Arrival in San Jose

I arrived at the hotel around 5.30pm and have already tried the pool, the jacuzzi (where I met Kimberley and Daniel from Charlotte USA) and the restaurant where I had proper fresh food to make up for the series of airline snacks I have had today. I am hoping my body clock has now switched to Costa Rica time as I have been up nearly 24hrs! Tomorrow am off to explore the city.

View of San Jose by night from my 9th floor room

And by day

Saturday was a day of education visiting the two main museums in San Jose. The first was an underground museum combining art, a numismatic gallery, the precolumbian and gold museum. There was a wonderful exhibition of musical instruments from'pre contact' times, the name given for the period prior to the Spanish invasion. They were mostly pottery including aerophonic, membranophonic, and idiophonic and were beautifully made, from pottery or metals. The second was the Jade museum which again gave the cultural history of how various tribes were organised and lived symbiotically with nature; it displayed jade and pottery pieces used in ceremonies an had a very educational display of items used in sexual ceremonies!!!

I also visited the market which was similar to many I have visited before. However the thing which quite overwhelmed me about San Jose was the noise, which accelerated as the day went on. So from the morning with the music blaring from shops and the traders encouraging you to part with your money, the streets filled with numerous traders ( I was told many come from Nicaragua) selling everything from fruit and veg to scarfs, socks and hundreds of battery operated fluffy dogs. They were all trying to outdo one another with their sales pitch and the noise was incredible!