This trip has been all about where Alex wanted to go. It is her 50th, after all, so of course she gets to choose. And one place she was adamant with was Villa Blanca.
We have many fond memories of Villa Blanca. This is our 6th? time going back. The only time I’ve been to a hotel more than once is because of convenience – it’s where I need to be. Villa Blanca is a place I want to go.
It’s about a two hour drive. Another two hours of Choo Choo suffering in the back seat as we twist and turn and rise and fall through the countless valleys that litter this part of the country. At first, I thought I took a wrong turn, thinking there was a different path that we’d taken in the past, but looking on a map … I think we went the correct way?
Still, to not much surprise, I overshot the turn. This is in part because in most of our previous excursions, we’d come from the south, and the turn off is much easier to see; coming from the north, the turn’s a V-shape, which goes drastically downhill.
The road to Villa Blanca was never an easy one. It’s a country road. Villa Blanca itself is a former ranch. But for reasons unknown, the road feels like it’s been part of a testing ground for explosives: massive car-eating holes, narrow lanes, missing pavement – missing road. And there’s no backroute – there is one way, only. And at 20 km/h on average, it took a long time to get in.
We knew before we booked that Villa Blanca was under new ownership. The logo had changed, the Five Leaf rating had been dropped, and their partnership with Si Como No out in Manuel Antonio had ended. The front desk looked similar, but the gift shop was gone. The lobby looked the same, as did the restaurant, but the parking lot had lost a gazebo.
Our cabin was as I remembered them, though we didn’t get one of the ones with the stained glass windows. Choo Choo has a cot, which I sincerely hope is comfortable.
There’s lots of firewood, which we’re going to need, because it’s laundry time. Although we’ve already done a couple of things, we’re all low on sundries. So my first task was to do the wash in the bathtub. The problem revealed itself moments after I was done: where the heck do I hang all of this stuff and how will it dry? Hence, FIRE!
We’re going to need a lot more wood.
Dinner was in the restaurant. There’s hardly anyone else here, it seems – there’s almost no-one else in the restaurant. But the food is good, so I can’t complain much.
We read in our room, while I shuffled things around to dry. If feels like I just washed them, so I wonder how long this will take.