Sights of San Jose

 After yet another hearty Costa Rican breakfast, we made our way back down the winding road to San Jose.  We arrived a couple hours before check-in, but were able to leave our luggage at the hotel so that we wouldn't have to lug it around everywhere.  First stop was lunch as we were all starving by now.  The hotel front desk recommended a few places, but we chose Argentinian cuisine as we had had enough pico gallo and plantains for awhile.  Afterwards, we walked around and explored San Jose for a little bit before checking into the hotel.  Though we were tired and would have loved to rest a little longer, we headed back out to check out a museum.  The jade and gold museums didn't seem too interesting, so we went to the National Museum instead, which wasn't that great either.  Oh well, at least we did some obligatory cultural thing while we were here.

We found several shopping areas and Weiru and Cora stocked up on souvenirs at a cool place lined with little shops.  As tempted as I was to buy something, I had already purchased my bell, which I've been collecting for a couple decades now, and Trung had asked that I not buy anything excessive...he would have been proud.  After a simple dinner, we called it a night as we would be waking up at 3:30 the next morning to catch early flights back home.

Outside the Argentinian restaurant where we went for lunch

Enjoying fresh coconut juice while strolling down San Jose's version of the Promenade

Apparently, feeding pigeons is a big thing here.  As we walked onto this square, a local was practically forcing a bag of dried corn on me to feed to the pigeons.  The idea of pigeons swarming around me didn't quite appeal to me, so I had to keep refusing him.

The National Museum of San Jose where we barely lasted an hour.  Not that Costa Rican history is boring, well, maybe a tad, but mainly because we were tired and the museum was solely about history and not much else.

The best past of the museum was the butterfly garden.  We saw some very colorful, unique butterflies there.

Chrysalis, old and new

Notice the rows of chrysalis that were pinned to this plant.

We listened to a couple pieces performed by an orchestra gathered in front of the museum.  I'm not sure if  they perform there often or because it was St. Joseph's Day, a national holiday.