The last hotel I stayed at was the Best Western in Irazu.  A friend told me he had just stayed there for $88 for a night.  It seemed like a four star hotel when I picked up another friend there a few weeks earlier, so I thought I would give it a try.

It is indeed a four star hotel, but I didn’t get the $88/night price.  They claimed only “premium” rooms were available and the best price they could give me was $127/night.  In the end, my credit card was actually charged $229!

The room wasn’t “premium” in any way that I could see.  It was clean and all of the ammenities worked just fine.  I used the air conditioner once and it cooled down in 5 or 10 minutes.  It had a nice view of the pool, but there were no “extras” that would make a room “premium” in my book.

I certainly wasn’t happy about them lying about the price.

I also wasn’t happy about the lack of a restaurant.  They do have a Denny’s attached, but that isn’t anywhere I would eat while in Costa Rica (except maybe breakfast while on an outing).  They did provide free breakfast coupons, but I didn’t use them because I was just there to work for 3 or 4 hours.  I wasn’t there for breakfast.

I did decide to have dinner while there though.  I looked up and down the street to find a typical Costa Rican place.  Right across the street was a Subway sandwich shop with a Costa Rican restaurant attached to it.

That didn’t look all that promising.  I expected something like a Rosti Pollos.  Boy was I mistaken.

I don’t remember the name of the place, but it was fine dining to the extreme.  I started out with a Ceviche de Camarron (Ceviche is a Puruvian method of cooking fish with lime juice… in this case it was shrimp).  It wasn’t that great.  I’ve had better.

Next though I ordered Steak con Jalapeno.  I expected to be disappointed.  You really shouldn’t order beef in Costa Rica.  They don’t age their beef and they don’t fatten it up before slaughter.  That makes a premium cut of beef almost impossible.  Even non-Steak snobs are often disappointed by steak in Costa Rica.  I happen to be a steak snob.

I was very, very wrong!

I have had this dish in Nicaragua before and enjoyed it very much.  It was no comparison to what I was served at the restaurant across the street from Best Western Irazu though.  The chef is a culinary genius!  My eyes shook at every bite.  The steak was a fine cut of fillet mignon and was seared to a perfect medium.  The seasoning was also unbelievably good.  The jalapeno sauce though was incredible.

Jalapenos are not a normal part of Costa Rican cooking.  That is more Spanish, South American and such.  Costa Rican’s don’t generally spice up their food.  I began to suspect the chef was a Nicaraguan or Panamanian.  I asked the waiter.  He was a Tico (Costa Rican).  I asked the waiter to pay my compliments to the chef… something I have only done two other times in my entire life.

The chef came out and introduced himself.  His English was broken and my Spanish was worse, but he did get across that he had studied in Spain and I got across that I thought he was a culinary genius.

Then came dessert.  I ordered a banana filled crepe with chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream and topped with a strawberry.  Once again my eyes shook and my skin began to tingle (probably from the sugar rush).  It was an incredible finish to an incredible meal.

I will definitely be back!

I won’t be returning to the Best Western Irazu though.  Not only did they overcharge me… their internet doesn’t support FTP which made my normal 3 hour work day turn into 5.

Of course, if that hadn’t happened… I would never have discovered the restaurant.  I’m greatful to Best Western for that.

-James D. Brausch

Several thousand dollars of scams later, I finally tried their competition here… Aerocasillas.  Aerocasillas has never charged me more than $15 in taxes or weight on any item.  They have never had anything held up in customs.  Every charge has been fully documented with receipts.  They are extremely professional and have an excellent web-site where you can track progress of your shipments.

Mail Boxes, Etc. in Escazu never provides documentation and constantly has bills for several hundred dollars for “taxes”, “weight” and other miscellaneous items they make up on the spot.  One charge was actually $1,200 and they couldn’t explain nor document why I was being charged $1,200.  The next month with only one package, they charged another $800.

During my final visit with them, they wanted to charge various amounts from $150-$2200.  They couldn’t even decide what to charge and why.  They kept saying that I had cancelled my payment for the prior month and I kept reminding them that I paid in cash and it was not possible to cancel a payment made in cash.

