1/1/14
I had made sure to have a room for New Year’s Eve, but after that was completely up in the air. Which I realized the next morning while checking out of the Lotus Garden. The Lotus Garden lady gave us a map with some phone numbers and Danny used his amazing Spanish skills and called around, but alas everything was full. Just as we were about to give up, hotel Casa Moabi called back and said actually they were just kidding when they said they were full – a $45 room is ours to split. Sweeet.
This place was in the middle of nowhere. We thankfully took a cab because who knows how far “just down the road” is. The cab driver almost got lost (literally putting the car into reverse in the middle of the road/oncoming traffic). Turn right off the main road, down a dirt road, past an Argentinian restaurant, left at the yellow arrow onto an even smaller dirt road – and tada! You’re there!
Howler monkeys screeched in nearby trees. Birds chatted all day long. We were in the middle of the jungle and still just a 15 min walk from the beach. The entryway/main area was completely open and filled with hammocks/games/local tourist information. The owner/manager guy and his girlfriend were European (I think…?) and their first language was clearly neither Spanish nor English, though the manager dude spoke both fluently. He rents out entire houses on the property so in the main area we were pretty alone except for a British couple volunteering and staying there while on their gap year. (Which, btw, the US needs to adopt this gap year thing). I taught Danny Skip-Bo during down time. When the wifi wasn’t working, manager dude was super helpful in pointing us in the direction of pizza (La Casa Del Pan) and in booking us a trip by phone the next day.
Casa Moabi website: http://www.casitamoabi.com/