The Toilet Bowl

Rocking J's: Hostel/Mosaic museum!

Free bananas, too!!

It’s been so long since we’ve blasted anything out to you all, it’s hard to know where to start. Not where we left off, because that is so far in the past by now and we know you want up to the minute breaking news!  So here’s what’s going on right now: Monday night, September 27th, in Costa Rica. Here in Puerto Viejo it’s raining up a storm, literally, with plenty of lightning and thunder.  Earlier it actually looked like the special effects from an old horror movie, it was so over the top.  We’re able to just sit back and enjoy the show, all warm and dry under the huge roof here at our new hostel: Rocking J’s.  By far the biggest hostel we’ve stayed at, Rocking J’s is more of an estate than a hostel, with a good sized lawn and hammock hangout area in the center, bordered on 3 sides by the lodgings and common areas and opening out onto the ocean. $4 hammocks and $5 tents are the most popular options; Kirby and I chose the tent. The whole place is covered in mosaics and paintings created by travelers who have stayed here over the years, and it’s so beautiful that you could literally spend hours looking at all the beautiful details. So much color and visual stimuli everywhere, it’s the total opposite of the hostel we were in last night, which brings me to the title of today’s blog: the toilet bowl.

Notice the aquamarine urinal cake on the wall above the fan - the only thing on the wall!

 That’s what we called our room at the sunset hostel.  Because of the smell. Right when we walked in the door yesterday I told Kirby I thought it smelled a little like pee in our room, but then we realized that what it smelled like was the men’s bathroom.  That’s because of the urinal cake that was hanging on our wall.  The only decoration in our barren white room was the little aqua green “freshener” that smelled mysteriously like the unmistakable bathroom deodorizer.  Check it out in the corner of this picture. The white but semi-stained walls, the urinal cake, and all our “stuff” swirling around the room made the nickname of “toilet bowl” the obvious choice.  We knew we had to get out as soon as possible, especially since the smell started morphing and taking on new and unidentifiable characteristics.  This morning we toured the hostels in the surrounding area and now here we are at the most rocking place in town!  Sorry if our description of the toilet bowl was too graphic for some of you, but we want to paint a very clear picture of our experience here in Costa Rica: the good, the bad, and the stinky!

Today, after moving in to our new hostel, we immediately took advantage of the wifi internet and made a HUGE batch of rice and beans, which Kirby magically turned into vegetarian burritos by adding flour tortillas, salsa, onions, a little frying, a whole lot of love!We went down to the beach on the backside of the hostel and discovered little turtles in the sand, one of which I’m laying on in this picture.

Puerto Viejo has these little turtles all over the place, on the side of streets and at the beaches. It would be fun to stay here for a while and try to find them all. After settling in at our new home, we headed out to the nearby beach down the road. It was relaxing and inspiring, and while swimming in the warm ocean waves we couldn’t help but burst into song!  This beach was especially inspirational for songwriting, and we’re almost done with our newest hit track: “It’s SOOOOO Hard Livin’ in Paradise!” I've included a picture of us on the beach just after our songwriting session, so when you hear it on the radio waves you'll feel extra VIP!