From Here To There: July 22

We started the day off slowly. It's an overcast humid day. It's a good time to laze around enjoy the temperature and catch up e-mails, fb games and books.

Interesting cactus in Jáco

Vine covered tree by our hotel in Jáco

It starts raining and thundering at about 10am and we pack our car in a downpour. Given the rain is not cold, the only inconvenience is getting wet and it is warm enough to dry quickly.

We are off to Quepo and the El Sueņo Tranquil Hotel. Getting to Quepo was not difficult but finding the hotel was crazy. We ended up in several one way streets, and deadends. The torrential rain was turning little rivulets into streams down the roads. Small lakes appeared at corners. Google maps was not cooperating and kept going off line. Eventually we stopped to get directions right beside a bakery.

Given Val has been wanting chocolate cake for a couple days, stopping at The Brooklyn Bakery seemed perfect. We got directions (hotel just on the next block) and had lunch. For desert I had a chocolate glazed donut and Val had a piece of flourless chocolate cake. She shared. This was the most delicious cake I've ever tasted - it melted in my mouth, it reminded me of Icy Squares. We should have taken a picture but we couldn't put our forks down long enough to take the picture. The bakery is owned by a couple from Israel. She indicated 8 years ago they knew they were going to have a son so decided to leave Israel and moved to a country without an army. They now have two children and bought the bakery a year and a half ago.

After lunch we walked to the hotel a block away, given the rain and one way streets we didn't want to have to drive by it if we couldn't find parking. It was the wrong hotel! But a lady gave us instructions - "go around the city and drive by the green car, then go over a bridge with something yellow on top - follow the road you can't miss it"

Well we managed to go around the city, found the bridge and got lost. At least we were closer - maybe. We now we're in an area with more graffiti, narrower roads, and lots of deadends. Val went into a store but no English was spoken. Google maps came back for a moment and we were able to get a glimpse where we were to go before we were off line again.

Eventually we found our hotel. A large room with two beds in it and two small night stands. No chairs, no pictures, no blankets. Sheets were put on the beds when we arrived.

Little English is spoken by the hotel staff. It appears the hotel is only partially finished. However this means the beds are new and it is clean. We don't need more than that.

The rain slowed down -I'm pretty sure it will not stop today. So we took a drive. Given our numerous wrong turns trying to find the hotel we kinda know the town. Now we can enjoy it since we have a place to return to. It appears to be a pretty little town with a tourist port and working habour.

We lucked into finding a farmers market and got to have some free samples of unusual fruit and cheese. We bought some fruit to have as our supper. Although we were told the names of some of the different fruits and vegetables...our memory was not long lasting.