Monday, February 26, 2007

Hotel Eldorado

So we get to Eldorado around 7:00 PM and head to the pousada (poo-SAH-duh - a cross between a motel and a bed-and-breakfast) where we had made our reservations on the internet. I was a little nervous because I didn't get a confirmation e-mail and since our printer isn't working right now I couldn't print out our reservation. Of course, the guy at the reservation desk doesn't speak a word of English, and I'm not on the reservation list. All my Portuguese language skills were put to use, and I was able to figure out that they never got my reservation, but it wouldn't matter since they were already booked solid for Carnaval, the big holiday here. I asked him if there were any other hotels in the area. He responded, "Oh yes, the Hotel Eldorado is just up the street!"


Fortunately, we were all in a good mood that day. The Hotel Eldorado might as well have been the Hotel Alcatraz. When we showed up, the man at the desk just kept looking at us as if to say, "You Americans can't possibly want a room here." He was right, and we didn't get a room there...we got three! They couldn't fit us into one room, or two. And even though we booked three rooms we only paid about $50 Canadian to stay there that night (including breakfast!) You get what you pay for though. Not only were we in separate rooms, we were spread out all over the second floor.


We knew we were makin' memories. So we took lots of pictures and even a couple of little movies with our digital camera (love that thing!) Of course, the girls were all too afraid to be in a room by themselves so I got to spend the night by myself. At around 11:30 PM, just as we were about to fall asleep, a concert started that was only about 50 meters from our windows. The music was so loud that there was no way we could fall asleep, so we laid there in bed, waiting for the music to stop until 4:00 AM when we had a power failure. It was truly a night to remember.