Service can be an issue in Nicaragua and once or twice I have
been tempted to give an organisation a slagging on here. But if you travel in developing countries you
have to expect a few quirks here and there.
Then again sometimes you just have to stick the boot in…
Can I just say that Lazy Bones Hostel in Leon was
woeful. At $25 for a room which had the only
the redeeming quality of a private bathroom, with coldwater shower, it was
overpriced. At breakfast (which was, of course, extra) the next day, they
replaced tortillas with dry, un buttered cheap sliced bread. When we complained they said they had run
out. Because, of course, there is a
shortage of tortillas in Nicaragua.
Honestly, in any street in Nicaragua even
I could find them in 20 seconds.
The coffee was undrinkable, they’d run out of juice, the
eggs were salted to within an inch of their lives and the cheese was stale,
unfried and prepared, only in the sense that it was sliced (brown rind
included) straight onto my plate.
Later I offered to pay for one of our breakfasts but I was
buggered if I was paying for both. To
her great credit the fabulous receptionist sympathised but explained she had to
call the manager. The gringo queso
grande arrived and then left us hanging as he chatted instead to buddies he met
on his way over.
The receptionist was mortified and made “I feel your pain”
eyes at us. Ten minutes later we thought
sod this, plonked down what we owed, minus the breakfast and walked out. The
receptionist apologised again. The
manager didn’t even notice us go.
I honestly wouldn’t have written this if he had been bothered to hear
our gripe. But seeing as he was so
incredibly rude I thought I would instead write this and send it to him.
By contrast we visited fellow Leon Hostel, Big Foot. It wasn’t hard to see why it was so full
while Lazy Bones was empty. It was far
cheaper too and so much more friendly. The food was great, the mojitos were fabulous and at the atmopshere was buzzing Their
volcano surfing trip was incredible. See
our pics here.
In the end though we thought we’d go a little upscale. For $35, ie a mere $5 extra per per person, compared to Lazy Bones prices, we stayed
in the Hotel Real – for that we got an edible breakfast, cable tv, air con and hot water showers. We also got another great receptionist who
couldn’t do enough to make our stay pleasurable
Kudos to the Real Hotel, and to Big Foot. As far as Lazybones goes…. well, they live up
to their name if nothing else. Utter
crap.