Today started off with a pleasant train ride into the the capitol city of Costa Rica, San Jose. From there we embarked on our journey to the central square which was close by and very pretty. This was right next to the legislative building which looked very boring and seemed more like a prison than a place for policy making. Right next to it was the National Museum of Costa Rica which we got to explore with our lovely guide Jorge. There we got to see some sculptures and items from the precolonial era and some of the outfits that conquistadors wore later in time. We then moved on to take a look at the casa amarillo which was created due to donations from Pittsburgh’s very own Andrew Carnegie in his initiative to create international courts for justice.
We then moved on to explore the old theatre where we got to look at a very unique theatre that can change the height of the area where the audience seats. This is an affordable place where the residents of San Jose. The funding of this building and many others like it came from the rich coffee plantation owners of the 18-1900’s. While at the time they may have only been meant for the wealthy elite, its nice that now many of the middle class can enjoy the arts in such nice spaces.
Afterwards we moved onto the market where we explored a bit before settling in to eat lunch. We ate lunch at a soda where they served typical Costa Rican food that was super delicious. Once we finished we ventured off to explore more stalls at the market and grab some ice cream before eventually ending at the bus stop to go back to Heredia. Much like Pittsburgh, San Jose has many different busses that service the greater metro area of more than 2.5 million people for an affordable price. One major difference though is that they don’t have a very strict policy on street addresses so it can sometimes be hard to find attractions or housing without referencing more well know areas.