Day One in San Jose

Well, we are finally in Costa Rica.  I thought it appropriate by having the flag as the first photo.  I took this one near our hostel in San Jose where it was flying in front of the Courts of Justice.  First things first – it is warm here, not the -30C that we left as we boarded the plane in Calgary.  Yes, now we know why we picked this location for our winter retreat!

This is the hostel in San Jose that we are calling home for two days while we wait to move into our villa in Playa Jaco.  These windows are the ones we look out of when inside our pleasant room.

Of course, we haven’t been spending much time in the room regardless of how nice it is.  Once we had breakfast in the hostel’s little restaurant, we headed out for a long walk down hill into the main city centre.  A number of the streets are for pedestrians only as we found out as we wandered.

Some of the things we saw as we walked were the usual collection of churches and cathedrals, the national museum and the national theatre as we as a few public squares such as this one called Parque Centrale.  This structure in the centre of the square was a gift from a nasty dictator from Nicaragua back in the 1980s.  It still is causing a bit of controversy as the people of Costa Rica feel that keeping the gift is somehow a negative statement about who they are as a people.  All the controversy aside, it is a beautiful structure and it looks as though it is going to remain in place.

As we walked we saw a lot of street shops selling fruit or other products.  It seemed that almost every corner had an older man selling lottery tickets.  Everyone in searching for a treasure.  I guess that people are the same everywhere.

And, like any large city, there is a need for police.  Not surprisingly, there are cops patrolling on bikes as well as those walking the beat (in groups of six as we saw) and those in squad cars.  Apparently there is a concern with crime here.  The best bet when travelling is to keep one’s nose clean and to not flash one’s money or valuables.

As usual, it seems impossible for us to walk very far without getting distracted by flowers.  I thought that this one which we have to pass just before entering the hostel restaurant was one that might also catch your attention.

San Jose is a city of hills and small mountains.  On our early evening walk this scene caught my eye.  In a way, thought there aren’t a lot of buildings in the photo, it does give a good sense of the city’s geography.  As well, as you can see, there is a lot of colour in the city.

And, for the final photo for the first day in San Jose, Costa Rica, a  look towards the setting sun over the mountains, mountains we will be visiting on the second day in San Jose.