www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Okay, I can't resist. Going back to my original post - 95% of my issues with Kaya's were due to the way one particular incident was handled by the owner. I also didn't think he did himself any favors in the way he responded to the criticism on this board, but that's all water under the bridge now.

As for the facility itself, your mileage may definitely vary. You may actually enjoy your stay here, as I did for the most part until the last morning. But for the money, I honestly think you can do better in that area. The Caribbean side definitely has its attractions, but if you really want to get away from it all, forget Puerto Viejo and go further south and stay in Punta Uva or Manzanillo. Much nicer beaches, and you can always come back into Puerto Viejo for nightlife if so inclined.

Here is my 2 cents worth (actually, in true prolijo style more like $2.25 due to overinflation). While it is all true that on rare occassions newcomers come here with malicious intent, more often the problem is one of them innocently asking questions that have been asked and answered many times before (in one notable case many questions and opinions). Many vets find this extremely irritating because the answers could have easily been found by a simple search or by browsing through old posts and perhaps they then react with a bit more hostility than is warranted.

Another problem occurs when a member, newcomer or vet, makes a sarcastic post or does what he considers to be goodnatured ribbing. In the case of the newcomer this can be worse of a problem since nobody knows much about where the comments are coming from. But it can also be a problem coming from vets since not everyone in the audience may be in on the joke.

This thread is a good example of this. Norteno, a relative newcomer to the board himself, posted a review that, especially if one had read his comments in another thread, could only have been seen as insincere. Even if one was unfamiliar with the other thread, the review was so far over the top that most of us should have realized at best it had to be in jest. Unfortunately, the apparent joke understandbly went over the heads of some around here. At worst the post may have been actually been meant to stir back up the controversy caused by that other thread. It is interesting to note that after starting this thread, Norteno is now conspicuously absent from it. My initial post was meant to get him to clarify his intent.

As for Coqui, whatever his initial behavior on the board or our reaction to him, he has eased off somewhat and made, IMHO, some interesting posts. I say its time we eased up on him and regard his rocky entry here as simply water under the bridge.

At the same time, I think Coqui should ease up on the Admin. He had to deal with a quickly unraveling situation where there were no easy answers. Would some of us have dealt with it differently? Perhaps. Would our solutions have been any better? Maybe not. Nobody is perfect. But I think the Admins here up to now have done a pretty damn good job at providing us a safe fun environment to play in and, while I might back-channel them suggestions, I for one will not publicly second guess them.

ONE MORE POINT, as I like to make the record clear, I did not delete you but ADMIN 2 Did. I believe he gave you a very solid explanation as to why the post was deleted, but the nuts and bolts of it were you made a blanket statement you would never stay there based on comments and not 1st hand knowldege. I am not going to rehash this but I DID NOT DELETE YOU.

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Thank you for supporting CRT!

My two cents.

When i started posting on this board i was very excited about starting my trip. And also being part of a larger comunity. What i think went wrong is what goes wrong with packs of animals. Please dont take this as an insult. You see when one young animal joins a pack its comon for it to be excited and energized at being part of a unit. This can been seen as a sign of challange to the older animals of the pack and can spark aggression.

When i saw the aggression on the board, i eased back and have slowly come back into the board testing the watters. For me i have moved past the initial aggression and even though it worries me to see it pop back up from time to time with other members, i am glad it has not gearded its head toward my direction again.

As for Admin1 yes i know it was not you who deleted me. And frankly i still dont agree with Admi2 decicion to eraze my comment of never staying at Kayas. The reason i was given was that since i was never staying there i have no right to voice my opinion. But my choice to not stay there was not due to its facilities but to the fact that i dont like the way managament handled a problem with a client. To me that was not custermor relations, it was bad behavior. Not to mention i find it highly suspecious that gringas that had an incident with GetR would coincidently gain access to the VIP picture area and even know about the site. Personally the most important thing to me is custemor service. This is why i have already decided that if i do a return trip to CR i would like to go to Sportsmans due to the glowing custermor service i hear from there.

