No More Dirt...The House is Sold!: San Jose, Costa Rica

After a short two and a half hour flight from Orlando, Fl we landed in San Jose, Costa Rica at about 1:30 pm on May 1st. Customs and car rental took about another 2 hours. Driving from the airport and getting lost in downtown San Jose another 3 hours brought us to our B&B the boutique Hotel Casa 69 at 6:00 pm. (CR time which is two hours behind US east coast time)

Bienvenida!!! Our inn hostess Alma was most gracious and sweet.We asked for a recommendation for a good restaurant for Tico food. After a short walk of 6 blocks we found an eclectic local Costa Rican restaurant with very friendly staff and great food!

Nuestra Tierra restaurant San Jose

The next morning brought back memories of our last trip to CR with a wonderful bouquet of fresh fruit and fresh squeezed juice for breakfast, followed by some fresh Costa Rican style french baguette bread and wonderful marmalade, Oh...oh eight weeks of this and we will be coming home a size or two larger. You can also order eggs and such from a menu.

At entrance to B&B

Breakfast area 1

Fresh flowers in our room

Enjoying a Cerveza outside our room

Breakfast area 2

Courtyard surrounded by plants

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After breakfast we set out to explore the Museo Nacional a few blocks away. The museum was once a military fortress built in 1917. Some of the exterior walls still have many bullets lodged in them from the country's civil war in 1948. It became the site of the museum in 1950 after the military was abolished. You enter the museum through the butterfly garden full of numerous species of plants and butterflies of the Costa Rican central valley. The lush plants and colorful butterflies are breath taking! The Pre-Columbian History section takes you through a chronological journey since BC all the way through the Spaniards in 1500. Many beautiful archeological artifacts of gold, pottery and jade.

Front entrance to Museo Nacional

Side view of museum - old barracks & commander's house

Heliconia

Kathrin exploring where she is not supposed to be

Beautiful butterflies

Ceiling in museum

Carved from one piece of sandstone

Early food grater

Early pottery

Beautiful jade

There is a spectacular archaeological sight in southern Costa Rica called "Diquis Delta" dating back to 600 through 1000 before the Spaniards. They have uncovered hundreds of stone spheres of various sizes from 6.6 in diameter to 15 tons in weight. They are sculpted from limestone, sandstone or basalt. Thoughts on where they came from range from the indigenous people of CR to visitors from space. In addition to a large collection at the Museo National you will find them throughout the city.

Photo of one of the archaelogical digs

Inside a modern artist's interpretation

A few of many spheres discovered

A sphere found in a grave sight

A display of spheres out in the museum courtyard

A modern artist's sphere at the entrance to museum

Today May 3rd we went to visit El Teatro Nacional. The construction of the National Theatre of Costa Rica began in 1891 and opened in 1897 with a performance of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe's "Faust". The construction was directed by an Italian Engineer and so you will see in many of the paintings that the women look Italian rather than Costa Rican. The architecture is Neo-classical and throughout the theatre are many other European influences in art - baroque, renaissance, medieval. It was truly a spectacular theatre & a tour worth taking!