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Parque Nacional

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    • The big one
      11
      Day 208

      San Jose

      July 12, 2022 in Costa Rica ⋅ 🌧 22 °C

      We arrived in San Jose and was met with the classic Central American organisation, a 2 hour queue to get through immigration, nearly as long as the flight itself 😔 definitely the worst we have had so far.

      The town of San Jose is small and functional, at only 320,000 population it feels very different coming from the 5th largest. Although it lacks the colour and charm of Mexico City it makes up for it with some amazing museums. Unrelated to the town, things went slightly down here for us, Armelles phone mysteriously stopped working, definitely nothing to do with the charger that James dropped on it 🫣 and a dubious charge appeared on her card so that had to be blocked and cancelled.

      After a half day of admin and finding out Costa Ricans don't use Google Phones we managed to get Armelle a new device so she can WhatsApp you all again, and we finally made it to some amazing Museums. First up was the Jade Museum where we learnt how jade was shaped and used as a way to tell the person's rank in the society pre-Columbian.

      It's the raining season here so the next day we hit the other two big museums the Museum of Gold and coins. Again this museum focuses on the pre-Columbian time, and even if no big civilisation like the Maya existed in the zone of Costa Rica, the population was definitely influenced by maya and had trades with them. We could see similarity in the way they were living and the importance they gave to animals and what they symbolised.

      Finally we made it to the National Museum, in a nice yellow building. Again it started with the pre-Columbian history but this time went all the way to today, even the pandemic was included! It was interesting to learn about how Costa Rica was constructed after their independence in 1825 from the Spanish and how they managed to create a country that seems very good to live in! Can you guess what's the top product that Costa Rica exports?

      After a less than auspicious start to Costa Rica, San José definitely left a positive impression.      Read more

    • TravelerMexico to Panama 2023
      Day 85

      San Jose

      March 30, 2023 in Costa Rica

      Auf dem weg nach Puerto Viejo muss ich umsteigen. Eigentlich kein großes Problem. Am Ende finde ich auch den richtigen Bus aber leider bis ich ein Ticket habe ist der Bus weg und ich habe 4 Stunden Zeit San José anzuschauen. Also Busbahnhof stabil. Offener Drogenkonsum und viele Obdachlose aber wenig Prostitution. Rest der Stadt auch nicht unbedingt ein Highlight.Read more

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    • TravelerMexico and Costa Rica
      Day 15

      Goodbye Mexico, Hello Costa Rica

      October 19, 2023 in Costa Rica ⋅ 🌧 23 °C

      Thur 19 Oct: I was in two minds whether to get up for a final sunrise stroll along the beach. I was so tired last night, the thought of a sleep in was very tempting but it was our last morning in Mexico. I did set the alarm, however my dodgy stomach made the decision for me too miss the stroll. I'm starting to think maybe it wasn't the antibiotics because they should be out of the system by now. Anyway, still had to have a shower - my hair was a mass of tangles from yesterday, and packing to do. Left Playa del Carmen just after 9 am, and about 45 minutes got to the rental company to drop the car off. Check in at the airport was very efficient with a staff member coming to the self check-in kiosk and had our boarding passes and luggage labels printed out in no time. Dropping our bags off took a little longer as she wanted to check our return NZ ticket, however didn't have any issues at our bag weights of 23.0 kg and 24.1 kg, always a big sigh of relief. We then had 3.5 hours to wait until our flight. Doug was keen for a Starbucks coffee but at NZ$13 decided he could live without. We did spend NZ $30 on some Chinese for lunch which was really nice, and worked out perfectly for getting rid of all our Mexican coins, apart from my coin collection ones. Flight was good, really impressed with Volaris airline, very efficient, when we landed they instructed people to remain sitting and they would come through and open the overhead bins and tell you when you can get up, so a very orderly disembarkment. Our car rental company Easy Cars again booked through Discover Cars gain a 5 star rating from us. They message us yesterday asking when we would be arriving, and gave good instructions to we to find their representative at the airport. Back at their office the guy was very helpful, yes they tried to upgrade the insurance, but no hard push and we actually decided to take it. It was more reasonably priced, and I think the heavy rain and very congested road outside we decided it was worth the peace of mind. Also when we saw the car they had given us we were pleased we had the extra insurance. A very big fairly new Suzuki SUV. He then offered us a coffee and hot chocolate which was very nice, probably the best hot chocolate I've had. We then had to head out into the traffic, rain and now darkness for a over 3 hour drive north west to Monteverde and the Costa Rican Cloud Forest. A horrible hard twisty turny and towards the end potholey drive - a huge effort, well done by Doug. We eventually arrived at our hostel 8.50 pm, without eating but we were to tired (it was 9.50 pm Cancun time) to go looking for food, so had a muesli bar and went to bed.Read more

    • TravelerKaribik + Mittelamerika
      Day 84–89

      Auf nach San José (Costa Rica)