But like i told Admin2 its your board not mine. Im just a guy who pays for the benifits of a VIP membership. And i understand that its a very hard job you guys have dealing with the drama that pops up on the board everyday. Just because i dont agree with a deciccion doesnt mean that I think your evil. I respect your decicions even though i dont agree with them from time to time. But I felt that it my opinion wasnt respected and i was told to shut up. But like i said, its your board not mine, I just lurk here.

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True

It is indeed an interesting life. I go off to Costa Rica for few weeks and have a helluva great time. I never even check this board until I get back and find that a previous thread apparently gets way out of hand. Cool, I got tired of beating dead horses along time ago. Then I go away again for a couple of days and find more drama following my initial post.

Here it is in a nutshell: I went to Puerto Viejo and really liked it. I stayed at Kaya's Place and really liked it. The young couple from Vermont that run the hotel, they are nice. I liked them. The hotel serves good food. I liked it. The other guests staying there while was there, they were nice. I liked them.

So there is my story; sans adjectives, allegories and metaphors. There are no hidden messages, no intent to stir up controversy and no I'm neither a woman nor am I gay. There was no intended lack of sincerity nor any jest on my part.

As far as the Caribbean side of Costa Rica goes, I saw a lot of it, enjoyed all that I did and I'll go back for more. YMMV.

Truth not spoken in kindness is not truth therefore I shall not make any comments on other posts in this thread. I'm now completely out of this thread.as of now!

Not quite sure I understand that metaphor. How can truth be unkind? Maybe I am just missing something here, can anyone shed some light

PS: am not speaking on the validity of this thread. I think it ran it's course as have the others on this subject and should just go away. Am intrigued by the metaphor however.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Not taking any side on this but Norteno mentioned a phrase that came to mind for me so I didn't want to be a copy cat. If you beat a dead horse long enough will he come back to life?

I don't mind beating a dead horse a little bit more. I should apologize somewhat to Norteno. My earlier comments in this thread concerning Norteno were based on a partially faulty recollection that he was one of those who had made critical comments in the other thread. Reviewing his comments in that thread now, I see that he had not actually stayed at Kayas at that point. He DID express some grave concerns about the place based on an initially lackluster response to his inquiries that were prompted by the new information coming in from other CR'ers (notably GetRhythm). He was even seriously considering cancelling his reservation but was having difficulty due to what he regarded as an excessive grace period. When the shit really started hitting the fan concerning the bad reviews, JT made him an money back offer if he was not completely satisified. Viewed in the light, I'm not surprised that his hosts went out of their way to see that he WAS satisfied and would post a good review to help heal the damage that had been done to their reputation here. One question this raises is whether JT has really learned his lesson on customer relations (assuming he was indeed at fault in the initial matter, but I won't go back into that issue) and that this level of service is something we ALL can expect from now on or whether it is something that can only be assured of if money back and another bad review are at stake.

As far as any aspersions on Norteno's character, my words were not meant to be unkind. I was only trying to understand what was his intent. He says he was completely sincere and now that he has responded I've no reason to doubt him. He says he didn't mean to stir up any controversy, but there's no arguing thats what it did. He now says he simply "LIKED" this and that, however his initial post was MUCH more effusive than that and frankly WAY over the top. I think that gave us all valid reason to be uncertain whether it could really be a serious review, a bad joke or something meant to stir back up a controversial subject.

Thats all I have left to say on this subject. Well that may not be completely true. I am Prolijo after all. But thats all I care to add at this point. I agree this issue has been beaten to death and, like Terri Schiavo, should have its feeding tubes removed and allowed to die with dignity. OH NO! Lets not start on THAT issue now.

i know you are smarter than that DINGDONG.
"honey, do these pants make my ass look big?"
or; we both know that you are ugly.
so is it a kindness for me to tell you?

If you say yes, that was truthful but not necessarily kind.

If you say no, that was kind but not necessarily truthful

Do not think that is an answer to just what does



mean? I just can not get a handle on that phrase.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Well, that dead horse still has a little life left in it...

Prolijo said:



Great analysis by Prolijo as usual. And yes, let me assure you, a lesson needed to be learned. It bears reminding here what the only independent witness to the whole affair - a fellow CRT'er - had to say regarding the incident I raised in my original Kaya's post:

Captain John said:



I met Captain John briefly at Sportsmen's previously on my trip, but didn't hang out with him, and am embarrassed to say I didn't even recognize him that morning I saw him at Kaya's. Therefore, it was extremely gracious of him to chime in and support me.

