Miami to Costa Rica Feb 26th.
Unfortunately, 2 days before I was due to leave Miami for Costa Rica I managed to get a rather nasty sinus infection. This put a dampener on my preparations and desire to go anywhere. BUT the trip had been paid for so I dosed myself up with whatever I could find and early on the Tuesday morning Jesus dropped me off at the airport.
In the USA, passengers are required to be at the airport 3 hours before departure. The process of getting through security etc is a long one and often this time is needed. Good and bad but I got through pretty quickly and made my way to the lounge. Settled in with a coffee and not long after we were advised that the flight had been delayed by an hour. I made my way to the next lounge, plugged in the phone to charge it and sat and waited. The next announcement was to inform us that there was now a gate change from gate 8 to 51. A long way off which included a quick march, 2 sets of escalators, 3 sky train stops and stairs then a rush for a seat to settle in once again for the wait. Eventually departed 40 minutes later and after an un eventful flight landed in San Jose Costa Rica, went through a relatively quick customs and immigration and found my driver waiting for me.
The drive once again uneventful with little communication even though he spoke English and I was delivered to my hotel.
The hotel is a timber Victorian building "renovated" into a hotel. As one of my co travelers expressed, it is a step up from camping! Clean enough but very few amenities, pleasant staff but a very rude female owner. In fact it was clean but crappy, nobody very impressed. The other issue is that 4 years ago the railway line was reinstated and the massive trains go through every 30 minutes with a screaming blast of warning that continues for about 30 seconds. The line and crossing is about 20 meters from the hotel and the trains run from 6 am to just before midnight and they feel like they are going to come through the wall. A nightmare! Particularly as my ears were sore from the sinus and then the cabin pressure!
The group met at 7 pm for a briefing and a dinner at the hotel which was good enough but the price not commensurate with the offerings. Gecko had written that $25 a day should cover for lunches and dinners not included in the package and bottled water. This one çourse meal blew the budget! In fact I defy anyone to eat properly here and buy enough water for a day on $25. We have since discovered that many restaurants here are pricey for the situation. Breakfast the next day cost $10 for tea, fruit and toast. Most of us after reading the sent literature believed breakfast was included but in fact very little is included, no food, no real activities, mainly the transport, the tourist class hotels and the guide!
Day 2 started at 9 am with a 3 hour walking tour of the city sights. San Jose is not a pretty city but has a few very nice architectural points but some shockers also. I took some very nice shots but the iPad froze when downloading them and they all disappeared off the iPad and the card, have some from one of the others on a memory stick but need laptop to download them. So no attached photos of San Jose!!
Anyway, the afternoon was free time and we were to meet for another briefing and dinner at 7.
I decided to set off on my own with map in hand and spent the afternoon revisiting the central market where I decided to taste some local food. Food outlets here apparently have very high hygiene standards and the guide assured us that it was safe to eat here. I tried a maize tortilla with cheese which was a bit dry and uninspiring so left most of it and ended up buying 5 mangoes and 15 mandarins for $3 and have been munching my way through them over the past couple of days. Actually food here is uninspiring and the traditional food is similar to the other South American and Caribbean countries, rice and beans (yuk) tortilla, yucca and other root vegetables. They have heavily embraced pizza and pasta and that is found everywhere. European style food is easy to get but disappointing as I like to try the local foods.
I walked up and down Central Avenida then visited the gold museum. This museum is very modern and purpose built underground. Gold is not a big production here, the gold is from historical times when it was panned and then made into beautiful ornaments, jewelry and funereal items. Most prices are of birds and animals and beautifully pressed discs used for ornamentation. There were also lovely tribal masks and ceramics. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The hotel is called Posada de Museo and is diagonally opposite the National museum. After walking back to the hotel up some very steep hills and after a little rest I ventured to this museum. This museum is located in what used to be the army barracks. It comprises of the old fortress, some colonial buildings and additions. The entry is through a butterfly enclosure which is 2 storeys high and ramps have been installed for access, very impressive entrance. The museum is composed of gold and ceramics exhibits once again, some natural history items, currently has a large Japanese doll collection on loan celebrating some children's festival and also has the furnishings set in a colonial house which belonged to the commandant.
The reason that this building is available is because in the 70s, the armed forces in Costa Rica were disbanded, there is no military here. There is a very strong democracy with a female president and the government believe that the money which was used to fund the army could be better used on social reform, education and health. They believe that because they have no oil or rich resources that nobody is interested in invasion to steal the coffee and take over the agriculture!!!!
The really interesting thing here is that Costa Rica is very environmentally minded. There are reminders everywhere about waste, recycling etc. there are wind farms, organic farming and they are very aware of the carbon omissions. The central area is very clean and well attended and apparently the people here have a much higher standard of living compared to the other Central and South American countries.
So we ate dinner together at a pleasant but expensive for what we got restaurant and turned in early for our 6 am pick up to travel to Monteverde.
I was pleased for an early night as still not feeling 100%.
My travel companions are a very nice group of people. 1 Swiss, 3 Canadians, 1 American, 2 English and 3 Australian. 3 guys and 7 females. Ages ranging from 19 to 60! But we all get along very well. 5 of us will be traveling on to Panama with the other 5 making private arrangements for beach time or returning home.
So the first 2 days are over and now on to more inspiring scenery and activities.
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