Hello, dear friends! Now let's move to the other side of the globe to a tiny village...

“Today is one of those days in which you want to stay forever... Very rarely, but there are moments in life that you want to stop, forget about time and seconds slipping through your fingers, leave only this moment, this sea, this sand and these incredibly blue eyes ..."

On the day this LJ entry was made, I swam in the azure waves until sunset, naively believing that I was saying goodbye to the Caribbean Sea for many years. The very next day, an old school bus rushed along the Costa Rican serpentines, and my heart sank and shuddered, anticipating a meeting with one of the most unpleasant capitals of Latin America, which is the capital of Costa Rica, the city of San Jose.

The picture above, as you might have guessed, shows... No, not a prison, but an ordinary secondary school in a favorable area San Jose - capital of Costa Rica.

But you know, we often see only what we want to see, and at that time I really wanted to see a beautiful modern city that would dispel all the negative myths. And so it happened. San Jose turned out to be amazing!

So, let’s dispel the myths about San Jose Costa Rica

Myth 1. San Jose is huge and dirty.
According to my observation, there is no more garbage on the streets than in Minsk; the population of the agglomeration is only about 1 million people.

Myth 2: San Jose has terrible weather. It's hot, stuffy and impossible to breathe because of the smog.

Probably those who say this have never been to.

The capital of Costa Rica is located at an altitude of 1170 m above sea level, so the climate here is favorable - the temperature even during the rainy season fluctuates around 25-30 degrees, unlike the coastal regions of the country, where it is really humid and terribly hot. Old buses are driving around the city, emitting black clouds of smoke. This is a problem, but the air is quite suitable for comfortable breathing.

Myth 3. Residents of the capital are rude and unfriendly.

This is the case when how you relate to the world is how it treats you. In general, Costa Ricans are sweet souls, bunnies and sweethearts. Everyone is ready to help, suggest, show, just chat. The advantage is that many people speak English.

Myth 4. There is nothing for tourists to do there.
This can be said about any city on earth. San Jose is a lot like a big Eastern European city, but a little rougher. The historical center has many beautiful buildings, pedestrian streets, shopping malls, small parks, full of shops and very nice churches.

It gives the impression that the local population is open-minded. Lingerie stores and sex shops are on almost every corner. As in any other capital, life here is in full swing. I really liked the rhythm of the city.

Time in San Jose lags behind Moscow by 10 hours.

Sights of San Jose

Avenida Central- a pedestrian street, which is the epicenter of all the shops and restaurants. You can buy inexpensive clothes, shoes and souvenirs.

Mercado Central is the central market, located in a large yellow building on Avenida Central. An ideal place to fill the empty space of backpacks or suitcases with souvenirs, as well as try local delicacies. To bargain at the market, you will need Spanish, otherwise you are unlikely to get any discounts.

El Pueblo- the center of nightlife. This is where most restaurants, discos and karaoke bars are located

National Theater of Costa Rica (Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica)- the best architectural landmark of the country.

San Pedro Mall- one of the largest piers in Central America.

National Center for Art and Culture- this huge museum houses an entire block of houses and offices of the Ministry of Culture, several theaters and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design.

Gold Museum (‘Museo del Oro’) located on the Plaza de la Cultura and houses an extensive collection of pre-Columbian gold. The ticket price includes a visit to the Numismatics Museum, where rare coins and banknotes are kept, as well as a visit to the art gallery.

Museum of Art of Costa Rica houses an exhibition of 3,200 national treasures of the country, and there is also a sculpture park with works by Francisco Zuniga and Jorge Jimenez. Many people combine a trip to the museum with a walk around Savana Park(Parque Metropolitano La Sabana) is the largest and most important urban park in Costa Rica.

The capital of Costa Rica, the city of San Jose, photo center:

Hotels, apartments in San Jose Costa Rica

According to the already established tradition, we stayed in a private mansion through booking.

Unfortunately, that room is no longer for rent, but on the Internet there are many other options in the center for reasonable money.

Hostel prices in San Jose fluctuate between $8-15 per night in a dorm and from $22 for a single.

Hotel prices in San Jose start from $40-50 for a double and higher if the hotel is in the city center, and there is no point in staying far from the center.

