When I called to make a reservation for a month at the Linda Vista Aparthotel, 20 minutes from San Jose and in the mountains of Escazu, I told the owner’s wife, Sadee, I may stay two months. She told me I should pay for the second month because she had a wedding party coming. So, I paid. When I arrived, I found the owner’s Wil and Sadee to be a little strange, but really thought nothing of it. However, about thirty minutes after my arrival, I noticed that the right knob on the kitchen sink did not work and there was no hot water. I like to wash my dishes in hot water for sanitary reasons so I called and asked about the knob and hot water. Wil just said “no” and hung up abruptly. Well, I just kept to myself. For the first 4 weeks things were ok. I fell in love with their dog Mackie and she fell in love with me. They told me I could feed her and that she would eat anything. I decided to make her a week’s worth of healthy meals such as rice, barley, hamburger and 5 cloves of garlic. She loved it. She would stay with me from about 3 pm (when the thunderstorms started daily), until around 6 pm when the storms stopped. Four weeks into my stay, one night I fell asleep on the couch around 8:30 pm (my door is always open until I go to bed). I woke up around 10:30 pm to find Mackie lying next to me. She had never done this before. I tried to get her out, but I did not yell because everyone’s lights were out and I did not want to wake anyone. I did not grab her because I did not know how she would react. So, as I was half asleep, I closed the door, opened the window for her and went to bed. At 12:30 am I heard some banging on my bedroom door (it is always locked). I was so groggy that I just answered quietly. The banging did not stop and then there was a series of extremely violent bangs on my bedroom door, with the daughter screaming my name which prompted me to scream “what?” I jumped out of bed, pissed off, went out my door to find the daughter, Wil and a police officer near my front door. I was so groggy and pissed off that someone would violate me this way. I ignored the police officer and he ignored me because he saw how pissed off I was. The daughter went on to say that there were burglars with guns and that Mackie was not able to warn them. (Mackie cannot bark and the dog next door barks at everything all day long). I told her I did not lock Mackie in, I could not get her out. I could not believe that they did not simply open the door, let Mackie out and ask me about it in the morning. Then the story changed that the police officers were the people who had the guns and that there were just teenagers walking up the mountain. I was pissed and Wil told me to close the blinds at night and keep the porch light on and I went back to bed. The next day, Wil comes to bring my towels and oh how the tune changed……he said, ”HELLO, HOW ARE YOU!!!!” I asked, “What happened last night?” and Wil said “Oh, it was nothing, there was no one here, sorry to wake you last night.” What kind of games were they playing? I felt more uncomfortable with these people from this day forward. I shut the blinds the first night and the blinds on the left completely split in half on the top. The second night, the blinds on the right did the same thing. I told Sadee about it and she told me that she can’t find that color anymore and that they are only a year old (2007). Colors of blinds are discontinued every two years and I saw that they tried to piece together the parts with a thick plastic tie (I kept the parts) and they were dingy. She tried saying to me that it is my fault. Well, the sticker on the bottom of the blinds read that they were made and shipped in 2004 from the City of Industry, California. She went on to tell me that I had to turn the porch light off at 10 pm every night. I said after the ordeal the other night that I would not and I told her that her that I know that her porch light is on all night long. The internet service went down constantly and the owners knew to reset the network adapter every time the service came back on again. One day I had to call them to ask them to reset the adapter and Wil said, “We don’t know nutin’ about computers, we just use them.” So, I said nicely that all he needs to do is reset the network adapter like he does almost every day and he hung up. The last month I stayed the cleaning was very sporadic and very incomplete with mold gathering, no towel or laundry service and excuses why the bed could not be changed. I also found that there was no wedding party who was supposed to stay when they told me to secure the second month of payment because of the party. I saw only one person the whole two months I was there who stayed for only three days. The lies were constant from the very beginning. The thunder and lightning is very scary in the afternoons and it made me hide in my room for about two hours per day. One day, the thunder and lightning gave off a huge crash, I jumped off of my bed, and spilled a small oval spot of water on the bed. I used the towels and it was dry in four hours. I called Sadee to let her know and asked for a new towel. Life was ending for her when I told her this. She came over with the towel, I showed her that the bed was dry and that there were no problems (it’s not like I spilled red wine or pissed on the bed). She went on to say that I had to buy a new bed because she has “Astronauts” who stay here (like hell), and that I broke the blinds and need to buy new ones. I showed her that the small spot on the bed is dry and the parts of the blinds that look like the dog had been chewing on it for two years. She saw the parts and said, “Well, forget the blinds, you need to buy a new bed”. She said that the apartments are only two years old, however when I first arrived she said they built the apartments five years ago and the blinds are almost five years old as it reads on the stickers on the blinds. At this point, I told her to leave, I contacted an attorney in Costa Rica, and he wrote to them telling them not to enter my place until I am gone or contact me at anytime. They were told to return my blank credit card receipt they made me sign when I first arrived and slip it under the front door. They did not return it, so I cancelled the card. I did break three cheap glasses and replaced them with four beautiful crystal glasses because of my obligation and to show my class. Also, the view is not the view you get that you see on their website. It is nice on the right and left (a little bit), however there is a big honkin’ house right in front of the apartments blocking most of the view. I have seen pictures from another visitor on the trip advisor website, however, that person took the pictures from the mountain behind the apartments. Make sure wherever you stay that you take pictures of the place when you arrive and the day you leave as I always do.
UPDATE**** The day after Ieft to Belize on my world expedition, the owners tried charging my credit card $305 USD, but it was decline and I canceled the card. BE CAREFUL!