      February 27 in Costa Rica ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

      Das Abenteuer Panama geht heute zu Ende. Um 13:19 Uhr sollte mein Flug vom Panama Pacific Flughafen starten.
      Bevor ich mich aber auf den Weg machte, gab es erst noch ein (big 😉) breakfast für mich. Während ich beim Frühstück sitze, checkte eine Französin aus. Ihr Flug war ne Stunde früher als meiner. Carlos fragte mich, wann ich zum Flughafen aufbrechen wolle. Mir war es egal, wo ich die Zeit absitze, so haben wir ausgemacht, dass die Französin und ich das Taxi teilen. Auf 10:30 Uhr wurde das Taxi bestellt. Ich hab noch meine restlichen Sachen gepackt und bin um 10:15 zum Auschecken gegangen. Carlos war so nett und lies mich bei ihm Geld „abheben“. Ich hatte nur noch 40 Dollar. Jede Abhebung in Panama kostet 5,50$ oder 6,50$.
      Pünktlich ging’s los. Ich war froh, dass ich mich fürs Taxi entschieden habe. Mit den Öffentlichen wäre es eine fast unlösbare Aufgabe gewesen. 20 Minuten später war ich eingecheckt, jetzt mussten nur noch die 2,5 Stunden Wartezeit vorbeigehen.
      Beim Boarding und Abflug waren in der Zeit. Der Flug war zum Teil etwas unruhig, aber ok. Am Flughafen von San José dann wieder die lästige Einreiseprozedur. Ca. 1,5 Stunden hab ich mit Einreise, Gepäck abholen und Bushaltestelle zu suchen verbracht. Ungefähr 45 Minuten dauerte die Fahrt ins Zentrum nach San José. Kosten: 2,40€. Am Busterminal angekommen bin ich dann zu Fuß zum Hostel gelaufen. Auf dem Weg fragte ich einen Taxifahrer, was es zum Hostel kosten würde. Er wollte 4$ haben, das war mir für knappe 2 km zu viel. Zum Glück ist es hier nicht so heiß und es weht immer ein kühler Wind. Nach 30 Minuten war ich am Ziel. Nachdem ich mein Bett zugewiesen bekommen hatte, saß ich erst noch ein bisschen im Hostel rum, dann im Bett und ging noch kurz zu einem Minimarkt. Eigentlich wollte ich Wasser kaufen, aber das hab ich vergessen, es gab ein Bier und ne Cola. Danach bin ich zurück ins Hostel und blieb den ganzen Abend im Bett.
      Meine Planung für morgen? 🤷🏼‍♂️      Read more

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    • Christie MitchellRTW 2022
      Day 30

      Wasting time in San Jose

      April 20, 2022 in Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F

      So I’ve made a few mistakes this month in doing this trip - I keep putting us in cities for just a little too long than needed. We probably could have cut Mexico shorter by a week or so. San Jose definitely falls in that category. Probably one day would have done it, but yet we’re here 2 1/2 days … Whoops. The one thing I learned by being here, is there’s just not much to see or do in San Jose. 🥺 So we find ourselves just relaxing, catching up on sleep and waiting to move on.

      We did head down to the Mercado today which is a massive market for locals, not really tourists. I felt very out of place, but it was an experience to see.      Read more

    • Costa Rica
      Day 16

      San José

      April 13, 2016 in Costa Rica ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

      Der Shuttle von La Fortuna nach San José kostet mindestens US$ 50.-! Wir waren zu spät dran mit reservieren und so waren alle Shuttles für den nächsten Tag bereits ausgebucht. Wir mussten uns somit mit der günstigeren Variante begnügen und fuhren die rund 130 km kurze Strecke in langen 4.5 h mit dem öffentlichen Bus.
      San José ist die Hauptstadt Costa Ricas, wirkt jedoch zum Teil chaotisch mit den manchmal einstöckigen, manchmal mehrstöckigen Gebäuden ohne wahrnehmbare Architektur oder sonstige Struktur. Zwar gibt es hier tatsächlich einen Zug, welcher wie unsere Trams mitten auf der Strasse verkehrt und das ohnehin grosse Verkehrsaufkommen zusätzlich aufhält. Wir sind uns nicht einig, ob die Stadt einen Besuch wert ist oder nicht. Ich denke, zum Shoppen würde sie sich tatsächlich anbieten, architektonisch gibt es aber weitaus schönere Städte. Stuwi hingegen ist der Meinung, dass der Stadt durchaus ein paar Tage gewidmet werden sollten.
      Wir fanden eine Mall und konnten dort einige kaputte Kleider und andere Sachen erneuern.      Read more

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    • TravelerEncounter World
      Day 4

      San Josè tour

      January 8, 2020 in Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

      La mattina sempre a lezione, mentre il pomeriggio Gabi (la ragazza che organizza le attività) ci ha portato a San José.
      Leggendo un po’ in giro non dovrebbe essere niente di speciale.
      Abbiamo preso il bus, sono pochi centesimi per arrivare da dove sono io al centro.
      Ecco forse non ho ancora ben descritto dove si trova San Rafael de Coronado.. praticamente siamo in una provincia di San Josè, su per i monti!
      Quindi per scendere e arrivare a San Jose sono circa 45 minuti di bus.. (se non becchi l’orario di punta).

      La città in se non mi ha fatto impazzire, però ecco non mi sarei aspettata niente di più. Tanta gente, abbastanza sporco ma devo ammettere che c’erano dei palazzi molto belli. Il museo nazionale, il vecchio parlamento, e altre casette qua e là che saltavano fuori per essere nettamente più belle delle altre.
      Abbiamo fatto un giretto per il centro, siamo state al mercato centrale e poi in una tortilleria.. da brava scema non l’ho mangiata.. sarà per la prossima volta!      Read more

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    • Maria MagnerPura Vida Costa Rica

      Uno

      May 30, 2016 in Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      We figured out how to take the bus from the airport, saving $30 and making us feel like we can navigate this foreign country. After getting off at the downtown terminal, we attempted to walk to our Air BnB. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it and realized we were a mile away! The crowds, rain, and darkness made for a stressful moment, so we got in a cab. Thankfully he knew where he was going, but we didn't know how to pay with Colones yet, so we paid $18 for an $8 ride. I guess it's better to learn that lesson now, than later. We also realized our Spanish is worse than we thought,
      so instead of grabbing dinner, we laid in bed watching YouTube videos of Spanish travel phrases. I hope that once we get confident, we'll do better. Buenas noches.      Read more

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