Filed Under : by Greg L. Miller
Sunday, May 23, 2010Well after over 24 hours of traveling we made it to Tamarindo, Costa Rica. The flights to San Jose weren’t too bad aside from me being deliriously tired from driving all night to get to Chicago for our 6am flight. Once we arrived in Costa Rica we took a cab over to the Holiday Inn Express to meet up with our bus transport to Tamarindo. The best flight prices into Costa Rica land in San Jose but most of visitors have a final destination of a coastal city like Tamarindo which is a 4-5 hour bus ride. It wouldn’t take so long but for the roads themselves which are horribly rough and full of potholes. It was a very long and bumpy ride, but the scenery was amazing.
So since we had a few hours to kill before the bus came and spending it sitting on a bench outside a hotel sounded lousy, we looked around and decided to go hang in the Casino across the way. So our first meal/experience with Costa Rica was a casino where we sat in the Pirates bar, munched on some awesome nachos and watched the Ticos all cheer and hiss at the soccer game being broadcast on the dozen tv screens in the bar. Not speaking the language someplace definitely takes some getting use to. It seemed hard enough for shy me to get to the point of talking to strangers in foreign places to get info now I even if I do, they don't understand me. Greg says it doesn't bother him really, I'm still undecided so we shall see if it bothers me enough to actually learn spanish.
So since we had a few hours to kill before the bus came and spending it sitting on a bench outside a hotel sounded lousy, we looked around and decided to go hang in the Casino across the way. So our first meal/experience with Costa Rica was a casino where we sat in the Pirates bar, munched on some awesome nachos and watched the Ticos all cheer and hiss at the soccer game being broadcast on the dozen tv screens in the bar. Not speaking the language someplace definitely takes some getting use to. It seemed hard enough for shy me to get to the point of talking to strangers in foreign places to get info now I even if I do, they don't understand me. Greg says it doesn't bother him really, I'm still undecided so we shall see if it bothers me enough to actually learn spanish.
We reserved a cottage at the Gardenia Hotel and Retreat and were told by the owners to have the bus driver call the property manager when we arrive so she could let us in and all that good stuff. The bus had a scheduled stop at a hotel a few blocks from ours which is where we placed our reservation to but when we asked hi m about the phone call he, speaking no English, took it as a request to drop us off directly at the Gardenia. This was nice since it was late and dark and the place was rather hard to find since they don't use proper street names and address here, but since he didn’t understand the need to call the manager, we were stuck with no way into our rental. New Zealand all over again but with no nice English speaking cabbie! Panic! One of the other tenants, a nice older lady from Spain who also speaks no English let us into the gated courtyard where I waited with our stuff while Greg went in search of a phone. Luckily he was able to use the phone at a neighboring hotel, whose night manager tried to sell him on some other vacation rentals he manages. So we finally got into our place. Valerie, a Californian originally, was really nice, made sure everything was good with the cottage and when the A/C didn’t work, she graciously moved us to a different cottage. A/C is a must here. It isn’t the heat so much as it’s just so humid the air feels like swimming.
The hotel is rather cute and small. It consists of 4 cottages arranged around a small pool with lots of tropical flora and stone steps and walkways. Inside the cottages are very Costa Rican with tile floor and native styled furniture. The internet works good, the bed is comfy enough for me, though Greg’s still undecided. There isn’t a lot of living furniture though, like no couch or padded chairs for Greg to sit in so he’ll probably be in the bedroom a lot. Over all it seems a quiet and secure place at the moment, though we did have a scary and unexpected morning visitor. I was still asleep when Greg jumped out of bed screaming around 8am then screamed at me to get out too. Why? Because there was a 3 inch scorpion on his back!! OMG!!!! These are moments when I really hate being the braver one when it comes to creepy crawlies! After searching through all the blankets and sheets we finally found the little bastard and I captured him with a cup and flung him out into the garden. I probably should killed him but I was scared to try and fail and then have a pissed off scorpion running around the house! Needless to say our new rules are shake out all bedding before sleep, shake out all clothes before wearing, shake out all shoes before donning. Apparently the scorpions down here are not poisonous; more like a bee sting is all, but still way too creepy.
At the moment it is 10:30 am. We would be out getting food stuffs but we are waiting for Valerie because since she had to move us we don’t have working keys to get in and out of the hotel. While the scorpion was scary, looking out the window to see this guy scaling the neighboring wall certainly was not. All I can say is we are definitely having an adventure and this is definitely the jungle!
No comments:
Post a Comment