Author: Jane and Jeff

This morning as we are enjoying our coffee we talk about what we want to do today. We go online and search “Top 10 things to do in San Jose, Costa Rica”  where we discover there is an event every Tuesday (today!) at the Teatro Nacional at noon. We had planned to visit the National Theater and here is a great opportunity.  We need to hurry though because it is a 35-40 minute walk to downtown. Snarfing down a quick breakfast of toast and coffee, we grab our phones (i.e. cameras), umbrella, raincoats and hurry out.

Arriving at the Theater we’re stunned by the beauty of the lobby. We ask and discover that to buy tickets we need to go outside and around the corner. In order to get there we had to walk by a large group of senior citizens sitting on risers by the entrance; a woman was in front of them talking. We tried to walk behind her but she stopped us and everyone began to clap and cheer!  Jeff continued on, but she grabbed me for an impromptu conversation in Spanish. They were a senior citizen group from somewhere in Costa Rica who had come to the city for the concert.  Finally, I shout “Pura Vida!!” at them to which they all laugh and clap again.  What fun!

We buy our tickets at the booth, “Dos boletos por el concierto, por favor.” The cost is higher than we expected; we thought the tickets were 1,000 colones but they are 3,000 colones each (which is about $5 USD a piece) Still quite a bargain!  While buying those, I asked about a tour. The theater tours are held every hour, so we buy tickets for that as well, it will begin immediately after the concert.

We have good seats on the 2nd floor and can see the whole theater. The lady next to me, a Tica, is pleasant and we chat a little; she helps me with a verb tense. The people of Costa Rica that we’ve encountered are very nice.

The concert is excellent.

In total there are six opera singers and one pianist. The singers do solo pieces, duets and finally the entire ensemble performs together. What a great concert; we’re so happy we stumbled upon this.

Afterwards we return to the lobby to meet our tour guide. Turns out there are only three on the tour: Jeff and I and a young Chinese man, who went to college in the US and is now working and living in Mexico City. This is his Mexican border run. We like him immediately and the three of us are awed by the things we learn.  For example, San Jose, Costa Rica was the 3rd city in the world to have electric lights -> behind only Paris and New York City. Who knew??

The theater, built between 1891-1897, was designed in a Palladian Neo Renaissance style by Italian architects and the many frescos on the ceiling and walls were painted in Italy, shipped to Costa Rica and glued in place!  The artists who painted these beauties had never been to Costa Rica and our guide pointed out that the women in one specific painting, done by Italian artist Alearo Villa, who was working from verbal descriptions of Costa Rica,  look like buxom Italian women and in it a man is holding a bunch of bananas incorrectly. Despite those rather obvious errors, the painting, Alegoría del comercio y la agricultura de Costa Rica (Allegory of commerce and agriculture of Costa Rica), was, in 1971, used as the image on  Costa Rica’s 5 bill. Indeed, outside the theater there are hawkers selling these old bills with the painting on them.

Below is a photo of one of the many Italian ceiling frescoes.

The National Theater would never have been built if it weren’t for the local coffee barons.  The coffee plantation owners banded together and agreed to add a tax to every bag of coffee sold in order to finance the construction of a national theater. And this beautiful building is the result of that self-imposed tax.

The artwork in the theater isn’t the only fascinating thing about this building…the architectural stuff was wild. For example, in the basement beneath the orchestra seats in the auditorium, there is a manual mechanism that used to be turned by donkeys, but is now pushed by hand. This mechanism lifts the floor of the auditorium to the level of the stage. So, the auditorium now becomes one huge room where balls and presidential banquets are held.  So, step one, take out all the seats on the floor of the hall; step two, take a bunch of folks to the basement (and we saw a photo of the current president of Costa Rica doing this) to push the big wheel around and around until the floor is level with the stage; step three, perform CPR on all the pushers.

The photo below is of the “widow boxes” which are private boxes on each side of the theater near the front of the stage.  This is where widowed women could come enjoy the theater without being subjected to people seeing them and debating whether they should be out enjoying themselves. (Apparently widowers were free to party anytime.) Famous people also had access to these areas so they could be at a performance and not be bothered.

The widow boxes are now used for storage and for audio equipment.

There were also private men’s and women’s salons in the theater. Perfect for gossiping or getting away from your spouse for a bit.

 

 

 

Where we had been seated during the concert turned out to be right next to the President’s box. And the President of Costa Rica does use this seating area when he is at a performance.

This photo of some wooden flooring is not only of gorgeous wood working, but it is significant in that the floor contains twenty different types of Costa Rican wood.  This small area was left uncovered when the area was carpeted. Naturally it is blocked off so you can’t walk on it. It was beautiful.

