When we bought our Costa Rican hotel in August 2017, all the hotel employees that were employed by the previous owner stayed to work with us. Thank goodness! They were the only ones who knew what they were doing since Mark and I hadn’t ever worked at a hotel or in the hospitality industry before. They were the ones who knew the day-to-day workings of the hotel.
In the 5 years we owned the hotel, some team members came and went; some because they wanted to, some because we wanted them to.
There were only 4 employees that started with us on our first day and were still with us on the last day we owned the hotel. We have very fond memories of these four amazing men.
Vianney
I’ve mentioned before that our hotel had the world’s best bartender, Vianney. Vianney had been at the hotel for several years before Mark and I arrived, so he really knew the ropes! He was there when Kim Carnes, Sheryl Crow, Al Gore and Anderson Cooper visited the hotel (not together of course).
During our 5 years of ownership, Vianney stayed with us through everything – from the perfect storm to a major hotel remodel, to covid shut-down and beyond. Of everyone, Mark and I spent the most time with Vianney – many, many hours! - sharing time at the bar with guests or when we’d eat our dinners at the bar each night.
Vianney is great with guests. He listens and knows exactly when to engage and when to fade into the background. He answers questions when asked but usually he prefers listening to guests tell their stories. Because he spent so much time with the guests, he was also the best English speaker on the team.
With a keen interest in current events, Vianney probably knows more about U.S. politics than most Americans! He’s a surfer, a big soccer fan, and believe it or not, a lover of heavy metal music! Heavy, heavy metal, head banging music! I think Vianney humored me many nights having to listen to the playlists I made for the hotel. Not heavy metal at all!
Vianney gets along with everyone! I never heard him say a bad word about anyone, never gossiped. Probably because he was from a huge family – one of 8 kids, so he had to learn to get along with everyone! This surely came in handy as he had to deal with all sorts of personalities at the bar. And he’s met thousands of guests over the years, he could probably write a book!
David
Mark and I first met David when we were in the process of buying the hotel. During our due diligence process, we had returned to the hotel to meet with Gomer and his lawyer. There were no other guests at the time. (I should have thought that was strange!)
We had a dinner one night that was cooked by AJ, our manager who was also one of the chefs and David. That night, David was to present the dessert course. When it was time for dessert, shy David came out of the kitchen and laid a giant piece of brown paper across our table. He then began sprinkling the paper with truffles, chocolate syrup, strawberries, uchuvas (goldenberries), cookie crumbles, and other treats in the most magnificent creation! In the end, the whole table was covered with sweets in a beautiful artistic swirl. We could hardly wait to dig in! We could tell then he was someone with a special talent!
Unlike most of our team, David was from our local town – born and raised. He was a talented chef, but Gomer hadn’t given him much autonomy. The hotel had a set cycle menu that changed nightly and repeated every ten days. Day 1 was Italian, day 2 was Peruvian, blah, blah…I think this really cramped David’s creative style.
The cycle menu was working fine in the beginning, and Mark and I had plenty of other things to deal with, so we kept it for a while.
When we finally were ready to tweak the menus, Mark and I sat down with AJ and David to discuss our overall vision – fresh local ingredients, five star quality, smaller but better portions, less meat and more plant focused. We told David that he had the freedom to do what he wanted within that vision and if he needed anything special to make that work, just let us know.
When given the chance to create meals of his own, his cooking really came alive! The flavors, the food combinations and the presentation were exquisite! This sure gave our server Andrey a lot of adjectives to work with to describe the nightly meals! From then on, David and the other chefs never served us the same meal twice. They were unbelievably creative, and the food was consistently the best we have ever had at any hotel. (Ok, yes, we probably are biased, but it’s also true!!)
While working for us, David and his partner also ran a small hostel down the mountain. David’s dream was to open his own restaurant someday. He continued to work for us to save money, but we were always afraid David would leave to open his own restaurant.
Flaco
Flaco was our gardener and one of our maintenance guys. Flaco was his nickname – skinny - but José was his real name. No one called him that.
I don’t remember first meeting Flaco. I do remember that it took me and Flaco awhile to get used to each other. He warmed up to Mark before he warmed up to me. I’m not sure he knew how to deal with me, but he was always respectful.
Because he had been working at the hotel so long, he knew all the ‘behind the scenes’ details. He knew where water pipes ran, where things were stored, how to fix things in an emergency, which snakes were safe, and which were not. Flaco’s the guy that would find the interesting frogs, sloths or animals for guests to see. He loved showing guests (and me!) all the wonders of nature.
Flaco worked hard but also had fun! He would take on any challenge that Mark gave him. He was the fearless one during our remodel and was Mark’s right-hand man when they were operating the crane. They worked so closely together on so many projects that Flaco started telling Mark that they were always MacGyver-ing something! That became the little maintenance department joke.
Flaco taught me the meaning of Pura Vida. If anyone needed a reminder of pura vida, you just had to look to Flaco. Daily, he’d be in awe of the view, the nature, the surroundings. Even though he lived in town, he would frequently say “this is my home”. He absolutely loved the hotel. He had true appreciation for nature, family and friends while living a simple, peaceful life.
Alex
When we arrived, the housekeeping team included a young man named Alex. It is common in Costa Rica to use the diminutive ending of ‘ito’ at the end of names, meaning little as a term of endearment, so we all called him Alexito, little Alex. He wasn’t little at all, but he was young. Alex was 18, almost 19 when we met, a year younger than our own son.
Baby-faced Alexito was always smiling, ready to lend a hand. He was learning on the job. Alexito lived in the next town ‘up-and-over’ the mountain, so he rode his motorcycle to the hotel each day, about an hour each way. He loved riding motorcycles! He participated in motocross events in his town –riding his dirt bike on crazy, paths through mud in the jungle.
Alex spoke zero English, to my almost zero Spanish! Needless to say, we communicated by smiling a lot at each other!
Alex was a great addition to the housekeeping team as he could do some of the ‘heavy lifting’ – washing windows, cleaning ceiling fans, and climbing under units to fix things. He was so eager to learn that we often pulled him away from housekeeping to help the maintenance team. Alex was a sponge – learning everything he was taught. Always a hard worker with a smile on his face!
After about a year with us, Alexito asked Mark if he could move to maintenance full-time. We transitioned Alex to maintenance, and he never looked back! He was a great employee because he was skilled now in 2 hotel departments, which would come in handy down the road.
I remember finding out that Alex was also a young father. He told me that he had a son, named Axel who was just about a year and a half when we met. Alexito brought his family to a party we had for our employees in our first months at the hotel. Watching Alexito with Axel, you could tell how much he loved the baby and was working hard at the hotel to provide for his little family.
In 5 years, Alexito grew to be one of our most valuable employees and someone that we could always count on. He was fun to have around and work with, and was willing to work through any of Mark’s crazy ideas.
We were so grateful that these 4 men stayed with us for our entire adventure. I know we couldn’t have accomplished all that we did without them. They were not only part of the hotel team, but also part of our Costa Rican family. I hope we touched their lives as much as they touched ours.
Pura Vida, mae. Pura vida!
Thanks for reading What An Adventure! Please hit the ❤️ to like this post and leave a comment about these special people or share a story about someone you’ve met on your adventures!
I loved getting to know your staff. It sounds like you created something very special at this hotel.
What a fabulous crew you guys had, Marlo! I can't even say who I think is the best b/c they are all totally awesome! I so loved David's special desert! Simply amazing! You must have been blown away. I love nicknames and love the name "Flaco." In Mexican Spanish it also means a boyfriend or girlfriend, have no idea why!?! Weird. Wow, these people were priceless, and so glad you are still in touch w. them.