That room was ready for us when we arrived and the bellhop was eager to take our bags up. Unfortunately, Guy misread the Maria (taxi meter) and paid 10 times the cost for our short taxi ride, realizing his mistake a few seconds too late. Fortunately we remembered the taxi number and the driver’s name, and the hotel concierge and the English-speaking bellhop were able to contact the taxi company, who contacted the driver, who returned to restore the correct change, with an apology and our first “Pura Vida” of the trip when we accepted it. A debate over how much to tip the concierge for this service led to Guy over-tipping waiters for the rest of the day.
We didn’t get to go on our ranch tour today but scheduled one for tomorrow and went out to lunch. The restaurant we found was a pleasant walk through a nice suburban neighborhood behind the hotel, and charming. Walk through a garage painted red and decorated with knick-knacks and icons, into a large backyard with tables and plants under a tarp. They served a cheap, simple, and excellent meal: choice of meat or fish with sides like rice, plantain, and corn. Leia had fish with baked plantain with cheese and Guy had the beef tenderloin with a potato bread thing, because they ran out of corn. We also had small homemade churros filled with dulce de leche, that were the ideal of what a churro should be, and stayed for some coffee.
On our return we tasted and rejected our free welcome drink of spoiled sangria, and Guy brought some Hershey’s kisses from the front desk as a valentine, much to the amusement of a barfly seated nearby. We tried the hotel’s jacuzzi (verdict: not as good as the one we had at home) and small dry sauna. For dinner we walked out to a seafood restaurant called “Fountain of Shellfish” a few minutes away from our hotel, and together struggled to consume a massive paella followed by dessert.
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