Simply put, my account of the incident, written the same day it occurred, was factual. JT's response - which came not until five days later - with it's references to misdirected anger, "yelling at a guest", and other such malarkey, was not.

Putting that behind us now, let me expand on the comments in my earlier post in this thread regarding why I would not stay at Kaya's again. It really has less to do with the facility or the people who run it than it's location. The hotel is on the other side from the beach of the main north-south thoroughfare leading into Puerto Viejo. This has several disadvantages:

1. There's a fairly constant stream of traffic going by all day, kicking up dust and obstructing your view of the beach.

2. The beach directly across the highway is a black sand beach. That stuff sticks to your feet like mud.

3. When walking the several hundred yards from the hotel into Puerto Viejo itself, you have to run a gauntlet of riff-raff that hangs out near the bridge attempting to sell drugs and whatever else.

But perhaps most importantly, once you see the beaches further south around Punta Uva and Manzanillo, you'll kick yourself for ever even considering staying near Puerto Viejo. These beaches are isolated from the road, uncrowded, have gorgeous white sand, and are breathtakingly beautiful. I also saw lots of beachfront cabinas and resort beach hotels in those areas which looked like great places to stay at a reasonable price. Do yourself a favor and check them out.

GR,
Its time to pull the feeding tube on your personal experience at Kaya's. Let it go, Man! We've all heard about what happened to you from every conceivable angle and members can now make their own judgements on whether they want to try the place out. You did and didn't like it. Norteno did and he did like it. Obviously, YMMV.

However, the last part of your post raised some new larger questions unrelated to the question of the quality of service at Kaya's itself. In the other thread, reference was made to some hotel suggestions I had made on the area. Those suggestions were based solely on research and I have no personal experience with the Atlantic Coast of CR. As I recall when I posted it was pointed out by others that places like Kayas might be more desirable for those without transportation as they're in or at least close to town.

Here are my GENERAL questions. You said Kaya's had a bad location across a busy road from the beach, but you also said you didn't like the beach much anyway. If Kaya's were on the other side of the road would that have made enough of a difference? And are there any other hotels on the beach side of the road (that are equally decent and inexpensive)? In your first post you said there wasn't much of P4P scene in PV, but you also said there were plenty of guys offering to hook you up with girls, drugs whatever. Does PU or Manzanila even have that or are they places where you have to bring your own "entertainment"? Here you complain about having to run a gauntlet of riff-raff in PV, but in the other thread you said they are not as bad as the ones we are accustomed to in SJ. Which is it? You said you didn't care much for town of PV - mostly European tourists and local rasta types, no internet access and only a few informal bars and restaurants. Is that also a matter of YMMV? Aside from the obvious advantage of better beaches, what else do the more remote resorts and cabinas offer? You said one can rent a bike for $2K colones to get to those resorts. How far is it and how long does it take to get to or from town if one wanted to take advantage of whatever PV has to offer? How easy would it be for someone without a rental car to get out to some of those other resorts that are further out? I could come up with more questions but you get the drift. Aside from the worn-out issue of Kaya's itself, what are the advantages and disadvantages of different locations in the area of Central Atlantic Coast.

Responding to Prolijo:



Point taken, and agree - YMMV.



Maybe a slight difference, and perhaps I'm spoiled, but I personally don't enjoy beach experiences where you can see and hear automobiles going by. There isn't much in the way of tropical vegetation in that spot between the beach and the road. I also avoid those types of beaches here in Los Angeles.



Kaya's is fairly isolated in that location. I know from reading reviews on other vacation forums that within Puerto Viejo itself there are several favorably reviewed hotels where road traffic would not be so much a factor, since they're off the main drag.



Punta Uva and Manzanillo have a few isolated bars and restaurants, but they aren't really "towns" so to speak. Either would be a perfect place to bring a very special chica of your choice to spend a few days though. While there, I had visions of having sex out in the open on the beach - parts of it are that isolated. BTW, considering who's doing the offering, I wouldn't partake of anything in Puerto Viejo.



