Originally we had planned to go straight from Monteverde all the way up to Tortuguero, but there was no realistic way of doing the whole thing in one day. As a result we could continue our central american capital city tour and check out the Costa Rican version, San Jose.
We set off on a 6am bus from Monteverde. The views were stunning on the journey down from the highlands.
San Jose itself seemed pretty similar to the various other capital cities we had visited, i.e. we emerged from the bus to a grotty bus depot in a poor district and were immediately assaulted by a gaggle of taxi drivers. We made our way to what turned our to be a pretty grim hostel. It was at this point that we decided that we do not generally agree when lonely planet calls somewhere 'A backpacker's dream digs'.
We swiftly set off to explore the city. Its colonial charms are a bit harder to discover than some of the other places we have been. Central San Jose is a very commercial affair with one massive long pedestrian shopping street. It was all quite pleasant though and along the way we came across the very pretty restored National Theatre.
There were some great sculptures around as well. Clairy and I loved this one of a big Mama.
Strangely there was also an art theme running throughout the city on the subject of cows. Various artists and companies had been asked to give their own interpretation of the same cow model. Some were hugely imaginitive.
The ziplining cow. The ecotourism activity of questionable ecological value found just about everywhere in Costa Rica.
The pole-dancing cow.
A cow in pigeon's clothing (surrounded by pigeons!). This was my personal favourite.
The milk machine.
A cowaccino, or summat.
There were piles more of them dotted about the city. It was most amusing. We had to get on the bus to Tortuguero at 9 the next morning however, so this was all we saw of San Jose. See ya!
We set off on a 6am bus from Monteverde. The views were stunning on the journey down from the highlands.
San Jose itself seemed pretty similar to the various other capital cities we had visited, i.e. we emerged from the bus to a grotty bus depot in a poor district and were immediately assaulted by a gaggle of taxi drivers. We made our way to what turned our to be a pretty grim hostel. It was at this point that we decided that we do not generally agree when lonely planet calls somewhere 'A backpacker's dream digs'.
We swiftly set off to explore the city. Its colonial charms are a bit harder to discover than some of the other places we have been. Central San Jose is a very commercial affair with one massive long pedestrian shopping street. It was all quite pleasant though and along the way we came across the very pretty restored National Theatre.
There were some great sculptures around as well. Clairy and I loved this one of a big Mama.
Strangely there was also an art theme running throughout the city on the subject of cows. Various artists and companies had been asked to give their own interpretation of the same cow model. Some were hugely imaginitive.
The ziplining cow. The ecotourism activity of questionable ecological value found just about everywhere in Costa Rica.
The pole-dancing cow.
A cow in pigeon's clothing (surrounded by pigeons!). This was my personal favourite.
The milk machine.
A cowaccino, or summat.
There were piles more of them dotted about the city. It was most amusing. We had to get on the bus to Tortuguero at 9 the next morning however, so this was all we saw of San Jose. See ya!
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