Hot Water

So, as it turns out, our hotel does have hot water. I almost froze last night in the shower, then Bill told me that his shower water was scalding hot. The hot and cold water handles are switched here. I tried both of them, but apparently, I didn’t let the hot water one run long enough before I gave up and assumed that the water was going to be cold. I’m really glad he figured this out. I probably would have taken cold showers for the whole two weeks otherwise.

We spent the morning trying to organize tours. This has not been as easy as I hoped, but we scheduled a snorkeling trip for tomorrow and the guy we are going with also does turtle watching, jet skis, ATV tours and a number of other things. I’m going with Bill when he does diving so I can snorkel.

We walked over to Playa Conchal today. It gets rave reviews for white beaches made out of tiny shell pieces and clear water. It’s supposed to be good for snorkeling. It is an interesting beach with no sand. It really is made entirely out of tiny shell pieces and the water is also full of tiny shell pieces. It’s also the most dangerous water I’ve ever been in. There are no breaking waves, but the incoming and outgoing waves interact in a way that drags you under and makes it very hard to get back up on the beach. Visibility is low because of all the shells in the water. We didn’t stay there long. Instead, we came back to our beach, Playa Brasilito. It’s not as pretty, but it’s a huge stretch of almost empty beach with very friendly water. It’s really similar to Samara where I usually go. Bill and I bought boogie boards at a souvenir shop and had a blast trying to ride waves. It was really fun and I think we will use the boards a lot. It’s not easy to catch the waves so you can ride them to the shore, but it’s super fun when you hit one the right way.

Brasilito is a lot like our hotel – more rustic than I expected. It’s not as well developed as Samara, but we’ve found several promising restaurants and some grocery stores and little shops. There is only one ATM and it’s apparently out of money right now so we are happy we brought plenty of cash for the time being. I’m hoping the ATM will be refilled on Monday. If not, we may get a taxi to take us to a larger town with more ATM options.

English is not quite as common here as in Samara either. I don’t think the American expat community is as large here and the tourism industry isn’t as developed. It helps a lot to speak Spanish. People will try to speak English but they prefer Spanish. It’s been great practice for me.

Last night, dessert came with our meal so Bill and I ordered brownies. I asked the server, Francie, what the Spanish word for brownie was. She told me that Costa Ricans use the word brownie but brownies come from the US and they are almost always associated with marijuana. It was pretty funny. I asked her if she was giving me extra special brownies but she said I was getting regular chocolate cake instead. Queque chocolate also comes from English with a Spanish spelling.

For supper, we went to a really good Indian restaurant down the road a little ways. It was pricy, but the food was delicious and it was a very elegant, outdoor restaurant. The owner is Indian, but the servers were Costa Rican. They spoke to me in Spanish in very soft voices with masks on, so I had a really hard time hearing what they were saying. Otherwise, it was a lovely dinner.

There is a resident dog at the hotel. There are signs in several places asking people not to feed the wildlife, but our server for breakfast and lunch was feeding the birds and the iguanas who frequent our outdoor balcony restaurant. We had a large fly-like insect in our room today. We though about catching a small iguana and using it as bug control for whatever our gecko doesn’t eat.

Right now, I’m having a cup of tea in a nice sitting area with comfortable chairs in the balcony restaurant. There’s a breeze so it’s very pleasant. Bill and I are considering swimming in the pool for a while. I should probably work off some of my Indian food. I think Bill is working on an update too.

I think Bill has a few pictures but we haven’t taken many yet. Hopefully we’ll have some interesting ones before too long.