We disembark, take a bus to San Jose, take a tour of San Jose the next day, and head home
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A 6 am wake up call from the crew to make sure we’re ready to go. Then onto the busses for the 2 hr ride to San Jose. First stop, Los Suenos which was just down the road. It’s a Marriott resort that looked very very nice. We might need to come back there at some point. Then through some towns and up into the mountains. San Jose is in an inland valley and we had to get up over the one side to get there. The roads were very twisty-turny and we were in a good sized bus. But the scenery was great, both the land/mountains/views and the people/houses/towns.
We stopped about halfway at a great little souvenir shop. Plenty of tourist crap but also some really nice wooden things and more molas. There were a couple of Indian women in the back making more. I really wanted to take their picture but couldn’t quite bring myself to ask them.
Then some more twisty turny roads and into the San Jose suburbs. On the way to the hotel we passed Intel. The hotel is pretty basic and in the middle of strip malls and highways but the room doesn’t move, you can take a shower without standing on the toilet, the water is hot and the bed and pillows are soft. They even have free Internet. So no complaints. And there seems to be a small army protecting it. At least 4 or 5 security guards with some serious looking weapons patrolling the grounds. There are a variety of tours you can take from the hotel so we’ll pick something out for tomorrow.
We found a great little Mexican restaurant where the waiter was very friendly and we got to speak a bit more Spanish. There really hasn’t been much opportunity. A little shopping and then nap time for most, except for me. I don’t nap. So log writing for me instead.
For dinner we headed back over to the mall to the Cuban restaurant we had seen. Turns out Hugh is a big fan of Cuban food having spent a fair amount of time in Florida. The food was great and the waiter, who was Cuban, was a lot of fun. He was very interested in talking to us and telling us about how he had moved there. And in the end, he offered us cigars (which we declined) and after dinner drinks (which we accepted) on the house.
Sun 11/18: San Jose
We signed up for the City Tour, which wasn’t until the afternoon. So we slept in and had a quiet morning, continuing the process of waiting for the room to stop feeling like it was moving like the boat. We had heard the night before from some folks who went on the tour yesterday that they had arrived over an hour late and that a couple of the folks on the tour were “ugly Americans” and they didn’t enjoy it very much. So we were a bit leery.
And it turned our they were late for us too, but only about 10 minutes. But the whole thing was a bit weird. A guy drives up in an unmarked van. Clearly not the tour bus. He says yes, come with him, and takes my tour receipt. So we climb on and discover a couple of other folks who are taking the tour so we felt a little better that we weren’t being kidnapped.
We drove through a bit of San Jose, which is pretty much a pit. The driver is saying nothing, weaving through traffic and not paying much attention to stop signs. We pull up to a hotel and he says, okay get out here. Well, where the hell is here? What’s happening? But we dutifully get out and discover a few more tour folks. Turns out the tour bus is meeting us there but no one tells us this and there where stand wondering what’s going on until it arrived. And luckily I remembered to get our receipt back from the van driver who would have driven off with it and we wouldn’t have been allowed on.
The tour guide was a young Costa Rican girl and she was quite good. We learned some history and she described various neighborhoods and social structures. We managed to find some nice examples of French and Spanish architecture and passed by the legislature and judicial buildings. But in general, my impression that San Jose was a pit was not much changed.
We got out of the bus and walked to the Gold Museum. Our only real foray into the streets and plenty enough for my taste. It was a bit scary. The museum was very interesting with examples of native artifacts. Lots of gold items as you might expect from the name. We also got some understanding of the four primary symbols the natives used (vulture for power, frog for soil fertility, shaman for safety and “music guy”).
From there we went to the National Theater which is a great building but since it was Sunday it was closed. We were able to go in the lobby but would have really liked to have had the full tour. And from there to the Cathedral, which was nice but nothing special in my mind.
Back to the bus to drive through the poor area and the upscale area. Which frankly weren’t all that different. We passed the president’s house. Literally his house since in Costa Rica, the president just lives wherever he always did. A single secret service agent sat out front and there was a police car across the street. We had more guards at the Courtyard Marriott.
Our final stop was the Emerald and something “museum”. Another classic ‘tour’ stop where we were offered the opportunity to buy jewelry, wooden items and such. Marion found a great little sloth pendant and Audrey and Hugh bought a number of wooden boxes. But the museum staff was disappointed when Marion did not buy the emerald ring she was looking at.
We had dinner that night with Barbara and Allen at the Italian place next door. Which was excellent. There was quite a variety of restaurants in the little strip mall and we gave Cruise West a lot more credit for choosing it than we did originally.
Mon 11/19: San Jose to Portland
Another 4am wakeup to catch the bus at 4:45. Next trip, better flight times. Quite a long line at the Continental counter at the airport but that was mostly because they hadn’t opened yet. A very cursory passport check through security and we were through immigration. We found some breakfast at the Burger King and headed off to Houston.
We had 6 hours to kill in Houston. We had lunch at a great little diner (Ruby’s I think) where the burgers were great. Then basically sat around for awhile until it was time to head out. Audrey and Hugh’s flights and ours were at about the same time so it worked out pretty well. We said our goodbyes and headed home.
Unfortunately for us, we were sitting behind the Clampetts on their way to Portland and in front of two little girls who behaved themselves mostly but couldn’t help kicking the chairs and shrieking every so often. But all in all not a bad flight.
I had to let Marion in on the gas situation while we were in Houston. And I wasn’t really sure where the nearest gas station was. When I started the car it said 11 miles but by the time we cleared the parking exit it was already down to 9. We headed out Airport Way where Daniel thought there was a station but it turned out there wasn’t. Now down to 6. But luckily the next exit had a sign for gas and we pulled into the Shell station with 4 miles to go. Our last little adventure of the trip.
The kitties were glad to see us and we were very glad to sleep in our own beds. I ended up with 1200 pictures and now the sorting and culling process begins.
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