6/20 -- Return to San Jose

At breakfast, we spotted a group of teenagers, one of whom was wearing a Warriors sweatshirt. When I encountered him later, I discovered that he was part of a 9^th grade biology class from Hillsbourough (about 50 miles south of Mill Valley) on a graduation trip. I talked to a couple of the teachers who said they had been here about a week and asked if we had seen the quetzals. I told her about our adventure and she confided that they had gone out early too and seen nothing, so I guess we were seriously lucky! I told her about the one we saw at 9am, and I hope they found him too.

The scary road back to the highway seemed much faster than it had on the way in. On the way to San Jose, we stopped at the first Costa Rican capitol, Cartago. We walked around and came upon a small farmer’s market, where there was a strange food item that looked like a very small pointy lantern. I asked about it and the farmer picked it up and peeled apart the pointy top to reveal a golden cherry-like fruit, now perched atop its covering. It was delicious –called a golden fruit, it was sort of cherry-ish with a different texture. Andres bought us a pound of them! 

We walked along, learning about the history of the city and had lunch at the National Theatre, before completing our journey to San Jose. 

Famous church in Cartago which features a natural stone, the
Virgin of Los Angeles. First found in the wild by a local woman
who brought it home, it kept returning to it's original rock. The
woman talked to a priest who brought it to the church, and the
same thing happened, so they built this church over the rock.

When people come for blessings, they walk down the aisle on
their knees.

The blessed rock above, and the altar that holds it, below.

'War Memorial' celebrating Costa Rica's victory over an American,
William Walker, who wanted to take over in the 1850s.

A fort that is now a National Museum. Costa Rica
disbanded their army in 1949, which made it a
haven for the Quakers who objected to serving
in the Korean War.

Above and below: this rock was created by the native peoples.
There are many of them of varying sizes. The method of their
manufacture is a mystery.

 

Kids visiting the old capitol

Parliament Building

National Theater. Originally to be built by taxes on coffee
exports, but it ended up with 90% being built by taxes on
the residents,

One of our travelers ordered coffee at lunch and
this is how it was served. Eleanor is in the back.

Even then, the adventures didn’t stop. We were out of cash and needed to replenish to provide appropriate tips. It was raining pretty hard when we arrived and never lightened up. The ATM was about 2 blocks away and we ended up totally soaked half-way there. Back at the room, we hung the wet stuff to maybe dry by our 4am departure and I prepared to shower for our Farewell Dinner.

At the far end of the room, I noticed a big puddle of water on the floor, so I grabbed my fresh clothing and locked myself in the bathroom while Jim called the front desk. A maintenance guy showed up with a couple towels and then went back for a mop and bucket before deciding the room was too wet. He vacated again to find us an alternative. By this time, everything had been removed from the suitcases to facilitate packing in fewer bags than we started with. Fortunately, I was clean and dry by then and joined the mad scramble to make our move to the other end of the hotel. 

We met with the group before dinner and Andres showed us a video  he had made of some of the photos he had taken along the way. We had provided him with a memory key and got back about 4GB of photos, day by day plus a Lynn  & Jim folder to supplement the photos we took. We had a very pleasant dinner with the group, which was one of the best groups we have traveled with.