7. Tomorrow we will have been in Costa Rica for exactly one week, feels much longer because we’ve packed a lot in. Staying for a week in Corteza del Sol was a great place to catch our breath and find out more about the country from within.
Today was a pillow planning day, since we need a place to sleep tomorrow. Seems fitting that we were surrounded by sleeping cats. Sometimes we leave booking until the last minute (obviously) but in the end it always pieces togeher. This morning we booked four shuttle rides/two boats to and from Panama, four hotels (1 ecolodge, 1 yurt-ish place, 1 hotel on water, 1 boutique hotel, and a couple of horses. We now have almost a week of pillows lined up. That’s good for us.
Everyone has their planning style. We like to ask local people and travelers what shouldn’t be missed. We also check travel sites and bloggers to see what the highlights are in any given area. Then we find out the timing of any extras or
tours we want to take advantage of. Need to know the reservation policy and time restrictions of each. Then we decide what fits together and map distances. Then we search for pillows placement to fit the map. We seem to return to certain sites repeatedly, VRBO, HomeAway, Booking.com, Airbnb, local Craigslists. Our preference is to book homes/condos in short or longer chunks, so we’re only partially living out of a suitcase. It’s also more affordable with a family of five rather than booking two hotel rooms. We’ll stay anywhere that looks interesting for a night.
We also want a place for two months. When we book a longer chunk of time, we always ask around. That’s how we got our houses in Guatemala. Local real estate offices can also help you find a deal even if only for a few months. That’s what we did here.
This morning we called a broker, repeatedly, but never got through. By the afternoon we drove into town to find the broker in person. For a few hours we drove around to the different options (waiting long times for the property managers to get back from lunch or out of the shower, what have you). By dusk we sat down for a drink by the ocean to hammer out the 3 best options (our own little International House Hunters). Gabriel (our new surfer instructor/tour guide/shuttle to the airport/real estate guy) made a few clarifying calls, we volleyed back and forth on price with our top pick. By sunset we had a place for two months. Slam! Rarely has it gone that smoothly when finding a longer term place, but we’ll take it! It helps that it’s low season. We got a great place at a deeply discounted rate, and a new surf instructor.