small sportfishing fleet and a few tourist catamarans on moorings in the bay.
The new Marina Papagayo where we are now (10d38.40'N, 85d39'W, 35 ft) as part of the Peninsula Papagayo development project is ideally suited to take over for Flamingo in this part of Costa Rica. However they are not marketing to the sportfishers. In fact they are not really marketing at all and the marina is still almost empty after being open for four years. The investors appear to have deep pockets and construction of more buildings continues.
We employed two marina staff cleaners to wash the boat today ($15/hr) and tonight we are going out to dinner with our new Canadian friends at one of the restaurants at the Four Seasons (also part of the development) overlooking the Arnold Palmer golf course and the ocean.
The concierge here at the marina also helped us organize a dive trip tomorrow morning ($90pp two tanks).
We plan to be here for a few days and then use an agent to clear out:
Ernesto Conejo
Manager
Paramares S.A.
cel +506 8811 7290
The local agent for Paramares is Natalia +506 8856 5479
It is possible to rent a car from the marina or swim ashore thru the surf at Playa Del Coco and spend a day doing the paperwork with the various governmental agencies yourself but in this case we will pay the agent fee.
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