Thursday, February 15, 2018

2018 COSTA RICA DAY 17 Left Playa Coco for Papaturro 01-27

On the way to Playa Papaturro we drove out on a peninsula to try to tour the new Four Seasons Hotel there.  Wendy had heard it was quite an exciting place from a design stand point, which it did turn out to be only we were not allowed to tour the place.  As we approached the 12 kilometer long entry drive we were greated by a gate manned by guards who asked us what our business was and if we had a reservation.  At about $2,000 per room per night for the cheapest we did not make a reservation.  We just mumbled something about wanting to take a look and that we were an architect and interior designer.  They must have been amused by that given we had two weeks of gross road grime on us and didn’t quite look the part with our luggage strapped to our bikes.  In the end they signed us in and let us pass to the second check point about ten kilometers down the road. The guy there manned a bigger more monstrous gate but after a little conversation he let us pass as well. As we arrived in the parking lot we were greeted by a third, this time a female, guard who directed us to the lot.  She was quite pleasant and pointed us to the reception area.  We made it as far as the check in counter which is where the lady concierge told us that would were not allowed to enter and offered us a bottle of water while firmly denying us entry and asking us to leave.  So we took a few pictures of the life style of the rich and famous on our way out and retreated with our tails between our legs. 

Sadly as we left Wendy left her new glasses on the back of the bike and they fell off and got run over.  We didn’t realize they were gone until we were beyond the first gate and had to back track to the lady at the parking lot who stood there with broken glasses in hand which she handed to Wendy.  All in all a nicely done “Disney Land” sort of place but not for our kind.  Reserved for Oprah and Bill Gates.

The rest of the trip north was quite nice while relatively uneventful  as we hit highway 1 and neaded northward.  Highway 1 separates Santa Rosa National Park and Guanacasta National  Park from one another as it heads north between them.  Almost the whole 30 kilometer distance the road is overgrown with a beautiful, and blooming, canopy of trees which makes it a wonderful ride to experience.

We arrived in La Cruz at about 15:00 and headed east to the “Blue Dream” resort.  It ended up being neither blue nor so dreamy.  It was not on the beach but on a very steep hill above the beach.  Our room was even further up, about 200 feet up, on a very steep (sort of) driveway which we couldn’t really navigate with our bikes.  We had to carry all our luggage up this hill.  It gave us a little sense of what it must have been like for the those miners going up Chilkoot Pass in Alaska as the headed toward the Yukon with their one ton grub stake.  Admittedly we only had to schlepp our stuff up once and not the fourty five times those guys did through the snow.


Ok so all was not lost since were greeted by a tree full of white faced monkeys which made the place a lot more fun than we had originally though when we saw our neighbor lady shake a scorpion like creature out of her underwear.

No comments: