Harry at the Pre-Columbus Gold Museum. We saw 8 people in there.
Costa Rica is a farming country. Lots of lovely cheap fruit. We are in the tropics.
CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE
Lulu and I decided to do a "Ted Cruz" and get out of the country. I did it because I wanted to be a good Dad. We flew to Costa Rica - landing at 4000 feet in the mountains of this Central American Democracy. We are spending 2 nights in the capital city of San Jose. Although the country has 5 million people - half of them live in the Central Valley around this city - and the rest are scarcely spread out over this farming nation.
At 10 degrees North latitude - we are deeply in the tropics. Every day is rough 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night. The temperatures are the same all year. We are in the dry season right now - we had 75 degrees and sunny today and a nice breeze. It is surprising they do not need AC here so much because we are up high in the mountains. Down at the coasts on the Atlantic and Pacific - it is warmer being at sea level. There are mountains here as high at 12,000 feet.
We walked the streets today - eating - shopping - and visiting the National Theatre and the Pre-Columbus Gold Museum. We walked a lot and I get tired much more quickly here in the high altitude. Also - I have already experienced "Montezuma's Revenge" a little :-). With the sun and breeze you can get sun burn quickly. We are also adjusting to Central Time.
Here are a few of the pictures we took. I have described them as I go.
The Grand Hotel of Costa Rica is on the main square. It is a Hilton - but just has a little Hilton sign on the counter. We will be here two nights. Monday we drive to our volcano hotel.
There are tons of restaurants including the chains. McDonald's has a chocolate cone that is nice. 600 Colones equal one USA dollar. Every restaurant and store takes credit card - and that is the best conversion rate.
They like John Lennon - here is a statue of him. He lived from 1940 to 1980 - 40 years. He has been dead 40 years. He led The Beatles - and also was a counter culture hero.
We liked this church as we walked by. There was a service going on.
Lulu peeked in.
The National Theatre had an 11AM tour. There were about 10 people on that tour - all masked - many from the USA. We met two ladies from Florida - here for implants - DENTAL implants.
Our Grand Hotel - the lobby is in the glass area at the top. We walked all over town from here.
This was the restaurant in the National Theatre. You could have a drink and snack before the shows.
The wooden floor of the theatre went up and down about three feet. It was made of cedar lumber from the mountains.
In the theatre was this intermission lobby.
We were right next to the president's box.
This is a statue of Anne Frank. What a sad story of her hiding and being captured by the Nazis and dying in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. It reminded me of Trump taking immigrant kids form their parents at the border.
Art work in front of the museum.
Columbus arrived in 1502 in Costa Rica. The Spanish had guns and pillaged Latin America. They took so much gold back to Spain. This museum had a giant collection of gold art - Pre-Columbus. It was $14 - and we saw just a handful of people inside. There were more hosts than guests.
Following are many samples of pure gold art - made before 1500.
The museum also had a gold coin display. The currency is the Colone. It takes 611 Colones to make one USA dollar. There must have been inflation because look at this 20 Colone Gold Piece. It was the size of a quarter. Today - it would be worth less than a penny.
When entering stores - this machine takes your temperature. If you have a fever - an alarm goes off.
These beautiful pineapples are cheap 2 for 1000 Colones is less than a dollar each pineapple.
Papayas are popular here. I had them for breakfast and could not taste them. My pineapple and watermelon made up for it.
Giant radishes were cheap - 3 big bunches for like 80 cents.
They're Great!
Choco the Elephant.
Don Pepe - this is the guy that eliminated the military in 1949. They have been at peace for 72 years. That is the National Museum in the background.
What is this? I have no idea. It was at the National Museum.
Lulu shook this door and the alarm went off. We ran.
Lulu loves shopping - these SYR shops are all over. Mostly clothes - mostly size 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment