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 Three: August 17, 2014
We all woke up early since the sun rises early. Still no Internet. It was Sunday so we figured it might come back sometime on Monday…maybe. We went down to the tour desk to see if there were any partial day tours for today and full-day ones for tomorrow. The ATV won for today, leaving at 1:00. But first, breakfast in the little restaurant here.
I remembered that we had that other Internet outside Brian’s office and went outside there to log my iPad on with WiFi so I could give AT&T a pile more money and I could get more Global Data, just in case. Sneaky, huh? Turned out, it wouldn’t start until midnight on the 18th, but better than nothing!
Our driver came about 1:00 and we headed off for the ATV trip. This turned out to be a place that also has ziplines and such. We met up with another couple, Tony and Donna, before we headed off up and down unpaved, rut-filled “roads” When we left the Congo Trail Canopy place we visited two beaches: Penca Beach with white sand and Potreros Bay with dark sand), and had snacks at a beach bar. Michael later commented that we learned a lot about operating an ATV but nothing about Costa Rica. True!
Back “home” and found the elevators had signs on them that they weren’t working. Surprise! Tom and Michael went out for Subway subs. When they got back, there was a huge rainstorm and loud booms. We looked out and some of the rocks were coming off our mountain. Great – landslide!
We played some of the games I’d downloaded last night, then early bed. Tomorrow is an early day.