Our hour tour ends on time at 2pm, but with our ticket sticky badges we are free to wander the building as much as we like. We take the opportunity t0 explore and to take lots of photos.

It is 3:30 and our hurried breakfast of toast and coffee seems forever ago. Happily the Teatro has a cafe and when we walk in I see an enormous piece of pie. I say enormous because it is so overfilled with chunks of fruit that is it huge. We order a piece of pie with ice cream to share, and sit at a window table to watch the passing crowd. Great pie! Now I think we’ll have enough energy to walk home.

Though the weather forecast indicates a 100% chance of rain every day we are in San Jose, so far there have only been a few drops; but I guess that counts; after all, it did rain.
Back home, we relax and turn on the World Series. It is a bit disconcerting to hear it in Spanish, so I fire up my Ipad thinking we’ll listen to the English broadcast while we watch TV. It was a good plan, except the game on TV was a full play ahead of the audio. That was much worse!  Back to Spanish.  Jeff did like it when the count was 2 balls/2 strikes because the announcers would say “dos y dos” (dose ee dose) which he found very funny.

Time for bed! See you tomorrow?

 

 

 

 

Because we are in San Jose specifically to attend our “ex-pat 101” seminar this Thursday and Friday, and because we haven’t rented a car, we’re thinking it would be a good idea to walk to the ARCR (Association of Residents of Costa Rica) offices where the seminar will be held. We want an idea of how far and how long our trek will be.

After a quick breakfast of coffee and cereal, Jeff checks the location on his phone. Hang on… This shows that our condo is a lot further from ARCR than we thought, like a long cab ride further. But then we realize Jeff entered the address the condo owner gave us where the calle/avenida’s were backwards. Correcting that error, we see that ARCR is indeed within walking distance (about a mile), and off we go.

Any research you do on San Jose, Costa Rica, will tell you it is a high crime city with lots of pick-pocketing and non-violent mugging. In my mind, that sounds pretty much like any major city in the US, still we are careful to put our money and ids in zippered pockets. Of course we stand out as gringos, but we walk purposefully and I don’t think we put off that “we’re clueless tourists” vibe. Well, considering the amount of international traveling we do, I sure hope we don’t give off that vibe!

Our walk is along a busy street which is easily crossed on  a long, steel pedestrian bridge accessed by about a million steep steps up and a million steep steps down. Along the walk we pass the National Art Museum, a small unassuming building along the side of the road. This little building and the surrounding area used to be San Jose Airport. It was teensy.

Our walk takes us around La Sabana, a large, beautiful park. Think of it as the Costa Rican equivalent of NY’s Central Park. There are people strolling, running, using the exercise equipment in the park and makes the area so vibrant.

A turn down a side street takes us to the ARCR offices. We go into the building and introduce ourselves. “We wanted to walk down to see how long it would take so we aren’t late for the seminar on Thursday.” We tell the receptionist. “Oh, the meeting isn’t held here,” she responds with a cheery smile. “It will be at the Palmares Hotel.” I did NOT say, “Are you kidding me???” but I sure wanted to.  She takes us to meet the meeting organizer so we can pay our registration and officially get all the details. At least now we know. Turns out the hotel is only 4-5 blocks from the ARCR offices. Jeff and I pay our registrations, look around the office where I’m pleased to see a free member library. Leaving there we look at each other. “Okay, lets go find the Hotel Palmares,” Jeff says. I jam my hat back onto my sweaty head and we start out. It is an easy walk and we both sigh with happiness when we get there and feel the air conditioning.

Our return to the condo, retracing our steps, around the park, over the pedestrian bridge (like a giant stair stepper over a 4-lane highway), and back up the hill to the condo. Golly it’s hot!

Jeff has a response from the guy, Roy, who is the owner of the cabin we might be interested in.  He and Jeff have a couple of messages back and forth. We’re hoping he can accommodate our timing and he does allow pets! (I’m not going anywhere with my Rufus-kitty.)

Tonight’s dinner is spaghetti with one of those cute little sauce packets. Very tasty!  We hang out…Jeff looks some more at la puerta del cielo and I read.

After our hot walk, we go to sleep early.

We do sleep in a little bit this morning, but eventually get up and make breakfast. While Jeff straightens up the kitchen, I make the bed and take out the trash. We want to leave the house as tidy as it was when we arrived.

We decide to send an email to the owner of the Puerto del Cielo cabin and tell him we are interested and to share our time frame. We’ll see how/where that goes.

