We both woke up a little before 7 without alarms having slept an uninterrupted 9 hours. I showered, but when I went to use the hotel hair dryer (in a bag on the sink), pieces fell out. I called the desk and a replacement was brought right up.We went down for the breakfast buffet at Las Tejas - the only restaurant in the hotel. It is an open-air, covered restaurant next to the pool. The buffet wasn't bad - all standard fare except for the sour peach juice (which I didn't care for) and the beans and rice mixture.
We went to the tour desk at 8:50, but no Tanya, the tour rep. No one was there. We had no idea who our guide/driver would be. I went to the front desk where they tried to track down Tanya. Bill went out front, and he and A.O. (the driver) figured out they were looking for each other, so off we went in AO's company van.
On the way into town, AO discussed a few things - San Jose is in a valley surrounded by 5 mountains; CR workers put in 48 hour work weeks; top industry here is micro chips, 2nd was tourism, and 3rd is produce. Bill heard very little of this since all he could see were the numerous Trackers on the road!!! He was in awe. AO thought this was quite funny and played the "Find the Tracker" game with Bill.
We first went to Mercado Central - the huge indoor market. It was a huge maze of vendors: meat, produce, spices, flowers, medicinal herbs, kitchenware, clothes, belts, and many "sodas" - small, tiny restaurants for locals. some with counter seating, others with tables and chairs. I could have spent all day here just wandering around and looking at the awesome amount of products for sale. As we were leaving, I spotted a sloth t-shirt that was so cute I had to have it.
We walked the streets to our next site - the National Theater. Along the way we saw many statues, busts of famous people. However, my favorite was just out in a pedestrian walkway of a woman in a bathing suit who must have weighed 350 pounds. It looked to be several years old and worn from idiots rubbing her boobs and behind. It is called "La Chola" by Costa Rica artist Manuel Vargas erected in 2004. We walked by 2 city bike cops, and I had to get my photo taken with them (after politely asking, of course!).
From there it was just a short walk to the Cultural Plaza - a large concrete park with tons of pigeons. Next door is the National Theater. From the outside it looks like just an enormous building. Inside it is a beautifully ornate (almost garish) building. The lobby holds the original statues from atop the outside entrance - Music, Dance, and Fame. Replicas are back outside. This was done to preserve the originals. There are also marble columns and beautiful ceilings.
After we bought our tickets (AO got in free because he is a certified guide) we went through the doors into a beautiful area with a lovely 2 story marble double stairway. Before we looked at this splendor, we went into the theater proper which was gorgeous and equally ornate. The theater was built in 1897. A few people were on stage practicing for some performance. After we left the theater, they closed it off for some reason, so we were lucky to have seen it at all.
We then went on examining the stairway area - lots of marble, frescoes, carvings, etc. At the top was a famous painting of a coffee harvest which was once used on the 5 colon bill. This is called "Allegory of Coffee and Bananas" by Aleardo Villa. AO did tell us that CR keeps changing their paper currency, usually just for the hell of it!
On the top floor were the VIP balcony seats in the theater, and a beautiful large salon. It had lovely parquet floors, rococo walls, ceilings, etc. It is not used anymore and is simply on display.
From there we walked across the Cultural Plaza to the Gold Museum. This goes 3-4 floors underground. There is a Numismatic (money) Museum, an art exhibit, history exhibit along with the pre-Columbian gold exhibits. Most of the gold pieces are small animals or decorative charms/necklaces. This was a really well-done and interesting museum.
More walking took us past Morazan Park to the Jade Museum. We passed a large school made entirely of metal called Edificio Metalico. It was prefabricated in Belgium, shipped to CR in 1892, and took 4 years to weld together.
The Jade Museum was a little underwhelming. AO left us here and walked back to retrieve his car. The Jade Museum had a collection of pre-Columbian jade jewelry and carvings plus a few other ceramic and stone artifacts.
While we waited outside for AO, we could see a yellow building next door called Casa Amarilla. This was built by Andrew Carnegie and given to CR. After many uses, it now houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ceiba tree that JFK planted here in 1963 still stands on the grounds.
AO picked us up and stopped at the National Museum so we could see the outside. This huge building was once the Bellavista Barracks and is over a century old (old for CR!). Many bullet holes from the 1948 insurrection can still be seen. After a quick look at the souvenir stalls (read lots of junk!!), we headed back to our hotel. We had a delightful chat with AO on a variety of topics. No one sends mail in CR due to a lack of proper street addressing and theft. No one even orders on-line for this reason.
We got back at 1:45 and went to lunch at Las Tejas. Bill got an enormous club sandwich, and I got a CR version of a Philly cheese steak. Both were quite decent. I had read online that as far as beef goes in CR, one must think "chewy". So correct, but beef was tasty.
Back in the room, Bill napped while I started writing this journal entry. At 5:30 we walked to the grocery store down the street. It wasn't too exciting, and we are eating quite well, so we just loaded up on water and diet Pepsi.
Bill ordered room service for tonight. He got the local typical meal - meat, rice, beans, plantains, and cabbage salad. I just got a salad since I was still full from lunch.
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