Straight Out of Balmoral

 

Night time view from the balcony of our hotel room in the Balmoral. It overlooked the Calle Central that's now a pedestrian mall. Had museums, parks, and such unheard of western luxuries as Starbucks! Heck yeah I drank gallons of Cafe Latte!

We were both nervous driving down through the wilds of Guanacaste to the big bad too crowded and too many confusing streets of San Jose. However we did see the usual assortment of weird things on the road. Here's just one.

We kept trying to guess what was in the big bags. Got close enough to determine it's some sort of heavy duty plastic sheeting. Took Rutas Una all the way from Limonal into the heart of the old city, where we promptly got lost because our new phones decided they kept wanting to input our old Stateside address to where we were starting.

After some fits and starts, and stopping at a local McDonald's for directions we finally arrived at the hotel.  Turns out the Hotel Balmoral was quite lovely and very nice. They upgraded our room for us. HUGE bathtub, I took long soaks each night. The only fly in the ointment is that the way the room's electrical system is wired if you switch off the overhead light it cuts power to the electrical outlets on the wall behind the headboard. This is a huge problem because I require a Vpap machine when I sleep. I've been using one form or another since 1999, no amount of dieting or getting skinny helps the apnea. I am one of those weirdos who stops breathing in every position without machinery. Overcame it with an extension cord I have learned to bring with the machine.

Holy mother of blessed sights that knock out my eyeballs my silly husband wanted me to help him with his enema the night before and the one the next morning. I ran away screaming. I am no nurse! Like Scarlett O'Hara I'm only useful to non-sick men, or at least not nekkid ones with enema bottles not sticking out of their rears.

The next morning we took a short taxi ride to our hospital and Jim got his prostate biopsy. The doctor came out to talk to me while Jim was coming out from under whatever type of twilight sleep they gave him. It does not look or sound good. The doctor didn't say the dreaded "C" word, just that Jim would be needing to return for treatments in the near future. Said his left prostate was hard and swollen, showed me the biopsy vials. The tissue from the right one is pinkish. The left is red tinged black. We'll know for sure in two weeks when the pathology report is in.

Taxi back to the hotel and Jim said he only felt "a little sore" He was out of it from the drugs and I was thankful for another night in the hotel. We had to get up at 4am for that second enema and over to the hospital well before the procedure time of 6:30 am. Back at the hotel by 10 am, where breakfast was still being served until 11am. I got to have two things I love so much they serve in this region of Costa Rica. Fried Tico cheese and sauteed sweet plantains!

We crashed for a five hour nap before having a picnic of packed foods I brought for dinner, and a lot of tv. Around 7pm we heard shouting in the streets and ran out onto the balcony to find a march going on down the pedestrian mall in support of the Palestinian people and calling for a cease fire.

Dark I know, but here's one of the few photos I got.

The next day after breakfast we puttered around in the area. Looked at places like the Musee de Oro and de Jade. We spent some time in the lovely parks. I shopped, buying things I cannot get in Tamarindo and had a lovely conversation with an indigenous man that sells native made jewelry. Got a necklace carved out of coconut hulls and wood, with designs like the ones I've seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.

Decided it would be highly foolish to trust the phone GPS again, wrote out instructions and a map before leaving and somehow got the heck out of there with zero hysterics or driving in the circles. I keep forgetting I do better with actual maps.

Yes, yes I did indeed hop out of the car screaming with my shitty tablet in my hands to take photos when we got to Gringo Corners in Limonal, that place where Rutas 18 dead ends into Rutas 1. There is a good sized flock of blue macaws there I thrill to see every time we stop. Too far away to photograph, but boy did I get to see and hear! Jim trudged into the Taco Bell for tacos, I saw big screechy birds instead.

Since we've already been told Jim will need treatments in San Jose we'll be staying again at the Balmoral. We loved our other hotels, but this being right on the pedestrian mall makes this the better choice for us because there's some much to do within walking distance, even if I still walk like a drunk.