¡Hola de San Jose, Costa Rica! I have officially been in Costa Rica for 6 days now and I am LOVING it. The only complaint I have is that there is too much delicious food and not enough time to try it all.
Costa Rica For those of you that are unfamiliar with Costa Rica, it is a small, environmentally friendly country in Central America located above Panama and below SOMEWHERE. It is very famous for its coffee and banana exports, as well as the incredible nature and outdoor activities located here. There is a large volcano, Volcan Arenal, in the upper middle of the country (more to come for that later, I visit Arenal next weekend). Surrounding the volcano are mountains that go up to the northwest coast and south into Panama. In the mountains, right in the middle, is San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica. The population of San Jose is approximately 1 million people, while it is an older city, it is not a main tourist attraction of the country. There is an airport in San Jose (one of two in Costa Rica) and it is a lovely place to spend a day or two, but many people go outside of the city for activities such as zip lining, hiking, coffee or chocolate tours, swimming in the oceans and lounging on the many beaches, or any other number of outdoor adventures. Costa Rica has it all. Even though the city is not highly sought after in regards to tourism, there a couple parts of San Jose that are certainly worth your time and money. These things include the Mueso Nacional (National Museum), Teatro Nacional (National Theater), and the many small parks throughout the city. San Jose is not a particularly wealthy city, but these parts of the city as well as the mountains that encircle the city, make the time in the city well spent. And, of course, the food.
Mueso Nacional First, the Mueso Nacional. The National Museum is located near the city center of San Jose. It is in a massive, bright yellow mansion with a large plaza out front called the Plaza de Democracia. All throughout the city there are statues of very similar things, many of which are located in the plaza. These statues are very famous, and are all created by the same person, Jimenez Deredia. The museum itself is very nice, starting at the beginning of Costa Rica's history with the indigenous groups and ending with very modern information and problems. One of the best parts of the entire building is the view from the garden upstairs, which is pictured below along with the building (part of it because it is so large).
Teatro Nacional
Teatro Nacional is also downtown, but it is on the same stretch as the main street whereas the Mueso Nacional is not quite downtown. The building, from the outside, looks rather plain, but the inside is absolutely incredible. Everything was perfectly crafted by artists and sculptors from other countries like France and Italy. We took a tour which explained the very interesting history of the theater. What I found most interesting was that because of the theater, San Jose was the second city in the entire world to get electricity. Who knew? The shows are fairly cheap, starting at 15,000 colones (which is approximately $25). We saw Cabaret and it was wonderful. Even if you do not see a show, a tour of the building is worth it.
Parks
The parks can be found anywhere in the city but here are some of my favorite pictures!
Cartago
One of the cities outside of San Jose is very famous because it was the first capital of Costa Rica. The city of Cartago was the capital because at one point there was a very large cathedral there but due to multiple earthquakes, it is just ruins now. The ruins are absolutely beautiful. The inside has been turned into a sort of garden with a quaint little pond with fish. When the church was officially destroyed, the Costa Ricans more or less left the city. However, as legend has it, a girl was walking through the woods collecting wood one day when she saw a large rock with a small figurine of Mary on it. She took this as a sign from God to build a new cathedral on that exact location, and so they did. The new cathedral is the national church of Costa Rica and it is lovely. They have the rock on display in the basement of the cathedral and they sell little figurines to fill with holy water from a stream that passes under the church. The first two photos below show the ruins, while the third is a photo of the new cathedral and the fourth is the actual rock with a replica of the Mother (the actual figurine is in the upstairs inside the alter).
Tayutic
An absolute hidden gem of Costa Rica. This destination is a little bit further away from San Jose but a good way to lengthen a day trip from the city like I did by starting in Cartago and continuing to Tayutic. Tayutic is in a little town high in the mountains and it is a farm where they make organic brown sugar (from the sugar canes they grow) as well as grow and sell macadamia nuts and coffee. The tour includes a short walk around the area which has one of the most amazing views I have ever seen as well as a beautiful old church that the villagers at the bottom of the mountain were going to destroy but the people who lived in Tayutic brought up to the top of the mountain. After taking a million pictures, there is a delicious meal with amazing coffee and views. After that, there are three different processes to observe. The first is the sugar making process, the second is cracking the macadamia nuts, and the third is the coffee making process. The workers were all lovely and the processes were very different because it was all by hand and with no machinery other than wooden, handmade tools. Everything they make is delicious and the experience is one that cannot be found anywhere else.
Britt Coffee Tour
This tour location is found very close to San Jose, about 30 minutes away from downtown. As you might guess, there are an ungodly number of coffee tours in Costa Rica, but they are not all the same. Britt is special because they have a very unique way of giving their tours. They make it a show almost, like a comedy rather than plain, boring facts. The two tour guides made the information interesting and they were very interactive, using many volunteers as well as giving out chocolates. The coffee is amazing and I learned that making coffee is a science. Fun fact: the tasters at Britt go through 7 YEARS of training in order to be prepared enough for the job. They certainly know what they are doing. Another very special aspect of Britt is that in order to maintain the most amount of freshness of their products, they only accept online orders and they only enough coffee for those orders. They do not have bags sitting around getting stale; every bag is fresh and each batch of coffee made is tried by, essentially, a coffee doctor. If that isn't Pura Vida, I don't know what is. Also, we got incredibly lucky for this trip because as you can see in the second picture, there are blooms on the trees. This happens for only three days in the entire year!
Thanks for reading! I hope this information helped, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask! Check back in next week for Week Two!
Addresses and Information:
Mueso Nacional: San José, Costa Rica. Between Central and Second Avenue. West from Plaza of Democracy. Main entrance by the Plaza of Democracy.* The price of admission for foreigners is $9.00, and it is worth every penny. It is closed on Monday's!
Teatro Nacional: Second Avenue and Fifth Street, San Jose, Costa Rica. Many walking tours of the city include admission to this building, but tours can be purchased from the ticket office (which does not have a website that I can find so it may only be possible to buy tickets in person. The box office is behind the building and across the street.
Cartago: Approximately 45 minutes southeast of San Jose; very easy to get to with a tour, driving**, or by public bus.
Tayutic: I am not sure that Tayutic has a real address, but the town is Sitio de Mata and is very small so Tayutic would be quite easy to find. Also, if you wanted to stay the night, there is a small, very nice hotel there.
Britt Coffee: Again, this does not have a real address, but if you type this into Google maps it is northwest of the downtown of San Jose, in the Heredia province.
*TIP: In San Jose, there are often no real directions or addresses! This is very important to remember if you do not have a way to use Google maps or an actual map. "Addresses" are things like "150 meters south of the Mall" which can be very confusing.
*WARNING: I would NOT suggest driving in San Jose, or at the very least in the middle of the city. The drivers here are wild. There is also a ton of traffic from about 4-7 pm every day which makes travelling very difficult. The roads outside of San Jose are very rough as well, many one-lane roads and steep mountains.
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