Santiago
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4 Hotel "reviews" from our recent trip
1. Hotel Hacienda Guadalupe in the valley, have stayed here a few times before, great views of the valley from the 2nd floor rooms. Was $150 per night
early last year, now $170 per night. $300/night class in the states.
2. On Friday night, the hotel in Catavina was full. This we find out at 5:00pm after driving all day. For goodness sakes, what in the wide, wide world
of sports is a-going on here when the hotel in Catavina is full? We drive down to the pink motel but SWMBO suggested we just motor on to BOLA and we
did.
3. Villa del Sol in BOLA. $700 pesos for a rock-hard matrimonial. Very clean, new tiles, plumbing fixtures and paint. Nice room, good dinner and
breakfast but about $200NP over-priced. Morning coffee is better than Sanka, but just barely. wifi kinda. sorta. sometimes. How hard is it to get some
beans and grind them in the morning?
4. Real Inn, Mexicali. Walk in on a Friday afternoon and guess what - they have a room, king size. Was $85, now $102; seems to be a pattern here.
Free 2nd national drink coupon and desayuno is included. Clientele is professional class citizens - we were the outlier. Quickly changed out of our
shorts and flip-flops into long pants and collared shirts. Showered, combed our hair and went down to the bar, entire thing only 12' long a t most.
Abuts the dining room and we are the only souls. OK, the bar tender shows us the entire drink selection and no wine. Huh,? He then opens a little
under counter refer and unbelievably there is a bottle of Monte Xanic Chard and two bottles of Santo Tomas Tempranillo - the one we really liked when
visiting earlier in the week. Heaven. After teaching the bar tender the game of bouncing the cork to get it stand on it's end, we get the 2nd glass,
free of course, and he pours it to with-in a quarter inch of the top, and these are large glasses. Damn fine pour. Ate dinner at their café and the
whole time, no one else was in the place. Eerie feeling, actually. Huge and well made buffet breakfast at 6:00am. We ate alone. Coffee, again, from
beans that were roasted, ground and packaged in a can some time ago.
YMMV
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woody with a view
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how was the working vacation?
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Santiago
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not much work got done.
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4x4abc
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Quickly changed out of our shorts and flip-flops into long pants and collared shirts. Showered, combed our hair and went down to the bar, entire thing
only 12' long a t most.
Next time you might shower first and then put on pants and shirts.
Harald Pietschmann
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Santiago
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heh, didn't think anyone would catch that
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Bajahowodd
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Quote: Originally posted by Santiago  | 1. Hotel Hacienda Guadalupe in the valley, have stayed here a few times before, great views of the valley from the 2nd floor rooms. Was $150 per night
early last year, now $170 per night. $300/night class in the states.
2. On Friday night, the hotel in Catavina was full. This we find out at 5:00pm after driving all day. For goodness sakes, what in the wide, wide world
of sports is a-going on here when the hotel in Catavina is full? We drive down to the pink motel but SWMBO suggested we just motor on to BOLA and we
did.
3. Villa del Sol in BOLA. $700 pesos for a rock-hard matrimonial. Very clean, new tiles, plumbing fixtures and paint. Nice room, good dinner and
breakfast but about $200NP over-priced. Morning coffee is better than Sanka, but just barely. wifi kinda. sorta. sometimes. How hard is it to get some
beans and grind them in the morning?
4. Real Inn, Mexicali. Walk in on a Friday afternoon and guess what - they have a room, king size. Was $85, now $102; seems to be a pattern here.
Free 2nd national drink coupon and desayuno is included. Clientele is professional class citizens - we were the outlier. Quickly changed out of our
shorts and flip-flops into long pants and collared shirts. Showered, combed our hair and went down to the bar, entire thing only 12' long a t most.
Abuts the dining room and we are the only souls. OK, the bar tender shows us the entire drink selection and no wine. Huh,? He then opens a little
under counter refer and unbelievably there is a bottle of Monte Xanic Chard and two bottles of Santo Tomas Tempranillo - the one we really liked when
visiting earlier in the week. Heaven. After teaching the bar tender the game of bouncing the cork to get it stand on it's end, we get the 2nd glass,
free of course, and he pours it to with-in a quarter inch of the top, and these are large glasses. Damn fine pour. Ate dinner at their café and the
whole time, no one else was in the place. Eerie feeling, actually. Huge and well made buffet breakfast at 6:00am. We ate alone. Coffee, again, from
beans that were roasted, ground and packaged in a can some time ago.
YMMV |
The Hotel Mision in Catavina is never a place you can walk into and get a room during certain times of the year.
Several years ago, we had just returned from a whale watching trip in San Ignacio, and I purposely went into the Desert Inn, where we had not stayed,
and asked them to reserve us a room in Catvina.
We arrive just about dusk. Plenty of people in the lobby, several buses in the parking lot.
I approached the front desk to encounter a party of women who were being told that the hotel was full.
I then gave them my name, and we had a room.
[Edited on 4-24-2015 by Bajahowodd]
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basautter
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Gotta go with the flow in Mexico 
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Maron
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Nice report, thks
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Paulina
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Howdy vecino,
We are curious as to why you guys stayed at the hotel in town vs continuing out to your pad? Obviously it was dark, hard to see the chupacabras hiding
in the bedroom so you had to go in with day light? Get lost easily in the dark?
Hope to see you down there one of these days!
P>*)))>{
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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David K
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| Quote: Originally posted by Paulina | Howdy vecino,
We are curious as to why you guys stayed at the hotel in town vs continuing out to your pad? Obviously it was dark, hard to see the chupacabras hiding
in the bedroom so you had to go in with day light? Get lost easily in the dark?
Hope to see you down there one of these days!
P>*)))>{ |
To help see, Santiago could always do what he learned 13 years ago at you mom's and light a fire in the bathroom!?? 
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Ateo
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A few years ago we were coming back from Scorpion Bay in August and stopped in Catavina with 2 trucks full of tired kids and wives and friends.
"Sorry, we are out of rooms".
They managed to find one room somehow and all 10 of us fit in there.
So, after that, I told myself I would always try to get reservations in the future.
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Santiago
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3499
Registered: 8-27-2003
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| Quote: Originally posted by Paulina | Howdy vecino,
We are curious as to why you guys stayed at the hotel in town vs continuing out to your pad? Obviously it was dark, hard to see the chupacabras hiding
in the bedroom so you had to go in with day light? Get lost easily in the dark?
Hope to see you down there one of these days!
P>*)))>{ |
If it were only chupacabras: we have had to do armed battle for a couple of hours to take back possession of the place from everything that has tried
to take over in the months since we closed it up....You trailer folks (almost said 'trash') can close your place up pretty good but the cabins are
pretty leaky.
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