Soon Pedro and his wife (whose name I cannot say or spell, but it sounds like Patricia) pull up and they come in.  They seem stunned at how clean the house is. I mention that I had not washed the towels or sheets because I knew no one would be here to put them in the dryer and Pedro says “You can rent from us anytime! Anytime!”

We load our luggage, including a grocery sack filled with food that we are taking to our condo in San Jose, hop in and the four of us are off to the capital of Costa Rica.  We stop for gas (all the service stations here are full service) and are soon on our way for real.

I knew Pedro had made lunch reservations for the four of us and before leaving the house, I decided to exchange my tee shirt for a blouse and necklace, figuring any restaurant that needed reservations probably needed a nicer appearance. Boy, am I glad I did because, first of all, Pedro’s wife is a knock out and second, she is wearing the tightest, most gorgeous dress I’ve seen in years, along with high heels and make-up. (There’s no way I can step up my game that much!)

It is 45-50 minutes to San Jose and as we drive through the city, they point out various sites.  We arrive at Tin Jo, a very, very, very nice Asian restaurant. This place is great, and the menu is wonderful. I order miso soup, paneer with tofu and ginger/lime ice tea. Jeff has the same soup and salmon with some sort of glaze, veggies, and a glass of wine. Wow! YUM!

In Costa Rica, you eat your food when it arrives at the table and the dishes come out at different times. You eat while it is hot, not waiting until everyone at the table is served. And, the check is not brought automatically, but you must ask for it. Meals are to be relaxing and enjoyed…and this one was.

Now, to our condo. We are staying at “Condominio 6-30” and it’s a darn good thing I have Waze on my phone because we never would have found this place. The owner had mixed up the Avenida (avenue) and Calle (Street) numbers, but luckily, I had entered the name of the condo and not the address.  It takes some time to find, but here we are.  We say good-bye to Pedro and Patricia and start our big city adventure.

Unpacking is a breeze. I find a safe in the bedroom closet and before putting our passports into it, I make sure I know how to open and close it. Umm…no. Now its locked and I can’t get it open. Thank goodness it is empty.  Jeff tries and now the stupid thing is beeping. Oh dear. We text Elena, the owner, (she lives on the 11^th floor) and she says did you use the code?  “Code?” I text back.  “Yes, there is a code in the message I sent to Jeff.”  Well, okey dokey then.  Yup, there’s the number and it does work.

After a while, Elena stops down to meet and greet us and to see if we need anything. The only request that we have is for more coffee.  Though she lives in Costa Rica, home of some of the best coffee in the world, Elena has a Keurig; I guess that makes sense because this is a VRBO. And it is great of her to supply coffee at all.

For dinner we finish up our beans and rice with tortillas, and afterwards explore the little complex.  We find the swimming pool, which is a wide lap pool next to a kiddy pool. Eventually, after two tries, we find the workout room. It is small and has some weights, a couple of bikes and an elliptical.  It is going to be too cold to use the pool and we think we’ll get plenty of exercise walking everywhere.  Exploring for the evening complete we go back upstairs, where we are flummoxed by the condo door. It has an electronic lock, which is what we have at home, so that is not the issue; the issue is that we are supposed to touch the pad, two numbers will appear and then after you press those, the full keypad pops up, so you can type in the code. We take turns pushing on the keypad to no avail, but finally it works. Weird. It shouldn’t be that hard.

We hang out watching a Netflix movie for background noise while I cross-stitch, and Jeff does some more research on the Las Puerta del Cielos cabins. Soon it is time for bed.

Stop in tomorrow…we have some plans.

First of all, pura vida is the Costa Rican way…strictly translated it means “pure life” but is used as “that’s the way things are”, “have patience” sort of stuff. It is a catch all term commonly used for various situations.  Today was our pura vida day…

Today is going to be a Pedro-free day! We get up to wonderful sunshine and about a million birds chirping outside. Jeff makes breakfast and then we execute our plan, which is to drive to Alajuela (all the way back to the San Jose airport) and go to Walmart.  No, we are not enamored of Walmart, but there are certain things we buy there that we want to check the availability of here.  We have a list.

Getting in the car, we check: sunglasses, money, Walmart list, etc., etc.  The car doesn’t start right off but the second time it is fine and we’re off. For the first time in the 7-8 visits we’ve made to Costa Rica, we do not get lost going to WalMart!  Google maps is almost useless here, and Waze (pronounced ‘ways’) is what everyone uses. Waze takes us straight to Walmart, where we spend 2 hours walking around the store. No kidding…2 hours of wandering up and down the aisles looking at products, sizes and prices and writing them down.  As we’re finishing up, I realize I’ve been hearing a tremendous roaring sound and Jeff says, “Let’s wait for the rain to let up.”  It is POURING outside! So, we pick up a couple of little souvenirs for friends and buy ourselves a bag of Lays potato chips and a 15 can case of beer (splurge!)

