Travel Log: Day 30 (7/27), Jaco Costa Rica

Grocery Run

JC and I went to the big grocery store again and came back with another full large haul for $120. I’m having trouble gauging what our grocery spend rate is going to be for our time here, but it seems pretty high. We took an Uber back to the condo, as will be the case any time we get eggs. They have these 30 egg packs in a big square for like $3.50 that are hard to carry. We go through a lot of eggs so we’ll probably always get that 30-pack.

Jaco Main Drag

We then grabbed the kids and went on a walking tour of the main Jaco road that runs along the beach. I wanted to go to a fitness nutrition store to see about protein and creatine. I failed pretty bad on this adventure by walking way past the store, and not realizing it was closed on Sundays.

Sodas Are For Suckers

On our way back we decided to eat at a highly rated “soda”, Soda La Union. It got amazing reviews on google at 4.8 stars, and the prices were as low as we have seen in Costa Rica. It seemed too good to be true, and if it seems to good to be true…

Things were off as soon as we walked in. I asked the old lady at the host/pay stand for a table for four. I asked her in Spanish, so it wasn’t English that triggered her, but regardless she was a dick. She pretended like she couldn’t hear me or understand me, but it’s not hard to annunciate “mesa para quatro por favor”. In reality she looked disgusted as we entered.

We started to think about leaving as she dragged her feet and acted annoyed. A younger man came over though and got us a table and told us the food was great. We felt uneasy the whole time because the old lady clearly didn’t want us there. I’m not exactly sure what she had an issue with, but it could be any variety of things (e.g. American, white, foreigner, bad day, rich person eating poor people food).

We ordered and they didn’t have many things that were on the menu. They also didn’t have any water which I don’t know how that’s possible as we just wanted tap water.

The environment was a hell hole. The place was extremely small, just an open square of a building that was maybe 10′ x 20′ total. There were only three tables period. One of the tables was outside, and only one table (on the inside) seated four people. As soon as they started cooking our food the place became an inferno. They had little fans blowing around the hot air not making anything better.

When our food arrived I was just relieved that it looked edible and they hadn’t mashed it all together out of hate. BC had chicken strips and fries. AC had a hamburger that was pretty gross, but probably to be expected. I had BBQ pork with rice and beans which was fine but not great. JC had the best dish among us, some sort of chicken and rice thing. Overall I’d rate the food a 6, and we paid $28 for it.

This taught us a lesson that we already know, which is that eating out just isn’t worth it in general. However, Sodas in particular are for suckers who want to eat mediocre food at an above-value price point so they can pretend like they are having a local experience. This is the second time I have felt very or somewhat unwelcome at a Soda, and I’m happy to oblige them by never going to one again.

Afternoon and Evening

JC restored our faith in food with dinner at home, and we went to the pool after dark.