8/10 Good
Kerry K., Caledon, Ont.,
4 May 2016
Fair with Flair
I read the review complaining about missing pool tiles, and I have been thinking about what constitutes value in a vacation rental. I guess value occurs when reality meets expectations. My wife and I stayed at Cocobolo for eight nights in March, followed two weeks later by four days in Cancun. In such places as Maui and Cancun, the native people, plants and wildlife have been eradicated to make room for wall-to-wall hotels, each with its own private chunk of beach, a pool and a place to get drunk while being catered to by white-jacketed servants. If this is your idea of heaven, then by all means go to Maui.
We found Trey helpful and friendly, attentive and supportive. He did not, however, make our drinks. Cocobolo is "in amongst 'em." The roads are terrible and dusty, but Cocobolo gets much less dust than does anyplace six miles away in Santa Teresa. We enjoyed buying local fish and produce in S.T. and Cobano, and picked up our de rigeur souvenir machete at the hardware store in Cobano.
Trey took us fishing one day, and we drove the Pacific Coastal Highway, i.e. the beach at low tide, and we hit nearly 60 mph on the smooth, open sand. Of course, we had rented a car. The beaches are extensive and very sparsely populated, despite there being good fishing and a shallow, gradual, sandy slope into the water. I estimate I waded out 100 yards and was no more than waist-high, except when Manzanillo's famous surf came crashing in. Great for beachcombing, suntanning and cloud watching.
Monkeys in the trees every day -- both howlers and white-faced. We saw violaceous trogons, cinnamon hummingbirds and other exotic-to-us birds. I don't know if the air conditioning worked, because we never turned it on. Lovely weather throughout.
The "missing" screening around the pools was not missing. It was being installed, and the hooks had just been welded to the posts.
There is no law against writing a negative review, but I can say we are happy the guests at the other villa were much less dour than our predecessor.
Negative: the one thing that caught me off guard was that I expected somebody else's vacation house that was being let for weeks for income. Trey has three or four (didn't count 'em, and they are scattered) on the property.
Would we go back? Probably not, but only because our history says we go forward. We had a great time. Thanks, Trey!