How to get to San Jose from Puerto Viejo and Cahuita

By bus from the terminal, a ticket from Cahuita costs 4,750 colones ($9.5). Bus at 7.00, 8.00 and further according to schedule. There are only 6 buses a day, all going through the city of Limon. The journey takes 4 hours from Puerto Viejo and 3 and a half hours from Cahuita. Bus schedules can be checked on the website

By the way, this is me in San Jose. I drink out of grief. I’ll tell you in the next post what kind of grief it was, and why I had to stay in San Jose for 8 days.

How are you doing? If anyone is interested, my experiment with vegetarianism continues. I still don’t eat meat, and it’s surprising that I don’t want it at all. I went to a alumni meeting on Saturday, and there were plates of cold cuts and meat salads on all sides. I didn’t even touch it, but before I would have cracked it all off in about two minutes. But I eat kilograms of avocados.

It’s interesting that in Mexico this fruit did not evoke any special feelings, but now I specifically go out into the cold to get unripe, half-frozen fruits native to Brazil. I also pop pomegranates with buckwheat, it seems to contain iron.

I must say, it is very interesting to conduct this kind of experiments. I used to consider meat an integral part of my life, but it turned out that even such an immutable element as this can easily be removed without any particular inconvenience.

And please write me something good in the comments. Well, that everything will work out, or that one day I, too, will look at Chinese skyscrapers from a bird's eye view, sitting on a black leather sofa... Today this is very relevant. :)

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Detalles Category: Central America - America Central

Less than a day had passed since I booked my air tickets before I set foot on the soil of this wonderful country. I bought the LP on Latin America the day before, I studied it in the cabin of the plane, flying from Washington to Atlanta, and then waiting for a flight to San Jose, being at the Atlanta transit airport. To be honest, I didn’t know much about Costa Rica.

Less than a day had passed since I booked my air tickets before I set foot on the soil of this wonderful country. I bought the LP on Latin America the day before, I studied it in the cabin of the plane, flying from Washington to Atlanta, and then waiting for a flight to San Jose, being at the Atlanta transit airport. To be honest, I didn’t know much about Costa Rica. However, reading the guidebook, I began to understand that it seemed that I had made the right choice in choosing the direction for a new trip. The country looked very attractive. Stunning tropical nature, magnificent beaches of the Caribbean and ocean coasts, active volcanoes, waterfalls, rich wildlife. There was only one downside - I chose the time for the trip simply outstanding - the rainy season. Moreover, the weather forecast for the coming days was disappointing - rain, rain and more rain.

Juan Santamaria Airport in San Jose is small, completely civil and very cozy. Passport control takes a matter of seconds and then the noisy crowd of passengers on our Boeing falls into the hands of host travel agencies and taxi drivers waiting at the entrance. Having found my bearings quite easily, I went outside the terminal straight to the highway passing nearby and a minute later I was already riding on a passing bus from the nearby town of Alajuela to San Jose, which is 20 kilometers away. A few words about the aforementioned Alajuela - this is an extremely convenient place to spend the night before a morning flight, since it is located just a couple of kilometers north of the airport. There are several simple hotels where you can spend the night. You can get to the terminal by any bus that runs every 15 minutes to San Jose, or you can walk for half an hour. At the same time, it would not be entirely reasonable to spend the night in Alajuela after arriving in Costa Rica. The fact is that there is no intercity bus station in this town, and if you plan to hit the road in the morning, you will still have to get to San Jose first, where you will have to change trains.

I arrived in the city around midnight, and, remembering that San Jose is a fairly crime-prone metropolis, I decided not to spend more time on the streets at night than it takes to find a simple hotel. The guidebook described the capital of Costa Rica in vivid colors as a very controversial place, which also becomes dangerous after dark. I will refrain from agreeing or refuting information from the book. I'll say one thing. The civilized and polished city center quite abruptly turns into areas of outright slums, dead-end dark streets, many homeless people sleeping right next to the walls of buildings and mountains of garbage. As you understand, the cheapest hotels are located right there, and not near the elegant and illuminated Parliament, or the National Museum.

