05.18.07
Costa Rica Bar Review: Bar Tazmania in Santa Cruz and Caraño in Bolson, Guanacaste
May 8th, 2007 was a spectacular day for a number of reasons. First, it was a day in where Billy and I got out of San Jose, Costa Rica, which you can imagine isn’t on my top 10 list of places to raise a family. But more importantly, it was a long travel day which introduced me to some of the coolest dive bars that you will never have a chance to visit.
Photos from this day can be found here on bertopics.com.
Before the trip began, we ate breakfast at some small coffee shop restaurant on the outskirts of San Jose. After a bus ride to Santa Cruz, Rowler and I had a few hours to kill. Once the obligatory postcards were dropped off at the post office (and most likely never to be seen again), it was time to hit the bar. Specifically, Bar Tazmania – a nice local watering hole where you can get free meat soup with every beer until 11pm. You can get to Bar Tazmania by walking down the street past the two old women who sit on the step and talk about how much of a doll Billy is, not knowing that he understands Spanish.
For a whopping 700 Colones, Bar Tazmania offers a bottle of Pilsen and a bowl of their famed delicious meat soup. The menu in the picture to the left has the choices of meat soup you can get from the little old lady working in the back – we chose the tried-and-true Carne Mexicana. There is also some interestingly tangy hot sauce on the table, which has onions built in as well. After this drink and snack, I elected to pick up the tab, which equated to $2.70. I think I’ve been charged that much in LA for looking at a damned beer.
We then traveled to Billy’s town of Bolson, which is in the province of Guanacaste. You can imagine the look of fright on this poor little girl’s face when two big, sweaty white guys sat next to her on the bus, which was at least 150 degrees due to the closed windows because of the rain.
Further installments of mikeroberto.com will feature Bolson, but one of the highlights of the night was our trip to Caraño. Upon our arrival, the local bus drivers were hanging out there. Billy and I discussed the educational systems of the United States, but it didn’t take many beers before we began doing some educating ourselves: We taught the Costa Ricans about words that you do not want to tell American women. Some such words that begin with the letters B, C, and P. Use your imagination.
There is no way I could reliably tell you how to get to this bar. My best guess is to walk down the dirt path on Billy’s street where the cows like to escape, and pray that the cows that have escaped are not angry bulls looking to gore two drunken gringos in their asses.
These two bars on May 8, 2007 are two of my favorite bars ever. They are cheap, friendly, and complete dives where people are warm and food is spicy. If you can’t get along at these bars, you don’t belong at a bar in the first place.
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Billy said,
05.18.07 at 5:55 pm
Thanks for the bar props Bert and I am glad that u had such a good time. The bar in my town is called Caraño. I also have enjoyed these 2 bars many times and always love an excuse to go to them. I feel I am alowed to drink here when I have a guest. Peace