Iguana Not Included
We took a bus from Montezuma on the
Playa Hermosa is a beautiful area on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, just south of Jaco. The beaches are black, and feel like velvet. Very little in the way of rocks or even shells. There is always a bit of a haze over the horizon, making the beach look like a tropical scene from a movie. Playa Hermosa is a big surfing town. We arrived here late, and got ourselves our most expensive room yet for $40 at a surfer’s shack. The gentleman (surfer from Daytona) that checked us in promised the next day there would be a cheaper room available without A/C. Now this is not too much of a problem as we are one block from the beach and get a nice sea breeze. And to save $20 a night, I will switch rooms. So this was our first room.
The next day we moved into our new room. I almost fell over when I saw it. Up a rickety wood staircase, above what looked to be a garage in its former life, was this:
The room sort of had screens, just like it sort of had a roof. The roof was corrugated tin spliced together. The tin was placed over some bamboo strips that you can see in the picture. The room was separated from the bathroom by a door, but if you look closely to the right you will see a “window” from the bathroom to the room. And this is the shower:
Notice the water shooting right out the window in the shower, watering the plants outside as well as part of you.
And if you have never seen a hot water shower in
Here is another angle of the bathroom:
Please note the plant growing into the wall. This is the second floor mind you. Must have been all the water from the shower. So here we are, on a tight travel budget, and I think I just don’t know about this…..but it is one night, be a trooper, a true adventurer. Besides, we have a mosquito net. So I psyche myself up for the adventure. Until we met this guy:
As we were sitting outside our new room, he walked right up on our porch, crawled up the side of the room, and into the roof. I say into because the corrugated tin is lying on the bamboo. So now he is in our room. Sean tried to chase him out, and he would not budge. Okay, so I have little screening, little roofing, a plant in the bathroom, a suicide shower, and now an iguana. I could not do it. So Sean found the owner, and we upgraded because I am too posh for this place. I try to be a good budget traveler, but a tent would have had less access. The owner told us the iguana had lived in there for years, and you could feed him by hand. Now I have feed monkeys by hand on this trip, but I do not want them sleeping in the same room as me.
Poor Sean having to deal with his posh wife. He could sleep on a park bench if he had to. He picked on me all day today about not being able to stay in the nature room. Until it started to downpour as I am composing this blog. I think of how much closer to nature we would have been in our old room, holding umbrellas over our head, and perhaps the iguana’s. At least the plant in the bathroom would grow.
Maybe next town I will be more adventuresome, but right now I am dry with no wildlife. We met this little guy in Puntarenas and he showed us that some people just know how to travel right.
twoleftfeet said:
Dawn—I don’t believe that I have ever loved a man as much as you must love Sean!! And seeing that your love and commitment led you to have even stayed for a few hours in that….interesting….room, I’m not really upset about it!!:)
—-Denise
gretchen said:
I don’t know which story I laughed harder at, was it Alex and whats her name? or the lovely plant room. You my dear, are a trooper, no matter what Sean says.
WanderingWhy… » Awesome Osa said:
[...] the park, too, staying at the ranger stations to camp at night. But you know I would not sleep in a room with an iguana, there is no way I am camping. I should have practiced at Ft.DeSoto Park before we left, but I [...]