9. Finding Accommodation

Sorry for the delay in posts, but this blogging business takes time and well sometimes I have been distracted, say by a trip to Bahia Drake and the Galapagos.  Currenty (28 March) I am in Bocas del Toro (Panama) for a week, having arrived yesterday.  This was my original trip out of the country to meet 90 day visa requirements.  Having been to the Galapagos I didnt really need to do this but the ticket was non-refundable so here I am!  More about these trips later.  I hope to get this blog up to date asap but am only posting once a day to keep the order.  If anyone knows a better way, let me know.

Sssoooo anyhow...back to the story, so it is the beginning of February, Ive dropped out of school and have nowhere to live...luckily I had been vaguely investigating renting an apartment since the yoga retreat at the beginning of January.   As time progressed and my doubts about study grew, the more I would ask the questions; do you know anyone with an apartment to rent, do you have any contacts in the real estate area.  I also used the Quepolandia which is the local monthly magazine that gives you the lowdown about what is going on in the Quepos-Manuel Antonio area, including rental accommodation. As I discovered fairly quickly ,where I wanted to live was a popular and therefore pricey area comparatively.  I looked at a few apartments to get a sense of what you got for your money.  Not a lot in some respects but in others...like the view and proximity to the beach....heaps!

In between all of this I decided it was far too long since I had been out on the water.  So I booked myself on a boat trip...Sunset Sail on Lorelei, a decent sized catarmaran.  It was an excellent trip where we actually sailed, got to snorkel, watch the sunset.  They also fed us, made us caiparinhias and played excellent music !  The bonus of this trip was meeting Holly and her friends, Bob and Verdella, from the States.  We chatted a lot and again the question of accommodation came up.  She gave me Tom Barrons name, the third person to do so, and I had already been in contact with him but he had nothing as it is a busy time of the year for rentals.

They were very sweet and invited me along on a trip to Matapalo (treekiller) beach and also to Dos Locos, an expat weekly event, which Ill write more about later.  I went along as they were really nice people and it was a chance to experience some of these things with someone who lives here.  Holly bought a house in Manuel Antonio five years ago and has been slowly increasing the amount of time she spends here.  It will be 10 months this year.

In the meantime I had come across an apartment through David at the Amore Spanish School.  I came to learn that it didn’t matter what you went in to ask David about, you usually came out armed with info about a whole lot of other things you are interested in!  For example the first time I met him when enquiring about Spanish, I came out with an apartment to look at, a yoga class to go to and advice about setting up my mobile in Costa Rica.

Then, unexpectedly, Holly offered her spare bedroom for rent.  Then I was in a quandary.  This apartment through David I was going to look at had a million dollar view but was expensive.  Holly lived a little further from the beach than I wanted and it was a bit of a walk from the bus but a nice house, reasonable rent...concerns about the cat though (mostly as I am allergic sometimes to cats).     and whether I actually wanted to live with anybody.  So I looked at the apartment and to my surprise, despite the view, it didn’t feel right.  So Holly and I had lunch and talked through how we might make that work.  By the end of a delicious lunch and a couple of caiparinhas (yes Di, these are green drinks!) we decided to give it a go.