I stayed at the simple Nuevo Johnson Hotel, a block from the airport bus stop. This is probably not the best place for a single tourist, or an overly sensitive gentleman. It is noisy here at times because of the billiard room in the lobby, there are long dark corridors. But the most important thing is a clean bed and your own amenities in the room. Moreover, with hot water, which is not a common occurrence in Latin America. And even with a TV. Paid $10 for a single room. And outside the window it was pouring rain, which couldn’t help but make me sad. It was very difficult to imagine how I would travel through evergreen tropical forests when it was constantly raining and there were landslides in the mountains. In addition, judging by the weather forecast on the local CNN channel (for Latin America), all mountainous areas are covered in fog. Thus, I came to the following conclusion. Since Costa Rica is a country rich in nature, but poor in historical cities and monuments, now it makes sense to travel towards neighboring Nicaragua. Having laid out a map of the region in front of me, I decided that I could explore the ancient Nicaraguan colonial cities of Granada and Leon even in the rain. Unlike the steep mountains of Costa Rica. And when the weather improves (judging by the forecast - in three days), I will return back to Costa Rica, fortunately the distances are insignificant.

Based on the conclusions made the day before, in the morning I went to one of the bus stations in the city, from where buses depart towards Nicaragua. Regarding buses and bus stations, I would like to add a few nuances. On the one hand, Costa Rica is the only Latin American country where the bus fleet does not consist exclusively of old American yellow school buses. The bulk of the fleet consists of fairly new cars made in Brazil, with air conditioning and comfortable seats. All this makes traveling by bus convenient and not as exhausting as in neighboring Nicaragua. The bus service is well developed, and any small town can be easily reached. Unfortunately, like in neighboring countries, there is no fixed bus station in the cities. Each direction has its own bus company, which has its own station. There are at least five such stations in San Jose, located in different parts of the big city, which makes travel somewhat complicated. It is practically impossible for a tourist to find out the schedule except to personally visit the desired station. I spent at least an hour searching for the station I needed, desperately weaving through warehouses and craft workshops.

Ultimately, having found the desired station, popularly called “Coca-Cola” (once in its place there were warehouses for the finished products of this company), I learned that the bus I needed to the Playas Blancas border point would only be in three hours. This meant that I would spend the entire daylight hours on the road, and would end up on the Nicaraguan side after dark. No, it won't work that way. We should have left immediately and arrived today. I moved to another bus station, where I took my place on the bus to the town of Los Chiles, where the second and last border crossing with Nicaragua is located. Judging by the guidebook, the two countries are separated there by the tropical river Rio Frio, and actually crossing to the opposite bank will have to take a real pirogue. I could not suspect what an adventure this trip would lead to.

The border town of Los Chiles is located in the hottest part of the country, in a lowland, surrounded by tropical swamps and rivers, just ten kilometers from the largest lake in Central America - Nicaragua. The journey from San Jose takes about 4 hours, and runs through the main watershed ridge, which has peaks 3500-3900 meters above sea level. As you climb the mountains, the temperature in the previously literally scorching hot and stuffy cabin begins to drop sharply. Towards the middle of the trip, the weather began to gradually improve, the rain stopped, and the fog began to slowly melt. Thanks to this, it was possible to thoroughly enjoy the stunning landscapes of mountain peaks, volcanic hills and graceful villages along the way. In the town of Ciudad Quesada I have a break of an hour and a half before the next bus to my final destination. This is the time to have lunch and collect your thoughts.

As you descend from the mountains and approach the Nicaraguan border, the surrounding “social landscape” begins to change. If most of the way, not without interest, I observed quite prosperous towns and villages, with well-dressed and smiling people, with neat houses, rich ranches, and many new and decent cars, but now everything became different. Firstly, there are sad areas of widespread deforestation of tropical forests. Thousands of tree stumps literally disappeared into the horizon, decent dwellings were replaced by poor huts, often made from scrap materials. And the bus in each new village was greeted by flocks of child beggars. I can’t say that all this is very shocking - in the end, I did not come to Switzerland. It’s just that for me it was a kind of signal, reminding me of the need to get together and be prepared for any surprises typical of a third world country.

