Our French car and my US car both have navigational systems installed in them. It had been quite awhile since I've tried to use a Garmin. I had the name of our resort and tried repeatedly to enter it into the Garmin….REQUEST NOT FOUND was my response each time. I entered the street name, which it finally accepted, but couldn't enter the address number. Oh well, we were in route.
The drive was spectacular. The majority of the mileage was along the coastline and the waves were crashing against the rocky shore, shooting sea spray into the air. Fortunately, I was the passenger and was able to see the sights. David was stuck behind the wheel and had to pay attention because we were given a MANUAL transmission rental car. We neared our destination and according to the Garmin, "arrived". We were at the entrance to some kind of warehouse….not good. We continued on, thinking that we would eventually see a sign. We were wrong.
I called the hotel to ask for directions, the staff member told me to go "through" two cities and then I would see the resort. After another 20 minutes of driving, I called again. A different clerk told me to "head into Playa San Juan and then I would see the resort". Well, we headed "into Playa San Juan" but didn't see the resort. I finally had David stop at a gas station and I asked a taxi driver for directions. Finally, someone who knew where we should be going.
After an extra hour of driving we finally spotted the resort. We were amazed that there wasn't any type of signage directing people. After checking in and getting our bags to the room, we set off to explore. The resort was amazing and we still had about an hour of sunlight to enjoy.
The benefit to all of our EXTRA driving was that we were able to spot a restaurant we could try for dinner. We were both very excited that DJ and Sarah would be flying in to meet us early Saturday morning.
Saturday morning we headed out to pick up the kids. We quickly discovered why we had such difficulty getting to the hotel on Friday. Our GPS was not only possessed, but also must have been last updated in the 80's. It didn't recognize any of the major roads that we would be taking to/from the airport….if you've ever heard "recalculating" from your Garmin, you know what I mean.
The kids arrived safely, although there was a bit of difficulty with finding DJ's golf clubs in baggage claim. I was one happy momma. Two of my three chickens were back in my nest. We headed back to the hotel for a 1:00 tee time for the boys. While the boys enjoyed their golf, Sarah and I relaxed by the pool.
Our logistical problem for the day was that we had 4 adults, two sets of golf clubs, 2 extra large suitcases, one "overhead" piece of luggage, and 5 small bags in a car designed to seat 5 and hold 2 large/2 small pieces of luggage. That meant that we were going to have to make two trips to our "home" for the week. The boys were about an hour from being finished, so Sarah and I decided to tackle the first trip to the house.
Did I mention that our rental car was a stick?? UGH. I hate driving a manual transmission. I don't think that I've driven one in almost 20 years, but what is a girl to do? We loaded up our luggage and set out…..up a very steep incline. Yep, you guessed it. I stalled out immediately. The tricky part for me was that there were several "roundabouts" that I had to navigate on our trip to the house. We finally made it to the expressway and life was smooth sailing.
Our rental house is in a "wind park". These are just outside our front door….
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| This is our "river"….our house is named "El Rio" |
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| Our view at sunset |
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| Early morning before the sun is totally up |
After checking in, Sarah and I drove back to pick up the boys. We decided that we would hit the grocery store on our way home. We stopped at LDL. The kids stayed in the car and slept while we did the shopping. WOW….we couldn't find ANYTHING. It was a mass of disorganization. Sugar was located with the coffee, eggs were in the frozen section, there wasn't any ground beef or chicken….this was going to be difficult. We finally gave up our search and checked out. As we were leaving the shopping area we spotted another Mercado (grocery) and decided to check it out. I am happy to report that it was a REAL grocery and that will be where we shop the remainder of our trip.
We got back to the house and unloaded groceries. Then we hopped into the car to go out for dinner. Not as easy as it sounds. We drove to the same exit that had the grocery stores, thinking that we could find a restaurant. We saw lots of "cafeterias", but not really anything that looked good. After about 20 minutes of circling the town and the kids stomachs growling so loudly that we could hear them from the front seat, we decided to stop at a corner "cafeteria". We parked the car, walked up to the restaurant, turned around and got back into the car. It was like a Speedway at home….hotdogs on rollers and pre made food under warmers. Back to the house. Luckily, we had found enough at the LDL to sustain our children for the night.
After cleaning up from dinner (sandwiches and salad), David prepared his "coffee" for the next morning. He plugged in his coffee maker and BOOM. No power. Complete darkness in a desolated place without street lights. Fortunately, 3 of us have iPhones that have the "flashlight app" and we were able to search for the breaker box. Couldn't find it. We finally called and a technician would be out. An hour later he was here. Guess what? He couldn't find the breaker box either. He called someone and was able to determine its location. (In a cabinet above the oven) He flipped the breaker. David tried to plug in his coffee pot, the breaker blew again. David tried to plug in his coffee pot into a different electric outlet, the breaker blew again. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what the problem was.
The technician took David's precious coffee maker with him and promised a new one for Sunday morning. Off to bed we went. At 2:26 AM, I awoke to a loud crash. Did someone/something just break one of the huge windows in the house?? I checked on both kids…both were sound asleep. As I walked back toward our bedroom I spied the shower curtain laying askew in the bath tub. That was the crash. It happened just on the other side of the wall from by head, which is why it sounded so loud. David? He slept through the entire thing. So did both kids. I feel so safe.
David got up early Sunday morning to go for a run. I checked in on FaceBook and Instagram. The technician arrived with our new coffee pot. I greeted him at the door and he handed me a coffee press. I actually said, are you kidding me? He apologized, but said that was the best he could do. I was able to make David a decent cup of coffee with the darn thing, but really?
Off to the beach for the day with the family. We went to Playa de las Americas. The water was cold, but the waves are awesome. Sarah and I didn't brave the water, but the boys had fun body surfing. You can see the top of the volcano from the beach….it's crazy to be sitting on a gray sandy beach (caused by the volcanic ash) and look up and see a snowcapped mountain. We finished the day with a stroll along the promenade and a late lunch.
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| View of the volcano from the beach
Tomorrow (Tuesday) we have a catamaran excursion scheduled and I hope to check "whale watching" off my bucket list. Thursday we are scheduled to go to the top of the volcano "El Tiede" and hike through the national park. If anything interesting happens, I'll be sure to fill you in with a blog post.
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Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year with your loved ones. We will certainly be missing ours as we celebrate our first Christmas away from our family. May you celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and be filled with Joy for the unspeakable gift offered to all on the day that Christ was born.
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