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Review of : APARTAMENTO RIO GRANDE, GUANACASTE, PAN DE AZUCAR
near ATENAS, COSTA RICA
We were booked into their Cabin #1 for 2 months – Jan and Feb 2011. Attracted by the Website and the information we made the booking. Upon arrival we found the claims misleading. The property is lovely and the cabins are attractive and kept very clean with fresh bedding twice a week.
We have travelled with our own vehicle extensively in Mexico for 17 years, and Guatemala, Belize, Panama and all South American countries except Bolivia and Paraguay. We are very familiar with 3rd world busses ( very modern to small collectivos) and roads of all descriptions. The busses in Costa Rica ran on schedule as they gave us a printed time table.
The following are some of the issues we encountered:
1. Dogs. The owner Teresa (in her 70's) and her son and family own at least 11 dogs on the small property. These dogs bark at any time of the day and night and especially early morning. The dogs range in size from 2 large Mastiff to a Chihuahua and others in between.
2. Pool. The pool is not cleaned sufficiently and is mainly murky with leaves and debris on the surface and the bottom was slimy. Some female guests were hesitant about going into the pool.
3. Location. The Website claims a hourly bus service outside the gate – not so. (We did not rent a car for the 2 months.) You walk 200 meters down a steep hill on very rough gravel road to the main road and wait for the bus that passes at 7:45, 9:45 and 11:30 am and takes about 45 minutes to town as it goes into 2 other villages and has many stops in between. A car would take 10-15min as it is not 5 km from town but 10-12km on a mountain road.
4. Internet. We knew there was no internet connection for guests, but because of the inconvenience of the buses it took at least ½ day to go into Atenas to check your e-mail etc. On one occasion we requested to use their private internet.
5. A small annoyance – the brooms are only available in the laundry hut. Calling someone from the door bell does not work and we were very hesitant about entering their yard because of the large dogs. On one occasion we witnessed the gardener's young helper leap the fence to avoid the attack of the huge Mastiff.
6. Contents of fridge on arrival: The term well stocked fridg is an exaggeration. It contained 2 bottles of water, jam -300g, cream cheese – 300g, milk - ¼ litre, baguette of bread. We asked for enough coffee for the next morning as we arrived too late to go shopping. The owner accommodated us with a bottle of wine which we resupplied him the next day.
Surprising the owners did not inform us or other guests of the bus schedule or that there was an English radio station.
ONLY THE FIRST COMMENT IS BY CHRIS AND IRENE.
THE REST ARE ANONYMOUS
