At the end of October, we traveled to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica to Playa Cocles. This is the second post about our trip.
In Playa Cocles we stayed at what is considered a “high-end” hotel, Le Cameleon.
Both of the old front-seat gringos in our van rides gave us that impression. On the way down, the first guy commented, “too rich for my blood” when we told him where we were staying. That guy has been coming to this area for 17 years, to stay at the same rental house in nearby Punta Uva. On the return trip, the older front-seat gringo lady asked if the hotel would really be considered a five-star hotel. She said she lives in the area, doing dog rescue. Interestingly, neither one of them had been to the hotel. When we spoke with the woman, I think we all ended up agreeing that based on the other hotels we had seen as we picked up passengers, that the terms “high-end” and “upscale” would maybe apply relative to that area, but not necessarily beyond. We booked through a discount website so definitely were not paying high-end and upscale prices that looked like they could go as high as $500+ per night during the high season.
Le Cameleon is a modern-looking and funky hotel. We pulled into the white gravel drive passed the curved business office with oval windows. The stand-alone reception area had white furniture including two interesting chairs designed to look like women.
Le Cameleon business office 
Bikes for guest use – we didn’t
We were greeted with a hospitality drink, but not necessarily the “A” team at the registration desk. At first, we were told our room wasn’t quite ready (even with delays we arrived a bit earlier than the official check-in time), and then a minute later when we asked if they could hold our luggage while we ate lunch, we were told it was. We went a short way on an elevated path lined with thick vegetation, past the pool and to the building with our first-floor room. That path was not particularly well-lit at night, so it was an adventure going to and from our room after dark. Remember that here in Costa Rica the sun sets at a fairly consistent time throughout the year, and it was setting around 5:30 pm when we were there.
Elevated pathway 
Hotel pool
When we opened the door to our room, we were surprised by how white everything was – white walls, white floors, white furniture, etc. The only color was provided by the pillows on the beds, two side-by-side canvas art panels on the wall, and colored washcloths in the bathroom. What was interesting was that each day when the maids made up the room, they changed the colors. The pillows changed, the washcloths changed, and yes, even the art panels changed colors so that everything matched! One day the color du jour was blue, one day red/black, and one day yellow/green.
The room also had a small covered porch, accessible through sliding doors. It was not screened in, so we did not dare spend evenings there, due to the possibility of mosquitos. The porch had a small coffee table and two extremely over-sized wooden chairs. If you are old enough to remember Lily Tomlin’s Laugh-in character Edith Ann and the rocking chair she sat in, it felt like that (“and that’s the truth…”).
After depositing our luggage, I thought to return to the registration area to get some questions answered that should have been covered when we checked in. “Can we flush toilet paper?” “No.” OK, this was like the lodge in Tortuguero, but at least there they had provided a covered waste can next to the toilet. Here in this upscale hotel there was a small white plastic wastebasket, but it wasn’t covered. Um, eeww… I mean, they couldn’t spring for a covered trash can at this high-end hotel? The bathroom also had a frosted door, except that there were several 4-inch lines with clear glass spaced up and down it. It gave an artsy effect to the door, but clear glass into a bathroom is clear glass into a bathroom. Doesn’t anyone think these things through?
Second question, “Can we drink the water in the room?” “No. There are bottles of water in the room.” There were two small bottles of water in the minifridge, along with cans of soft drinks and beer. There was also a bowl of snacks on the desk. This had “you have to pay for anything here” written all over it. Out of necessity we ended up using the two bottles of water the first day, and were, in fact, charged. Early the next morning we walked along the main road to a small market and purchased a six-liter bottle of water for the remainder of our stay. The hotel did have a jug of infused water at reception, but it was not always full, and it clearly wasn’t intended to be used for filling up water bottles.
The hotel had a public restaurant/bar that led to the beach and was also our beach access. This was on the other side of the main road from the rest of the hotel. Yes, the main road that runs from Puerto Viejo to Manzilla, so even here we had to play “frogger” to eat and get to the beach. Breakfast was included with our room, and we did enjoy the made to order options, like Eggs Benedict, in addition to the fruit and pastries breakfast buffet. The rest of the meals, though, weren’t as good, and were pricey. However, it was convenient, so we did end up eating almost all of our meals there. The atmosphere was pleasant and on Friday and Saturday nights they had live music entertainment.
The restaurant was covered, but it was open on two sides, which meant that you couldn’t shut doors to keep out pests. Bugs weren’t really a problem, but there was a stray cat that enjoyed moving from underneath one table to another. One night the woman at the next table was not at all happy about that and actually sat cross-legged on her dinner chair to avoid the cat. We were amused by the staff trying to chase the cat out of the restaurant, but really ended up chasing the cat around tables. They finally produced a water bottle to spray at it, still not effective.
We enjoyed walking the beach at Playa Cocles, although it had a little slope. It took us about an hour to walk the entire length of the beach and back. It is a beautiful light-sand beach. There was one spot that was good for surfing. It is also the spot that seemed to have a larger stretch of public access, so that area was more populated than any other.
The first afternoon we walked the beach there was a cluster of people near the surfing spot. When we got closer, we saw what the commotion was – three baby turtles trying to get to the water after hatching. Of course, everyone who had a phone was filming them. (We didn’t.) They were very cute and did make it into the ocean. A guy said he ran the surfing school and in his 17 years there he hadn’t seen that before. (And again, us without a phone or camera.)
We walked the beach multiple times during our stay and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.
It gradually dawned on us that the beach was “missing” things that other beaches that we have been to do have.
There were no sea gulls. That’s a happy thing in my book. There were a few pelicans, but not very many. We were also entertained by a bird that we think was a Whimbrel, walking along the beach, poking into the sand, and chasing small crabs that it caught with its bill.
There were no seashells, other than one sand dollar that I saw. But just that one, no other shells of any kind on any day.
There weren’t boats. Usually on the beaches along the southern US coasts you can see large ships in the distance, tourist boats, maybe sail boats, etc. But there are boats. Here we saw a total of two boats, that were very small, that were going somewhere in a hurry, but nothing else.
There were long stretches of beach without people. Where there were people, very few had beach chairs. Mostly they just spread towels or blankets on the sand.
So when you look at the pictures we took and you see very little except beach and sea, that’s really how it was.
In addition to the beach, we enjoyed wildlife viewing. Stay tuned for our next posts on our tours with “Jungle Man” and the “Jaguar Rescue Center.”
Remember, it's an adventure. 