San Jose

Change of plans!  Our Tico friend, Roberto, and his wife, Vanessa, wanted to go to Poas as well, so we invited them to come and Roberto offered to let us stay with his mom for the night, which was nice.  She lives in San Jose, so we stayed there instead of Alajuela (30 minutes away).  It set us back a bit for Wednesday morning, but it seemed like fun.  We left our apartment Tuesday morning and met up with Roberto (his wife had to work at the last minute).

We got on a bus and about 2 hours later, we were in downtown San Jose.  San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica and the weather is more similar to what we're used to in Northern California.  Aaron was in heaven with the cloudy, drizzly, cool weather.  Honestly, after spending so much time sweaty, I was welcoming the chill in the air.  I tried to snap some pics as we were walking from the bus station to the taxi we were catching.

That last building is some sort of museum.  First impressions of San Jose: it's crowded, dirty and not really all that spectacular.  We passed lots of shops and fast food places, but they were all the same.  The same stores are on every block!  I felt like I was going in circles.  I've read that some buildings and museums are worth seeing, but I think everything worth doing could probably be done in a day.  This building is the National Theater, which I've heard from multiple sources is the most beautiful building in Costa Rica (on the inside):

Of course we didn't have time to go inside, bummer!  However, Aaron and I plan on doing a day in San Jose at the end of our Costa Rican journey (because it's near the airport), so hopefully we'll go back.  The courtyard outside the theater was beautiful, but completely overrun with pigeons.

We were totally outnumbered.  Luckily, they didn't try to stage a coup.  Then Aaron saw McDonald's and everything in life stopped.

McDonald's here tastes the same as back home.  Except maybe more fancy:

This is the dessert case at McDonald's.  They also had a separate ice cream stand at the front of the restaurant.  Wow, they're taking it way too seriously!

Random street art:

 This was some sort of girl's high school:

I thought it was interesting because it looked like a prison.  This elementary school did too:

Roberto bought a strange fruit:

Then opened it:

and ate the flesh inside:

You eat the outer white part and spit out the huge seed inside.  It was fuzzy and tasted like eating a ball of cat hair (not that I would know, but I see cats with fur-balls in their mouths and I think I was making the same face).  Not my favorite.

Then we hopped in a cab and I had the most terrifying experience of my life.  This was before the nightmare:

I took a pic of the cab driver because I thought he had to be in NASCAR or something:

It was just so fast and jerky and he would brake like 2 seconds before he hit a truck and NO ONE wears seat belts here!  Okay, I've seen people wearing them, but I've also seen Britney Spears impersonators with babies on their laps while driving and 3 kids in the front passenger seat just hanging out the window.  Hell, I've seen babies in laps or in the baskets on bikes!  And forget about helmets!  There are just no laws against that stuff in Costa Rica.  People burn their trash in their front yard!  I'm sorry, there has be some sort of regulation, right?  How is there no anarchy here?  If we had the same amount of freedom in America, there would be straight up chaos.  I think Ticos are just so relaxed, nothing is a big deal.  I swear the government is pumping THC into the air and just watching people float along in a haze starting fires and stuffing 10 kids into a car.  Okay, rant over.  

We drove half an hour out of the city into a barrio (not sure which one) to Roberto's mom's house.  Random Tico houses:

Here's Roberto's mom's house:

Most of the homes here have little stores or businesses in front, which was really strange and interesting.  Roberto's mom has a little clothing shop:

If you go past that, you get to the living room and kitchen:

I get that these pictures are horrible, but I felt weird taking pictures of someone's house, so I kinda did it on the sly.  The bathroom was in the back and the rooms branched off from the living room.  The structure itself was definitely poorly built, but that's how most houses are built in the barrios.  It was small, but cozy and super nice of her to let us stay.

We dropped our stuff off and explored his town (I still have no idea which town we're in-technically it's part of San Jose, but one of the outer barrios).  City Hall?

Then we got ice cream!

Pops is the Baskin Robbins of Costa Rica.  They're everywhere.

Then we hit up the local mall:

It looked just like a mall back home, except I didn't recognize any of the stores.  Stuff wasn't cheap either.  I would say clothes were the same price as back home (I think most things have to be imported).  Then we made our way back home for dinner:

Roberto's mom made spaghetti with homemade sauce (OMG fantastic!) and homemade beans (also fantastic).

It was Roberto's mom's birthday, so we got her cupcakes at a local bakery (in front of someone's house):

Then Roberto's wife got out of working, so she came with their 4 month old baby, Kendall:

I couldn't get a clear picture because he wouldn't stop moving.  This is literally the happiest baby I've ever met.  He was constantly smiling and laughing.  Adorable!  Then his cousins, Mariana and Allison, came over with Roberto's sister and they played with the baby:

We ended up going to Roberto's sister's house for a bit (5 minute drive) and listened to music and had a few beers.  They were really into Pharell and the song "Happy" (which just came out in Costa Rica!), so we heard that a lot (it's not my favorite song to begin with, so I wasn't thrilled).  Then back to his mom's house, where we hung out with his mom and her boyfriend and they taught me some Spanish (really cool).  The mom (I can't remember her name, I know I'm awful), makes these clay sculptures and covers them in some sort of bronzing material:

She showed me an anthropology book she copies out of:

Really neat-o!

Overall, everyone was super nice and hospitable and we had a really nice time, actually living like locals for a night.  However, we ended up footing the bill for almost everything.  We paid for the bus and cab to get there, as well as the food and beer.  It wasn't too expensive and we didn't mind because they we're very nice and welcoming and let us stay in their home, BUT it was awkward to feel somewhat taken advantage of.  Aaron ended up having a talk with Roberto about Poas and if he had the money to get there, which Roberto admitted he didn't, so Aaron really had no choice but to politely uninvite him because we were unwilling to pay their way.  Again, it's not that anything is super expensive, but you CAN'T let people take advantage because if you do, it's never ending.  The more you give, the more they want and it's not only unfair, but it sets an impossible precedent.  They think we're American, so we automatically have money, and even if that's the case, it doesn't mean a free ride for you, buddy!  Unfortunately, we had to put our foot down.  While we don't really regret going to Roberto's family home and spending time (it was honestly a really cool experience), we would definitely think twice next time.

We slept a few hours, woke up around 6:30, brushed our teeth and said goodbye.  It was just the two of us again.  Volcan Poas and La Paz Waterfall Gardens coming up!