San Jose - Days 1 and 2

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Friday night I arrived successfully in San Jose. It was a long day of airport food, reading and waiting. Three planes is quite a few to take in one day. I made a slight mistake buying all my food in Newark airport as Houston had a way better food selection. I however opted for a margarita at the airport bar because when do I ever get to do that.

On the flight from Houston to San Jose I sat next to a San Jose local with whom I had a few great conversations. He was returning to San Jose from a meeting in Calgary with Microsoft. Turns out he is a software developer who signed a contract with Microsoft out of San Jose, and therefore makes quite a few trips to the U.S. and Canada. He also gave me some suggestions for things to see in San Jose such as the Teatro Nacional and the Precolumbian Gold Museum.

When we got into San Jose getting through customs was no problem but I really realised just how little I understand Spanish, obviously, but until someone is talking to you and you have almost no clue what he is is saying it doesn't quite hit you. My driver to the hotel didn't speak any English so we drove in complete silence which was a bit awkward. At the same time I was afraid I had the wrong car because while the man was called Kendall, had a little card with the hostel's logo on it and a printed sheet with my name, the car was not green as I had been informed it would be (it was more turqoise blue), nor did it bear the hostel's name. Add to this that it was night and as we drove along the high way a roadblock was being set up by police, which I later learned is because they are repairing the bridge. Despite all my worrying everything worked out and I made it here.

I settled in, e-mailed those who would need to know, had a beer and went to bed. There weren't too many people hanging around and I was tired. While the hostel is pretty nice the room I am in is pretty loud. There is a train track that runs through the city and it goes right outside my window. Because the train runs alongside the road they honk alot when coming around corners so that intercepting traffic knows they are coming. In addition to the noisy trains the bar downstairs (which lets locals in) was super loud and happening. Luckily I was tired and slept pretty well.

Saturday I wandered down to the main part of the hostel and had breakfast. I ordered gallo pinto which is breakfast of rice, beans, eggs, tortillas, cheese and friend banana. It was delicious and super filling. I then mosied around a bit trying to get the guts up to either talk to someone or leave the hotel. I took a look at some brochures and read through my guidebook. I attempted to make conversation with another girl hanging out on her own but when I went over I found out she did not speak any English but only German. I finally decided on a tour to take on Sunday, a day tour of the Irazu Volcano, a sight recommended by my airplane companion. I booked the tour and then decided it was time to head out.

San Jose, as I am sure I will find with many Central American cities, can be quite confusing because there are no street signs. I walked around for a while but could not figure out where the hell I was. I basically went in a huge circle and then started out the other way. With the aid of the hotel map I found downtown and the Gold Museum. The museum was super neat and had lot of gold figures from all over Costa Rica. It was nice to visit it first because it gave me a pretty good rundown of Costa Rica's history. Gold flourished in Costa Rica until about 1500 when the Spanish came over and turned the native's trading system on it's head. The most commonly represented figure in pre-Columbian gold is the frog or toad, followed by birds and butterflies. Gold figurines were seen as both signs of wealth and were used in burial rituals. AFter the gold section of the museum there was an exhibit of Costa Rican money. The most interesting of the two exhibitions was that which followed the representation of architecture on Costa Rican bills. While reading about these representations I learned that the Chinese paid in full for the new sports stadium that was built in San Jose in 2011. I found this particularly interesting because it added to another detail my airplane companion told me which is that China is working on buying it's way into friendship with Costa Rica. In addition to building the stadium, the Chinese are buying Costa Rica a Chinese gate, as they did in Ottawa, however there is no current China town in San Jose. It would appear they are trying to establish one.

I next popped over to the Teatro Nacional which was absolutely stunning. It is modeled on a French theatre and is very European. The seats are old wood charis and the ceilings are painted with frescos. (I would post pictures but I believe my camer has been lost/stolen, how I do not know but I am still trying to locate it, I may have done something silly...). While I was there three musicians were practicing on the upper level of the theatre so I got to hear some music.

I then decided to eat again and not seeing anything vegetarian I popped into Quiznos knowing I could get a vegetarian sub. My timing was impeccable because the light rain that had been falling turned into a huge downpour. So I slowly ate my sandwich made a few notes and hoped the rain would stop. It did not however, so I headed out in the rain, sans raincoat and with a white and turquoise striped shirt. I adjusted it so the turquoise covered my bra. What I figured out in the Quiznos was that I had been reading the map all wrong. This is because I accidentally circled the wrong location of my hotel. Once I realised this however I was totally ok and figured I would check out the national museum.

The national musuem is built in an old fort. It was converted into a museum in 1948/9. The first part of the musuem is a butterfly area. It is what would be a greenhouse back home, only they do not need to glassit in here because it is warm all year long. So the roof is just corrugted plastic. Some rain came in but it made teh rainforest seem like a real rainforest. After the butterfly section you go into the fort and see where the soldiers went abut thier life. There were tjhe latrines and showers as well a prison cells which were used for the most part to hold soldiers being disciplined. There were a few exhibits but I had to zoom through them as the museum was closing at 4.30 and it was going onto four. One of the nicest part was the general's quarters which were totally wood panelled and had the original furniture in them. There were also some stone spheres in the garden that are part of Costa Rican pre-columbian culture. They are super simple but I really like them. The last exhibit I hurried through was perhaps the most interesting as it featured the photographs of Francisco Coto.

I then found my way back to the hostel, hummed around a bit and decided to try and find a grocery store. I had been keeping an eye out all day but had not found one. It was still rainy but I managed to find one not too far from the hostel. I bought ingredients for quacamole and food for breakfast the next morning.

