Day 9 : San Jose

We got to San Jose in the late afternoon, and the GPS guided us to our hotel without any problems. We would have never found our way if we had relied on maps. Our hotel was in an old residential section just north of the central city, with lots of really nice old houses.



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After about 10 minutes, the light rain that was falling had turned into heavy rain.
We wanted to check out the central square and the city's market, which were only a short walk from the hotel. The rain was coming down hard when we reached the square - empty of course due to the rain - and we followed the main shopping street, completely pedestrian towards the market just a few blocks away.. There was no way to get a taxi, no shelter, so we trudged through the puddles and finally made it to the market. Which was closing when we got there. So we found ourselves back on the street in torrential rain, looking for a taxi.

Downtown San Jose is full of utilitarian, ugly, and charmless buildings - decrepit modern urbanism. I was reminded of Crackolandia in Sao Paulo. Looking at the buildings while standing in a heavy rain might have biased my opinion though, San Jose is probably a lovely city once you get to know it.

We decided to have dinner at a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet, and it looked like it would be pretty nice atmosphere and menu. However, their prices were high, they did not accept credit cards, and we had listened to our hotel keeper's advice not to carry too much money, so we only had a few dollars to work with. The meal was ok, but so much smaller than what we had become accustomed to on our trip. The gallo pinto was served in a tiny metal bowl instead of a mountain on the plate. Such is life in the big city. Rain was still coming down in buckets after dinner, so there was not much else to do but head back to the hotel and call it a night.

Our flight left at noon the next day. I went out in the morning before breakfast to get pictures of the city and its surrounding mountains at sunrise.
















This is the restaurant we ate at. Painted oxcart wheels are big in Costa Rican folk art.











The hotel had a nice buffet breakfast, which included a basket of fresh fruit, and I tried one that I had never seen before. It looked a little like an orange, but with a hard skin, and the inside was like a pomegranate but green. I had no idea what it was, but I ate it anyway and it was good. It was a maracuya - passion fruit.

After breakfast, the GPS guided us through the maze of streets back to our rental car drop off near the Alajuela airport. We spent a half hour in the gift shop next to it (a bottle of guaro, and a new shot glass for the collection) and then we headed to the airport. It was a four hour flight to Houston, and we were back in Austin that evening right on schedule.

We had been worried that one week would be too short, and that we would be too rushed, and that we would have to drive too much each day. But it worked out just perfectly, given the amount of time we had to work with.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this. Please write and let me know what you think!