Los Chiles is a very small town, consisting of 1-2 storey houses, among which a massive modern supermarket stands out. There is a small bus station with the wrong schedule posted on the stand. There is even an abandoned railway station building. He, like the Costa Rican railway itself, died out back in the early eighties. About a kilometer north of the bus station there is a boat pier on the Rio Frio River, from where pies are actually sent to Nicaragua. It’s two o’clock in the afternoon, which, at first glance, is not so late - I sincerely hoped to cross to the Nicaraguan side today. Without wasting time, I headed across the entire town to the pier, because, according to the information from the guidebook, pirogues depart several times a day until five in the evening. Alas, I did not take into account the fact that this is Latin America. The boat has already left today, a policeman told me as he strolled lazily near the unprepossessing border pier. And he added - “Mañana, dia” (tomorrow, at ten). Along the way, he gave me an immigration card, indicating with signs that I should fill it out before departure, and take it, along with my passport, to the immigration building, which is a couple of hundred meters up to the center of the town.

Now we had to find a place to stay for the night. In the immediate vicinity of the pier there are several small family hotels of varying degrees of neglect. The most unpretentious tourists can spend the night for 2.5 dollars in the Onassiss hotel, which is opposite the central park (aka the football field). The squalor of existence, which is a barn divided into tiny and faceless little rooms without windows, with common amenities, a common roof and painful audibility. The reward for the torment will be proximity (in the good sense of the word) to the owner’s daughter Sandra, an exceptional beauty. She is also the administrator there. The poor girl, seeing the expression on my face after seeing the closet, was embarrassed by the squalor of their family business and literally took me by the hand to the best hotel in the city - “Cabinas Jabiru”, located closer to the bus station. The city's best hotel is a long, one-story building with two dozen rooms, all equipped with air conditioning, televisions and in-room amenities. You shouldn’t believe guidebooks that say that the cost of an overnight stay in this establishment is only 6 dollars. This is absolutely not true. The cunning owner realized long ago that his hotel was the best in the city. And there is simply no acceptable alternative. The proposed price right away is 20 dollars, a lot of money by the standards of a small, godforsaken town in the jungle. You can bargain, but it’s impossible to bring the price down below $15.

The next morning, I arrived at the pier early, an hour before the pirogue was supposed to depart. And he wasn't the first. About ten people generally spent the night here, right in the bushes. Others ate at a nearby cafe, looking wistfully at the river. All this suggested that it would not be so easy to take a place, and among those wishing to leave Costa Rica, there were, as an option, lists. I didn’t know all this, and I couldn’t know. None of those present knew a word of English, and the most that I managed to find out was that the vessel was leaving for Nicaragua from here.

All that was left was to wait patiently. For now, I walked to the immigration office, where a bored guy in shorts and a T-shirt, who turned out to be a border guard, cheerfully accepted my passport with the exit form. I looked at the passport for a long time, flipping through the pages. It seems that for these places my passport is very exotic! Then he suddenly grabbed the seal and slapped the sweeping exit stamp. When I asked about the departure time of the boat to Nicaragua, he just shrugged his shoulders. Meanwhile, the time was approaching half past ten. Fun, to say the least. I returned to the pier - potential passengers were completely detached and lazily resting on benches and right on the grass.

By eleven, a tender arrived and an exhausted-looking comrade made some kind of announcement in Spanish, after which the people began to very suspiciously collect their things and move towards the center of the town. Should I not get to Nicaragua today? Someone told me that the boat would be there, but a little later. At one o'clock in the afternoon, that is, in two hours. So everyone went to the center - to take a walk and kill time. I can’t stand wasting time—there’s damn little of it in life anyway...however, here the concept of time is completely different. I was unable to find out what was going on due to the incredible complexity of this question for my more than modest knowledge of the Spanish language.

We went to Nicaragua. Not at one o'clock in the afternoon. And not at one thirty. And at three. Everything happened very spontaneously. The tender just pulled up again, from which the same guy with a sad face got out and headed towards one of the long 15-seater pirogues with an outboard motor that were trembling on the water. A nice girl, probably his wife, helped drag a dozen life jackets on board. Then people started filling the empty seats. As you might expect, there wasn't enough room for everyone. About five people were left without a place and they were easily placed right at the bottom of the boat, in an extremely uncomfortable crooked position among the legs of those sitting, their trunks with things and mountains of life jackets.

