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Published: March 7th 2009
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More of the city center of San Jose.Today was our opportunity to explore the city a bit and learn about the history within Costa Rica.
Waking up early is always a struggle, but my roommate Amber and I made it down to breakfast with everyone else and as hotel guests, we were given free breakfast (again, the comida typica... never got old). The previous day, I had set up a water filtration system in our hotel room, because apparently the water can be a bit dicey. I boiled water with the coffee maker and filtered it through. Then I put the boiled water in the mini-fridge and when it cooled I had plenty of drinking water. I'm not normally worried about things like that, but, I was bored and McGuyvering a filtration system seemed like a good idea.
Anyway, we grabbed water and headed out for the day. We took a long bus tour of the San Jose area with one of the local residents, Juan, who did tours for a living. Juan speaks seven different languages (including Japanese) and is a wealth of knowledge about Costa Rica.
He told us about the history of the city and several of the city's buildings (including one
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This is the President of Costa Rica's house... not joking. This is where he actually lives. that had been riddled with bullets). We were able to see a jail that had been turned into a children's school to focus on education versus punishment. We also saw the president's house, which was guarded by a few policia and looked like a regular suburban house on a typical neighborhood block.
We made a few stops (including one stop at a souvenir store) and then drove around one of the poorer neighborhoods of Costa Rica. We also visited the Universidad de Costa Rica, which we found out has a law school (and made me immediately want to transfer... except for having to learn law in Spanish, it is hard enough in English). After touring the city, we returned to the hotel, where we were let loose for lunch and I took Jamie, Scott and Gavin to the restaurant we had been to the previous day for lunch.
After lunch, we visited the Gold Museum, which contained artifacts and currency from Central America (CR, Ecuador, Nicaragua, etc). Maria and I walked around looking at the currency for a while, and she explained to me several of the cultural differences between the US and Central America. She told me
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Juan, our tour guide... that as a child, she had been ridiculed for being too thin, as curvaceousness is valued in Central America as a sign of health and fertility. She also explained the origin of some of the coins that we saw within the museum.
After looking at the currency, we wandered downstairs, where there were displays of intricate gold pieces that had been found throughout the cultures. I met up with Jamie and we talked and got to know each other better while learning about the culture of Central America.
After the Gold Museum, we were scheduled to listen to one of the local scholars and have dinner with him. We met with him at the hotel conference room, where he talked about some of his work with preserving some of the coastal wildlife (such as sea turtles) and his efforts toward getting groups involved in his initiative.
We then proceeded to dinner with the scholar, where Scott, Jamie and I were seated with him and had the opportunity to talk with him further about Costa Rica, his work, the cultural contrasts with America, and his perceptions of Americans. It was an interesting and engaging conversation, and the food
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Scenery of Costa Rica was fantastic (asparagus soup, ravioli, and flan with pineapple juice as a drink). The restaurant was pretty fancy and was a warm environment.
After dinner, we were walking back from the restaurant and found an adorable dog in the city center. It looked homeless and hungry, so the entire group decided to play with him for a while. He was super friendly and absolutely loved the attention. I ended up buying him a hamburger from a nearby McDonald's so that he at least had something to eat. I wanted to take him home! But of course... that would have been a little unrealistic. =(
Maria offered to investigate some of the local clubs for us, however, we decided to visit a casino that was located across from our hotel. There were several of us that went and hung out: Heather, Karen, Brian (aka Frosty Grande), Jamie, Stephanie, and Amber. I wasn't really in a gambling mood, so Jamie and I sat and talked, while being entertained by our fellow Chico people and their interactions with the locals. Karen met tons of new people and it was so fun watching how friendly the locals were to tourists.
After being out so late, it was time to head off to bed, as we needed to get up early the next morning....
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