Paradise....in Hell

We left Jaco, sadly. But, also, looking forward to a little slice of paradise. We took the bus to Parrita, a short 40 minutes away. Once we arrived, we took a taxi to the resort. When we pulled up, I was, at first, dismayed to find how small it was. I had imagined more of a Mexican resort. This place had 2 buildings with rooms (house sized), and one small reception building. We entered reception, and the man and woman were very friendly, greeting me by name. When we finished up checking in, I asked   about the promotion that we had seen when we booked, offering 2 free dinners each night, if you stay for 3 nights.

We were originally going to only book 2 nights but figured, since we wouldn't be paying for any meals (as breakfast was already included), we could stay the extra night. I had taken a picture of this promo, thank goodness, as they seemed hesitant about the whole ordeal. I had entered a promo code but it didn't seem their booking system takes note of that. When the girl went over to ask Chad, the manager, about it. He said, "Oh ya, but you can only order off these 2 pages, and the restaurant is closed today." Hello? I had come here to relax, and it was a $10 taxi drive into town, which means, $20 both ways. I informed him that we wouldn't have booked Monday, if we knew they were closed and would have booked Tuesday, and that there was nothing like that listed on the website. He, condescendingly, stated that we should not worry and he wouldn't let us starve. I also informed him that the only reason we booked 3 nights was because of the offer so he said he would make sure we had food, even if he had to cook it himself. He "wouldn't let us starve." Well that's nice to know. I made sure we were clear that the cost would be on him. My biggest pet peeve is when people say "Relax", which is what he kept saying. Of course, I'm upset, you tool, you are talking to me like an idiot. Jan, was really against the idea of him cooking, for obvious reasons. And just to give you an image of Chad, he had long brown, scraggly hair and wore loose linen clothes, yet black socks and dress shoes. He told us that wearing sunscreen causes cancer and he prefers to use coconut oil as sun protection on his open pores.

Regardless of the ridiculous hippy wannabe, the room, however was beautiful. We had a towel elephant and swan on our beds, the ac was on and there was a tv. The bathroom was gorgeous, and we even had samples to take with us. We changed and went to the pool where we lazed away the rest of the afternoon. 

The frogs have come back!

That night, we requested pizza and it was delivered to our door. We enjoyed it, while watching satellite tv and relaxing. I went to bed at 9. I was so tired. Jan said I slept like the dead...and may have been snoring! hehe I really haven't been sleeping that great!

We enjoyed a pool day the following day.

Originally, we had planned to go to Manuel Antonio park with some poeple we had met in Jaco who were renting a car, but they were still in Jaco at 10:30 (it's a 2 hour drive from Jaco). So we decided to go the next day with Yael, who we had met in La Fortuna, and then also in Jaco. When we called to place our dinner order, which you have to do ahead of time, with the time you'll be eating, they informed us that it was free dinner for 1 person, not 2. Are you kidding me? I had already showed them the picture I had taken of their website. I was so annoyed by this, so I marched down to reception, phone in hand. Before I could even say anything, Chad was telling me that once I was done, he'd like a chance to be heard, what? Heard about what? He wouldn't even look at the picture of the promotion, just saying they'd honour what we'd asked for (like they hadn't advertised it themselves), and that we should only speak to him from now on. He was once again, condescending. Whatever, as long as we got our free food! He also went on to say, he could be charging $150 per room...well why aren't you then? Exactly. 

Dinner was pretty good but we had to wait almost half an hour for it, despite the pre-order and having given the time we were going to eat. The portions, weren't very big, and since we'd only had a peanut butter sandwiches for lunch (using bread we stole from breakfast), Jan was pretty hungry. I'd had a huge breakfast so I wasn't as bad. We took full advantage of the tv before crashing again. The next day, we got up early, to meet Yael on the bus to Manuel Antonio, a national park in Costa Rica. We  found her on the bus, whew( we thought maybe we'd missed it). It was a really hot day, and we were already sweating profusely by the time we had walked from the bus station to the front entrance, roughly 1km. We bought tickets to get in, while a guy tried to convince us to hire a guide for $20 each! There were 4 of us! The entrance alone was $16. We wanted a guide but not for that much. We walked away and he came over and offered it for $10 each, as long as we didn't tell anyone. We accepted his offer, but guaranteed, everyone gets that same one unless they pay the $20. We spent the next couple of hours looking at poisonous snakes, crabs, rainbow insects, tree frogs, monkeys, and sloths.

