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Posted by silverbubbles on 06/28/02

Allegro Hotel

Allegro June 13-26
All went great as far as getting to Coz and even at check in at the Allegro (sort of).  Changed rooms the two days later because we wanted to be near the family.  We dove the very next morning with scuba with Alison (http://www.scubawithalison.com).  As usual she asks where we want to go and I reply with my usual "underwater."   We dove most all our dives with Alison and a few with Dive Palancar.  On my birthday, I got to pick the dives and in between dives, Alison pulled out a birthday cake!!  This is a true dive service.  I miss the count by her boat captain for the back roll.  He speaks English, but pronounces one as "Wum."  I snicker and smile every time I think about that.  I wish I was doing the back roll right now.  We saw turtles on every dive except wum.  I can't believe all them turtles!!!  What was also really cool was seeing where the turtles had come up on the beach to lay their eggs.  We went to the east side of the Island and some of the group had thought there were car tracks on the beach, but then I looked at where they went and the pattern in the sand, and understood what I was seeing.  They were the tracks of turtles.  There were tracks on every beach.  These were huge turtles!  Unfortunately, at Chen Rio we did see a lot of dried up eggs on the beach.  
The diving was quite exceptional as usual; however, there seemed to be a lot of thermal clines and some less than perfect visibility.  We saw eagle rays, sting rays, tons of turtles, a giant moray eel swimming along, lobsters, dolphins, crabs, octopus, sharks, cudas, on and on….  Got too close to the coral and a damsel bit me in the forehead!  I deserved it because I was teasing another one and this one must have observed it and showed me to not even think about it with him.  Oh, one day we agreed to meet Alison at the marina since she always picked us up at the allegro and we thought it would be a neat to see the marina.  We dove some sites north of Allegro and Alison took us to see a sea horse.  The only sea horse I have seen in the last 4 visits was about ¾ of an inch long and looked like the grass around it.  This sea horse was 5 or 6 inches with it's tail wrapped around the coral and was the same burnt red/orange color of the coral.  Quite a site!  
I am not too proud to say that we did the dolphin thing.  My daughter (7 years old) saw this first when she was 5.  We told her on last years trip that if she earned her own money that she could do it.  It wasn't that I did not want to pay for it, but we wanted her to understand why we felt this was misguided use of the big guy's creatures.  After learning that she had to be 8 and accompanied by an adult, then the parents had to commit.  I was last to commit and felt dirty.  I was really thrashing at making a point and enjoying seeing the joy in my daughter's eyes as she participated.  I chose the joy.  It was really a neat experience and the dolphins seem to be content.  My daughter, wife and myself inclusive absolutely loved it.  I don't need to ever do it again.
We toured the new Allegro Grand (I think that is what its called?).  It seems very nice and the rooms are quite large with beautiful large bathrooms.  Separate large shower from the tub and some had Jacuzzi tubs.  The rooms also have "normal" air conditioning as opposed to the kind that protrude through your wall or window.  This makes it much quieter.  The only down fall I can see is that there is a swamp between the rooms and the beach.  This can't be too good when the squitos are hungry.  There is a long bridge that spans between the beach side pool back over to the rooms.  They also have an eating area and bar right at the beach.  This is a real nice attribute.  Beach at the original Allegro is still much nicer in my view.  The beach is deeper.
Did the east side crawl and had a blast.  Didn't eat a chen rio since we had an experience of greed there last year and instead ate at coconuts.  That was the best shrimp quesadilla ever.  There were 16 of us and we all had different stuff.  Everybody loved their meals.  We had to turn around and go back because my cousin's kids were ill and needed to see the doctor, so we never made it to Mezacalitos.  It was time for more free beer at the Allegro.  No problem.  By the way, the staff at the Allegro is always there for you and making sure you have a good time.  Much thanks to Gabby, Sandra, Julio, JC, George of the Jungle, Elke, and many others.  I know it says all-inclusive, but make sure you tip.  Tip anyone who makes your stay more enjoyable and those that are helping to make it  hassle free.  Also, if you dive, be sure to tip the deck hands and captain on the boats as well as your DM.  Most make very little money and the tips help tremendously.  
Sally, sorry to not make it to golfito.  The Allegro had set up a night for the owners and then moved the night and then canceled.  We were waiting in the lobby ready to go.  Maybe next time.  My daughter was disappointed.
Beware of the gas station pirates.  As soon as you pull up get out of the car and make sure the pump says zero and don't take your eyes off that final number!  I got taken for about 8 dollars.  It was my own fault because I knew what I should have done and didn't.  GRRRR.  Greed.
Use pesos when you can, the fluctuation of people using 8.5 to 10 pesos per dollar was enough to know that the peso value worked out better most times.
For those going to the Allegro and wanting the hair braid thing, use the girl on the north end of the Allegro property.  She asks for $35 but will do $20 or $25.  She is quite fast too!
I will also rent a car ahead of time.  I paid too much, but again, that was my own doing.
Again, I can't say enough about diving with Alison.  

The weather was not fantastic.  We had quite a bit of rain and clouds.  Of the two weeks we were there I think we had 4 days of sun.  What was incredible were the toads croaking on the nights that it rained.  It was so incredibly loud.
Got pretty sick as well.  After diving on fathers day, I had a temperature for the next two days and pretty much had the stomach thing workin on me the rest of the time.  Lomatil worked great as far as clearing up the symptoms and all the other stuff that goes with it.  My daughter and sister's daughter got ear problems from being in the water soooo much.  The on-site doctor at allegro gave us some stuff that cleared up the problems in a couple days.  
The new mall where senor frogs and carlos and charlies is located is quite nice.
Allegro now has better internet service up in the main building.  It is coin operated and is significantly faster than what they had last year.  The only problem I encountered was that I needed some plug ins to do some stuff and they are not down loadable.  
I have a bunch of pictures, but I need to download and post (don't know how to post?).

Regrets:  Did not eat in town enough
Swam with the dolphins
Din't do the Sunday thing in the square
Didn't dive with NickF
Missed golfito
Didn't go to eat side more than once
Didn't eat at Coconuts more than once (the conch plate was sooo good)
Didn't spend enough time with my daughter (she was having too much fun with her cousins and others)
Didn't take enough long walks on the beach.
Didn't bring back enough tequila.
Looks like I have to go back to get this list cleaned up!

One more thing, Sunday is a good town day and this last Wednesday was real bad. When we were driving to the airport there were 4 ships in and 2 on the way.

I wanna be at coconuts with a beer, jimmy Buffet blairing and some chips and guac.

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