More San Jose Stuff

More on Costa Rica…

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We spent a portion of a day in the suburb of Heredia, which is situated north of San Jose proper.  One of the country's primary universities is located here as are several international companies.  Intel makes chips here, for example.  And not the good kind, either.  They're for computers.  (sigh)

We caught the bus into town, then hooked up with the line that runs out to this 'burb.  In addition to simply wanting to check out the town as a potential living/working location, our other goal was to get registered for a race.  Not just any race, either - this bad boy was to be Event 50 in the 50@50 Project.  One of the locations hosting sign ups was a Brooks store (sorry, Becky B) in town, so we figured we'd kill two birds with one running shoe.

We got off the bus and wandered around a little, trying to locate the parque central.  These parks are almost always at the center of town, so navigating anywhere else from there is easy peasy.  However, locating the park is not always so simple.  Heredia is hilly and the part of town the bus dropped us was on the high side.  We had great views down over part of the town.  Half a dozen or so blocks away we saw a likely location - a big church and lots of trees.  We decided to head that direction but when we got there we realized this was not the city center.  It was cool, nonetheless.  

For our full wanderings and bus trips, check out this day's Garmin map.

We decided to regroup over lunch, so we did what every traveler does in Nicaragua - we ate Chinese food.  It was pretty damn good, too.  Bex! had a great fried rice dish and I had woba de pollo, which is chicken with… um… er… chicken and… let's see…  Yeah, I still don't know.  It's some sort of puffed, crisped corn or rice.  Crunchy, crispy served on a sizzling hot cast iron platter.  Lots of veggies.  I quite liked it.  The woba came on the nuclear heated metal plate with the chicken and vegetable stew on the side.  The server then ladled the stew over the woba, the sauce turning to vapor as it dripped through the woba and hit the cast iron.  The aroma was tantalizing and the taste did not disappoint.

We asked our server for directions to the park - we were only a few blocks away.  Sweet!  The park was quite large and, as usual, filled with people.  Latinos know how to enjoy their outdoor spaces!  As is normal, the park was framed on one side by the city's primary church.  The Iglesia de la Inmaculada Concepción is a simple, beautiful church.  Whitewashed exterior, humble interior.  It's been remodeled and reconstructed over the years (earthquake!!), the last time in the mid-1800's.  The stained glass windows were shipped from France and the bells were brought north from Cuzco, Peru.

Classic city planning

Modern day petroglyphs

The other cool landmark, located just across from the park and kitty-corner from the church is El Fortin.  The link is in Spanish but if you're not inclined to work on your language skills, click the 'translate page' button to switch 'er to English.  La Torre (The Tower) is the last remaining portion of an old fort from the 1800's.  I especially like the diagrams of the building on the right side of the wiki page.  The walls are incredibly thick and the gun ports (the small windows) taper down to a slit on the inside.  Pretty fascinating!

Short and squat - the tower, that is.

"Hey!"
[Note:  I write most of the content and Bex! writes most of the captions]

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We took a self-guided tour of the Teatro Nacional of Costa Rica.  This is the country's preeminent showcase for the arts.  It is a beautiful building, any way you look at it, inside and out.  Our tour guide (mentioned in a previous post) told us the theatre was built because the government had booked a famous Italian opera singer for a performance.  After hearing of the 'primitive' theatre they had chosen for her, she refused to come to Costa Rica until they built a venue worthy of her talents.  A true pain in the aria.  Construction started in 1891 and was completed in 1897.  I didn't dig too deep on this story so don't know for sure if it's accurate.  But it makes for a great tale!

It's hard to describe this theatre in words, so maybe some pictures will suffice.

Louis XIV would be proud of the opulence.

'Roar -oar -oar -oar'  Thank you Katy Perry for ruining lions for me.

This was the floor, man!  The freakin' FLOOR!  I was afraid to take a step.

Please unwrap your candies before the show starts.

End scene.

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We went to the Tica Bus office to change the date for our tickets back to Nicaragua.  I got excited when I saw this sign:

Brown chicken brown cow!

