Day 17 - Off to Get a Gold Crown

This morning everyone was back into routine... basically, Elliot up while it was still dark outside and playing his video games on his DS or iPad while the rest of us slept. I woke up a few times during the night and just stared at all the stars that were bright and filled the sky. Elliot returned to sleep when the sun still hadn't risen after an hour awake. Finally morning came and we were all up and ready to get some breakfast from downstairs. The 3 parrots downstairs greeted us with holas and whistles. Breakfast consisted of eggs, fruit, beans and rice and toast; a typical Costa Rican breakfast.

I packed up our things and then we were off in the SUV for Liberia where today I was getting my gold crown fitted. Arriving in Liberia, we set to work looking for the dental office. The instructions were to head west 450m of the Bank of Costa Rica, but there were no dental offices located there. I worked the street for some more info and ended up work with a helpful gentleman and a police officer who said I would find a farmacia east of the bank with the name I was searching for. Correen argued with me which way East and West are and we were still not locating anything referenced in the emailed instructions. I sat next to a man on a park bench and asked him for help finding the farmacia. He told me that it was 100m away and we made short work of reaching or destination.

Correen and the kids went for a walk while I went and got my crown. An hour was suggested as a time to return and meet me. As soon as I went inside I told them, "no es oeste, es oriente", with a smile on. Finding things in Central America with no road signs and misinformation is challenging, but humourous. The fitting of my gold crown took only about 15 minutes, so I thanked them for the work done and left to find Correen and the kids.

I met them about 5-6 blocks down and we returned to the car and drove to Burger King for some lunch. After lunch our plan was to return to San Jose, see if they had a room available for tonight, and have a day in San Jose to tour some museums, etc.

Driving in Costa Rica is very different from Canada. The majority of cars on the highway are driving between 40 km/h and 60km/h on a posted 80 km/h road. The other drivers are the ones passing these slow moving vehicles usually on solid lines and sometimes on blind hills and corners. I even had a police car speed past me on double solid line. So the norm is to safely negotiate passing whenever you can or add double the time to your trip. Well today, I got stopped by two motorcycle cops and they informed me of my offense, passing on a solid line and the officer said it would by a $600 usd fine. Say What?! An officer returned and asked me to step out to talk to them and they asked if I wanted to pay the $600 fine or pay $200 to them right there. In hindsight I probably could have negotiated this amount down, but I paid the $200 bribe and got out of there. There wasn't anymore double line passing by me on the remainder of the trip, but everyone else on the highway was still doing it, including huge 18 wheelers.

Correen checked with the front desk at the hotel and there was a room available. We parked and the whole place was decorated for Christmas and they were setting up for a huge staff party, immediately in front of the main entrance of our hotel. Correen and the kids went to the hot tub for a swim while I worked on the blog. When they returned, Elliot stayed with me while Mom and Tegan went to order Pizza with the front desk's help. About 30-40 minutes later the girls returned with Dominos! The have Papa John's and Pizza Hut as well here. So at 8 pm, with the disco music playing outside at the fiesta, we were eating slice after slice of pepperoni pizza, drinking orange Fanta and Coca-Cola while watching episodes of Friends and Two and a Half Men on TV.

Day 16 - Bugged Out

Correen didn't get a wink of sleep and she tried to sabotage my sleep as well. The kids and I had a decent sleep; but the insects, dogs, birds, noises and the entire structure we slept in we just too much for Correen. My suggestion was to get out of Dodge immediately, so we were packed and in the SUV by 7:45 a.m. We even had to wait 15 minutes for the manager to show up so we could check out. A quick scan of some destinations while packing had me settling on Playa Coco and a well recommended Hotel called Casa Blanca.

The drive out of Playa Negra had us passing by many accommodation options that likely would have suited Correen better. We were looking for a restaurant for quick breakfast stop and found one about a half hour into our drive. The kids both had cereal and Correen and I both had eggs. We enjoyed people watching on the side of the road in this small town. As we ate our breakfast we had a really scrawny looking dog next to us, eyeing up the food we were eating. It was a sad sight to see. Costa Rica has an abundance of canines, most walk the streets like strays.

An hour later and we had arrived in Playas del Coco. The website said that the Hotel was in town, but after driving around a bit we decided to just go down the tourist strip for a walk and a break. We hoped in and out of a few shops, Correen bought a headband that reminded me of the purse she bought in Guatemala 10 years ago. I got suffocated by a guy promoting tours and vacation condos. I asked for information on our hotel and was told it was at another beach. Really? Why not say you are located, well, where you are located! We would look for the hotel in a bit, time to listen to s spiel about ow we may have won a $1000 or a vacation or a free stay in a hotel along with free wine and our lunch for free too! Too good to be true you say? Well, likely it was and we never wasted more of our time to find out.

Tegan needed to find a flag of Costa Rica and we found one in a shop we drove by early. Playas del Coco was extremely touristy and not the sort of place I wanted to stick around. So, we went on to see if we could find the hotel and to see if they could put us up for a night. We drove over to Playa Ostonal and located the beach. We drove back and and made a right to a guard house for a resort and were given some directions that I comprehended about 50%. A U-turn, then a right and a right again and there it was.

I dropped Correen and the kids off at the office and went down to park. The first thing the kids were aware of were the 3 squawking and talking parrots. They were very entertaining and the kids were endeared by there presence and vocal abilities.

Lucky for us, there was a room for us. It had a double bed and they were going to bring in a futon for the kids, but while I was grabbing our bags from the car, Correen must have showed a little cleavage and got us upgrade for $15 to a bigger room with the futon already in the room and the room had a tub as well. Correen was just happy to be in a place with no bugs; she even checked with the manager and he said the hotel was fumigated last week.

The kids immediately went for the pool and I joined them for a swim and play. After about an hour in the pool we went for a walk down to the beach and some lunch. The beach was just ok, there was a swimming spot to the right were families were and a little further past the swimming area was some tidal pools. The tidal pools were filled with water and it was very warm from sitting in the sun stagnant all morning, Many of the locals sat in the pools soaking like a hot tub.

We went to Father Rooster for lunch and had a pretty good meal of fish & chips, cheeseburger, chips & salsa and Elliot had a shrimp cocktail. After lunch we went down to the water for a swim and we collected heaps of coral and unique shells. The water was so warm. Tegan, Elliot and I went over to check out the tidal pools and saw many cool creatures within the warm waters; sea slugs, hermit crabs, fish and spiny sea urchins.

We walked back to the hotel for some more time in the pool, while Correen went to the room for some sleep. The kids and I got another hour or more in the pool before heading to the room. A bath for the three of us and then we were vegging out; Elliot with the iPad, Tegan and I watched Friends, Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory as they cycled through on the tele. Well it was now nearing 9 p.m. and no one had complained of hunger until now and Mom was still sleeping, so I decided to skip back too Playas del Coco for Subway. It was worth it as the subs were enjoyed by us 3 and we brought back a 1/2 sub for Mom in case she woke up hungry.

Correen didn't feel like the sandwich so we placed it in the fridge and then got ready for a good comfy sleep.