Driving from Sarchí to El Castillo near the Volcano Arenal

After a cosy breakfast in the garden of the Cabinas Los Ranchos,

we visit Sarchí and its colorful church…

take some photos in the coffee plantation that might have belonged to the “los Peters”,…

buy some beautiful souvenirs in the Sarchí gift shop (tastefully carpented puzzles),…

and I forget mine all (will have to pick them up on our way back to San José).

From Quesada we continue to the touristy La Fortuna and head to the more quiet Village of El Castillo located behind the Volcano Arenal and by the Arenal Lake. Our target is the Hotel Linda Vista that I know from seven years ago. I was here with Ernst.

With memories of the small infinity pool and the great view I drive our Daihatsu up the steep-steep road to the cluster of bungalows. We take a suite and enjoy its view of the lake…

and of the Volcano Arenal.

I have a swim in the pool and warm up in the Jacuzzi while Ursula fights with a bad connection…

.

The badly connected safe (la caja fuerte con conección floja)
While I am swimming, Ursula keeps on walking up to the reception and down to our suite and back up again. What is going on? She stops my swimming and tells me that in our suite the safe (caja fuerte) does not work. She has found rusty batteries under a cover that had been fixed with black adhesive tape (cienta). She has taken the batteries and the cover to the reception. With a new set of batteries and some more tape she now is on her way back to our room. She inserts the new batteries, fixes the cover with the tape… with no success; there are no lights at the safe that would show it is working. She goes back to the reception and says that the new batteries do not work. The partner of the receptionist now walks down with her. He inserts the batteries again, fixes the cover with a lot of tape (as if he had to fix a broken leg – they both laugh). Then the battery works twice… and after that says “low battery”. There must be a bad connection or a conección floja. The guy mumbles about having to use a key… but Ursula makes it all clear to him that the key would not solve the low battery problem. She adds that she has dealt with such equipment when working as a medical doctor. She asks for the safe to be replaced.

From my pool I observe Ursula coming up again with the guy from the hotel carrying a safe on his right hand shoulder. Soon thereafter they return. The guy carries a new safe.  He has taken it from another room and installs it in our room. Now our safe works. “Do I need the key now?” Ursula asks with a smile. “No, no, no key needed.”, is the answer.

With all that we have learnt some new words in Spanish such as “caja fuerte” means “safe” and “conección floja” is “bad connection”…

We end the day in the restaurant that serves excellent food and also wines.