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?

Costa Rica Hostel Debauchery: Raleigh's Birthday

I haven't celebrated my birthday on American soil for the past 4 years.  First it was Thailand, then Slovakia. and now Costa Rica.  The big difference this year is that I was working the whole time with a bottle of Flor de Cana rum in my hand:

Yeah. This is my job and I love it!  Come down here and be a part of it.   I will unabashedly say that while the rest of Costa Rica is known for its nature and ecotourism, San Jose itself is as much Sin City as Las Vegas, Nevada.  So its the perfect fit for me.  I'll get you a place to stay for the night, serve you a drink, then take you out for a pub crawl on 'Calle de La Amargura' for the night.

Calle de La Amargura is only 400 meters from the hostel, so that's where I wrapped up my birthday night.  You should too.  On this night, one girl just isn't enough for me.  Its a good thing this gringo can speak Spanish so damn well...

We had a reservation for our favorite dive bar, Eric's Copas.  This bar wins the "Gringo Award" because the music is low enough to have an actual conversation.  Most Costa Rican bars have the music cranked so loud you can't hear yourself think.  This is OK when the place is packed, but it makes no sense (at least to gringos) to have the music up when there's only 5 people inside.  After the pub crawl the night only got better.






Did I mention its not my real birthday?


Tuesday still awaits...

There's No Pura Vida In Costa Rica: Welcome To Castle Tam Hostel

Harold Camping was wrong by a few days.  Today is Doomsday, or at least it is for Tuanis Hostel.  It quite literally went up in flames with one of our guests, Dr. Danger.

 Castle Tam Hostel has risen from the ashes and shall wreak havoc on other San Jose hostels, and I'm one of the Americans in charge of this.  For some reason this guy Jon decided to give me the title of 'Hostel Manager.'  Most likely because I'm a gringo who speaks Spanish.  Now I have to explain why a Costa Rica hostel is represented by a castle with dragons instead of a beach with parrots:

Why a castle with dragons?  Read our stories on the new website for the full answer.  Or better yet come to the hostel in San Jose and we can tell you ourselves.  For $8 a night you can't go wrong and the stories we have from just the past 2 months can go all night.  Trust me we have plenty of drinks and drugs to last you that long.



We are no ordinary hostel.  Hell, we already set a guest on FIRE.  So goodbye Tuanis Hostel.  Pura Vida.

Costa Rica Hostel Burning Man!

Last night we set a man on fire at our hostel.

Do I have your attention now?

His name is Dr. Danger and he is a professional daredevil.  He is also a lunatic...but a nice friendly lunatic.  He showed up at our door, told me what he did for a living and naturally I told him to get the hell away from our hostel.  Once I checked his information I realized he was authentic and now he has made us possibly the only hostel in the world to have set one of its guests on fire.  I expect 'viral,' once the video is edited.

Hola. My name is Raleigh and I'm the manager of Castle Tam Hostel in San Jose, Costa Rica.  Check us out: http://www.castletam.com//

We recently changed the name from Tuanis Hostel to Castle Tam and are having a massive Internet blitz.  While I cannot promise we will set more people on fire, the list of characters who have passed through our door gives me a constant arsenal of things to write about.  In addition to my daily job, I will wax nostalgic on my past travels though Asia, Europe and the Americas as well as post info about my favorite hobbies: music and beer.

WY2JX9T3FZBA