Jerked around

Waking up early this morning, Nigel headed down to the beach for a walk, where he saw hundreds of tracks from the turtles from the night before. It was amazing how many there had been last night. I met up with him later on the beach, and together we went off to struggle to find a place open for breakfast. This is a strange little town, with everything being shut during meal times even though there are so many tourists around. We found a bakery, the Pandaria Dorling (the LP calls it Darling) with the cutest owner/baker/cook. She is practically the only good thing about Tortuguero Village with her bright, friendly manner and delicious food. We had peanut cookies and fresh banana bread for breakfast. We then packed up our hear and watched an inguana in a tree near the river while waiting for our boat back to Moin.

More animals along the river route, we arrived in Moin just after 1:00, got a ride to Puerto Limon, and managed to hop right onto the 2:00 bus to San Jose. This bus only took about 3 hours since it didn't stop every 100 yards to pick people up. We had made reservations at the Tranquilo Backpackers (with some difficulty I might add) and went straight there. We signed in and were about to pay when they informed us that our room was actually down the street in the owner's house! We didn't want to stay in someone's house, especially for US$22. We were pissed at them for not letting us know on the phone, and they weren't really nice to us at all. Especially since I tried to reserve a room around 9:00 this morning, but she told me I had to call back around 11:30 when they'd know if they would have rooms. I explained we'd be on a boat and wouldn't be able to call until about 2:00, could they please at least put our names on a waiting list or something, but she wouldn't do it. So when I rang at 2:00 and they said they had a room, I thought we were in luck. They said they were trying to be helpful by putting us up in someone's home, but in fact they should have just been honest and said "No we don't have any rooms, but you can stay at the owner's house down the street" in which case we could have refused at 9:00 this morning and rang a different place. But now it was amost 6:00 and the next best alternate only had dorm beds left. And to make it all worse, as we left Tranquilo's, it started to rain and it got dark. There we were with no hotel and walking around in the pouring rain looking for a place. Thanks a lot assholes at Tranquilo. In the end though, we were glad not to give them more money since they haven't really been helpful our nice the last 2 times we stayed there (we only stayed for the free internet and free pancakes, plus they do have hot showers).

So, to make a long story even longer, we walked around the city and settled on dorm beds at Costa Rica Backpackers. This place is so much better! Not only are the staff friendly, but they don't have that whole "wannabe hippy, up themselves vibe" that they do at Tranquilos. Plus, this place is huge, with a pool and grass area to hang out in, a huge TV room, free internet (twice as many computers as Tranquilo), a restaurant with an even large TV and lots of games, and hot showers. And it's cheaper. So in the end, it all worked out. After checking in and dropping off ALL of our clothes to be washed, we had a swim in the pool in the drizzling rain and a long hot shower. We then had dinner at the restaurant and then watched "Big Fish" on TV. It was great to hang out and watch some TV in the evening for a change!