Saturday July 25th 2009
We are in San Jose the capital of Costa Rica . Jessica and myself arrived yesterday morning exhausted from a sleepless night. Our flight was at 2:40 am and it was only five hours long. We arrived 5:30 am due to the time difference of two hours to a muggy, smoggy, bustling San Jose. The weather seemingly changes every five minutes including the temperature. One moment its sweltering and the next a bit chilly. One moment it´s sunny and the other it´s cloudy and or raining. We took public transport to get to the city avoiding all the taxi drivers hawking us and got on the bus with the locals. The humidity and strench of fuel exhaust reminded me a lot of Havana. I must say on it´s best day San Jose is NO Havana. I hear it grows on one but it has yet to do so and we do not intend on staying and see if it does. The city reminds me also a bit of a smaller, more boring. less poor La Paz, Boliva in that its in valley with mountains surrounding it making on climb steep hills to and fro. The valley I suspect also helps keep the noxious clouds of pollution from escaping.
Yesterday, when we arrived we were way too early to check in and there was no room emptied yet. We had to wait till one and we arrived before seven at the hotel. We went eat at a local Soda (a Costa Rican diner) and enjoyed breakfast which consisted of a chesse omlette, buttered toast and gallo de pinto (rice and beans). We had coffee and tea respectively with steamed milk. It cost two dollars basically. Later for dinner we had arroz con pollo and pescado frito both served with salad, plantains, mine with rice and beans and hers with fries. The food we ate in the mercado central (central market) and cost two dollars or so for an entree. Jessica has never encountered such low prices and is enjoying it. For me I missed it as my last trips abroad have been to Germany and Israel which are not cheap and not easy on the wallet. We are staying at a nice but basic hotel. Its several old houses connected by gardens that is kept spotless. Its about fifteen minute walk to the center and most notably only 25 dollars a night for both of us. Jessica bought her first back pack, head lamp and hiking shoes for this trip. I am turning her into a back packer! (or trying). She has been very good about it all considering how foreign it is to her. Its a different manner of travel than she is accustomed to. She packed lighter than me even! Her pack weighing only 24 pounds and mine weighs 34 pounds not including all my photo gear but granted I packed things for both of us.
We walked around and the crowded streets to various plazas and had a beer at a cool locale that reminded me of a beer hall with very high ceilings and was open air and was on a second story above the pedestrian walk way below where we people watched. The city itself is full of concrete and not just the buildings and side walks. The street lamps are made of concrete, the trash cans, the benches, the monuments and everything you can imagine or not imagine is made of concrete. I have seen this in other poor nations which lacked natural resources like iron, hard stone and others. The streets are dirty, the air horrible, the plazas are modern looking and full of concrete. In short not a very attractive or inviting city exept for one saving grace which is the people are friendly and helpful. Last night Jessica fell asleep early and I was restless so I went out alone. I stopped some foreigners on the street and asked them where is good to go out. They were heading to a bar and invited me along. It was two girls (an italian and a French girl and two french guys). We all spoke in Spanish and I have been holding my own which I m proud of. They lived here and worked with an NGO and we walked to a bar in the California neigborhood. The streets were full of underage drinkers hanging out getting drunk. The bars here check ids of everyone. The bar was large with different rooms. They played a MJ tribute for awhile with blown speakers. The beers were ice cold and so cold one was frozen which although I drank half of it till I realized it was frozen they replaced it for free. I hung out with this very pretty Italian girl and her Costa Rican guy friend (who oddly reminded me of myself), we spoke for awhile and the Italian girl bought us beers. I got drunk and at one point with out saying good bye I just left since I felt it was time. I was not that drunk but I drank enough on an empty stomach and was dehydrated. I found my way by foot back to the hotel although the guide books and locals said DO NOT WALK AT NIGHT. The foreigers I met felt it was safe though and I always think fuck it i am a New Yorker! I walked back late, drunk, with stray cats and sleeping people in the streets to keep me company. Jessica was sound asleep and I climbed into bed smelling of cigarrettes and beer. I woke up hung over and queasy. I spent my day recooperating in bed. We went out for awhile but I felt like throwing up which I didn´t but wanted to. I slept more and later we went out to dinner. This time I had the arroz con pollo and she had spagetti and sauce. The fruit juice was wonderful we drank morra (sp?), and a mixed one with papaya, pineapple and morra. We walked around and nearly stumbled into a very bad neighborhood but our spidey sense told us to walk back. We walked around looking for a place to have a drink in the dark streets against being warned not to do so. It was sketch and a bit nerve racking but thankfully uneventful. Jessica was very brave but got startled when three youths headed towards with one had his hand in the pocket. Jessica´s instinct said lets go but I deliberately was looking at the map in front of a five star hotel which was near, well lit and had an attendent. I chided her a bit and she hates to be chided. One I told her let me decide who is threat or not when possible, two never run or show fear to predators, and three do not run from the brightly lit lobby but TO the lobby! It was fine we even saw the same kids on an desolate street later and they ignored us. In the end Jessica was not in the mood for a beer and we walked back to the hotel but ended up looking for a poor kitten we saw earlier with cans of tuna. The orange and white kitten seemed sickly and hungry. We never found it but gave tuna to some other strays. We got back not so long ago and she is in the room and I am on the computer blogging. We are unsure where we are going tomorrow and will decide that now...
I did not write this as descriptively as I might have but this will suffice for now...