Both statements are true. They are not as bad as some of what you are subjected to in San Jose, but they are there.



Sure, that was only my impression, of course. Having not brought a girl out, I probably missed not having a viable PFP option available. Tman and others have posted how they quite like the scene there.



Very quiet and isolated locations practically right on the beach for starters. The resorts also have pools, recreational facilities, nice bars and restaurants, etc., all of which are unobtrusive and nicely laid out. They were not in any way garish like the large beach resorts you might find in Mexico. I'll be happy to send some pictures I took if you'd like.



I'm not too good on my kilometers to miles conversions, but I would say it was about 10 miles from Puerto Viejo to Punta Uva, and another 4-5 miles further to Manzanillo. For me, that was less than an hour each way. The road was a little rough with lots of dirt sections until you get about halfway to Punta Uva, but is well paved and smooth from that point on out. Watch out for the buses though! You can also rent mopeds for $25 a day as another option.



I didn't go to Limon or anywhere north of Puerto Viejo, so can't comment on other locations, but I hope this has been helpful.

OK...I'm taking the bait cautiously and participating ONE MORE TIME on a subject I thought was done and dealt with many days ago. Apparently a few guys want to keep kicking the dead horse...and a couple statements need to be responded to that involved my actions.

Coqui...your simple statement was deleted and I sent you a PM stating the reasons for that. Since you bring it back in the open, let me state for the record. Admin 1 had requested an end to the thread where all viewpoints of INVOLVED parties had been hashed out plenty. Immediately after that moderators request, you posted a repeat of your previous comment bashing the place without having been there. For those 2 reasons, I deleted the post and locked down the thread if only to make the point that we are SERIOUS about moderating and keeping this board a fair and balanced place to get pertinent information. It had nothing to do with who you are or whether you were new or not...we would have done the same to ANY of our veteran posters on this board. Just please respect our requests when we make our very RARE edits or moderations on this public board.

Meanwhile, I am honestly disappointed at all parties that are keeping this subject alive for this long. I dont understand all the reasons and can only guess it is because some people think one or two parties have to WIN and other parties have to LOSE in this discussion. It is now to the point where a new person trying to get info on the Caribbean OR Kayas Place specifically would be totally confused...AND read too much into many of the issues being stated here. In the end, beauty IS in the eye of the beholder...and in this case some like and some dont like what they see...and some are are trying to make claims through the eyes of others whom they have never even met. What a bunch of coquetishness that is...and for the record, all arguements or disagreements do not have to end up winner/loser. Everyone has had their time to comment and state positions or experiences. Now it just seems like nothing good can come from further discussion on this subject.

If anybody is interested...yes, I just got back from 4 days of Semana Santa at Puerto Viejo. No, I did not stay at Kayas...they were booked solid, so apparently some people like it there. There were tons of people there for the holiday, and I prefer the town in the off season quite frankly. After 3 yrs of going there, it STILL strikes me as the safest and most interesting beach town to hang in within the whole country (I am NOT claiming I have been to ALL the beach towns here). And I am not suggesting that those who differ with my opinion are "wrong". I just find that in this area there are plenty of people from all walks of life, all colors, all ages...who seem to really know what PURA VIDA is all about. Yes, you will smell marijuana in the streets or at the beaches from time to time...but that doesnt mean it is a drug infested mob driven town. In that regard it is similar to Jamaica but without that level of crime and hustling in the streets. At the Sunday night party last night at Maritzas Hotel, there were hundreds of all colors and ages dancing and listening to 2 live bands from 3PM - 2AM this morning. While I had MANY tequilas, I was very stimulated for that whole time with the friends and attractive people that came in and out of the party the whole night. There were no fights, no troublemakers, no police anywhere around...and yet the whole community was there partying together like you WONT see in Jaco, Flamingo, or any other of the more "popular" beaches most americans frequent in Costa Rica.

OK...now I'm done with thread #2 on this subject. I just hope we can get on with more positive and fun threads that arent just rumoring or taking sides on what we havent experienced. And yes, I think Admin 1 and I are both still united in keeping this board open, balanced and fair, but zero tolerance for flaming or obviously misleading information. Thanks to all of you for your support of this gentlemens community.