While eating my dinner of guacamole I met a girl from Costa Rica who was staying at the hostel with her boyfriend, a canadian who spends four to six months a year in Costa Rica. They were both pretty nice and we got to talking. There were a few other canadians here, an older man from Owen Sound and a girl in her late 20's from Calgary, named Tyla. I also met a guy from Michigan who was a bit of a jerk but perhaps mostly a bit too wasted. I bascially hung out all night talking to these people, particularly Tyla who gave me some tips on places she had seen over the past two weeks in Costa Rica. She was heading up to Nicaragua the next day. She suggested seeing the Carribean coast, which I had not intended from the start, but apparently the beaches are lovely and much better than the ones down in the Nicoya Peninsula where I was intending to go. She also highly recommended Tortuguero where the turtles are laying eggs right now. With this conversation I readjusted my travel plans. I stayed up a bit late trying to smooth out a rathe odd rocky situation between the Costa Rican girl and her boyfriend to little success. I learned the next day that she ended up getting her own room and did not leave with him to the airport where she was supposed to say goodbye. Too bad really, but what can you do. New note to self: do not get involved in people's relationships while staying at hostels.

On little sleep, a bit dehydrated and hungover, I got up the next morning for my tour of the Irazu Volcano. There were two other girls from the hostel going on the tour, and we talked a bit and they informed me they were heading to Puerto Viejo on the Carribean Coast the next day. The volcano was pretty nice. It has two craters, one which is active and the other which is not. It was 3500 metres high along winding and bumpy roads. We went on Sunday so it wasn't too busy but there were quite a few bikers making their way up volcano road. We headed back down and the ride felt much much worse. Hopefully not all the buses are as rickety and the roads as bumpy, otherwise I think I am going to need some gravol (and I never feel carsick!).

Our next stop on the tour was the Iglesisa de los Angeles, which is the church devoted to Costa Rica's madonna. It is a lovely white church in the town of Cartoga. The story goes that a little girl was one day gathering wood by a stream and she found a doll on a rock. Excited to have found a doll she brought it home. The next day she went out again for wood and in the same place found another doll. Happy to have two dolls she skipped on home, only when she got there the doll from the day before was gone; the doll she found on the second day was the same as the one she found on the first. This went on for a few days until her parent got worried and called in the priest. They were afraid some evil spirit was tormenting their daughter, however the priest deduced it was the Virgin communicating with their daughter. In honour of hte Virgin's appearance they built a church by the stream. Today it is one of the most visited churches in Costa Rica, according to our guide. We arrived just as mass finished and there were literally people standing to the edge of the doors. At the end of the sermon everyone also clapped, which is so much different from church back home. We walked around the back of the church where the stream still runs and there was a huge line of people waiting to get some of the water to bless themselves. They even sold jugs so people could take the water home. Next we went inside the church which was absolutely stunning and huge. There were also people walking up the centre aisle on their knees which was really interesting.

Out next stop was the Lankester Gardens which are run by the University of Costa Rica. Here we wandered for an hour through various gardens: a japanese garden, fern garden, orchid garden, etc. It was really lovely. Along the walk I talke to a young Asian man from San Jose, California who has been in Costa Rica for the last three weeks learning Spanish. He was really nice and gave me some tips on getting around.

We then headed for lunch at a buffet restaurant which was fantastic. I sat with the girls from my hostel, an Austrian who was spending some time in Costa Rica after a conference on river sedimentation, and the guy from California. The food was fantastic, we all shared some desert and collectively ate too much. It was definitely helped make the 81 dollars we paid for the tour worth it.

Our last stop was the ruins of a church built in the 17th century. It was large and quite lovely, and was destroyed by an earhtquake in 1920. The church was also in a local park where the children were out playing particularly because it was kids day. There were also four children dressed in these really strange costumes with a papier mache head on their shoulders and long robes. Our guide mentioned this is part of the kids' day celebrations but they were the only kids we saw dressed like this. At last we took the hour long ride back to San Jose.

Upon returning and looking through my guidebook trying to decide if I should head east or south to Manuel Antonio, I decided I would see if it was still ok with the girls if I headed east with them. They were totally ok with it and we decide we would stay at this funky looking hostel called Rocky J's. I am excited to see it later today!

We then headed out for groceries, I bought a cute backpack on the way, and we got caught in the rain. Back at the hostel I realised my camera was missing. How, I do not know. I am sure I put it back in my purse after our stop at the church ruins. I conciously remember doing it. I do not think I took it out in my room because when we left for groceries I thought "my purse is in my bag," alas that does not seem to be the case. It really sucks but if someone did manage to steal it, kudos to them because I have no idea how. It is possible I left it on the tour bus, though I do not know how. I sent them an e-mail but it is not likely I will see my camera again.

Anyway, we made pasta together, hung out and had some beers with Paulcheo (I think that is totally wrong) a guy from Panama who is spending time out of the country so he can return for six months, he is really Columbian. We played some table soccer or foozball, whatever you call it, which I totally sucked at. The table was also a bit broken so it made for an interesting set of games. At eleven we went to bed and I had a fretful sleep.

And now it is 7.53. We are checking out at 9 and catching our bus to Puerto Viejo at 10. I am glad to be travelling with some girls who know what they are doing and looking forward to hanging out on the beach. Next update will be from Rocking J's where you can sleep in a hammock, tent or dorm! Apparently, there are also bonfires every night and mosaic making and painting! I am looking forward to it.

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Comments

[Donna]

Glad to see you made it safe and sound despite the initial glitches - all part of the adventure! Look forward to reading your posts. Stay safe and good advice to yourself - stay out of other peoples' messes!