Rest. Elena Brown, Puerto Viejo

Rest. Elena Brown boasts one of the purplest and most spacious ladies' rooms in Central America

Rest. Elena Brown, just outside town on the way to Cocles, appears to have changed quite a bit during the last months; new administration or something. The IWCRP restaurant inspectors feel that it has changed for the better. The menu is now quite interesting, and the chicken in green curry (thai style but less lethal) deserves special mention.

Volcán Barva

Enjoyable view at 2 p.m

Trails abound

The park's main attraction

The extinct Barva volcano is 2906 m high and a nice place if you like walking. From the park entrance to the first of three lakes it's a 45 min walk, approximately 3-4 km. It's probably a good idea to get there early (before 10), since thick fog tends to appear during the day and make the view somewhat less impressive.

The Barva is a better option than the more famous Irazú and Poas volcanoes for those who dislike crowds, since it's considerably less accessible. If you have your own car, you can drive to the park entrance (bad roads, 4WD recommended), but it's still quite exhausting to walk in the thin air. If you go by bus from Heredia to Sacramento, you have to walk from Sacramento, another couple of hours. The bus leaves from the market in Heredia.

Entrance fee ¢1.000 for nationals and residents, maybe 3-4.000 for tourists. The park closes at 4 pm.

Playa Sámara, Costa Rica

Playa Sámara is an OK beach, not too spectacular, we stayed for one night before moving on to Playa Guiones about 1 hour north.

Tutti Frutti, one of several bars / restaurants on the beach. This one is italian and has a nice outside area under a big tree on the beach.

Tutti Frutti ladies' room, thanks to MJ for valuable research

Rest. Las Brasas by the football field in Sámara. The food was not particularly good, and not as plentiful as we had hoped for. The service was just weird.

First and fanciest bar on the beach, we think it's called Snacks. They have a relatively impressive list of drinks, and prices are not bad compared to the alternatives.

Snacks WC

Bar Las Olas, perhaps the least fancy of the bars on the beach, but with a pool tables and a Fussball table which kind of works despite certain missing key players

We stayed at the Tico Adventure Lodge. Basic rooms with a/c and a balcony cost $40. The reviews at tripadvisor generally express satisfaction with the rooms and hatred towards the owner, who is claimed to be a very rude person. We talked to him for about 2 minutes, and although it was a very uncontrovertial conversation, he did appear to have a quite unpleasant personality. The rest of the staff were great, though.

Turrialba day 2: Pejivalle & Humo

Río Pejivalle @ el Humo

Río Pejivalle @ el Humo

Thriving automotive industry in Pejivalle

COOPEJIBAYE R.L.

Rio Pejivalle @ Pejivalle

Young baptists

La Cueva del Sapo, Clandestine bar in el Humo

La cueva del Sapo, interior details

La cueva del Sapo, WC entrance

La Cueva del Sapo WC

El Humo: cooking ladies and former football hero attending some kind of fund-raising.

WC @ el Humo

Little effort was made to find WCs on our second day in the Turrialba area. Partially because we spent a lot of time by the very clean Río Pejivalle, aka. Río Pejibaye, Río Pejiballe or Río Pejivaye. Spelling rules are somewhat diffuse, but it appears that Pejibaye is a fruit, Pejivalle is the town and that the name of the river can be spelled any way you like. The river is apparently a good one for rafting and kayaking, and the area is a new favourite of ours in Costa Rica.

Accommodation in Turrialba: Hotel Turrialba

Lost in translation:
WC = "odorless".

The famous odorless device.

10.000 colones for a very basic room with private bath and a fan. Not horribly expensive, but traffic noise was considerable and someone broke into our car during the night. Can't really blame the hotel for that, though.

Bars in Turrialba 7:Olé

Olé appeared to be the late night hotspot of Turrialba, a place where you go when the good places close. We have no complaints, though; there were fussball tables, decent music and even OK food. Still, nowhere near the quality of places like Filo's and Bar Rioja (where we, unfortunately, did not manage to take any pictures).

Bars in Turrialba 6: Filo's Bar

Boleros all night. Beats both karaoke and reggaeton.