I finally cancelled my account and told them to never accept another package for me.  I highly recommend staying far, far away from the Mail Boxes, Etc. in Escazu.  Even though they are run by gringos, they are the biggest scam operation I have ever dealt with in Costa Rica.

Try Aerocasillas instead.  They are an excellent company that has impressed me very much for about three months now.

-James D. Brausch

++506.8833.8452

His email address is:

frantorres67@yahoo.com

Tell him that James Brausch sent you.

If Francisco isn’t available, he will find you another great driver in his co-op.  He refuses to work with people who don’t share his value of integrity.

I have occasionally had to use an alternative driver that he recommended.  I’ve never had a problem.

In fact, I have only ever had a problem with one person that he recommended for another service.  Francisco went out of his way to fix that problem very quickly.

I highly recommend Francisco.

-James D. Brausch

I answered:

Dos Palabras

Which loosely means “couple words.”

The taxi driver started laughing uncontrollably.  When he finally stopped, he started to explain what was so funny.

I had made a Spanish joke unintentionally.

You see… it literally means “two words.”

And of course, in saying it… I had demonstrated knowing exactly two words in Spanish.

It was interesting to see an example of Costa Rican humor and what at least one Costa Rican found to be extremely funny.

-James D. Brausch

I didn’t eat at a restaurant.  I ate at home.  We have a live-in full-time cook/maid/nanny.

Before you think we are rich or something… I should tell you that we pay only about $400 a month and we are paying on the extreme high end for domestic help.

You can easily hire a Nicaraguan domestic helper for around $120/month and Costa Rican domestic help is usually around $200-$300 per month.

Costa Rican’s are naturally very loving to children (even complete strangers) so we didn’t really have to try hard to find a nanny who shared our child rearing beliefs.  It’s just the default here.

Extreme cleaning is also the default here.  Although outside looks horrible upon first impressions for most foreigners (including Americans), Costa Ricans are clean freaks inside their house.  Our maid sweeps and mops the entire house about three times per day.

She is also an extremely good cook.  I’m having a very hard time losing weight with having a Costa Rican cook live with us.

This is one of my favorite parts of Costa Rica.  In my opinion, you haven’t really experiences Costa Rica until you have moved here and hired a Costa Rican domestic helper.

-James D. Brausch

Did I hop on the Internet and start searching?  Nope.  I called my personal concierge Francisco and told him my requirements.  He called back in 10 minutes and told me I was all set up and Wilbur would be picking me up in 20 minutes to take me to the hotel.

The cost for this excellent concierge service?  $0. Zip. Notta. Zilch. Free.

Of course Francisco doesn’t call himself a concierge.  He calls himself a driver. If he hadn’t been busy with another customer, he would have picked me up himself instead of sending Wilbur.

The reason Francisco was willing to do that for me for free is that Costa Rica works like an affiliate program.  Most restaurants, hotels and tourist activities will all pay a commission to any Costa Rican who brings in new customers.   He was paid by the hotel, not me.

The commission program is really only available for the Costa Ricans so I couldn’t have really done that myself and collected the commission.  The cost to me is exactly the same whether I use Francisco’s free concierge service or if I go through all of the hassle to find the place myself.

Also, since everyone basically offers commissions, Francisco really wasn’t tempted to send me to an inferior place or anything like that just to get a higher commission.  He was going to recieve a commission regardless of where he sent me and he knew I would call him back again and again if he found me a good place.  He did just as he has done for me dozens of times.

Would you like a free concierge service here in Costa Rica?  Just leave a comment and tell me where you are staying or give me a phone number.  I’ll have Francisco or one of his friends call you right away.  From that point on, I think you will find your stay a lot more pleasant when you always have you own free concierge to call to set up anything you wish.

-James D. Brausch

The first time I had a problem, I should have known when we got in.  When I told him where we wanted to go, he said “mucho dinero.”  I had been there several times and knew it wasn’t going to be more than 5,000 colones ($10) or so.  I shrugged and we drove on.

… and on… and on…

I finally realized that he wasn’t going anywhere close to the right direction.  We were heading into the busiest part of San Jose when my starting point and destination where both in Alejuela.

I finally said “aki” which means “here” and motioned for him to pull over.  I paid him and my family and I got out of the taxi.

