Tura de San Jose y Viajando a Puerto Viejo

San Jose City Tour
Wednesday we got to spend the day touring San Jose (Costa Rica's capital) and it was everything and nothing I expected. It was captivating and exotic but also the spitting image of the slums of any capital city. We had been warned before to not take anything valuable and to keep our cameras put away to prevent theft.  Although, to be fair, it would have been foolish of any thief to try to nab from us because we moved as an over-sized wolfpack.
The architecture was interesting though. A mustard yellow hotel on the corner had it's claim to fame in many celebrities (and a couple US presidents) staying there. There was a beautiful white and blue mansion across from the Museo Nacional with a huge double stairway... I took a dozen pictures of both of these buildings.
But the Museo Nacional was easily my favorite. Right out front there is this huge metal sphere with glass windows you can walk into and within this sphere is a huge stone sphere. The stone sphere is one of several that has been found around Costa Rica. Think Stonehenge-like mystery: they're all perfectly round with no tool or scratch marks and all varying sizes. When the first Spanish explorers saw them, they believed they were full of precious gold so they split a few open and then gave up on the whole thing when they found out it was just boring ol' rock.
Once you enter the museum, your first exhibit is el jardin de mariposa, a whole room full of exotic beautiful butterflies. My favorite was definitely the huge blue ones from the rainforest (I can't remember their names). They all just flew around us and landed in our hair and whatnot.
On the grounds of the museum is also the old bunker for the Costa Rican soldiers. On one side is the general's quarters and on the other is the barracks rooms and dungeon. In between is a huge beautiful garden with more of those crazy spheres and exhibits on prehistoric Costa Ricans. Rumor has it that the old dungeons are haunted and you can hear the people who used to be imprisoned there... a load of codswallop in my opinion but seeing all of the writings and drawings on the wall from the prisoners was a bit chilling: some was pornographic, some was in remembrance of fallen friends, some prayers to end the suffering.
After the museum, we wandered around at the mercado haggling for souvenirs. That was pretty fun and I practiced a lot of Spanish. But that was about the total of our San Jose trip because they wouldn{t let us explore the city on our own.

In other news, Spanish class is getting a lot easier. La profesora is having a hard time because 1/2 of us are at the beginner level and 1/2 of us are actually at the intermediate level and she can't teach to both. When we take our break from class I sit and chat with her (yes, in Spanish) and she told me she knows I can speak more Spanish than I give myself credit for and that if she could just teach for the intermediate level, she'd have me pretty close to fluent by the end of this trip. Now if she could actually teach to our level though... =X

Puerto Viejo
Esta fin de semana libre! July 25th is the Costa Rican holiday for the annexation of Guanacaste (one of Costa Rica's 6 provinces). Don't be fooled when I say holiday though; it's on par celebration-wise with MLK day - it's observed, but except for a festival in Guanacaste, it's just a quick 3 day break from the daily grind. But that's good news for us because it means a long weekend to travel as we please. Everyone else in our group had decided to go to the Pacific side of the country but we were feeling more inclined to check out the Caribbean side. There's a little port town in the southern-most corner near the border with Panama called Puerto Viejo. it's like it fell straight out of Jamaica with it's red, yellow and green themes and laid-back attitude. So Jennifer, Jonathon and I set our sights there and began our voyage. With more than 5 beaches in the near proximity, it was an easy choice.
But as with any good story, it started with a bang. Jonathon's mama tica and hermano offered to drive us to the bus station (at 5:30 in the morning!) but Jonathon misinformed them as to which station we were leaving from. Long story short, we ended up on the way wrong side of town and had to speed-demon it to the right station so we wouldn't miss our ride. When we got there, Jon's mama tica ran in front of the bus as it was leaving.  She stopped it though and we were able to board. When we got on though, we discovered there was standing room only and all of the seats were already taken. (We wouldn't learn until later that our tickets were for assigned seats so someone had taken ours thinking we missed the bus.) So we stood for the 4 1/2 hour bumpy bus ride there.
We did finally arrive though and our vacation began. Everyone says puerto viejo is a "party" town and everyone just drinks and smokes and lives the good life (pura vida!) but we saw the more tranquil side of the town. Lunch in a restaurant with a beautiful view of the ocean and then drinks at a local bar before calling it an early night at a sleepy little inn.
The next day we got up early, had breakfast and decided to rent some bikes and head down to the other beaches. We spent the day biking at a slow, relaxed pace down to the numerous turn offs along the shoreline and checked out several beachfronts. We hung out at Punta Uva (one of the beaches - it's exact translation means "grape point" but I don't understand why) for a while and then decided to head back. We dropped back off the bikes, ate dinner and headed to the room with some rum and coke for some Cuba Libres as they call them here. We spent the evening poolside, sipping our drinks and challenging each other to every card game we could think up and remember. Yes, we coulda hit a crazy bar and gotten trashed on the beach but I like our version better.
One thing about Puerto Viejo though is that they take tico time to a different level. It's kind of a running joke that ticos are perpetually behind schedule and if they're lack of urgency is mentioned, they coolly reply with "tranquilo". In Puerto Viejo, tico time was a way of life. We expected to be able to grab a QUICK bite to eat but it turned into a 2 hour dinner event before food was brought to us. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not complaining, but when you're hungry and wanting your pizza, theres little appreciation for tico time.
All in all, though, I enjoyed the vacation. In an attempt to make sure we see and do as much as possible, our program can totally jampack our days. It's always fun but it was nice to spend the weekend at our own pace, slowly discovering the city for ourselves.

for now that's all but there will definitely be more to come (as well as photos).  Love and miss you all!
pura vida - cfg