Learning about San Jose neighborhoods

March 14

Today after breakfast we caught a bus up the hill to old Escazu where there is a two block farmers’ market. It was quite interesting to realize this is so much more than a grocery shopping excursion. It is also a big social event. Many people were here to visit family and friends while getting veggies, fruit and meat. There were a few English speakers and many Ticos (Costa Ricans). I bought some beets, strawberries and tomatoes.

After shopping we wandered around the town as part of our exploration of potential places to live. Nothing appealed to us after about 25 minutes (it is a very small downtown area) so we walked down the hill to our house as a way to see more and get some exercise.

Tonight we made a yummy salad for dinner and the beets were like candy; they were so sweet. Afterwards we invited Victoria to join us for a walk to Avenida Escazu (the Rodeo Drive of Escazu) for dessert. She hadn’t eaten and was craving a Subway sandwich so we went to the gelato store while she had her sandwich then walked home together.

  

March 15

Victoria had told us about an event in a park in downtown SJ so after breakfast we took a bus to the center of SJ then took a cab to the park. It turned out to be a family event with lots of activities for kids (origami, puppet shows, etc) and a venue for musical performances.

 

We listened to a classical guitarist for awhile and enjoyed people watching.  

We went through an exhibit by the municipality of costumes from previous parades for the Festival de la Luz (festival of light). 

The people watching was a nice activity, giving us the opportunity to see lots of locals just being Ticos (Costa Ricans)

 

 

 

 

Then we walked around the area surrounding the park. We saw a lovely little old well house covered in tiles, Casa Amarillo, historic home that now houses the Minister of Foreign 

Affairs.  

We spied a grand apartment house designed by an architect in the 1930’s. We stopped and asked a woman who was unloading her car in front of the apartment and she told us each apartment is unique. She and her husband are leather craft artists and live there. 

At the other side of the block we saw another structure that looked very similar so perhaps this architect designed both. Both were raw concrete with no paint yet just lovely. 

We returned to the park to grab a bite to eat at one of the stands and then watched a great musical group who were playing a guitar, a keyboard, a violin and a man who played three or four different flutes. He was TERRIFIC! Ron had fun taking more pix of people.

 

Afterwards we walked over to the National Theater and National cathedral then caught a cab back to the bus station where we took a bus home. We were tired after being on our feet all day so rested briefly. 

Victoria came by to say she had made a big pot of carrot ginger soup and to help ourselves. I suggested that I make a salad and get some bread and we could have a meal. She then suggested we have a ‘house meal’ and invite everyone who was staying here today. There were six of us for dinner. Victoria, Michael and Anka  from Philadelphia who are Romanian and here for dental work (there is a big dental/medical tourism trade in CR), Oscar who  is a coffee buyer from Guatemala and us. We had a great time and had a yummy meal. A great ending to a good day.

March 16, 2015

Today we got up and left the house at 9:00 with Carlos, our cab driver. We wanted to explore three neighborhoods, San Pedro, Curribadat and Guachapelin, in SJ. Fortunately Carlos knows his way around. He showed us some low and high end residential areas, shopping districts, downtown areas in most of the four neighborhoods we saw. He added San Francisco and Zapote to our exploration.

When we got back Ron and I walked down to Starbucks as I was way tired of being in a car and wanted some fresh air. Turned out to be very fresh with a cloud cover and our constant wind. We discussed what we had seen and talked about SMA. I find it impossible to compare the two as SMA is a World Heritage site, a town of 80,000. Here SJ is a big metropolitan city often described as a city of grime, crime and traffic. Yesterday was the first time we had seen some colonial architecture and an appealing area besides Escazu which is a very high end neighborhood with embassies, bank CEOs and the like. It is a new city that resembles S California. We resolves to review the other area we want to see, arrange another outing with Carlos then focus of the top areas by spending some time wandering the neighborhoods and seeing if it will help us.

In SMA we were able very quickly to get the lay of the land because it is a very small, intimate city. SJ/Escazu is hard to get our hands around. Neither of us feels we know the area yet to decide on a neighborhood as a potential home base for the next couple of years..