I then just hailed a new taxi which took me to the proper destination without the games.  No real problem.

The second time was a bit of a battle of wills.

We often take two taxis when we go a long distance.  We just go to a well-known spot near our final destination and then catch a local taxi to our real final destination.  It avoids the problem of a non-local taxi trying to find an obscure destination in a town he isn’t familiar with.

The 2nd taxi ride is always only 1-5km.  The cost is usually $1-$2… never more than $4.

We did that one day and when we arrived, the taxi driver said “dias miel” (or 10,000 colones which is about $20).

I asked to see the meter.  It was conveniently broken.

We went back and forth a few times with me offering a more reasonable 3,000 colones.  He refused to budge.  He wanted 10,000 colones which was outrageous.

I finally realized where we were and the consequences (or lack thereof) of simply getting out of the taxi.

I dropped the 3,000 colones on the front passenger seat and simply got out and walked away.

You should have seen the look on his face.

Remember that the Costa Rican people are not violent in general.  Also remember that it is difficult to get the police to respond.  Even if they did respond, the taxi driver would certainly get in trouble for not having a working meter and trying to extort an unfair price.

So, if you run into a dispute with a taxi in Costa Rica, you can always do what I did.  You pay what you know is fair and walk away.  What can they do to you?

-James D. Brausch

But Costa Rica does have some interesting drinks to go with any meal.

One thing that seemed odd at first was the question I often heard “en aqua o en leche?”

I’m not sure I even have the right Spanish words there, but they are asking if you want your drink in water or in milk.  It turns out to be a real treat.

You can get just about any fruit drink mixed in milk.  It sounds odd at first, but consider how delicious an orange juice/ice cream mix is.  That is fairly common in the U.S.

Now think about that combination with mango, pineapple (pina in Spanish), blackberry (mora in Spanish) or strawberry (fresa in Spanish).  All are muy deliciouso (hopefully that doesn’t need a translation).

My very favorite though is a fruit that isn’t commonly available in the states.  The fruit is called guanabana.  It is nicknamed the “ice cream fruit” because both it’s texture and it’s flavor is very reminiscent of vanilla ice cream.

Take it the next step and ask for a guanabana en leche when you visit Costa Rica.  It is my very favorite drink.

There is one other fruit here that I like a lot, but it shouldn’t be served in leche.  Don’t worry.  They won’t even offer it in leche.  It is called cass (not sure of the spelling, but that’s how it’s pronounced).   It is a yummy fruit juice that can only be described as a mixture of pear and lime without the significant sour of lime.  Give it a try.

If you like hot drinks, try agua dulce con leche.  It literally means something like sweet water with milk.  The sweet though is a very raw form of sugar that has a lot of taste other than sugar.   The drink is served hot and is a good substitute for coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

BTW, water is completely safe to drink here.  There are no health problems associated with the water.  Don’t worry about the above drinks being safe.  All drinks are perfectly safe here in Costa Rica.  The milk is pasturized just like in the states and the drinking water is generally even cleaner than the United States because they get so much rain and have modern facilities to treat drinking water.

Enjoy your Costa Rican drinks!

-James D. Brausch

Just about all massages were about the same though until I experienced Rick Neumann’s massage.

I was hooked and came back again and again.  Rick is the most thorough and complete massage therapist that I have ever had the pleasure of receiving a massage from.

Imagine my delight when I learned that Rick and his wife Robbie were going to be holding a couple’s massage class on a weekend.

My wife and I instantly signed up.  In just 12 hours, Rick and Robbie taught us both enough skills to give each other a complete full body massage. 

In fact, that is how the class ended.  I gave my wife a full body massage and she gave me one.  We went from knowing nothing about massage to being able to give a basic massage to each other in just two days!

Now, my wife and I can enjoy a great massage any time right at home from each other.

This has changed my life.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart Rick and Robbie!

You can find Rick and Robbie’s massage school on the ‘net here:

http://www.CRMassageSchool.com

-James D. Brausch

Would you like us to review it in the same way we reviewed Finca Maquengue Falls and Xandari?

Are you willing to offer the readers of Costa Rica HQ a significant discount if they bring a coupon from us?

Great!  Please leave a comment on this blog post and we’ll get in touch and set something up.

-James D. Brausch