Chilling Out

Roughing it can be fun, sometimes.  I like to go camping and sleep in tents, cook over a camp fire, and bathe in a mountain stream.  That kind of roughing it is fun.  The Chill Out Lodge in Vara Blanca, our second hotel, was basically like camping, only not as fun.  

Instead of a cozy camp fire where we could make s'mores, boil coffee, and cook hot dogs, we had a single candle in our room for heat, and a microwave to warm our food (no stove top or hot plate).

Instead of a tent we had a nice double bed in a room just big enough for us to squeeze our backpacks in and have room to open and close the door.  Here's a picture of a single room.  I didn't take a picture of our room because it was a mess, with all our bags everywhere, you wouldn't have been able to see anything.

Since the room was so small we didn't have space to set up Cassie's travel crib, so the three of us slept together in the double bed. Which meant we woke up every time Cassie did.  It made for a restless couple of nights. 

And as if that wasn't reason enough to loose sleep, the whole building was not insulated.  As in, we could see daylight through the cracks in the exterior wall.  At night, the mountain air jumped through the walls like a poorly trained circus dog, and landed it's icy feet square on our bed.  Well, at least that's what it felt like for Michael.  He woke up the second day with back spasms so intense he couldn't walk.  

Having a flush toilet was nice, though. Not all campsites have that. We did have running water in all the taps. Cold water. The shower head was equipped with an electric instant water heater of some kind. 

Yep.  Electric water heater in the shower.  I'm sure that would break all kinds of codes in the States.  It had three settings: Arctic circle, Lake Superior, and Cool mountain stream.  I didn't shower for two days. 

Needless to say, I was not sad to say goodbye to this little gem of a hotel.  Stay tuned for our third hotel experience, or as I like to refer to it: The Most Luxurious Motel 6 in Paradise.