Along for the ride: Costa Rica - All the way to San Jose

We leave for Costa Rica just as a cold snap is settling in over the western states. From the plane we can see mesas and deserts covered with snow. Even where there is no snow, it still looks mighty cold down there. We picked a good time to celebrate Peter's upcoming milestone birthday with a trip to warmer climates.

Brrrr.... looks cold and desolate down there

Goosenecks State Park ?

However, the flights were not without problems. We flew United Air from San Francisco to Houston, changed planes; then on to San Jose. Houston was plagued with thunderstorms the day we left and between waiting at the SFO gate to get clearance to take off and further flight delays on route due to weather, our 1.5 hour layover evaporated. Our San Jose flight was being announced just as we got off the SFO flight. By running to the next terminal/gate (and Marti having an asthma attack), we arrived at our next gate just in time.

Fortunately the flight into SJO was uneventful. We were also very glad our hotel arranged to have an English speaking driver pick us up at the airport right after we landed. From TripAdvisor, we chose the Beacon Escazu, a small boutique hotel in an area we wanted to explore. As it turns out, the hotel is located in the old village area, which isn't the most scenic part of Escazu, but it's a beautiful little hotel and the neighborhood is safe.

Lobby of the Beacon Hotel

Ahhh - that's more like it ...view from our room

Our "Junior Suite" (photo from Beacon Hotel website)

The next day we have a leisurely breakfast before joining a San Jose City tour. Our tour guide looked like Anthony Banderas. He was very informative about the history and significance of various sights. In fact, we highly recommend all the tours we took. Organized tours are a great alternative to renting a car. For the most part, Costa Rica lacks street signs and address numbers on buildings making it very hard for visitors to navigate especially in San Jose. Even taxi drivers use GPSs and still complain they can't always find locations either.

Our first stop on the city tour was the old airport which has been converted to an art museum. The old runways were torn up and replaced by trees and a public park. Excellent recycling in our book.

Old airport - combo of Art Deco and classic Spanish

Flying lady

Wrap around mural depicting the history of Costa Rica

Our next stop was at the Metropolitan Cathedral, which is right on the main downtown square. Catholicism is the main religion of Costa Rica, although far from the only one.

Inside the Metropolitan Cathedral

Statue of Jesus

Classic stained glass window of Mary

We then stop at the former mansion (now a museum) of Rafael Calderon, president of Costa Rica from 1944 to 1948 and close friend of FDR. During his presidency, Calderon made sweeping social reforms for free mandatory universal education and a social security system that is the envy of many other nations today. Due to Calderon's social reforms, Costa Rica enjoys one of the highest literacy rates in the world and the highest standard of living in Central America. A later president eliminated the military to help pay for these social programs. "Imagine all the people living life in peace..." John Lennon.

Across the street is the Russian Embassy.

Russian Embassy bristling with razor wire fences

The Calderon Museum

Mural of Calderon

Evidence of art and culture can been seen just about everywhere in downtown San Jose.

In even street graffiti

Art Center


Street vendor's fruit bouquets

Plazas and city parks are in abundance. In one of the main squares is a memorial to the defeat of William Walker, a soldier of fortune from Tennessee who tried to take over both Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

We stop for coffee at the Don Carlos Hotel, which was once the residence of "Don" Carlos Balser, an internationally acknowledged authority on Pre-Columbian art. Looks like Indiana Jones once lived here.

Entrance to the Don Carlos

Inner patio area

Pre-Columbian statue

Coffee plantations fueled Costa Rica's first economic boom. The coffee elite were enamored with European culture and brought it into the heart of San Jose. Large civic buildings were assembled in Europe, taken apart, shipped to Costa Rica, and then reassembled in San Jose... now that's a caffeine rush.

Government building created in Brussels

The National Theater

The most amazing of these European buildings is the National Theater, which was built so the elite could enjoy opera, as no major performers of the day would come to Costa Rica without a proper venue.

Main chandelier

French and Italian statues

Reception area with French design

The major ceiling mural (below) was painted by an Italian artist who had never been to Costa Rica. Needless to say, artistic license was taken, much to the chagrin of the local people. Some mistakes in the mural are:

People on the beach are wearing shoes rather than going barefoot or in sandals
Most of the people depicted look Italian rather than the darker Ticos (Costa Ricans)
Coffee is grown in the mountains and not next to the beach
The bunch of bananas are being held upside down

An Italian artist's romanticized view of Costa Rica in a ceiling mural

The streets of downtown San Jose are bustling with people.

Feeding pigeons in a plaza

Fruit vendors in the Central Market

Peter at the entrance to the Gold Museum

In the photo above of Gold Museum entrance, notice the McDonald's building in the upper right. We were constantly surprised at how many American companies and businesses are in Costa Rica and especially San Jose, including Starbucks, Burger King, Denny's, Best Western, Walmart, Price Club (alas no Costco yet) and many more. Also, Costa Rican TV carries several US sitcoms in either Spanish or English. We wonder what kind of impression these commercial invasions create. Furthermore, because of the well educated populace, many large high tech American companies are now in Costa Rica including Intel, HP, and Amazon.

We now know where a good number of Silicon Valley jobs went and why Costa Rica is a big favorite of retired American ex-pats. Which reminds me, the new modernist soccer stadium was built by China for an exclusive trade agreement with Costa Rica to cut Thailand out of computer chip manufacturing. Although they love their new stadium, the Ticos complain the interior lighting is faulty. My retort was to be wary of Chinese electronics.

Chinese built Soccer Stadium in San Jose (computer model of plans)

... but I digress, back to our favorite sight in San Jose the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum. It's a must see if you're in there. The early Costa Rican native tribes were smart when sizing up the early Spanish, directing the would be conquistadors to Nicaragua and Guatemala instead. Consequently more of these artifacts survived.

Inside entrance to Gold Exhibits

Statue of a early prisoner of war bound at hands and feet - a likely sacrificial victim

A metate used to infuse the spirit of the depicted animal
into the ground corn for ritual foods

Many of the gold figures are of powerful animals probably holding religious significance. Notice some of pieces are pinker with more copper in the alloys than others. Needless to say, these gold objects were made before universal gold standards were established.

Crocodiles and caimans

The large Costa Rican vultures were especially esteemed

Spiny lobsters

Since Costa Rica does not have large pre-Columbian monuments like Mexico and Guatemala, many of these gold pieces were found in the graves of royalty or warriors and appear to have been worn.

Medallions, breast plates and necklaces

The well dressed warrior

Recreation of a grave found with 88 gold objects

We wind up our City Tour at a Art Gallery/Souvenir/Coffee shop (don't all tours end at souvenir shops?). They have a wonderful selection of pre-Columbian reproductions. My favorite is the patio set, but it won't fit in our suitcases.