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Published: September 17th 2017
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Empanada
We picked up cheese empanadas from a roadside stand for lunch on our way into town. Geo: 9.92, -84.15
Mainor arrived about 10am to take us to San Jose for the last few days of our trip. As we drove back over the mountains to get to the Central Valley Mainor pointed out places where Ticos like to buy cheese and they place where he and his family went for New Year's Eve. He says there are many places up above the Central Valley where you can look down and see the fireworks ov many different small towns on one night. As a bonus, it's not cold in Costa Rica on New Year's. We stopped at a roadside stand and had cheese empanadas for lunch. They were a little salty, but they hit the spot.
It doesn't look like too many people spend time in San Jose when they visit. I wasn't able to find out too much about it. Since a large percentage of the country's population lives here, we thought we'd give it a shot. We got the the Courtyard Marriott Escazu about 2pm. Woohooo! Hooters is across the street! Also Outback Steakhouse. Usually we like to stay places with more flare, but we have some Marriott points to burn and free is good. After check out
Enjoying signs at the mall
Contrary to the sign, there was no raw meat available consumption by raptors at this store. we consulted a map and found that there is a mini mall with a bunch (non American) restaurants right across the street. If you walk a little farther and go under a bridge where the highway is you arrive at the MultiPlaza Escazu, Costa Rica's largest mall. The walk was short but a little scary because there is a manhole that has no cover. We easily could have lost Alex down that one. There is another bridge that we crossed that had very little in the way of a barrier on the side. There was a precipitous drop that had a jungle and waterfall below. We didn't lose anyone there either, but it was pretty impressive.
When we walked around we enjoyed looking at the different products on offer, the signs extolling shoppers to buy, buy, buy for Mother's Day (15 Aug!), and the names of the shops we found amusing (Carrion). We inevitably ended up at the food court. We have now seen and tasted "the future of rice and milk." It is called Rice & Smile. The kids split a rice pudding with Oreos in it. Next we saw the movie complex was showing the final Harry Potter
Multiplaza
We are told that this is the largest mall in Costa Rica. It is in easy walking distance from Courtyard Marriott. Just walk past Hooters, wave to the coatis rummaging in the dumpsters behind Outback Steakhouse, step over the uncovered manhole in the street, go under the overpass, keeping the waterfall on your right and there you are. movie in English with Spanish subtitles. And then the begging began. It turns out that movies and popcorn are cheaper here than at home. Tickets were only about $5 for a Friday night show. They also let you pick your seat on a computer screen and they are assigned on your ticket stub. You don't enter the theater until the time listed on the ticket. That caused us a little confusion.
After the movie we looked around the food court for a decent deal on dinner. Most of the restaurants we've seen here have been about 2x the cost of other restaurants we've been eating in elsewhere. Pizza Hut had a deal for 3 slices with ham for about $4 so we grabbed about a pizza and a half and headed back to the room for snacks and sitcoms in Spanish.
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