Central America,  Independent travel,  Photography,  Travel Blog

Into Costa Rica: San Jose

December 16, 2021 /

With COVID protocols and admin overcome, we have made it, and on Tuesday December 14th we finally arrived in the Costa Rican capital ready for what is planned to be a 7-week tour followed by a detour to California before we head home.

If the traffic on the way into the city is anything to go by, then San Jose is one heavily congested capital. It takes over an hour to inch our way through heaving, chugging giant trucks, buses belching fumes and huge numbers of less than pristine cars, from the airport to downtown San Jose.

  • Soledad Church
  • National Museum

Darkness falls during that hour, and brings with it just a hint of jet lag: it may be early evening here but with a 6-hour time difference our body clocks are already past midnight. A quick wander around the centre and a first Costa Rican meal follow, and the first “Tico” beer, Imperial, is promisingly pleasant – the beer here does enjoy a good reputation.

  • San Jose Cathedral

In truth we aren’t expecting miracles from San Jose, this is a city which housed only 70,000 inhabitants in 1948 but which has grown to over 2 million today, so undoubtedly much of it will be modern. Its history as a major coffee trading centre will though most likely provide at least one exciting culture to explore.

One of many sculptures, San Jose

What San Jose lacks as a spectacle it more than makes up for in spirit: this is a city of colour and verve, bustling, vibrant and happy. Latino music is ever present, its rapid rhythms bursting from shops, doorways, apartments and bars. Lottery ticket sellers bark their repetitive sales spiel above the babble of the streets, unseen birds squawk parrot sounds from the trees, the traffic hums and every now and again sirens wail.

It’s colourful here

Everything seems to be in bright colours, whether it’s the jazzy clothing of the Ticos, garishly painted city buildings or the street art bringing blank walls to life, you can’t help but be dazzled by the brilliant colours. Mexico meets Africa meets Caribbean. And somehow those colours fit perfectly with these first impressions of Costa Rica, and of San Jose, for this is a lively, vibrant city where buzzing non-stop action stimulate the senses from dawn till dusk.

Stall in Mercado Central

What San Jose can boast is some cavernous and beautiful churches, more than its fair share of themed museums and a collection of bustling markets where the decibel level seems to be yet another notch up from the buzzing streets. Markets are always a great way to feel the pulse of a city, doubly so when those markets are home to earthy, packed-to-the-rafters eateries.

The “Mercado Central” here is one such market and we just have to indulge in a plateful of the Tico national dish, gallo pinto, while the noise and the manic activity buzzes around us, and just about every other diner greets us with typically broad smiles and an eager welcome.

San Jose’s pride and joy, and its most majestic building, is not, as is commonplace worldwide, a royal or presidential establishment, but is the incredibly grand National Theatre, one of three large theatres in the centre. We take a guided tour around its opulent interior and marvel at its splendour, clearly this is a place where no expense was spared in its construction.

National Theatre

Fabulously wealthy coffee exporters backed the initial presidential budget for its creation, which, influenced by sorties to Europe and visits to grand theatres there, incorporated into the design, importation of huge quantities of marble and commissioning of artists, sculptors and architects from Italy, France and Greece.

  • Inside the National Theatre

This ambitious project went just a little over budget: in fact it ended up costing fifteen times the original estimate, forcing the Government to implement new taxes to fund its completion. It also overran timescales by 7 years. The legacy though is magnificent, a glorious, sumptuous theatre in the style of Europe’s finest.

San Jose’s vibrant atmosphere is so rewarding and so stimulating, but that atmosphere is its main attraction, and consequently two days here is probably sufficient. And so for us our next destination is the Pacific coast, nearly 4,000 feet lower and several degrees warmer.

  • Fire station sculpture
  • Outside the National Bank
  • Street art
  • Cathedral Nativity scene

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