We finished at the beach, which was gorgeous, but full of people and a VERY high tide. 

We opted to walk back instead of swimming. We were all exhausted and hot. We had to hand over our snacks at the entrance as anything that makes noise (ie. chip bags) weren't allowed in the park.

On the way back, the monkeys were only a foot away, playing!

We left, checked out the beach by the bus stop for some quick photos and then caught the bus back to Quepos.

Once there, we waited for the next bus to Perrita, (Yael had to wait for a later bus back to Jaco) and off we went. We got back in time for a quick swim in the pool, which was not nearly as refreshing as we'd hoped, since the water was so warm. One more night and then off we go, back to Jaco.

We'd asked our taxi driver the times of the buses for the following morning, and he'd told us 10:30, and 2. Since checkout was at 12, and we didn't want to be sitting around there for 2 hours. We opted for the 10:30 time and asked Chad to book us the taxi and confirm the times. 

And here's where the real story begins. We arrive at reception to check out. Two of the managers are in there having a discussion about business, which they don't stop when we enter, nor do they acknowledge our presence. They continue discussing, and struggling over who has more power, for about 5 minutes. Finally, Chad starts to check us out. He prints off our bill and we have some things on there that we didn't get. He removes them, when we notice that the extra appetizer that we had ordered the night before was $10 and not the $5 we had thought. In Costa Rica, Colones are in the thousands. $1 U.S. is 500 Colones (roughly). Well this place had gotten rid of all the zeros and listed our dish as 5 colones instead of 5000, which was the actual cost. No one does this, NO ONE. But he thought this was acceptable. I told him that was not listing the proper price at all and he told me he would "take this into consideration and meditate on it and see what was best for him and his business". Are you freaking kidding me? The lame quesidillas we'd had, which we thought were reasonably priced at 7 dollars, were actually $14! Ha...and pop was $3 for a can. So, basically, this place is a total rip off. Thank goodness for free meals! As we left, Chad made sure to invite us and our families back....I do NOT think so! And the icing on the cake, is Jan's sand flea attack, even though we hadn't gone to the beach. She had bites all over. We haven't even been bitten in places like Ometepe, which, as you'll recall, is one with nature.

I couldn't wait to get away from this place. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. Bad manners, terrible customer service, and super condescending attitude is not my idea of a relaxing time. So much for that idea. 

Outside the resort in Parrita:

The taxi arrived and we had just driven out of the driveway when he's telling us that he got the bus times wrong and the bus was due at 10 am, which was the curent time. And the next bus was at 2. Well that's just great. We sat, idling in the middle of the road, having this discussion with him. I figured we'd have a better chance getting anywhere, at the bus station, since this cabbie didn't know a thing about buses (even though, Chad, had insisted he did). We drove along and he was telling us about another bus that would come at 10:40 that goes through Jaco, but only to the outskirts. Better than waiting till 2! All of a sudden, we are driving past the bus station. I asked him to stop but he insisted that the bus we want is only 2 minutes ahead, and he can catch it. He's speeding along the highway, passing traffic, finally passing the bus. He pulls over at a bus stop......and the bus flies right on past. Then, he tells us to get out, we could wait there for the 10:40 bus. We should have insisted he drive us back to the bus station, but we got out. He then refuses to give me proper change, and gets in his car and drives away. What an ASSHOLE.

I was so mad, I could have punched something. I felt so frustrated at the whole ordeal that day, and helpless to do anything. Thank goodness, a bus did come, at 10:45, that took us to Jaco. The taxi ended up being $3 to the hostel. We were so glad to be back. It felt like coming home! We were able to check in early, and went to the room to find 1 double bed. Seems Jan's tired of sleeping with me, so she went down to ask about switching to 2 singles. She got us a better room! Woo hoo! Two beds and our own bathroom. This owner knows about customer service! And now, to enjoy the pool, the sun, and the company for our last couple of beach days!