The IWCRP staff unanimously decided that Filo's was the best bar in Turrialba, much thanks to the two musicians singing boleros all night, very nice indeed. Also, the very nice owners receive special thanks for running around town in the middle of the night looking for -and finding- more tonics for us after we had emptied the fridge.

Bars in Turrialba 5: Pura Vida

The man on the left insisted I take a picture of them. I think it's a nice picture. When looking at it shortly after, another man came by to have a look, and hollered "look how fat the lady is, she's fat, a fat, fat lady". I explained that the lady looks good on the picture (and in general), and that she's slimmer than a supermodel.

One of several karaoke stars

Ladies' room. Thanks to MJ for valuable research.

Bar Pura Vida is one of the livelier places in Turrialba, with a lot of very active karaoke singers and quite a few active drunks. Perhaps not the fanciest place in the hemisphere, but jolly good fun.

Bars in Turrialba 4: El Puente

Friendly owners, karaoke singer on the left

Classic urinal

El puente, cleverly named after the nearby bridge, is a nice little bar, also serving food and karaoke. The guests, mostly men in their 50s or older, seemed to like the combination of large amounts of beer and loud karaoke.

Pool in Turrialba: Pym Boll

"Please flush"

Native person planning his next move

Again, the name of this place has been forgotten by some irresponsible IWCRP staff member. However, it can be recognized by the sign at the entrance saying "Pym Boll", refering to the pinball machines inside. This place also has a secret room with shirtless men playing cards for money, very underground.

Bars in Turrialba 3: Unknown Soldier

Some of the beers we tested. They were all good.

David Lynch urinals

Across one of the streets from Cinco Esquinas, we found a bar with beer for sale and a David Lynch style toilet. As always, the reward for providing us the name of this unknown soldier is US$ 10.000.

Bars in Turrialba 2: Cinco Esquinas

An old favourite of ours revisited. A legitimate chinchorro without dresscode, but with cheap beer and Radio Sinfonola on full volume.

Bars in Turrialba 1: La garza

The first and best stop was la Garza, on the (SW?) corner of the park. They gave us a beer after a long journey, god bless them.

El Bogotazo: Sightseeing in BogotáMontserrat

A man doing push-ups, for some silly reason

What would Jesus say if he saw this? Did he not kick farisean ass when they were making money by the temple? Or something like that? This is much worse, so I think Jesus would go bananas.

Montserrat is a mandatory stop for every tourist in Bogotá, so we went up there and were very satisfied with the view. Apart from looking down at the city, there's not really much to do, unless you're really interested in buying kitchy souvenirs. Fortunately, beer can be purchased as well (despite this being holy ground), but be aware that facilities are limited, and they charge 800 pesos.

El Bogotazo: Internet café in Bogota, Colombia.

DANGER

The door into this WC/ storage room can be closed without much effort, but opening it is extremely difficult and requires shouting and external help. Therefore, if you recognize the WC on the picture, avoid direct contact, run as fast as you can and call the police.

El Bogotazo: Restaurants in Bogota, Colombia : Rescoldo's

Rescoldo's Parrilla Argentina

Calle 11 # 3-83, La Candelaria

Rescoldo's is a little pricey, but worth it. Here we got a really good bife de chorizo for the first time since we moved the IWCRP headquarters from Argentina last year. The wine was good, too, although we would have appreciated more options. Even the service was very argentinian; a slightly grumpy, elderly man doing things the way he likes them, without any polite bullshit. Rescoldo's is hereby highly recommended by the IWCRP for special occations.

El Bogotazo: Shopping in BogotáCentro Comercial Atlantis Plaza

Centro Comercial Atlantis Plaza
Calle 81 # 13-05

Mall WCs have saved many a bursting bladder. This one, at an upscale mall in Zona Rosa, appeared in the very last minute.

El Bogotazo: Café in Bogota, Colombia: Quimbay Café

Quimbay Café
Av. 19 #6-11

We were served a good coffee and a horrid sandwich here. There's a second floor with a terrace where you can sit and watch avenida 19, listen to the cars and smell the smog. Probably not the best place in Colombia, but an option if you're outside and you don't want to walk any more to get to a good place.