In J. V. Gonzales we glanced briefly at the Hotel Colonial, drank a cup of coffee at the rundown Hotel Mallorca, & decided to drive on to San José de Metán. What a pretty city. Many lovely homes. A conversation with 2 policia led us to a good restaurant, Date Gusto, where we ate an enormous platter of parillada al horno along with the requisite ensalada completa & a bottle of 2007 Quara Tannat.
We suggest you skip the Hotel Solis, where the overwhelming smell of wax in the halls somehow didn't warn me not to accept a grim room with no window to the outdoors (we'd been driving a long time & couldn't find another hotel). We suffered bad WiFi, dim yellow lighting, no power to the AC, a shower faucet handle that came away in the hand, minimal water pressure, & a brown liquid in the breakfast coffee cup that only barely resembled coffee. On the other hand, the muchacho who flipped the AC circuit breaker & unlocked the garage was delightful.
