A Typical San Jose Day
Its funny how when you live in the country, or jungle as the case may be in Costa Rica, when it comes time for a vacation or a change of scene, one often looks to the city. The thought of going to New York or Chicago sounds wonderful. So here I am in San Jose Costa Rica. What a city!
I drove my client Ruthie to her hotel so that she would be near the airport for her early morning flight. Now, don't go getting any ideas people. I am not normally available for the 4 1/2 hour drive to San Jose to transport real estate clients around. In this case, well... 71 year young Ruthie was a little bit unique (in a very nice way), and the timing worked out, so I went.
I decided this time to go right into the heart of the city and find myself a simple place where I could cruise the city and get to know the place a little bit better. We have always kind of avoided the "centro" of San Jose, and so even after 8 years of living here, I can't say that I know the city very well. I can drive through the thing, which is a major accomplishment in itself. In fact, I think that a person could probably make a business leading people through the city so that they can get from one side to the other.
When you are coming to Dominical, you land at the Juan Santamaria Airport on the North West side of San Jose. To get to Dominical, you generally need to drive through the city before getting to the main highway going down to San Isidro de Perez Zeledon, then over to Dominical. Of course, a person could opt to go directly over to the coast through Atenas and pass by Jaco, Quepos / Manuel Antonio and then down the bumpy road, but my choice is usually to go through San Jose. It seems that you get to pick your poison. You can drive the bumpy road between Quepos and Dominical, or you can brave the maze of San Jose and go the other way, which is a bit faster.
Anyway, the point being, I'm not totally inept in the ways of San Jose Costa Rica, but I thought that it'd be nice to get to know the place a little bit better.
I found a small hotel that charges $20.00 a night, has a Soda attached that serves a complementary typical breakfast, and is OLD... really cool. Cool both figuratively in that I like the place A LOT, and cool in that the water didn't seem to ever get warm. I don't mind cold water showers in Dominical at all, in fact I prefer them, but in San Jose? No gracias. The water is warm sometimes though, and I'll return to this particular hotel again, cold water and all.
I had a project to take care of while here in the city. I wanted to buy some exercise equipment. So, I left my car in the locked yard of the hotel, and caught a cab. I told the cab driver what I was looking for and off we went into the belly of the beast.
The streets of San Jose are tight. Many are one way. There don't seem to be any sort of parking regulations at all, and so some times what was a 2 lane road, becomes just under 1 since a truck or 2 decided to park next to each other on the opposite sides of the street. Somehow it all works. What's also interesting is that no one seems to get too upset about stuff.
I remember one time in San Isidro early on when we had just gotten here, I had hopped in a cab and told the guy that I was in a hurry. So off we went, cutting people off and honking. I turned my head and looked at one of the guys who had honked back and he was smiling and waving. It turns out that honking here is friendly. I commented on this to my taxista, mentioning how cutting people off and honking in the States generally has the effect of getting one shot. He said, "its no problem here. They just figure I'm in a hurry for some reason and they're not. " When I am first back in the States on a visit, one of the things that I have to keep in mind, in addition to not sitting at a gas pump waiting for the attendant to come out and fill the tank, wash the windshield, and check the oil and tire pressure, is that its NOT good to honk there. It is not considered friendly, and might get one shot.
The taxista took me into the craziness and dropped me off at the Centro Mercado, or something like that. If you want a real Costa Rica city experience, do that. Hop in a cab and tell him to take you to the Centro Mercado, or Mercado Central, I don't remember exactly what, but he'll get the picture. It is good for a couple hours of walking around looking at a broad diversity of people, and raw materials for sale, in all stages of metamorphosis from leather to shoes, coconut fiber to planting baskets, wood to typical coffee makers. But, no excersize equipment. So I asked someone where to go and they sent me down the street a couple blocks.