I thought we were going on the Via J Erotica Bus.  I was sadly disappointed to find out it actually says 'Viajero Tica Bus' - viajero is Spanish for The Traveler or The Wanderer.  I guess that designation works for us, too.

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Located in San Jose, La Sabana Metropolitan Park is a vast expanse of green space within the city.  I can honestly say that this park was filled with people almost every time we passed it in a bus on the way downtown or visited the park itself.  It has activities for darn near everything and everyone.  Here's a map via El Garmin from when we ran and explored here.  Below is a pic of a large map posted in the park. 

Looks like a good place for a scavenger hunt

The park is also home to Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica (upper left corner, above).  This is a gorgeous stadium, home of Costa Rica's national football team - who made the World Cup, thankyouverymuch.  It's brand spankin' new, too, opening on March 26th, 2011 - better known as Bex!'s birthday!  Interestingly, China paid the entire cost of construction - around $100 million.  Not sure what Costa Rica gave up for their part of the arrangement, most likely a long term trade agreement.  During our stay in town, they never had any events there, unfortunately.  In addition to soccer, the stadium has also been the site for many concerts, artists ranging from Sir Elton John to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Miley Cyrus to Pearl Jam to Shakira to Lady Gaga to Judas Priest/Whitesnake.  

The park has existed in some form since the 1700's, when the parish priest for the city's church donated the land.  It went though many iterations over the years.  Then in the 1930's the city had the brilliant idea to locate Costa Rica's first international airport here, which operated for some 40+ years.  When the new bigger nicer airport opened, the citizens pressed for the land to be returned to the park, developers be damned.  And in a rare instance of a government actually listening to what the people want (yeah, I'm looking at you, USA - now, pay attention) La Sabana Metropolitan Park was reborn in full.

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On the opposite end of the park from the stadium is the Museo de Arte Costarricense (Museum of Cost Rican Art).  As you can tell by the building, this used to be the control tower and airport terminal.  Nice repurposing, San Jose.

Roger wilco.  You have permission to appreciate art on runway 6.

They had many wonderful displays such as some very old woodblock prints and a small exhibit of 'street art', items made from cardboard and other everyday materials.  One of the temporary exhibits was by Costa Rica's Juan Kelly.  These rather unusual paintings were collectively called 'Transciones y Transformaciones' which I believe is Spanish for 'acid trip'.  Paintings of flying horses and dogs nursing from cows and lions hiding from zebras.  Beautiful detail but the content left us scratching our gringo heads.

'Barca Soberano' by Juan Kelly

The museum also has a sculpture garden outside.  These pieces run the gamut, from modern to classic.  It was interesting - and hot, so we were back inside after a quick walkabout.

Don't let Fluffy on the furniture.

Reminds me of the movie 'Aliens', although I'm not sure why...

Knee-to-chin-asana is Costa Rica's contribution to yoga

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We've mentioned the great shopping district in downtown San Jose located on the Avenida Central.  This two block wide shoppers heaven stretches almost two kilometers and has virtually everything you could want.  There are international name brand stores, local businesses and street vendors selling produce.  It's a place that is full of energy and a vibrancy that comes from people interacting with each other.  It can be a little chaotic but the people watching is fantastic.

In the video you'll notice the 'postre window' which is a part of every fast food restaurant here - an express window that sells only desserts.  And they do a LOT of business.  Some places, like the McDonald's shown in the vid have two dessert-only windows.  In some places, we saw stand-alone kiosks.  Fast Food America, spreading joy and diabetes throughout the world!

Ice cream for lunch, mmmm

A lot of the ground floor space along the Avenida Central is for businesses and people selling whatever it is they happen to be selling.  If a person gets overwhelmed with that, there are ways to catch a break - namely, restaurants (aka 'bars') located on the second floor!

Second floor seats provide good views for short people.  Not that I'm short.

Pedestrian only - no room for cars!

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More on San Jose later, including how we spent my birthday.  [Hint:  Volcanoes and ghosts and craft beer!  Oh my!]