Then the guy from the immigration office came down to the boat and checked everyone’s exit stamps. A few minutes and we were on our way. We had to cover about 12 kilometers downstream of the Rio Frio, follow the river to Lake Nicaragua, make a right turn and swim a kilometer along the shore to the Nicaraguan town of San Carlos. In my opinion, this journey of about an hour is a very vibrant and impressive part of the trip. And wonderful wild tropical nature, vines hanging over the river, exotic birds, steep meanders, rare houses of poor Nicaraguans on wooden stilts. All this was reminiscent of footage from the program “Cinema Travel Club”, or more precisely, those episodes of it that were hosted by the now deceased traveler and TV presenter Yuri Senkevich.

About half an hour later, after another bend in the river, a huge and slightly rusty metal sign with the inscription “Buenvenidos a Nicaragua” (Welcome to Nicaragua) appeared from behind the dense vegetation. Here, right next to the shield, on a rickety bridge, Nicaraguan soldiers were waiting for us, whose appearance did not inspire any confidence. Strange, very dark, in rumpled and clearly ill-fitting military uniforms, with AK-47 assault rifles over their shoulders and beach flip-flops on their feet. They greeted the pirogue with commanding remarks, and the passengers stopped all conversations among themselves and stared at their feet. The soldiers demanded that all passengers go ashore with their belongings, and then, after all the things were on the grass, they began to inspect them. They took out various objects and put them aside to the displeased grumbling of passengers. Apparently, it was about something like a customs check. I can’t say that I was very confused by what was happening - I don’t have any valuable things (except a camera). On the other hand, these guards of local customs could easily take away not only the camera, but also all the cash. What would I do? Here you have no rights, but only the good mood of the officer. Or a bad mood.

At that moment, I remembered the gracious security officers of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, who arrested my friend and me in October 2006, and then their department conducted a long and grueling correspondence with us. Those poor fellows sincerely already saw themselves as at least Nobel Peace Prize laureates, like the current President of Israel for the Oslo Accords, Shimon Peres. Alas, with the Nicaraguan soldiers everything was completely different. Or maybe these are not soldiers at all? At least the guidebook said in black and white that some areas of the east of the country were not controlled by the government.

One way or another, my turn to be searched was approaching. Like everyone else, I opened my backpack, preparing it for inspection and...it was not required. The soldier who was conducting the search and moving from bag to bag on his haunches looked up, saw my “tourist” face and straightened up. A second soldier approached (all of them were without shoulder straps and it was quite problematic to determine their rank) and asked for a passport. As always, he opened it the wrong way and stared in surprise at the comments in a language he did not understand. Then he opened it on the right side and sighed with relief. I called another colleague, who joined in studying my simple documents: “-Israel?” “-Si” - I used one of the few Spanish words I know. They smiled broadly and wished them a safe journey. After that, all the passengers, including me, were allowed to return to the boat and we went on our way.

My companions, not having the time or desire to pack the torn bags on the shore, did this in the boat. Accompanying all this with indignant remarks addressed to the soldiers. And there was a reason - they took away from the unfortunates everything they liked: electric razors, cigarettes, individual things. Plus, in the process of counting money, some were missing individual bills. Needless to say, it never occurred to anyone to make a fuss and demand anything.

Another fifteen minutes along the river, and a huge lake of Nicaragua opened up in front of us, stretching beyond the horizon. From geography we learn that this is the largest freshwater lake in Central America, 185 km long and up to 70 km wide. It is noteworthy that the lake is separated from the waters of the Pacific Ocean by a narrow isthmus of land, only 20 kilometers long! At the end of the 19th century, when the Panama Canal was just being designed, it was the option of laying a canal in Nicaragua that was the alternative. Fortunately for the pristine nature of this region and unfortunately for the economy, preference was given to Panama.

The town of San Carlos is rather a huge village of 1-2 storey buildings. Some part of the town hangs directly above the lake, supported by gnarled wooden stilts. There is also a crumbling boat pier with rickety outbuildings. From the side of the lake, a hill with the ruins of a Spanish citadel is clearly visible, surrounded on all sides by the simple houses of poor Nicaraguans. Immigration control is carried out right on the pier, and people are released from the boat in batches, probably to avoid the collapse of the already collapsing pier directly into the waters of the lake. When you step onto the pier, the entire ridiculous immigration building, which is cobbled together from scrap materials like everything around, shakes. Here I filled out the form, paid the $7 fee, received an entry stamp for 30 days of stay, and finally got out into the city. It should be noted that the very poor Costa Rican Los Chiles, which we left just an hour and a half ago, now seems to be the height of civilization.

