Having spent Friday morning sanding down an entire concrete house using a brick(?) my handshake was a bit raw when the local volunteers supervisor turned up for a site visit. He seemed rather surprised that I was actually doing stuff as it seems most of the fresh out of university volunteers get given a spade and go cower in the corner until the hard work is over. Anyway he was pleased with all the progress and sent me home for the weekend. The girls had already chosen to have a cheap weekend by staying in San Ramón so I decided to head for the capital, San José.
This turned out to be quite easy, with regular buses making the 50 minute trip for about a dollar. Easy, but not very comfortable – the bus seats are designed for Latin American legs so I had to sit sideways across two seats for the whole journey, but fortunately the bus wasn’t too full and I didn’t have to studiously ignore any old ladies laden down with shopping bags.
The bus arrived at the main terminal in San José, a well known spot for people with scissors slicing into tourist’s rucksacks whilst they blither about looking at maps. I avoided this by striding confidently into town without a clue where I was going. Sometime later I passed the bus station again and this time headed into the town centre instead of out into the suburbs. By now it was midday and getting hot so I made my way towards Barrio Amon, supposedly one of the nicer districts, and found a decent hotel with Wi-Fi in the lobby. Asking at the front desk what their rack rate was I sat down in the waiting area and booked online for roughly 40% less. Returning to the front desk they gave me a dirty look and sent me to my room.
Getting hungry I walked into town, starting at the central plaza then up and down the pedestrianised Avenue Central. I would have taken a picture but it really wasn’t very interesting. All the older buildings have been destroyed by repeated earthquakes and have been replaced with a standard 70’s looking concrete jungle. The main square is bordered on three sides by American fast food chains, the other taken up by an expensive looking Grand Hotel. Avenue Central is home to yet more American fast food chains, and although I was tempted by the memory of a Wendy’s baked potato in place of rice+beans I found a back street lined with more local looking shops. One I’d heard of and wanted to try was Spoon (http://www.spooncr.com), a small chain popular for decent fresh food. The menu was larger than expected and there will definitely be a return visit.
The sky was clouding over as I entered the covered market, hoping that I’d miss the afternoon rain storm. Just as I step inside lightning flashed and the heavens opened. I carried on through to the food area where a number of grubby stalls were dishing out their own variety of Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) surrounded by vegetable stalls and well stocked butchers shops. The meat and fish all smelt a couple of days past their best so I moved to the flower area for the improved aromas of hundreds of varieties of blooms. Past the usual clothing and shoes area I emerged back into the street in a far less pleasant looking part of town, just a couple of blocks from the main streets. The pavements were lined with beggars, drunks, mangy dogs and very few passersby. Another place not to get your shiny camera out.
Having decided San José wasn’t for me I determined to get out into the countryside the next day and visited the Official Tourist Office, which wasn’t very official, but did have some good ideas.
By now it was quite dark and not wanting to visit one of the myriad of 80’s nightclubs it seemed a good idea to get back to the hotel. Unfortunately there was now a brief but spectacular deluge, which flooded the streets after just a couple of minutes.
