A Second Look at San Jose

March 21, Tuesday - Today, we slept in, had a buffet breakfast in the hotel and then went exploring.  We crossed into the sports park walking past a huge stadium, baseball fields, a artificial lagoon and the Art Museum.  

Soccer stadium

We then walked east through the central retail and market zone, passing through two indoor markets.  The first had a little bit of everything, from hardware to cell phones to watches, etc.  The second market had stalls with produce and meats, and lots of cafes in the middle.  

We walked through a modern plaza adjacent to the National Theatre. It was built in the 19th century, neoclassical in design.  We went past it to the Mercado Artesenal, which was the local craft market.  We found several interesting items, presumably locally-made, including wood crafts, weavings, painted feathers, and brightly-colored clothing.  We were intrigued by folding drip coffee  makers and bought a ingenious wood trivet that folds up.  It may a pattern for a future project at home.  

We left the bazaar and found the Jade Museum next door.  We bought tickets and toured exhibits on six floors of pre-Columbian craved stones, pottery and other artifacts.  Costa Rica has multiple sources of jade and learned to make beautiful, decorative and ceremonial objects.  The museum did a good job in presenting how the objects were crafted and used.  It was all done with primitive tools, such as string cutters and hand drills.  We came away with a good sense of the sophisticated nature of the early culture. 

It rained while we were in the Jade Museum, so we took a break for ice tea in the museum’s cafe.  We then walked into an historic residential neighborhood with old, but seedy villas for former coffee merchants.  All of the properties were surrounded with security fences, even those not refurbished (they were chain linked).  

We walked back to the hotel by way of the sports park having covered over 8 miles for the day.   We rested in our room before going out for dinner.  I talked with the hotel manager to get suggestion for restaurants.  He recommended fish, Italian and Mexican restaurants, in three different directions from our hotel.  Betsy choose Mexican, which was a ten-minute walk west of the hotel, downhill.  It proved to be very nice with excellent food and attentive service, though the only English speaker who took good care of us.  He was from Nicaragua, live near the restaurant where he has worked for 15 years.  We meet the owner and had his mother’s preparation for pollo (chicken filets, caramelized onions, cheese and herbal white sauce with potatoes and fresh vegetables).  It was so good we may return to Andale Chee a second time.