Oh yeah. Expectations. Wish I could insert that smiley of the orange face banging its little head against a brick wall here. How can I still have expectations? Norteamericano expectations even.
The reason the de la Cuesta had plenty of vacancies last night is because it is a dump. Belongs right next to the landfill, no doubt.
Remember, I'd already guaranteed my deposit with a credit card and was outside my 48 hour cancellation time limit. Even if I could find another place it's too late for tonight and tomorrow, with any luck I'll be gone after Wednesday night so I decided to be philosophical about it.s
I'm being philosophical about a lot on this trip lately. It's been real real eye opening and even my usual good humor and smile have faded a bit.
I checked in and looked at 5 empty rooms, 4 of which were dark and with a small window looking out on the street or trash cans. The bano privatado was shared and down the hall, the showers-well they are all shared and there are 3 of them for 24 rooms.
The last room was a little more expensive.....$25 to the $20 for the 10 x 10 caves I'd looked at. The desk clerk said it had a bano privatado...ok I'll pay 5 bucks more for a john in my room. Especially right now. The room was larger, sunnier if not cleaner, had a big window overlooking a court yard, an actual closet with hangers and a sorta nice oak dresser thats about 80 years old. Very scared up. I like it of course.
But the bano..well private seems to be a word of some loose interpretation here. The bano is off the laundry area, next to the computer room where I sit now. Tonight only one of the snobby stuck up french chicks is here, but last night it was full of smoking beer drinking loud guys who were using the wireless (which I can't get in my room around the corner) for their laptops or using the 2 old clunkers that are up here. Also going were 2 washing machines, raggaeton on someones computer speakers and a conversation in some language I didn't understand.
Cause all the guys were drinking beer, they were also using the only bano in the area...the one marked for Apartmento 15 . Yes my $5.00 smelled like a beer hall and lets say toilet seat lifting was optional. And it was only about 7:30 PM. I asked the night clerk for cleaning products so I could sorta pick up when I wanted it and tried to tell her I wasn't paying for a private bano, but though she understood the cleaning stuff, the other was beyond her English.
About 10 she brought me a towel and a plastic holder of the all purpose type cleaner they use in Costa Rica for everything, she also brought me a mop. Then she yelled at the various guys, "Bano privatado" figured in the yelling and left..and yes, I cleaned it up before I went to bed.
My room, itself was sunny during the day with a nice breeze, though very grubby generally. Everything is generally grubby like only the middle of the floors get swept or occasionally mopped, the doors all have a big smudge of hand prints on the opening and I decided to wash my dishes before I ate off of them. This coming from me, who is not exactly Ms. Clean herself. I have rather lax values when it comes to housework for it's own sake and am pretty tolerant about mess. But grubby everywhere, cobwebs everywhere, mold growing on the walls-it IS hard to contain I admit-but established mold in the closet-which I can't use because of it...stuff like that is just a bit more than even I would like to stay around much.
But it's only for 4 nights so I can cope. Right???
more later.........
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