Days 4 & 5

We spent a total of 3 nights in the dirty hotel in Playa Hermosa. I am having slight anxiety problems now! I laid a jacket over the pillow I slept on so my face wouldn’t touch the pillow case. Nothing I could do about the rest of my body, so I just tried to not think too hard about it. I avoided the bathroom as much as possible because there was a swarm of bees living above the light that was detached from the ceiling. Each morning John and I would each kill about 4 or 5 bees. One morning a bee flew into Addie’s hair. She screamed and jumped a mile, but I don’t think it stung her. That’s not the only reason I avoided the bathroom. It was just dirty. I am really missing my Clorox wipes about now! Thank goodness for my laser hair removal. I haven’t had to shave yet and wouldn’t have even if I needed it, because I wanted to spend as little time in the bathroom as possible.

In the little kitchenette, there was a sponge sitting on the sink that had been there for who knows how long. I would not go near it. I actually used the sink as little as possible. There was a little camping stove that, at first, wasn’t hooked up to anything, but a man came and hooked a gas tank on it. I absolutely refused to cook in that kitchen though. John is continually telling me that our American owned and run condo where we will be staying for 3 weeks will be much cleaner. I hope so! I am continually telling him that I am a good woman for dealing with all of this…

Not sure why I’m complaining though. That hotel was literally steps from the beach. It had two beautiful porches; one right on the beach with lounge chairs and one set back with tables for eating. I could put Bailey down for a nap in her crib and be back and forth every 10 minutes to check on her. We played on the beach for hours and hours. The sand is so dark, it’s almost black. It’s really very pretty. Our room had a balcony that looked out over the beach. Just inside the balcony was our bed (which also looked out over the beach). That was a help in getting over the filth.

The trees above were feeding grounds for the monkeys in the morning and the bats at night…Yes, the bats are cool! It was fun to look up while eating breakfast and see some monkeys doing the same. These particular monkeys are called “howler monkeys”, which isn’t so fun to hear next to your second story window at 5:30am when their breakfast starts. But they would blend in with the car alarm down the street that went off 3 or 4 times a night. It all adds to the experience!

On Wednesday morning, John took the kids to the beach while I packed us all up. I took a quiet minute to sit on the swing on our balcony, where I could watch John and the kids play at the beach, and read my scriptures…This is vacation!

Once John brought the kids back and we got showered and ready to go, we lazed around for a while still. We played on the balcony swing and let Bailey take a little nap. I got up for something and saw a cochroach scurry across the floor. My anxiety level jumped right back up. I smacked it with my shoe and announced “We are out of here!”

We are now in a much cleaner hotel at a string of beaches in the Guanacaste area. The specific one where we are staying is called Playa Flamingo. By the time we got here, the tide was too high to hit the beach, so we just played in the great pool they have here. I had bought a pineapple and mango on the street corner, so I cut those up for a perfect poolside treat! There is a little kiddie pool here which Adeline calls the “kitty cat” pool. By default, that makes the big pool the “doggy” pool.

We will have another fun beach day tomorrow!