Alas, this Central American country, the largest in territory and richest in natural resources, has experienced a number of shocks that have thrown it far back. The consequences of the powerful earthquake that occurred here in 1972 and killed tens of thousands of people have not yet been overcome. And the civil war, better known as the “Sandinista Revolution,” lasted almost 50 years starting in 1936, and ended in 1979 with the overthrow of the Samosa regime. Then a new war began, this time between the pro-Soviet government of Daniel Ortega (supported by the USSR and Cuba) on the one hand, and the Nicaraguan Contras, supported by the Americans, on the other. The next ten years of bloody war turned Nicaragua into ruins, and the number of victims of this war exceeded 100 thousand killed and even more wounded.

So, it was getting dark and I had to find a place to stay for the night. Tomorrow morning I planned to go downstream the Rio San Juan River to the historical town of El Castillo, which is 60 km from San Carlos. There is a large 16th century Spanish fortress that once controlled the waterway from the Caribbean Sea to Lake Nicaragua. According to the guidebook, small river boats called “Pangas” (like the one I arrived on from Costa Rica) go there three times a day. Walking along the piers, I learned with shame that the next “Panga” would be tomorrow at 9 am. Great! We can only hope that history will not repeat itself, and we will leave, if not at nine in the morning, then at least by lunchtime. America Latina, however.

In terms of finding reasonable accommodation, San Carlos is in many ways similar to its neighbor Los Chiles. There are several terrible shelters in the form of sheds divided into sections measuring 2x2 meters with common amenities. The only difference is that Nicaragua has big problems with water supply. Here no one seriously counts on water from the tap, and in the shower (in Spanish “baño”) there is an ordinary 180-liter barrel of water and a ladle floating in it. Hordes of huge cockroaches indicate that there is a big problem with cleanliness here. No, this is not an option for an overnight stay, even for 1 (one!) dollar. The only acceptable hotel in the town is a two-story guesthouse about a kilometer from the center. There are several clean rooms with fans and in-room amenities. There is no water in the tap either, a barrel is inevitable. But all this is compensated by cleanliness, fresh linen, silence and the absence of cockroaches. The pleasure cost 10 dollars. How wrong I was!

I went to bed early. Due to the lack of an alarm clock and a strong language barrier with the administrator, I was not sure that he would wake me up. Despite his sworn assurances that he understood me correctly about “Wake me up at 8 o’clock AM.” Quite quickly I made myself comfortable in bed and fell asleep. It seems that I was dreaming of something good and kind, when some strange rustling sound began to spread throughout the room. At first, the dream clung tightly to life, not wanting to let me go from its embrace, but the rustling kept growing, and I woke up in a certain irritation. The room was dark, only the moonlight penetrated through numerous cracks in the plank walls. The rustling sound came from my backpack, which was leaning against the wall closer to the door. Moreover, in addition to rustling, I detected strange physiological sounds, reminiscent of sighs and grunting. Having looked closely, I saw on my backpack a certain silhouette of an incomprehensible animal the size of a cat. I admit, I felt uneasy. Who is this? And how “it” entered the room, because the door was closed. And most importantly, how will this strange animal react if I show signs of life?

The dream vanished as if by chance. The animal also did not sit still. With a sound reminiscent of an iron falling, it jumped to the floor and, judging by the sounds, began to run somewhere under my bed, loudly clicking its claws. It was beyond my strength. I rushed to the light, turned it on, grabbed my heavy hiking shoes and squatted down, looking under the bed. Well what can I say? It was a huge rat. She ran away from me, absurdly wagging her fat butt with a long tail. And a couple of seconds later she disappeared into a hole under the bed, where the builders accidentally (or intentionally) left a gap between the boards. But it wasn’t the rat that caused my outright disgust—I love animals, including rats. She ran away - and God be with her. The real disgust was caused by the many large mustachioed cockroaches, which she seemed to be hunting for. They began to scatter with the light on, and I only managed to slap two. Regular specimens are 3-4 centimeters long, similar to those that can be found in Egypt or Israel. Needless to say, it’s unpleasant. And the main thing is that they could crawl into my backpack, which is just standing on the floor.

