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| Central America - The Journal |
Lots of Gold in a Small but Busy City
Day 2 - San Jose
Despite my desire to have a long lie in to catch up on missed sleep, the change in time zones meant I was wide awake at 7.30am so, after trying to fight my body clock, I gave in and decided to get up ...but 7.30am on a holiday still seemed ridiculous! After about 2 months of waking up early to maximise the day's revision, it was my first chance for a lie in and I couldn't actually do it! Parki felt the same (despite her notorius ability to sleep till noon regardless of anything else). So by 9am we were woken, washed and full with a fairly substantial breakfast of self-made pancakes (made pretty well by me I must admit)! A ridiculous state of affairs!
There isn't all that much to do in San Jose, it's a fairly mediocre city (from a tourist point of view) but, as the hub of Costa Rica, most travellers end up spendng some time here. We spent the morning wandering around the main streets, just getting a feel for life in the capital. San Jose is based on a simple grid systen, so it's easy to navigate. It's actually very small but very densely populated. The shopping streets are akin to the packed Oxford Street of London and the roads feel a bit strange as they are very narrow, with a feel that they would belong better in a city with a 10th of the population, but crammed full of endless lines of cars.
The city felt much more familiar than other countries I'd visited. The neatness of the shopping streets, punctuated with familiar big brands felt less "foreign" than the more haphazard shops of the Caucasus. Also, the lack of interest from the locals made us feel more at ease than in China when ell the townspeople stared at us all day.
We also paid a visit to the Museo de Oro Precolombino, one of the most highly rated museums in the city. The museum's main displays are Pre-Colombian artefacts, including a substantial number of intriquitely designed gold talismans and icons. The museum is really well laid out with everything well signed in English and Spanish. It was actually pretty amazing to see the complex moulding, casting and even chemical finishing techniques that the ancient tribes used.
We grabbed lunch in a typical Soda, a cheap, fast but staple eatery in Costa Rica. A big meal of chicken, rice, beans, salad and potatoes cost about £1.50 (actually quite expensive for this part of the world). The meal was tasty and filling and truly marked our arrival in Central America!
We spent the rest of the day wandering, relaxing and drinking coffee while watching the Josefinos (San Jose inhabitants) going about their lives. We found a really good cafe on a first floor with a good view over the city centre and whiled away the hours..
As early evening came, the famed afternoon rainfall started in earnest. The rain came lightly at first, but quickly grew into a torrential downpour. We're at the time of year which marks the start of Costa Rica's wet season; short but heavy afternoon/evening showers are likely to be a regular feature of our trip. We avoided the worst of the rainfall by ducking between buildings and hiding in a supermarket, before grabbing dinner and heading back to the hostel.
Yesterday, the hostel owner had proudly told us that they would be having a big party tonight...a Reggae and RnB party! However, turn out was a little low and most people seemed to just want to chill rather than party, so the evening slowly turned into quiet drinks, card games and general mingling. It as good fun though, we met Dutch, Swiss, Canadian, American and Israeli backpackers over classic backpacker cards. And the slightly more downbeat atmosphere tallied better with our still jetlegged heads and the fact we needed to get up early the next day...
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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