In the Citaaay, City of San Jose!

The tour office in PV, booked my hotel in San Jose. I was at a loss as to where to stay because the city is pretty big and I definitely wanted to stay away from certain areas, I just wasn´t sure which ones. I ended up about two blocks from the main square where the Teatro Nacional is located. A cute little hotel for a low rate, Casa Alfi...me likey! I was exhausted, dirty and spent when I arrived. It was nighty nite for me!

On Saturday, I was so indecisive. Should I stay one more day in SJ or just hop on bus and head toward Liberia? I decided to stay one more night because I wanted to do some "city" things, like go to the movies or see a show. I found 2 theaters but they both had one moving playing - nothing too appealing and the times were not posted. I found out later that I should have gone to the San Pedro mall where they have a multi plex. I walked to the Teatro Nacional and found a concert playing that night at 8, so I bought a ticket. When I was in line to buy my ticket, I met Brendan, a money man from NY. He asked me if I spoke English (funny huh?) and I helped him buy a ticket. But wait, small mix up, he wanted a ticket to the museum, not the show. Oops! He sold back the ticket and we ended up hanging out the rest of the afternoon. Later, he went back to the Teatro and bought his ticket back. We went to the concert together and grabbed food afterward.

The concert was a performance by the Orquesta Fílarmónica de Costa Rica. They performed "La musica en el cine" (The music in films). I seem to remember this discussed during a few meetings at an old employer of mine...hmmm. They had a large screen showing clips from different movies while the Orquesta played theme songs and various medleys from the movie. There was a lot of John Willimas music. A few of the movies included were: El regreso de Superman, El Señor de los anillos (Lord of the Rings), Indiana Jones, Tema de James Bond (my favorite), Happy Feet, Piratas del Caribe (close to my favorite), Harry Potter and, of course, the grand finale was STAR WARS (ahhh...make it stop - kidding of course!). Those of you at Lucas will be happy to know that the finale was well received. The people loved it. The Orquesta sounded really good and for the price, $14, it was a fantastic deal. The concert made me want to rent all those movies and watch them again.

I spent the next day in San Jose just walking around and taking in the sites. There was a huge gathering outside of the Catedral Metropolitana. They had music, food, clowns, people wearing religious t shirts and a priest was speaking to the crowd about the importance of family and some other Catholic topics. The lady at my hotel said that they have gatherings that big every Sunday...WOW! It was almost too crowded so I decided to head to the bus station. The ride to the bus station was pretty revealing. There are parts of this city that are really really awful. I am glad I stayed where I did and didn´t wander too far. I took the 2:00 p.m. bus to Liberia. It was a 4 hour ride that I was not in the mood for.