Returning to bed, I tried to abstract myself from external stimuli, but I couldn’t do it. It began to seem to me that cockroaches were already in my bed. Of course, this is nonsense; they were most likely frightened by my mayhem and ran away from the room. At least until the next night. To reassure myself, I turned on the light again. Eh, it would be better if I took my word for it and fell asleep peacefully. Alas. Once again, everything on the floor was swarming with hundreds of cockroaches. Okay, not hundreds. I didn't count, there were probably only forty-five. Maybe less. But there were probably about ten of them. And this was enough to deprive me of all sleep. Somehow I dozed off. But the rest did not last long. Somewhere very close, as if a rooster was crowing next to my ear. In desperation, I reached into my purse with the gentleman's kit, where, among other things, earplugs were kept. I put them in my ears. But it was no use - the rooster crowed every minute, and other roosters in the neighboring yards began to echo him. I looked at my watch - it was only four o'clock in the morning. Crap!

At one time, I came to San Jose for the same reason that most tourists come here - the capital of Costa Rica is the largest transport hub in the country, and it is from here that lovers of eco-tourism begin their unforgettable journeys through the vast expanses of national parks and reserves .

San Jose, like other Latin American cities, is considered an unsafe city, and tourists try to leave it as soon as possible. However, if your itinerary was designed in such a way that it requires several days of rest in the capital, in no case should you be upset, much less scared. In this article, I will talk about my experience traveling to San Jose and give some tips to help make your stay in the Costa Rican capital as enjoyable and exciting as possible.

How to get there

By plane

Clue:

San Jose - the time is now

Hour difference:

Moscow 9

Kazan 9

Samara 10

Ekaterinburg 11

Novosibirsk 13

Vladivostok 16

How to get there

You can only get to San Jose from Russia by plane, as most tourists do. But if you have already flown to one of the Latin American countries, a lot of opportunities open up before you - domestic flights, intercity buses, rental vehicles and even hitchhiking, which works like a charm in Costa Rica.

By plane

Costa Rica is considered a “premium class” country among our tourists. As proof of this, tickets from major Russian cities to San Jose, as a rule, cost travelers a pretty penny.

From Moscow

• Flights with one stop depart only from Moscow. The flight is operated by major European airlines - British Airways and Iberia. They offer round-trip tickets with connections in London and Madrid starting from 1000 USD per person. A one-way flight will take you about 19 hours.
• There is a more budget option - flights with two transfers. Tickets in this case will cost only 700 USD, and the travel time will increase by only 2 hours. Aeroflot offers this opportunity in an alliance with AeroMexico. However, this option has a nuance that may complicate your travel preparations a little - connections are made in different cities, and you will need a transit visa to make a transfer.

From Saint-Petersburg

Getting to San Jose from St. Petersburg is a little more difficult than from Moscow. Flights on this route require 2 or more transfers. The best deals in this case will be from AirFrance, which operates a 19-hour flight with connections in Paris and Panama City. Round trip ticket prices start from 1000 USD per person. You can compare prices and choose the most profitable option, for example.

From other Latin American countries

You can get to San Jose for a smaller amount - from 500 USD. However, in this case you will also have to make at least two transfers, one of them yourself. In this case, I recommend buying tickets in 2 stages:

1. Transatlantic flight. Search on search engines or websites of European airlines for cheap tickets to popular destinations in Latin America. For example, Alitalia flies from Moscow to for 500 USD round trip, and KLM has already twice this year “thrown away” extremely low tickets from Russia to Panama and Colombia - from 300 USD round trip.
2. Flying around Latin America. Flights between the countries are operated by large Latin American companies such as AeroMexico, Interjet and Avianca. They can find tickets from the above countries to San Jose from 150 USD round trip. Planes fly to the capital of Costa Rica from, Bogota and Panama City 5-7 times a day, so it will be easy for you to choose a suitable flight for your connection.

