Costa Rica Begins

Costa Rica - The Start and San Jose

Being laid off your job can feel euphoric at first if it's something that you wanted. Suddenly you have all this freedom and endless possibilities. You spend some time visiting friends and running around enjoying everything you missed over the last year. You sleep in, eat junk food, and don't go to the gym. This is great and fine and fun, but eventually the feeling that you should be doing more begins to set in. I attempted to find work in forensics, in archaeology, and even as a PA for Em's industry.

One by one each option let me down and I realized that I was just putting off traveling for some unknown reason. Thus an impromptu plan was formed. I had wanted to travel to SE Asia, but Em kept giving me weird,  wounded puppy dogs eyes every time I mentioned wanting to go there. This is was out out as an option. A bunch of people I know had gone to Costa Rica (one had just returned) and so that was fresh in my mind and I decided that that was where I was going to go.

As I was making my possibly rash decision, a friend from my last job, who was also currently unemployed, Cammi, called to see how I was. She was also currently at home wondering what to do with herself. I told her my plan and she decided to get on board the crazy train. So with no real ideas of what we were going to do or see and armed solely with a one way ticket, I set off on this current adventure a week later.

One of Em's college roommates, Stacey, moved to Costa Rica a few years ago and currently runs a yoga studio and walking tour company in the capital of San Jose. Em got me in touch with her ex-roomie and Stacey graciously offered to let Cammi and I stay for a few nights when we first arrived.

Sleep deprived and with the the remains of a cold still clinging to me, I arrived in San Jose and was met by Cammi, Stacey, and Stacey's husband, Robert. The international airport here is really small and therefore it's pretty easy to find people. Apparently you can just walk up to a random girl drinking a beer and ask if they're the friend of the sister of your old college roommate and you're pretty likely to find the person that you were looking for.

Stacey and Robet live in a one-bedroom apartment that is attached to their yoga studio and across the courtyard from a massage studio. It's a cute, typical starter home located in Downtown San Jose (which makes it a great home base from which to wonder the city). The yoga studio and also a downtown art/architecture/history walking tour company are Stacey's brain-children and they seem to be doing well.

The first day that we arrived, Cammi and I just wandered the downtown area in an effort to put off wanting to crash right away.

Our second day (and only full one in the city) was packed with a trip to the local museum, a historic tour (curtesy of Stacey's company), some traditional cusine, and some catching up with Stacey and Robert.

Cammi and I set out early to explore the National Museum of Costa Rica. The venue for this museum is pretty different in that it's an old fort. This particular old fort used to house the military contingent for the Costa Rican army in the 1800s before they were dissolved (Costa Rica is one of the only countries in the world without a formalized military). The president at the time actually knocked down one of the crenallations from the turret in a symbolic gesture of its abolition.

The museum, while small, is packed with a good amount of exhibits in a variety of subjects. You get to start by wandering through the butterfly habitat while you climb the ramp up to the old fort's parapet. At the top, you exit the butterflies and enter a quaint courtyard that is rung with smaller exhibition halls.

One of the other notable items held at the museum are these mysterious spheres. These are solid rock spheres of varying diameters that were created by an unknown indigenous culture 2-3 thousand years B.C. All of the spheres are 95% perfectly round. It's believed based on the formations some of them were found in that they may have had astrological connotations.

In the afternoon,  Cammi and I tagged along on a city tour being run by Stacey and led by Mariel. The tour was three hours and walked us around a few different areas in the city. Mariel did a good job of showing us some of the older buildings, a few churches, some street art, and a few other odds and ends.

In the evening we had some local cuisine and Robert even made us some friend plantains since I was disappointed that the resturant didn't have any.

The next morning we set out for Monteverde.