Comiñg to you from a little interñet cafe in Puriscal...

Hello again folks!!
Well, two weeks fly by like its Maverick in Top Gun. We wrote most of this post last night in San Jose. We stayed the night at our base hostel, Hostel Bekuo, preparing for the next leg of our journey. We are now on our way to Rancho Mastatal, where we will be volunteering for the next 7 days (mostly without internet) and we wanted to fill you in on the last few good ol' days in Puerto Viejo.

When we last left off, we were leaving the beautiful Casa Caribe and moving down the road to Hotel Puerto Viejo. And strangely enough, the nastiness of our new locale defined the last few days of our time in Puerto Viejo as much as the beauty of the area pleased us. The wierdest thing about our new hotel find was that intitially we liked it!!! We thought it was a great location and the people that were hanging around in the lower "lobby/bar/kitchen" area were very hospitable. The rooms seemed clean enough (free of bed bugs), and we were also excited because it had a communal kitchen.

Shortly after we moved in though, we came to realize how shallow first impressions can be. Aside from the one or two semi-normal adults, and three very cute (though thoroughly under cared for) children, the people who run and inhabit this hotel are Megan's Lister's, junkies, drug, dealers and prostitutes. There were a few, if any, rules about cleanliness, so what used to be a commercial kitchen was now a commercial for how to get salmonella. The walls were paper thin and our windows plentiful, so we fell asleep/woke up to rambunctious drunks, screeching animals and one woman who can REALLY yell (at all her family).

It was definitley a step down (or a whole staircase for that matter) from Casa Caribe, Brigettes, and Hostel Bekuo, but experiences like this make us realize how lucky we have been so far.  What it points out to us, is that using sites like Hostelworld.com, which is how we choose most of our hostels, has proved to be quite worthwhile.

As you know, it was our anniversary so we decided to go out and have a romantic dinner.  After perusing what seemed like every restaurant in Püerto Viejo, feeling somewhat like Goldilocks ("This ones too loud", "This one smells funny", "This one doesnt have a nice place to sit") we finally found Salsa Brava, and we were absolutely pleased with our decision.  The restaurant was situated on a quiet, little corner of town and right on the beach.  We picked a candlelit table for two on the outside balcony and started our meal with a bottle of Chilean wine which was even placed in a bucket at the end of our table!!!  The scenery was exquisit, Billie Holiday and the crashing waves graced our ears, and the food was right up there as well.  We started with house made yucca chips with pico de gallo, followed by roasted chicken skewers and a vanilla chicken spaghetti.  (Vanilla spaghetti you ask?  Yes, and it was bomb!!)

So, now we're signing off to head to Rancho Mastatal.  If you google it, you'll find the site, and be able to read more about it.  Sorry to cut it short, but we need to catch a bus in 10!  Love you all.

T & G

P.S.  Sorry for the lack of pictures, we arent on our usual computer.  As soon as we can well write more, and share some photos.