We pulled into Santa Elena just as it was getting dark we needed to find a hotel before it got too late. The taxi driver we selected to take us to our hotel was the one that spoke English to us, the one we could easily communicate with. As we drove to the island of Flores where most of the hotels are located, he took us to a shop where we could look at cameras to replace the one that was stolen. He even helped us select a hotel based on the fact that the hotel owner spoke fluent English. This proved to be a great help but the hotel itself turned out to be a bit of a cheap disaster.
The hotel was such a bargain at $3.50 per person per night. He even offered us two rooms that connected by a balcony so that we each could have a double bed. In my haste I looked over the rooms and accepted to stay the night without having a really good look at the details of each room. I had a decent bed to sleep in but Jaeden was relegated to the special spring bed. This bed had such good springs that you could feel each of the springs poking into your back as you lay down on them. I don’t think there was any foam between the sheet and the springs. We gave him all of the extra pillows to make up for his bed but one of the three pillows felt like a sandbag while the others were of varying effectiveness.
The bathrooms were also void of towels, the shower curtain was garbage bag thin and had been tied back onto the shower rod a few times, our toilet seat was missing and when we first arrived there was no water in the sink or shower. After asking the owner of the building for water he turned it on for us but unfortunately the rooms did not include any hot water. It was so hot in the rooms that we were relieved when the broken fan was replaced for us. I had it blowing on me for the first half of the evening.
I was so exhausted that evening that I had no desire to switch hotels. If we were staying longer than one night I definitely would have moved somewhere else. As it was we headed downstairs for a bite to eat and waited 45 minutes for a meal while a rush of diners came in and all ordered at the same time as us. Our hotel host prepared our meals while checking 2 more people in with the help of his daughter. He definitely illustrated the meaning of multi-tasking.
