Truly a rather boring city - glad we were just in transit

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The Lonely Planet guide describes spending a night in the city as a necessary evil. The city write up also mentions it as a cross between cosmopolitan and commercial. If in summery of the above comments were meant to convey that there is nothing to see, they were right on. The most interesting aspect of Costa Rica was the accident we had to wait for after crossing the border with Panama. Another bus had hit the back of a back-hoe and broken the window pane of the door. No other damage. Just the window pane. The back-hoe was not even scratched. Nonetheless, the dear driver refused to pull over to the side of the road, and instead left the bus facing traffic in the right lane and effectively blocked both lanes for a half hour while the he waited for the traffic police to show up.

The fun part was everyone getting off the bus, chatting with other passengers and watching the 4x4s make their way around. It was here that I met Charlie, a middle school teacher from Chicago. The 3 of us would end up walking to our hostel together, and chatting for a while in San Jose. Good thing, we ran out of things to see after about 45 minutes when Justin and I set out to see what the city to offer. Hostel 1110 turned out to be a great place to spend the night. $11 a night, which is good by Costa Rican Capital standards, nice, quiet, clean and with great staff. It was just what we needed for our stopover on our way to Nicaragua. We spent about 8 hours on the bus getting there from David, Panama, and would be in transit from 7:30am to 8pm getting to the island in Lake Nicaragua. The good news was that it may have been one of the last long bus rides of the trip. Yey.

Based on the scenery during the bus rides, I am sure Costa Rica has some great destinations. I just found it really hard to find anything in San Jose justifying a visit for anything other than logistical reasons.

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Photos

Inlaid keys
Great advertising for the key shop.

Bus damage
As you can see, just the pane of glass was broken. Didn't cause the driver to pull over, he just left the bus blocking both lanes