Going Down To Riu

Now I could tell you all about the drive today, how the rain arrived on cue and how the GPS took us down a dirt track to a shack that it thought was our hotel (Brendan knew better), but that would be a waste of space.

Let me tell you about our hotel.

But before I do, I need to make one thing clear. The hotel was chosen and booked by our travel agent. I'd hate you to think that we stayed at places like this all the time. But you know how good our travel agent is!

Turns out that we are staying at the Riu Guanacaste. Now for those of you in Australia, it's hard to adequately explain the scale of this thing, but maybe if you think Vegas without the gambling you'll be getting close.

There were 6 check in lines. There are 701 suites. It's an all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink all-day-all-night resort.

Our room has a jacuzzi for two, his and hers bathrooms, a shower that would definitely fit his and hers, his and hers toilets for Pete's sake, and a king sized bed that would fit at least his and her. The free bar is stocked with a range of drinks, and the alcohol is not in little airline bottles. There are 4 full size bottles of spirits on the wall. From our balcony we overlook the beach and Pacific Ocean.

There are 5 restaurants, 5 bars, 3 pools, jacuzzi, casino, convention centre, and disco. It's built on the waterfront where you can swim and do a variety of watersports. Tomorrow's list of activities includes beach volleyball, stretching, club dance, bocce, pool volleyball, table tennis, water polo, Spanish lessons, table football, aqua aerobics, monkey ball, crazy games, dance lessons, and bingo. After dinner there's a choice of a show or the disco. However if you are bored by it all, there are 37 TV channels to surf.

Most people never leave the resort while they are here, and I'd guess that they have to wheel them out when they go. And this is the smaller and older of the two hotels on the property. I'm told that the other one is better because it has room service.

We have to wear wrist bands the whole time we are on the property. That's probably so the medics know our blood type when we fall over. Families keep in touch with walkie talkies (I kid you not).

We explored the property ('excuse me, I'm a travel agent, can you show me your facilities') for an hour or so, then claimed a cancelled reservation at the Tucan 'fine dining option' restaurant, and enjoyed a 4 course dinner which we won't bore you with the details about, though Rachel wanted to be photographed in front of every course. Show off! Finished the evening watching tonight's cabaret show in one of the clubs.