Bienvenidos a Costa Rica: The Journey Begins in San Jose

My trip has begun! I've been in Costa Rica for 5 days now, and so far so good. After a slightly delayed but otherwise relatively uneventful flight, I arrived in San Jose. My Couchsurfing host, Oswaldo, picked me up from the airport and brought me to his house, where I met his wife, Andrea, and their two adorable little dogs (one of them ended up sleeping in my bed with me several of the nights I was there. Such a sweetie!). Oswaldo and Andrea were great hosts and invited me to spend time with them and their friends, as well as taking me out to dinner a couple of times. My first full day there they took me on a day trip outside the city, which was great because we went to places I wouldn't have known about as just a regular tourist.
Such as...

Pesca de Trucha Carrucha

This was a small, local restaurant about a 15 minute drive into the mountains outside the town of Palmares. They serve various typical Costa Rican foods, but the focus is on the pond in front, where, as the name suggests ("pesca de trucha" means "trout fishing"), you can catch your own trout and then have them cook it for you. Apparently this is fairly common in Costa Rica. It was a fun experience, and it was my first time ever going fishing, although by fishing standards it barely counted; the fish were contained in a small area, making them easier to catch, and there were no poles involved, just fishing line with a hook on the end. Nevertheless, I'm glad I got to do it, and I probably never would have known about it were it not for my hosts.


Cerro Espíritu Santo

Meaning "Holy Spirit Hill," it is also called "El Mirador" (the lookout), because it has amazing views of the surrounding areas. I think it is in a town called Naranjo, and you can see Palmares, Alajuela, San Jose, and several other towns, as well as Irazu Volcano and lots of beautiful hills.

The view towards San Jose from El Mirador

Fiesta de Palmares

It also just so happened that there was a party going on in Palmares that weekend. It takes place every January for two weeks, and Costa Ricans from all over the surrounding areas flock to Palmares to take part in the festivities. It was basically like a big fair, with lots of food and drinks, games, rides, art shows, booths selling various things, music and dancing, and a very loud concert that we didn't go into (I assumed you had to pay). We didn't stay for long, but we walked around a little, ate some pupusas and churros, and generally soaked up the atmosphere. It was basically the same as other fairs I've been to, but it was cool to see, and I liked that it didn't seem to be something that tourists knew about so it was full of locals. 

Then the next two days I was there I spent exploring the center of San Jose. As cities go, San Jose definitely doesn't make my list of favorites, but there were still some nice things to see. In general, my impression was that it was very busy, with lots of cars honking their horns and pedestrians crossing every which way, and it was not as beautiful as many of the cities I have seen in my travels. I mostly took pictures of the things that I did think were beautiful, so I don't have many pictures to give an impression of the city in general, but here are a few that sort of do it:

This is Avenida Central, which is strictly for pedestrian traffic for several blocks and was the main area I explored. This was  a section I liked, and to the left is a nice square where I spent some time sitting and watching the people and pigeons.

I took this from the balcony of the National Museum of Costa Rica, and you can sort of tell the types of buildings in the area.

And now here are some pictures of the highlights of San Jose.


Gran Hotel Costa Rica (Great Costa Rica Hotel)

One of the most beautiful buildings I saw, right next to the square in the earlier picture, but it was hard to get a good picture because of the trees in the way.


Museo de Oro Precoolombina (Pre-Columbian Gold Museum)

Of the three museums I went to, this was my favorite. It had exhibits about life in Costa Rica before the arrival of Europeans, which focused on the objects the indigenous people made out of gold. There was also an exhibit about the history of money in Costa Rica, with displays of different types of coins and bills that were used during different time periods. It was fascinating. I didn't take a picture of the building, because it's actually underground underneath the square near the hotel, and I also didn't take many pictures in the museum because I was so caught up in looking at everything. But here is a picture of my favorite gold display that I saw:

Cute little animals made out of gold. I want one! I was hoping they would have replicas in the gift shop but sadly they didn't. 

Museo Nacional de Costa Rica (National Museum of Costa Rica)

This museum is housed in an old army barracks, which was decommissioned when Costa Rica abolished its army in 1948. This museum also had an exhibit on Pre-Columbian history, as well as a butterfly garden and several temporary art exhibits. My favorite thing in this museum was the exhibit about mega-fauna, which had fossils of large pre-historic animals. 

The courtyard inside the Museo Nacional

Museo de Arte Costarricense (Museum of Costa Rican Art)

This was a fairly small museum, but it was free! I love free, so I couldn't pass it up. It has some nice art, and even though I'm not one to spend hours critiquing art, I enjoyed it. I wasn't allowed to take pictures so unfortunately I can't share any of it with you. My favorite was the "Gold Room," which had carvings covering all four walls like a giant mural with scenes of people and history. It was beautiful.


Teatro Nacional (National Theater)

This was by far the most beautiful building I saw. I had to pay to get in but it was well worth it. It opened in 1897, and includes many different architectural styles and types of art.

The main lobby of the theater

Statues in the lobby

The main staircase

The foyer, which is the main room above the lobby where people used to meet and mingle before the shows and during intermissions.

The foyer, facing the stairs

The stage, seen from the balcony

The mural on the ceiling above the staircase. A reproduction of this appears on the 5,000 colones bill (which is about equivalent to $10)

The seats seen from in front of the stage

So that's my trip to San Jose in a nutshell. I'm now in Playa Chiquita, a small town just south of Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast. I'll give more details about it in my next post, but for now I want to quickly give you all an overview of my plans from here on out. For the next four weeks, I will be in Playa Chiquita volunteering at a lodge. I found this position through the website WorkAway, which is similar to WWOOFing that I've done in the past where I get free room and board for volunteering a few hours a day but with WorkAway there is a wider variety of volunteer opportunities, not just farming, and the site lists hosts worldwide instead of each specific country having its own site like WWOOfing. After the four weeks here, my plans aren't concrete yet, but I want to go to Monteverde and Arenal volcano, and spend some time in the mountains, hopefully with another WorkAway host. After that I plan to go to the Pacific coast and also stay with another WorkAway host. I'd like to stay in each place for at least a couple of weeks so I can settle in and not move around as much as I did in Europe. Then after 3 months in Costa Rica, I am going to Cancun, Mexico for five days, and then to Havana, Cuba! Going to Cuba has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember, so I'm really looking forward to it. Cancun was a slightly random addition to my trip because when I looked up flights to Cuba from Costa Rica, I was finding all of these awfully long itineraries with multiple layovers in various countries, or more direct flights that cost many hundreds of dollars. So with a bit of searching, I discovered that by flying to Cancun and staying for a few days, I would save over $150 on the flights, spend less time flying, and get to see another place that I wouldn't have thought to go to otherwise. I enjoy the way that opportunities arise when I just go with the flow and leave myself open to change. After Cuba, I don't have anything planned out yet but I'm waiting to see how things pan out and what I'm in the mood for a little ways down the road. Most likely I will go back to the U.S. after that, but if time and money allow maybe I will add one more destination before heading home. I will keep you all updated on my my plans as they progress. Thanks for following along on my adventure! Stay tuned for more from Costa Rica!