"Blocks" here are "cien metros" or 100 meters. So, "ciento veintecinco metros" is a block and a quarter down the way. So I went there, and saw nothing. I asked again, they sent me on another 25 meters, but as I'm heading out from my most recent direction giving guy, I hear this crash of an unusual, ear-catching timbre. I turn to look into an open front pharmacy and there is a guy there on the floor doing a full blown, gran mal epileptic seizure. And the people are starting to panic.
I have had a number of encounters with these events and figured what was about to happen, and that I ought to see if I couldn't maybe interrupt it. Observers of a gran mal epileptic seizure always want to do something. Sometimes they try and put something in the guy's mouth, having heard that is the thing to do, so that he won't bite his tongue off. But I don't think so. I think you just make sure that he can't hit anything with his flailings, and wait. So into the pharmacy I went and stood in the middle of the brewing panic and announced in a loud voice: "Don't worry about it. He's an epileptic having a seizure and he's fine" The instantaneous relief was almost palpable as the concept of not "doing something" set in and seemed agreeable to everyone. The guy had dropped his bag of stuff and some money, and the people there seemed genuinely concerned about the fellow, so it seemed apparent after awhile that he was in good hands. So off I went with some expressions of appreciation in my wake, making me feel as though I had done my good deed for the day.
The next 25 meters I hit pay dirt. The place had a lot of what I was looking for. So, I told the salesman that I would likely be back for it, but that I wanted to look around some, and did he have any recommendations of where else I could look for the specialized exercise equipment. He gave me the directions to the Committee of Sports for San Jose, so off I went in another cab and upon arriving there, found that every person who could possibly help me with this endeavor was inexplicably unavailable. Such is Latin America. But one person did give me the name and phone number of the guy who was supposed to be there that is in charge of equipment. So I called his number and left a message.
About an hour later, I get a call from this fellow and he gives my cab driver the directions to his house, which is also where he hand-makes equipment like what I'm looking for. This is some good stuff. He actually exports his things overseas and it can't normally be bought in Costa Rica, unless you go to the trouble of finding the guy.
So I spent a good bit of dough with this guy, but I think that anywhere else it would have been many times the amount since it is all leather, hand sewn stuff. Such is life in Latin America, and such is a typical day in San Jose Costa Rica.
I drove my client Ruthie to her hotel so that she would be near the airport for her early morning flight. Now, don't go getting any ideas people. I am not normally available for the 4 1/2 hour drive to San Jose to transport real estate clients around. In this case, well... 71 year young Ruthie was a little bit unique (in a very nice way), and the timing worked out, so I went.
I decided this time to go right into the heart of the city and find myself a simple place where I could cruise the city and get to know the place a little bit better. We have always kind of avoided the "centro" of San Jose, and so even after 8 years of living here, I can't say that I know the city very well. I can drive through the thing, which is a major accomplishment in itself. In fact, I think that a person could probably make a business leading people through the city so that they can get from one side to the other.
When you are coming to Dominical, you land at the Juan Santamaria Airport on the North West side of San Jose. To get to Dominical, you generally need to drive through the city before getting to the main highway going down to San Isidro de Perez Zeledon, then over to Dominical. Of course, a person could opt to go directly over to the coast through Atenas and pass by Jaco, Quepos / Manuel Antonio and then down the bumpy road, but my choice is usually to go through San Jose. It seems that you get to pick your poison. You can drive the bumpy road between Quepos and Dominical, or you can brave the maze of San Jose and go the other way, which is a bit faster.
Anyway, the point being, I'm not totally inept in the ways of San Jose Costa Rica, but I thought that it'd be nice to get to know the place a little bit better.
I found a small hotel that charges $20.00 a night, has a Soda attached that serves a complementary typical breakfast, and is OLD... really cool. Cool both figuratively in that I like the place A LOT, and cool in that the water didn't seem to ever get warm. I don't mind cold water showers in Dominical at all, in fact I prefer them, but in San Jose? No gracias. The water is warm sometimes though, and I'll return to this particular hotel again, cold water and all.
