Hotel Arca de Noe

We stayed at the Casita Sunrise, the one at the highest point in the property. The room is small and you have to walk through steep stairs to get to it. The view from the room was great, however, there is little privacy as some windows have no curtains, we had to hang some scarves we had for privacy. The bed was comfortable and they clean the room every day. There is a dirt path going uphill that takes you to the back of the property and closer to downtown. The place itself is calm, however, there are several street dogs in town and once one barks the rest follows. There is a spanish school in the property however we never saw it open and the place itself looked dead. They have a restaurant service but you have to reserve by 5 for dinner. The boat service from other towns going to this one finishes at 5:30 pm. The service at the reception when their receptionist Stephanie is there is terrible, she is very condescending and lacks touch for customer care, thank god there is the Iguana Perdida right next door which is where we got most of our answers when we had questions about the town, how to get around etc. Also be aware there is a community tour agency Santa Cruz Jo who offers tours for good prices, we got a weaving class of about 3 hrs with Tomasa a local indigenous woman for 100Q pp and a traditional temazcal bath for 200 Q pp compared to what one of Stephanie’s relative tried to charged us ($35 USD pp) for one activity. There is a book with the number and activities available at the Iguana’s reception. Also, we were never able to take a proper bath, the temperature does not regulate, is either too cold or too hot, there is like 3 seconds of ok temperature then it is either too cold or steaming hot. Also, there are few restaurant options in town, like 2 or 3. If you stay here or at the Iguana Perdida please feed the dogs who sleep outside, they are adorable and their only decent source of food comes from the tourist.

There are bugs everywhere in the room, especially the bathroom. The room is extremely extremely dusty. You do not feel like you can walk barefoot around your room because your feet will get dirty. Worst of all, there was no Internet access except in the lobby/restaurant of the hotel. And the internet access in the lobby/restaurant was spotty at best. The staff is friendly though and helpful. The rooms are a decent size. There is hot water in the showers.

Upon arriving I had some hope, but that started to diminish as the day went on. The restaurant is also part of the reception, and so when checking in you can clearly see what the kitchen looked like. I could see that there were many dirty looking dishes, appliances, flies all over, etc. It did not look clean, and because of that I did not want to eat there. After getting into the room in the bungalow, it looked crusty, not well constructed at all, the sheets all looked like they were random old ones from someone's home and we're stained and smelled funky. The room want properly cleaned either as there was food crumbs on the desk, there were many spiders, and spider webs that looked like they have been there a while. I had to kill a scorpion that easily crawled inside through one of the many gaps in the doors and windows, walls, ceilings, etc. Trying to go to sleep was near impossible with the noise that some animal was making as it chewed on the ceiling wood planks and pranced around on them. I imagine it was a rodent. Either way it was unsettling knowing a wild animal was chewing and scratching things directly above our heads. There was also a big gap above the bed that you could see into that ceiling space. No screens on the windows. Everything was poorly constructed to keep out the elements and I felt it just isn't worth the low price. The bed also has these weird cement bed posts that easily can ruin your knees as you try to squeeze through the one bed's side 6 inches from the wall. So after a night of zero sleep from keeping eyes for the invaders, we decided to leave after one night and forfeit the second nights reservation. Things can look "rustic" but it's not worth it if you're having sacrifice quality and common sense. Sorry, but this place needs a major makeover, and I would just avoid it if possible until they do. One positive though is that this was the first place that had actual hot water, and plenty. That was nice since the other places I was in before did not.