Cuba, Costa Rica and a bit of the US.: Day 22. 24.4.16. Bouganvillea Hotel, San Jose

Set alarm for 5.15 and needed it for the first time – woken from a deep sleep.

Margot and Jeannie left with Carlos at 5.45, so now we are 3.

Jeannie, ready to go. Note the tube under her left arm. Jeannie purchased a quite large painting at the market in Cuba, so we have all been making sure she has the tube with her at every turn. There was a couple of occasions early, where she left it on the bus, or somewhere else, so it became a bit of a running joke. Between us all we rigged up the 'strap' to assist her in getting it home safely.

We organised a walking tour of San Jose, with Carla at Barrio Bird Walking Tours. Leticia at our Hotel was most helpful and got us organised for 10.15 with taxi to Parque Morazan. (She has also organised a tour at a Wildlife Rescue place tomorrow)

I took a quick garden walk before Margot and Jeannie left and again after, lots of LBB’s (Little Black/Brown Birds) high in the trees, but only one distant hummingbird. The gardens are sensational, so hopefully some better luck later in the day.

Flowers in the garden at Hotel Bouganvillea, San Jose.

One of the amazing bromeliad flowers.

Cool plant.

Mariposa or Lady Slippers.

Lillies of some sort.

Lillies.

Orchids.

Back to bed for an hour after break, trying to crack a bit of a headache.

We met at 9.30 to catch a taxi into town, about 15minutes into Parque Morazan to meet Carla. There were a group of young hip hop dancers rehearsing in the old Rotunda. Carla arrived and we waited for the final two – Paul and Caroline, turned out they were newlyweds from Houston, Texas.

The Parque and Rotunda with dancers in the background.

Carla provided a wonderful tour of 99% of central San Jose. It is a small capital city in a small country. The population of Costa Rica is about 5 million and 3.5 million live here in San Jose.

We walked to the four main parks:

Morazan
Coffee Park near Metal School
Espana Park,with Liquor factory now cultural arts centre.
Nacional Park with William Jackson Statue.

The metal school, made of steel, imported as a flat pack...and put together by numbers.

Some of the numbers that mark the sections.

A small hut in the corner of Espana park, a gift from some country.

Some funkily painted doorway.

Also saw the political centre of the city, housing the Mexican Embassy, City Library, some government buildings and other old mansions.

Lots of street art, that has been sponsored by the Government and other businesses, in the hope of preventing the ‘wrong’ sort of street art appearing.

A house painted up.

The train was there to test a bridge that is under repair. Street art.

More Street Art.

Street art.

This was my absolute favourite. It was a captivating piece of work.

Parque Nacional. Carla explaining the story of William Walker, who is atop this statues. The ladies were having some kind of photo shoot. There were stacks of them around the park, they ALL had a red scarf/bandana tied somewhere on their person.

The red scarf thingoes up close.

The William Walker statue.

Street art.

The old fort, which is now a museum, complete with bullet holes from the 1948 Civil War between two political parties. Interesting story about the followers of Jose Figueres (Figuererros) and Rafael Angel Calderon (Calderonos?)

The old fort.

Street art.

One of the mansions.

The Fort, now a museum.

A yellow Social Flycatcher.

A Restaurant all painted up.

Is there any capital city in the world without a China Town.

A church, with a strange gathering of people dressed up in all manner of costumes. Carla had no idea what it was all about.

The ladies in the red and blue are in traditional Costa Rican dress, but many of the others Carla was at a loss to explain.

Traditional Costa Rican.

...all a whirl.

Swirling and whirling.

A tribute to John Lennon.

Fruit stalls.

Our tour finished at the Teatro Nacional (National Theatre.) Carla was brilliant.

Carla in front of the Teatro Nacional.

Pigeons being fed in the square.

Face painted and feeding the birds.

We lunched at Teatro Café and then took a 1pm tour of the Theatre, a fabulous old building, so much grandeur, gold leaf and paintings everywhere, lots of exquisite furniture and lavish decoration everywhere. Marble, the famous painting from the 5 Colones note, beautiful woodwork everywhere. Unable to be insured, as the craftsmanship could never be replicated. Great tour with Daniel, who had some interesting twists to his words with translation to English, such as ‘chair sits’ for

Wheelchairs.

Some of the delicate decorations. Paintings, gold leaf everywhere.

Statue.

The central chandelier and ceiling mural in the main theatre.

Established in 1847.

The top level is called the Chicken Coop, and was for the lower classes, no seats and they had to enter (and still do) from outside the theatre.

Some of the paintings on the ceiling.

Cupids, the lower with butterfly wings, the one who has ascended closer to heaven has the traditional angel wings.

So elaborate.

The Painting from the 5 Colon note. Factually incorrect, as the painter painted it from somewhere else and hadn't actually been to Costa Rica for eg. The man holding bananas is holding them upside down, the bananas would fall off the central stem held this way, the ladies are dressed in a European manner, way too hot to do this. The baskets are wrong, The clothing and shoes on the men is wrong - totally unsuited to weather. There are others inaccuracies, but I can't remember.