I had a project to take care of while here in the city. I wanted to buy some exercise equipment. So, I left my car in the locked yard of the hotel, and caught a cab. I told the cab driver what I was looking for and off we went into the belly of the beast.
The streets of San Jose are tight. Many are one way. There don't seem to be any sort of parking regulations at all, and so some times what was a 2 lane road, becomes just under 1 since a truck or 2 decided to park next to each other on the opposite sides of the street. Somehow it all works. What's also interesting is that no one seems to get too upset about stuff.
I remember one time in San Isidro early on when we had just gotten here, I had hopped in a cab and told the guy that I was in a hurry. So off we went, cutting people off and honking. I turned my head and looked at one of the guys who had honked back and he was smiling and waving. It turns out that honking here is friendly. I commented on this to my taxista, mentioning how cutting people off and honking in the States generally has the effect of getting one shot. He said, "its no problem here. They just figure I'm in a hurry for some reason and they're not. " When I am first back in the States on a visit, one of the things that I have to keep in mind, in addition to not sitting at a gas pump waiting for the attendant to come out and fill the tank, wash the windshield, and check the oil and tire pressure, is that its NOT good to honk there. It is not considered friendly, and might get one shot.
The taxista took me into the craziness and dropped me off at the Centro Mercado, or something like that. If you want a real Costa Rica city experience, do that. Hop in a cab and tell him to take you to the Centro Mercado, or Mercado Central, I don't remember exactly what, but he'll get the picture. It is good for a couple hours of walking around looking at a broad diversity of people, and raw materials for sale, in all stages of metamorphosis from leather to shoes, coconut fiber to planting baskets, wood to typical coffee makers. But, no excersize equipment. So I asked someone where to go and they sent me down the street a couple blocks.
"Blocks" here are "cien metros" or 100 meters. So, "ciento veintecinco metros" is a block and a quarter down the way. So I went there, and saw nothing. I asked again, they sent me on another 25 meters, but as I'm heading out from my most recent direction giving guy, I hear this crash of an unusual, ear-catching timbre. I turn to look into an open front pharmacy and there is a guy there on the floor doing a full blown, gran mal epileptic seizure. And the people are starting to panic.
I have had a number of encounters with these events and figured what was about to happen, and that I ought to see if I couldn't maybe interrupt it. Observers of a gran mal epileptic seizure always want to do something. Sometimes they try and put something in the guy's mouth, having heard that is the thing to do, so that he won't bite his tongue off. But I don't think so. I think you just make sure that he can't hit anything with his flailings, and wait. So into the pharmacy I went and stood in the middle of the brewing panic and announced in a loud voice: "Don't worry about it. He's an epileptic having a seizure and he's fine" The instantaneous relief was almost palpable as the concept of not "doing something" set in and seemed agreeable to everyone. The guy had dropped his bag of stuff and some money, and the people there seemed genuinely concerned about the fellow, so it seemed apparent after awhile that he was in good hands. So off I went with some expressions of appreciation in my wake, making me feel as though I had done my good deed for the day.
The next 25 meters I hit pay dirt. The place had a lot of what I was looking for. So, I told the salesman that I would likely be back for it, but that I wanted to look around some, and did he have any recommendations of where else I could look for the specialized exercise equipment. He gave me the directions to the Committee of Sports for San Jose, so off I went in another cab and upon arriving there, found that every person who could possibly help me with this endeavor was inexplicably unavailable. Such is Latin America. But one person did give me the name and phone number of the guy who was supposed to be there that is in charge of equipment. So I called his number and left a message.
About an hour later, I get a call from this fellow and he gives my cab driver the directions to his house, which is also where he hand-makes equipment like what I'm looking for. This is some good stuff. He actually exports his things overseas and it can't normally be bought in Costa Rica, unless you go to the trouble of finding the guy.
So I spent a good bit of dough with this guy, but I think that anywhere else it would have been many times the amount since it is all leather, hand sewn stuff. Such is life in Latin America, and such is a typical day in San Jose Costa Rica.
posted by Ben at 7:24 AM
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