Costa Rica, Day Ten: August 24, 2014
Stressful day, for me, anyway.
The signs that the elevator is broken are gone but were not taking a chance, so we walked up the stairs just before 8:00am.
There were more landslides overnight during that thunderstorm.
We went looking for the snorkel place where we were supposed to be at 8:15 – and rode around for 30 minutes. We had “directions” and a “map” but we still couldn’t find a restaurant called “Gloria and Claudio” where we were supposed to meet.
Tom asked in two other restaurants. It turns out that we weren’t told we were supposed to part on the street and walk up the boardwalk to find Gloria and company.
Finally, at 8:45, we were walking up the boardwalk and someone approached us and asked if we were O’Connors – right place!
She complained that we were keeping everyone else waiting and said to take off our shoes. We started wading through the low-tide mud and surf towards a rubber dinghy that was to take us to the snorkel boat. Tom said NO and we left. The person who met us was astounded that we wouldn’t do that. Fortunately, we had our car there so we weren’t stranded.
In our driving, we had seen a tour place. We went there to sign up for a tour to Nicaragua. We’re not using the tour place here anymore. We signed up for 3 things and got discounts on all, more than what we lost on today’s trip. The guy wanted $150 US in cash as a deposit. The rest could be paid by credit card on the actual trips. We only had $60 between us so we owe him $90 on Monday at the first trip. Watch for Monday’s post!
Upcoming tours: Monday, a different snorkel trip; Tuesday, Nicaragua; Wednesday, break!; Thursday Monteverde; Friday, NYC; Saturday home
Tom got our money back – grudgingly – for today’s trip – I don’t know how he does that.
At 4:00 we were supposed to do a presentation. Over the years, we have done several timeshare presentations. AARRGGHH! It was supposed to be 90 minutes. It turned into 4 hours. We told them we weren’t going to buy but they kept pushing and pushing.
They said they weren’t selling timeshares, they are selling vacations.
It started with lunch/dinner here and the first guy. In passing, he asked about our place here and we mentioned the front light and elevator. He called someone called “Dan” and said he didn’t want something like this interfering with “his sale”.
Then, he took us to Ocotal to see some of the rooms and we talked to another guy.
There were scammy-sounding schemes where we gave them some of our existing timeshares and a pile of money and we would live happily ever after, vacationing all over. We had no way of leaving because we were in the middle of nowhere with no car.
They had some units built and they were building 40 more (construction noise OR an untruth).
Tom gave the second guy suggestions on quitting smoking and agreed to be a contact on LinkedIn.
Finally, they got the message that we would not buy today no matter what and took us back to Coco Bay.
On the way, guy number one asked if our light was fixed, could he make “his sale”. NONONO! English is even his first language. We kept getting big hints that if they didn’t sell 10 of these in some amount of time, he would be fired. Yada Yada, violins in the background.
We got back here and there was a third person for “another company” trying to get some of our money. Apparently the first 2 people had included his “services” in their presentation and he was there seeing if he could salvage anything out of this non-deal.
Finally back up the mountain, down the 4 flights of stairs and our light was fixed. One good thing out of four wasted hours.
Costa Rica, Day Nine: August 23, 2014
This was another easy day.
When Tom was making reservations for Costa Rica, he set out searches on both RCI and Interval. We had one week here at Coco Bay Estates, then we were going to move to Flamingo Beach Resort. That was ok, sort of. Then a second week became available here but we kept the second week at Flamingo and gave it to friends, Bev and Pete.
We mostly spent the morning online checking Facebook, I worked some on a final exam that is due at 9:00 am Monday – UK time on a Coursera course – and trying to figure out how to get to Flamingo Beach Resort.
We had all kinds of maps, including the Google one at right. The trouble with all of them is the route numbers. None of the roads here have signs that say what the route number is, or the name of any street.
The little directions that come with that map were also no good since we were to go through the towns of Filadelfia, Belén and Huacas.
Luckily, we had been through Filadelfia before, when we went to Palo Verde but the other ones had no signs letting us know where the town limits were, “Welcome to Huacas” signs or anything. The maps would be better if they said turn right at the fruit stand or something.
We rented a GPS when we first got here but today it had trouble acquiring satellites and we would be driving along and it appeared to suddenly download new (or updated) software, then restart.
But, as always, we persevered.
We set out about 11:30 am. Before we even got to the little town, we saw an odd sight.
That boat, aptly named Fear Not, is being towed by that backhoe(?). The boat is taller than the electrical wires above so the guy on the left, in orange, is standing up, holding up the electrical wires with a piece of wood. The woman is holding a piece of aluminum or metal.
We retraced our steps towards the Liberia Airport but when we got to that fruit stand, we turned right instead of left. All new territory now. Between the in-and-out GPS and sporadic signs to Playa Flamingo, after only one wrong turn, we made it to our friends place about 12:45.
We met them in the lobby and then went and had a very nice lunch in the little outdoor restaurant.
We went out on their beach (white sand) and got a view of the buildings just up the coast.
I have to sat that their place is much nicer than ours on a whole – room is smaller – and more friendly/helpful people around.
Here, we’re kind of by ourselves on this mountain and have to drive to even get to the pool. Most of the “staff” here seem to work for another company which is selling timeshares/vacation clubs/something slimy. More on that later.
Our front light is still out and our elevator may or may not be working after nine days here. We still have our 15 issues since day one and some new ones have been added. Those will be in a summary after we get home.
But, I digress. We had a great time with our friends but had to head home at 4:30 or so since it gets dark at 6:00. On the way back we were stopped by police for a routine traffic stop. Tom said it was right around Costa Rican Mother’s Day when all the family gathers at home. That may involve drinking and/or fighting which may have triggered the traffic stop. In any event, they let us go after seeing Tom’s driver’s license.
Most of the drive went well except when we went around a corner and there was a kid skateboarding in the street.
We got back to our place just as a big storm was brewing.
.
And there was a huge thunderstorm. The power went out on one wall where modem, router and telephone is. Then the fridge went out but it came back fairly soon.
Someone came to our door to ask if we’d reported a fire. Uh, no. We wouldn’t be sitting around if the place was on fire. We don’t even have a phone to report a fire.
Finally, our modem, router and phone came back and all was well for another day…