Cabinas LikaAKA Lika BirdPuerto Viejo, Costa Rica

Cabinas Lika offers very nice accommodation for those on a budget; 10.000 colones (US$18) for a big room with a clean private bathroom, a double bed and two bunk beds.

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.

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.

El Bogotazo: Accommodation in Bogota, Colombia

Where to stay and where not to stay in Bogotá? That is the question, and the IWCRP soon found out where not to stay.

Where not to stay: Platypus Hostel
Calle 16 N. 2-43, Candelaria
www.platypusbogota.com

This was not a good place at all. First of all, there were problems with the (confirmed) reservation. I don't know what the problem was, but after a while the lady concluded that I must have accidentally given her a name other than my own, for she claimed she now found my reservation, but under another name. Instead of pointing out to her the unlikeliness of me having forgotten my own name and the likeliness of her having made a mistake, I took the other guy's room and hoped he had a plan B. In retrospect, I should have left right away, as the room was cold, not very clean, uncomfortable, noisy, unsafe (both the rooms and the area), generally horrible. Free coffee tasted like soap. Our delegation left after the first night, walked 100 m and found a cheaper, cleaner and warmer option without german stoners screaming in the common area untill 5 am, namely the Cacique Sugamuxi

Platypus bathroom. Cold water in the shower, no towels.

Platypus single room.

Platypus slug (Laevicaulis Ornithorhynchus) , discovered next to the bed at bedtime.

Where to stay: Hospedaje Cacique Sugamuxi
Calle 15a #2-19, Candelaria
www.caciquesugamuxi.com/

Although this part of la Candelaria is dodgy, Cacique Sugamuxi is a safe place to stay. Eight rooms or so lets the people at the reception know who belongs there and who not. A single room with bath cost 35.000 pesos, slightly cheaper than the Platypus. Dorms are considerably cheaper than singles; from 17.000/ pers. Good, friendly service.

Clean bathroom, some problems getting hot water after 10 a.m

Hotel el Gran Impala, Río Claro, Costa Rica

Inexpensive place by the Panamerican highway, OK for a nap if you're driving from Panama to Mexico, or if you're going shopping in Golfito. I think they charged about $20/night. Private bath, cable TV, fan. Rooms with a/c available.

Our room included a sleeping cleaning-lady who had to be poked with a pointed stick to wake her up.

El Tucan Jungle Lodge, Cocles, Costa Rica

A great place for those more interested in jungle life than night life. It's quite far from the beach and restaurants etc, so it's better to have a car if you want to stay here (about 1 km walk to civilization). The owners are german and friendly enough, and the resident howler monkey, Rubia, is quite a personality.

We paid US$50/night for 3 people.

Hot water, fan, breakfast included, surprisingly few mosquitoes and other bugs in the room.

http://www.eltucanjunglelodge.com/

Balcony with a view

Rubia, the resident howler monkey

Darth Vader of the Jungle

The reason we came here

Corazon del Caribe, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

Simple, yet large and clean rooms here at Corazon del Caribe, OK prices and good location between Puerto Viejo and Cocles. We paid US$35/ night for 3 people in a room with 5 beds, hot water, fan and a terrace. Nice.

Tree Houses, San Carlos

The Tree Houses Hotel, just outside San Carlos, has a long trail leading to a marvellous attraction; this WC. The tree houses themselves were slightly disappointing; according to the propaganda, they are supposed to be excellent places for observing birds and other creatures, and utterly serene in the midst of a private nature reserve. The truth is that it's an excellent place for being eaten by mosquitos, listening to the trucks that pass by on the highway next to the houses, aquiring health problems due to the humidity inside and being pissed off because they overcharge criminally. Also, it's an hour drive or so to La Fortuna, where most things of interest are to be found.

Bonus pic below: the trail is also a toilet for the horses and cows. Multipurpose trails rule.

Horizon Yoga Hotel, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica

Although yoga may be a silly activity, this hotel is a great place to stay in Sta. Teresa. The cabin on pic 2 comes with a private pool; no incontinent child-devils will destroy your evening by the pool. But most important is the mind-boggling WC design.

Bungalows Calalú, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

Calalú is the best place to stay in Puerto Viejo, although the WC is very traditional.

Hotel Rivera, Colonia, Uruguay

A nice hotel in a nice little town. This one costs $750 uruguayos for a double incl. breakfast and typically horrendous uruguayan coffee. No country in the world has more disgusting coffee than Uruguay.

Domestic

Two recent pictures taken at the IWCRP headquarters in San Telmo. One master WC and one for guests and/ or emergencies.

Hotel Hilton, Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires

The Hilton, named after slutty white trash Paris Hilton, has installed private WC-facilities in every room. IWCRP gives you two pictures from a room on the 5th floor, and one from room 747 on the 7th floor. Notice the cuadrangular seats, the telephone within reach and the double set of paper.

Gran Hotel Dora, Córdoba

Next to this WC there was a bathtub and FREE shampoo and conditioner. Just in front of it, there is a window where one may dry one´s socks and / or watch the nearby tourist attractions.

This is the only picture we have from our investigatory field trip to Córdoba, so take a long, good look at it.

Colón & Rosario Multiuse Collection

Another collection. In the early years of the International WC Research Project, methodology was not entirely appropiate. Therefore, our database has millions of pictures without reliable information regarding WC location.

However, picture 1 is from a coffee shop in Rosario, picture 4 is from the public facilities in the park in Colón, pictures 5 & 6 are from hotels in Colón, and the last one is from a wonderful little bar where one of the other clients tried to sell us a large painting, allegedly one of great value, painted by one of the great british painters.

He went to his house and brought the art for us to see, and it turned out to be a picture of several little chickens and their mother (could be their aunt or older sister as well), painted in (slightly) different shades of brown. Apparently, it could be sold in Europe for thousands of euros.

We saved the money, and took the picture which can be seen below instead. Now that is art.

Hotel Richmond, Montevideo

Not much to say about The Richmond, really. Better than Hotel Palacio, although the latter did not have Russian stereotypes drinking and discussing the quality, availability and price of whores with the receptionist all night.

Hotel Palacio, Montevideo

I don´t know what palace the Palacio is named after, but it somewhat resembles Saddam´s presidential palace. After the bombing and looting. Located in Montevideo´s nocturnal centre, drunken hollering and disco music from several nearby establishments can be heard untill 6 a.m.

The Palacio also has the most uncomfortable beds I´ve ever slept in, including the times I´ve passed out on the floor.

Hotel Savoy, Rosario

Hotel Savoy must have been the fanciest hotel in the country at the beginning of last century. Not much has been changed since then, hardly even a lightbulb. It has a "The Shining"-feeling to it, but without the snow, and without Jack Nicholson peeking in while you´re in the bathroom.

Suipacha 1031

A memory from our first apartment in Buenos Aires, in Suipacha 1031, 11th floor; so high we could see our house from there.

Cabinas de Oro, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

For very little money, Cabinas de Oro is part of the proud costa rican tradition of naming places after the exact opposite of what comes to mind.

The hot and humid rooms are perfect options for travelling mosquitos, and they seemed to thrive quite well in there; getting along with the other bugs just adorably.

The toilet paper which can be observed on the seat is not for protecting oneself´s behind against the occational drop of contaminated H2O so commonly found on seats; in this case it´s for preventing one´s behind from being glued to the seat by the blue, apparently glue-based paint someone decorated it with.