Eventually the rain stops, we pay for our goodies and scurry to the car. That was all we had on our list today; except maybe looking at another rental opportunity.  We haven’t done our due diligence on this one except asking a couple of questions of the owner. We know the house is in Los Angeles de San Ramon, but we don’t know if it is South Los Angeles or North Los Angeles; and it really doesn’t matter, it will be a nice drive.

And it was a nice drive – until it wasn’t.  I had forgotten that this highway, according to a San Ramon Facebook page, was under construction. When we got to the road construction we were the first car in line – or the car that didn’t get to go. So, we waited. And waited. And waited.  The construction guys walked up the growing line of cars selling watermelon slices, lottery tickets. Still waiting. Happily, we had stopped for gas in San Ramon and had a full tank. And waiting some more. After 30 minutes, we decide to open the chips. I had to convince Jeff that we were not opening the beer. Waiting…waiting.  FINALLY!!  We waited for almost 45 minutes! When we get up to Los Angeles (South), a mile and a half from where we were waiting (we could have walked up here and back in the time we had waited) there is a small restaurant on the side of the road. Since we have no idea where the potential house is or even if we are in the correct town, we decide to have a bite to eat and then just drive home. What is interesting, and a wee bit puzzling/annoying, is that the road construction is past the restaurant and stopping us a mile down the hill was bizarre. We will be able to just drive down without a long wait because we are below the construction area. So odd.

For lunch we order a vegetarian plate to share. It’s delicious. Lots of fresh vegetables, and one of my favorites, fried plantains. YUM!  But, it is getting time to head home. We are at a higher elevation here and the fog is starting to roll in; we don’t want to drive back down in the fog. So, we hop in the car and… it won’t start. Seriously??  Jeff tries several times; the car wants to start but won’t kick over.  Pedro had told us to ignore the check engine light which has been on, but not to worry about it. Well, now we are worrying about it… Still won’t start…and now it’s thundering.  Jeff and I both think it is the car’s fuel pump because when he turns the key, the car starts, runs for a split second and then sputters out.  Okay, pura vida.  Jeff tries to start it off and on for about 20 minutes. Time to call Pedro.

“Jane! How are you?”  “I’m stranded, Pedro. In Los Angeles del Sur outside the Mi Rancho restaurant.”  It takes a while to convince Pedro that it wasn’t the car’s battery that is the problem – I finally hand the phone to Jeff thinking maybe he needs to hear it from a man. So, we are stuck, and we are going to spoil Pedro’s Saturday as well.

He tells me that he will call his mechanic to come to us, and he will be on his way immediately. So, we wait.  Knowing that there is probably a 40-45-minute delay coming up, Jeff and I relax and chat. About 10 minutes later, we are surprised to see Marcello –Pedro’s construction foreman; I guess he knows something about cars because he has Jeff pop the hood.  He checks the oil (seriously??),  the battery connections (good lord).  Okay, now he has pulled the floor mat out of his car and is climbing under ours.  My phone rings. It is Pedro and he is calling to tell me that there must be some sort of big accident or something on the mountain because he is sitting in a long line of stopped traffic. I tell him about the construction.

Now it has started pouring rain and Marcello jumps back into his car to wait for a lull. The rain stops after a while; fog is rolling in for real. Jeff and I get out of the car to stretch our legs; I’m happy that we are stranded here because there is a bathroom and, if needed, alcoholic beverages! Marcello is back under the car banging away at something with a wrench or hammer.

We walk across the road to look at what is left of the view and hear a car roar up. Pedro has arrived much more quickly than we imagined he would, maybe 30 minutes after he called.  He chats quickly with Marcello, who has stopped hammering on the underside of the car, and tells Jeff he thinks it is the fuel pump (I do not roll my eyes).

Pedro calls a tow truck, pays Marcello to stay with the car and Jeff and I climb into Pedro’s car. What a riot!  He drives us home a different way which is fine, until at one intersection he stops and says, “I’m a little confused here.” but he guesses correctly and about an hour later we arrive home.  Pedro is concerned that now we don’t have a car – and he’s out of cars! LOL Since we are leaving tomorrow at 11:30 and he is driving us to San Jose, and we don’t drive after dark, that’s not an issue.  We thank him, go in the house, pop open a couple of beers and finish the chips.

Because we are leaving tomorrow at 11:30, we need to pack tonight; then, if we want to, we can sleep in a little.  Pura Vida indeed!