The first night’s hotel. Wonderfully big beds!
My first night in Costa Rica was in a 5 star hotel because my original hotel was overbooked. Fluffy big beds, clean sheets, fresh flowers in the room, AC; that hotel was heaven. The breakfast was amazing and the hotel’s decor natural but also stylishly modern.
Weird Egyptian themed hotel room art in Costa Rica.
My last night, was in the original hotel…was quite the opposite. For one, the room was strangely decorated in an Egyptian motif. The beds small and uncomfortable. I also drew the short straw and got the room next to the bathroom.
Not a 5 star hotel.
If you’ve not been to Central America before, you probably don’t know that the plumbing isn’t that great, so you cannot flush toilet paper. You actually have to put it in a trash bin, next to the toilet. This can make bathrooms a bit…smelly. And the heat doesn’t help at all. With my bed next to the bathroom, it was not pleasant.
Randy our GAdventures tour guide!
But, there wasn’t much time to dwell (or a plan to stay long in the room). We had traveled all day…and it was time for the farewell dinner! We ate at the hotel, it wasn’t a very memorable meal, but it was cheap. The main attraction was to come later. Our guide Randy was going to take us to his friends bar.
It was quite dark in the bar.
With my Australian friends!
It was a great dive type bar. A hodge dodge of tables, dimly lit by candles. Artsy home made music videos played on a large sheet across the small stage. Good music, good drinks, and fun company. And because we were at his friend’s bar, we got treated extra special. I had a great time laughing and talking with everyone.
Some of the other girls in the group, with my roommate in the background.
As the night wore on, everyone started getting drunker. I knew I didn’t want to be up all night since I still had to pack and had to leave early for the airport. I also knew my barely remembered Spanish would not be adequate to negotiate and give directions to a taxi driver. So when the last Spanish speaking tour mate left, I went with her. Which was good, telling the driver the name of the hotel…he had no clue where it was. She had to give directions to a nearby park until we got close enough to the hotel.
Me and my Spanish speaking taxi buddy.
I got back, packed, and got everything ready for my early wake up. But…I couldn’t stand the smell. Thats when I realized the entire room was tiled, and the bed kept moving at the slightest touch. So I did some…redecorating. I moved all the luggage, and I pushed the bed to the other side of the room, near the door. Then I couldn’t smell it anymore, and could finally get ready to sleep. Then I realized my roommate was still out and would trip over me. So I left a note, explaining that I had moved the bed, and to be careful when she came in. I then duck taped it to the door.
It worked. My rather drunk roommate made it inside the room without tripping over my bed, and I was none the wiser. In the morning I quietly got ready and waited to take a taxi with some of the others to the airport. While waiting we ran into one of our group mates who had declined the bar trip. But her roommate, who had a 4AM flight had joined us at the bar. I asked when she came back to the hotel. “She almost didn’t make it. She literally came back around 3AM, threw her stuff in her bag, and headed out to the airport. Hope she made it!”
The beer of Costa Rica Imperial
When we arrived at the airport a huge mural of Costa Rica’s national beer, the Imperial, greeted us. But I felt a bit like it was actually mocking me. I was a little bit hungover from the night before, and I wasn’t the only one. The few of us who had taken the taxi together got breakfast at the airport, and then drank a lot of water.
I was getting ready to hop a flight to Orlando to start the second leg of my trip. I bought a couple bottles of outrageously expensive water, and headed to get in line to board. But strangely on the jetway, they had a second round of security that went through all of our luggage once again by hand. And they took away all of our post-security bought water. A group of twenty-somethings huddled, pleading for their water. But the security agents didn’t speak English. So in desperation one of the girls asked “¿cómo se dice “Hangover”?” I completely agreed, chugged down half a bottle of water, and boarded the plane thirstier than I’ve ever been before.
Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.
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