After breakfast the driver from Tricolor car rental arrived right on time at 9am. He didn’t speak much English but we finally figured out that we needed to go with him back to the office at the airport (last time they just dropped off the car and did the paperwork at the hotel). We checked out of the hotel, loaded our luggage in the rental and headed to the office near the airport. The paper work was completed quickly and we were on the road an hour later at 10am.
After filling up the gas tank, we followed directions to avoid downtown San Jose on the way to the highway that would take us to the Caribbean coast but took a wrong turn somewhere, got lost and ended up in downtown San Jose. After consulting the map in the Lonely Planet book we were able to get our bearings. The Holiday Inn was a good, tall landmark located near the road that leads to the highway and we quickly found our way out of the city.
The drive to Puerto Viejo wasn’t bad. There is a toll booth just out of San Jose so it’s a good idea to have some colonies ready (I don’t know if they accept dollars). The highway was in good condition, traffic was fairly light and it rained most of the way to Limon. We saw a few trafficos (traffic police) but since it was raining they seemed more interested in staying dry inside their police cars then pulling anybody over. Once in Limon there was a huge traffic jam that lasted for several blocks until we were able to make the turn south to Puerto Viejo.
The radio stations in Costa Rica that play English music are really eclectic in their selection of music. For example, the Rolling Stones will be followed by Tears for Fears which would be followed by The Bee Gees. Costa Rica seems to be the land of the B sides. I heard songs that I haven’t heard in ages!
We arrived at our bed and breakfast, Banana Azul, which is located about a mile north of town in Playa Negra at 3pm. Our hosts, Collin and Roberto were not there but the caretaker, Alfredo and another guest, Sherri, let us in and helped us get settled into our room. Banana Azul is composed of two buildings, one contains two guest rooms (the “Sloth Cabanas”) above where Alfredo lives and the other building contains our room (”The Red Frog Room”) which is underneath where Collin and Roberto live. They are also building a small 6 room hotel on the property as well. The room was even nicer looking than the pictures on their web page. The property is located right on the beach and was probably less than 100 steps from our door to the water.
The Red Frog Room and Bathroom
We were hungry so we drove into town and walked around looking for somewhere to eat, have a beer, and do some people watching. We ended up at El Dorado which is located on the main street. It turned out that the bartender Kay (pronounced K-eye) had lived just a few blocks from us in San Francisco! I had a yummy quesodilla and Kat had a chicken casado.
We then went to the store to get a few beers and headed back to Banana Azul where we met Roberto who gave us a tour of the rest of the house and property. We then went to the beach for a swim with two of their dogs Sasha and Quira tagging along. After a quick shower we went back town for some dinner. It seemed like all the recommended restaurants were closed on Wednesdays so we went back to El Dorado and had a small pizza. We got back to Banana Azul and met another couple, Richard and Charlotte, who just arrived and then we went to bed.
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