Arriving in Costa Rica - San Jose

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'Leaving Antigua for the international airport was pretty chaotic - most of the traffic was heading towards the city for the big procession but the traffic was so heavy that cars were crossing into the opposite lane and using it to bypass the traffic flow. There were police everywhere but it didn’t seem to make much difference! Guatemala airport seemed as equally disorganised but our flight left early and before we knew we were in Costa Rica. Immigration there was a breeze - probably the easiest airport we’ve ever gone through - and half an hour later we were at our hotel in the centre of San Jose.
Our reason for spending time in the capital city of Costa Rica was to visit the Jade Museum and the highly acclaimed Gold Museum, exhibiting Mayan gold. Most people bypass the city totally - it really doesn’t have much to offer the tourist. Our hotel, the Aranjuez was wonderful. A group of five houses, beautifully decorated with art pieces, with lovely gardens and lots of little lounge areas. It had to be the best value in the city - $27 a night double with shared bathroom - with a breakfast buffet that equalled any found in a 5* hotel included in the price.
It was late Sunday afternoon when we arrived and we were horrified when we found that the following day was a public holiday and all the museums were closed! As we weren’t planning on extending our time there we went to book a shuttle for Tuesday afternoon and hoped we would have time to see all we wanted to see on Tuesday morning before we left. However on pricing the shuttles - $40 each for 3 hours travel - we decided local bus would be the way to go. We hated the city - we spent a few hours wandering around it on Monday. The main square was filthy - piled deep with rubbish with no signs of rubbish bins anywhere. However on Tuesday, having spent a quiet Monday afternoon at the hotel, the city seemed much cleaner. I guess the street cleaners started work during the night on Sunday.
The museums were wonderful. We went to the Gold Museum after visiting the bus station to buy our ticket to Monteverde that afternoon (a vast difference in price - $9 against $80). The museum was so fortified it was like walking into a gigantic safe. The doors to the main gold display area were at least 18” thick metal! The detail in the Mayan jewellery was very intricate. Each piece had many little bits attached to it - we were surprised that they managed to survive in such good condition. Lots of pieces were miniature animals - frogs, rabbits and crocodiles. The early Costa Ricans (Ticos) were quite fierce looking - mostly near naked with crowns of feathers from the now endangered Quetzal (the symbol of Guatemala) and breast plates and anklets from flattened gold. They wore tiny gold bells around their wrists and the warriors wore what appeared to be a large ring screwed into their chin bones. Many also wore heavy jade jewellery necklaces. The really detailed pieces of gold were placed into burial mounds as symbols for the afterlife. They were buried with ceremonial tables carved from volcanic rock. There were many of those on display as well. A beautifully displayed (all the descriptions were in English as well) museum which is a credit to them The Jade museum was smaller but as well displayed. Mainly jewellery pieces were on display - and you would have to very strong just to wear some of them - they were strings of rocks! Many shades of green…..
Costa Rica seems to be a country of contrasts. They pride themselves on promoting eco tourism but so far (and we’ve been here for a week now) we’ve seen very few rubbish bins - let alone the recycling bins which are so in evidence everywhere else we’ve travelled. The roads are very bad in many places - the trip up the mountain to Monteverde was tortuous - two hours of very rough gravel - and this is to an area which has some of the only cloud forests in the world, so is a prime tourism destination. All the hotels we’ve stayed in have been staffed by really friendly people, the rooms have been sparkling clean (and I mean sparkling!) yet the customer service in shops is almost non existent and downright rude when it happens. It’s a very expensive country - food is as dear as Australia, hotel rooms much more expensive then anywhere else we’ve travelled, shuttle services ridiculously dear and every national park or waterfall seems to have a entrance fee of $20 each.

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Photos

One of the art pieces at Aranjuez Hotel
There were many similar pieces - they obviously collected female form!

A Shaman model in the Gold Museum
Note the chin decoration!

Comments

[Pam]

Spanish floor tiles
I wonder if we can get those here in Aussie at the tile shops - they are sooo stunning Pleased you are both well and enjoying your trip

[Tee]

San Jose Museums
I'm glad that you were able to see the Pre-Columbian Gold and Jade Museums as the artifacts are truly incredible! There's also the National Theater in the center of San Jose and the Art Museum a little farther out that are definitely worth the visit especially to experience Costa Rica's latin culture. Cheers, Tee Tee is the founder and senior editor of Costa Rica CLOSEUP a Travel Guide to Costa Rica with Events, Articles and Information for everyone traveling, retiring and/or purchasing real estate in Costa Rica. Please visit www.costaricacloseup.com for more information.

[Mario]

Not Mayan gold pice
This piece is not mayan. Is a Costa Rican precolumbian gold pendant, most influenced by the south Chibchas cultures.