Laughter - the Best Medicine!

This (very bad) photo was taken at the start of our 35th Wedding Anniversary Dinner at the Sabanero (means "Cowboy") Steakhouse at the JW Marriot - the swankiest hotel in town. It was supposed to be a 10 minute drive away, and it looked promising...it turned out to be probably the most memorable anniversary yet! I haven't had such a good laugh in ages!
We entered the name of the hotel in the GPS and set off early, planning to have a drink at the bar while we waited for our table. However, the GPS took us on a crazy, 30 min drive on the bumpiest dirt track ever, in the dark, past sleepy little shacks, past bewildered looking dogs, and across a one-way wooden bridge until at last we reached some kind of guard house, where we were looked at very suspiciously by the guard, who had to place a call to the hotel to verify the legitimacy of our visit. We were kept waiting several tense minutes and finally got the go ahead and were given a big sign to put in our window to say we had passed inspection. Apparently this was the employees' entrance, so he wasn't used to guests coming in this way!
We finally found a parking space amidst all the SUVs, despite the distinct lack of signage, and made our way up the drive to the restaurant.
The very pleasant hostess showed us to our first table which was in a side room with the AC cranked up so high that we were freezing and had to ask for another table. This was a cosy table for two next to the kitchen and the stone bread oven. We were given our drinks and the waiter took our order, and after a long wait, we were served our appetizers - seen here in the photo. Mine was a dish of the biggest prawns I've ever seen, but they tasted faintly of bleach or chlorine! Perhaps this is how they always taste without any dressing. The cocktail sauce was the red smear you see in the center of the plate, not on the prawns or the lettuce they were sitting on! I guess this is what you call "deconstructed" prawn cocktail!
D's appetizer was "Chori-pan", a tasty dish with chorizo.
Then came our side dishes to go with the main course...which were cold by the time our main course was served!
My main course was a local filet mignon steak, which was delicious! Unfortunately D's ribeye steak was probably one of the worst he's ever had! His truffle fries were limp and over salted.
Then I noticed that we had side plates and butter knives but nothing had ever been placed on them. We were right next to the bread oven, so I could see these delicious looking loaves of onion bread coming and going, but none coming our way! So we asked about that and eventually got our bread halfway through our dinner. (Could have done with that during our long wait for the appetizers!). Anyway, the wine was good, and the waiters were friendly and apologetic. Oh, and one of their specialities is the salt tray with 5 different salts from around the world, which I sampled with my finger, as my steak was too salty already.

It was the ride home that really put us in stitches, as we were determined not to go back the same way, so we went in the opposite way to where the GPS was sending us and ended up having to do a U turn at a impassable "lake" in the middle of the road! I don't quite know how D did it because I was laughing too hard, but eventually we got back on to a navigable road and headed back to our lodge.
Good job I'd booked a massage the next day, as my sciatic nerve was well irritated after all that jostling about!