Raise Up! We Have An Official Castle Tam Sign!

Trying to find our hostel?? If the taxi driver tells you we don't exist, we are full or his 'friend' has a better hostel, show him this picture.  Then smack him hard and get your money back.

As of June 11th we have a big black-and-green Castle Tam sign to mark our hostel location at, "100 metro al oeste de la Escuela Roosevelt."  Seven o'clock at night when the sun is going down is not the most convenient time to install a sign, but at least we have it.

First we got it delivered...fortunately in one piece.

Then the Ticos welded the mount. Look at the pretty sparks fly.

 

Then the Ticos hoisted the wall mount and attached the sign.  I would have video but this happened at 10 o'clock at night.  Not prime filming time indeed.

Then to top it all off, "Sorry sorry, manana, manana. We will install the lighting tommorrow..."  Another typical "Tico'ed" job.  Oh well.  Goodbye Tuanis Hostel, Hello Castle Tam Hostel.

Welcome To Castle Tam Hostel, Costa Rica

Ok.  All the birthday party madness is over.  Now I can properly introduce myself and the hostel.  Since nobody actually reads anymore, I won't bore you with elaborate descriptions. I'll just go the 'Reality TV' way and show you a live video.  Welcome to 4 minutes of Castle Tam:

This is the early Sunday morning video where everyone is still recovering from the Saturday night festivities. Which means they're still in their dorms nursing a hangover.

You get the idea.  We have beds, kitchens, bathrooms, an outdoor courtyard and booze.  The main things to take note of: we're cleaner than your average roach-infested hostel in Costa Rica, we're renovating and you don't see a bunch of white, dreadlocked, save-Mother-Nature-Rainforest hippie types.  They are more than welcome to visit, but these tourists are already as common as the roaches here:

If you want to save Costa Rica, go back to your 1st world country, get a profitable job and invest the money in some foreign company that's in Costa Rica hiring locals.  Corporate exploitation? Globalization?? Blahblahblah.  Ask any local in a developing, high-unemployment country and they will tell you that even if you're employed as waiter, janitor or McDonalds burger-flipper, any job is better than no job.  Assuming they speak English (which would get them a better job.)

Due to the early Sunday morning hangover, this video required an extensive amount of coffee to film.  Thanks to the wonders of globalization, we have modern, fast imported coffee machines, and not these inefficient, traditional chorreadores.

Technology is great.  This contraption is only good for kindling and tourist money.

Castle Tam Birthday Debauchery: The Aftermath

Castle Tam mission accomplished.  After the party, these drunk, happy (possibly stoned) fools get to go home or back to one of our hostel beds.  Guess who's left cleaning up the mess with a hangover?

Certainly not the maid...she's lazy.  Its up to two busy, Protestant-work-ethic raised gringos to handle the birthday party aftermath.  Fortunately cleaning bathrooms, changing bed sheets and taking out the trash is a daily routine we're used to.

Except when the trashman doesn't show up...
Or the rainstorms cause the dorms to flood...
Or when the toilet breaks...
You get the idea.

After we cleaned the place, we realized half of our guests had checked out.  This left us free time to do some renovations and home improvement.  Unfortunately home improvement in Costa Rica would leave Bob Villa crying in the fetal position in his bed.  A simple plumbing job on the toilet turned into an all day affair when we found out Costa Ricans prefer concrete cement instead of caulking for repairs.

To use a new phrase we've made up; this toilet got "Tico'ed."  So Jon had to "de-Tico" the toilet and refix it in the proper American way.  This happened only after cleaning the grime, chipping away the concrete, removing the old flushing unit and installing the new unit - which was missing installation instructions.  Pura Vida!

Next project? Turning this messy old garage in a proper bar, because one of peoples favorite activities to do on vacation is get drunk.  We always have our guests best interests in mind.



 Suggestions anyone?