We’ve been flashing a little bit too much green and in honor of Christmas we thought we’d dip into the red a little bit. December was expensive, but we were prepared for an expensive month. Here’s the breakdown on the most expensive categories:
- Transportation – We usually try to use public transportation, but that’s not necessarily advisable with a full propane tank. Plus, with only a few days to prepare for guests we secured the services of a taxi on a couple occasions to transport the massive amount of food we purchased.
- Internet – After very spotty 2G connection with Claro in Costa Rica, we decided to give Digicel a try. This required purchasing a new internet dongle. Unfortunately it’s the same ol’ same ol’ slooooooow 2G. Not a particularly good investment, but it was worth a shot.
- Propane – Propane usually costs us anywhere from $7-$20 to fill up our little 10 lb fiberglass tank. Only problem was that no one in Costa Rica or Panama wanted to deal with our fiberglass tank, generally preferring to handle the large 20 lb metal tanks. Given that we had guests due to arrive in a matter of days, we bit the bullet and bought a small “BBQ” propane tank that set us back about $85. If I included all of the taxi rides and bus rides and nerve-calming beers it took to refill this tank, it would be way over $200. Of course, we come to find out that there’s a place outside of David that will fill any old container you give them. Go figure.
- Entertainment – Who knows. I think we ate out a lot in Costa Rica.and drank a fair amount of over-priced beer. The usual.
- Groceries – Four people + three square meals a day + snacks + beverages + nine days = lots of groceries. Our friends helped to offset the cost of groceries, but we definitely splurged on some things we don’t usually have on board (good meat and cheese). All totally worth it.
- Shopping – This was probably the most expensive category. Since our friends were coming down from the states they agreed to carry some hard to find/acquire things for us in their luggage. Danger! We purchased some things for Serenity (see Sailboat Maintenance), new swimsuits and sandals for me, a new electronic gadget for Jeff, and a couple other goodies. Amazon makes it far too easy to spend money. Merry Christmas to us!
- Sailboat Maintenance – For Serenity we picked up a spare parts kit for the autopilot as well as the seals and bearings to rebuild the water pump on our engine, which has become a bit leaky over the last couple hundred miles.
- Adventure – This category includes the cost of clearing out of Costa Rica ($20), the cost of clearing into Panama ($103), the national zarpe upon leaving Puerto Mutis ($12.50) as well as the cost for spending 6 days/5 nights out at Isla Coiba ($230 total – we covered $100 + the cost of gas and our friends covered the rest.)