Anything But Tranquilo

Our taxi ride to Mal Pais reminded me of my solo drive up to Monteverde.  But not half as bad.  The road had its dipps and was very narrow but we made it to the main drag.  We didn’t know where to go (which I don’t like) so we told the taxi guy to stop at the one place we did know of… Tranquilo Backpackers (TB).

As soon as we pulled up into this place I thought Merry Beth would love it.  Sebastien asked about a room and we were in luck plus they had internet which sold Sebastien. I told him I was going to walk down and see if there were other things.  But nothing was very convenient so we figured we could handle one night at Tranquilo Backpackers. After dragging our stuff up a huge flight of stairs and taking in all the commotion that this place had to offer we ended up walking down the street to see what else there was in town.  I also wanted to see if we could find the place where Anne, Kirk, and Corey were staying.  We didn’t find them (though we walked about two miles, we did find a clean and cute cabinas place that may have a room for us the following night. With relief we checked la playa y las olas.

The first thing that stands out is the smell when walking on the road in Mal Pais. I don’t know if I can accurately describe it but its a combination of dirt dust, sewer, and rotten eggs.

We didn’t end up unpacking our surfboard the first night in Mal Pais because it looked pretty crappy.  We ended up eating at this vegetarian style place which had lots of American kids running around naked and families whom seem to know each other.  I though it was very good but Sebastien just thought it was ok.  During our meal a man with fire sticks man put on a show throwing these light fire sticks around.  It was pretty entertaining.  So were the kids and families.  After dinner we headed back to TB.

You would think that a place with the word Tranquilo in it would be calm and tranquil.  Oh no.  Not this place.  It was Spring Break 2009 and these kids were celebrating.  Nothing to crazy but it was just not what we were in the mood for.  OH and let me just add that it was/is Semana Santa and during this week on Wednesday and Thursday no one sells alcohol.  However, Lonely Planet didn’t include this their book so we were the ONLY people who did not have any alcohol for the next two day/nights.  Great.  Stuck in Spring Break without any alcohol.  I ended up putting my IPOD headphones on and turning on some nature/mantra music and falling asleep.  Sebastien didn’t sleep well and when the howler monkeys started at 4 am he was ready to beat them up.  I have to add that the night before Sebastien got up and reached for the IPHONE to use this application which creates a really annoying noise to scare or piss off animals.  I told him I didn’t think that the monkeys would like that very much and that I really didn’t want some howler monkeys to bust through the window and steal his IPHONE.  I kinda fell asleep after saying this so when I asked Sebastien if it worked the night before he said he ended up not using it.  I feel back to sleep again.  The next morning we quickly got up and headed down to check the status of the cabinas place.

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