Masters of Pop Culture - Costa Rica: Part 6

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What's a summer vacation in Costa Rica without going to the beach? Pointless. After we had our fill of the volcanoes, greenery, and cows, we decided to head to the beach in Tamarindo for the remainder of our trip. Once again, Steve took the wheel as we drove around Lake Arenal for an hour to the Pan-American highway, and then another 2 hours up to the beach. Since we wanted to save some money during the trip, we decided to stay at an all-inclusive Barcelo resort while we were in Tamarindo, which included meals and drinks. Now, this hotel had a killer pool and nice villas, but when they slapped on bright yellow wristbands when we checked in, we became a bit suspicious. Our suspicion was further enhanced when we saw the lunch/dinner buffet, with "chicken", "pork" and "beef" in some kind of sauce. After lunch, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon there relaxing by the pool, enjoying the all inclusive booze, and questioning the food. There was a small patch of beach behind our hotel which we went to check out, but quickly realized that with the sharp rocks jutting out, this probably wasn't the best place to go in the water. Not to mention, a local "vendor" was trying to hock us s**t every ten minutes. It was nice though to have a day without an activity, where we could just enjoy the Costa Rican sun and chill poolside.

We noticed when we checked in, the hotel had a "Discoteque", in which we all immediately began to laugh. After dinner that first night, we headed over to this alleged disco just to see what it was all about. We walk in to this large auditorium style room, where everyone is sitting at tables, having drinks, with the activity directors of the hotel on stage. We quickly realized that they were doing some type of pop culture trivia contest. The idea of of the game was that the hotel director would ask a question like "Name this tv show/movie/singer" and play a clip. Then, you had to run on stage and answer the question. Whoever had the most points at the end won. Well, we all quickly realized no one was running on stage, and further realized the longer this goes on, the later the "disco" opens. Therefore, we all started running up and answer question after question. Steve in particular ran up at least 10 times, to the point where the director was getting p**sed to see him on stage. At one point, I was racing this kid up to the stage, and ended up taking a nosedive into the chair and falling on my a**. To make matters more interesting, we were the only Americans there, where it almost turned into a game of "Don't let the Americans win". Well, when you use samples of ALL AMERICAN MADE MEDIA, how do you expect us to lose? The game ended, and Steve won a t-shirt and hat for second place. All in all, a successful game on our end.

The disco then opened, and it was literally one of the saddest sights I had seen in my life. It was basically a room no bigger than a living room in a standard American house, all painted white, with bar tables, a small bar, and a "dance floor". There were strobe lights and techo music, and not a single person was dancing. Furthermore, I noticed at one point my beer had a soapy tint to it. Blech! Needless to say, that was the last visit to that disco.

Until next time, safe travels.
-Kacz

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Photos

The Barcelo Langosta Beach
View from the lobby.

Beach from Barcelo
Notice the rocks...

The Discoteca
Must have bad back for admission.

What the hell kind of fruit is this?
See what we mean by questionable food?