San Jose Airport. How to get to the city center

Juan Santamaria International Airport is 18 km from San Jose. It is located right on the Pan-American Highway, near the satellite city of Alajuela. In my opinion, the airport deserves the title of one of the most modern airports in Latin America, as it is equipped with literally everything necessary to serve tourists. In addition to a clear system of work and comfortable waiting rooms, there are several cafes, souvenir shops and even tour operators who are ready to take you outside of San Jose to a real tourist paradise, as soon as you wish.

There are several ways to get from the airport to the city:

• Buses white colors await tourists right at the exit from the airport. They depart to the capital every 20-30 minutes from 4.30 am to 11 pm. It is important to pay attention that the bus is marked “San Jose”, since in addition to the capital, buses also go to satellite cities. The ticket price is 1 USD, travel time is 35 minutes. In San Jose, the bus stops near La Merced Park in the city center.

• Official taxi at the San Jose Airport will help you avoid the headache of how to avoid getting shortchanged and get out of the airport in complete safety. When you leave, feel free to get into the red cars, and they will take you where you need to go in a matter of minutes. Taxi prices depend on your destination and traffic congestion, but I can say approximately that for a trip to the center you will pay 20-25 USD for a car.

By bus

It is impossible to get to San Jose from Russia by bus. But it will be very easy to do this from neighboring countries. Both international and intercity buses operate throughout Costa Rica.

International buses

When it comes to traveling between Central American countries, Ticabus immediately comes to mind. This is a unique bus company that operates throughout the region. Its peculiarity lies in the convenience of routes built from capital to capital. Thus, with the help of Ticabus buses it is very easy to get to San Jose from (from 30 USD for 7 hours) and Panama City (from 40 USD for 12 hours). The company offers 3-4 trips per day, alternating economy class buses with more comfortable ones. You can buy tickets at the company's private terminals, which are located in all major and tourist cities of Central America. By the way, guarded Ticabus terminals are another advantage of the company in a sometimes unsafe region.

Other companies, such as TransNica and MEPE, also operate between neighboring Latin American countries. But, in my opinion, they do not have advantages over Ticabus - tickets from these carriers are not significantly cheaper, and their terminals are often located in very remote and unsafe areas.

Intercity buses

Central America is famous for its "chickenbuses" - old school buses from , which are used in the region for passenger transportation. However, it has long since stepped up a step higher. Modern buses ply around the country, the fare of which, according to my calculations, was about 2 USD per hour of travel. Tickets can be purchased at bus stations, but in rare cases you may be directed to a driver. On the way to San Jose, especially from border towns, regular buses often require people in military uniform to check the entry stamp. Therefore, you should not put your passport far away throughout the journey.

Bus stations in San Jose

Each car company in Costa Rica arrives at its own terminal. It's not very convenient, but fortunately almost all of them are within walking distance of each other and the city center. From here you can get to any desired point by taxi or public transport, but I preferred to find a hostel nearby and check in immediately - because soon I had to move on.

By car

You can come to San Jose by rented car from other cities in Costa Rica. This is very convenient, because the city is built right on the Pan-American Highway. If you are faced with a choice of where to rent a car, then I would advise you to do it in popular tourist spots in Costa Rica: it is here that companies offer a huge selection of new cars at prices starting from 30 USD per day.

You can rent a car for traveling to San Jose either on the spot or in advance on the website of one of the many Costa Rican companies. In the second case, you will need to make an advance by transferring part of the amount to the company’s account. To conclude an agreement, you will need a passport and an international driving license. You can also search for options.

Clue:

San Jose - the time is now

Hour difference:

Moscow 9

Kazan 9

Samara 10

Ekaterinburg 11

Novosibirsk 13

Vladivostok 16

San Jose - weather by month

Clue:

San Jose - weather by month

When is the season? When is the best time to go

The weather in San Jose is very stable - daytime temperatures range from +23 to +25°C almost all year round. The rainy season throughout the country occurs from May to October - at this time, prolonged downpours descend on Costa Rica, often interfering with travel, but prices for all tourist services fall by almost 50%.

Since San Jose is not the main tourist destination in the country, and some even consider it a forced point of stay, you should not rely on the weather in the capital when planning your trip. After all, it is a surprisingly diverse country, and everyone has their own goals for visiting it. Identify them and plan your route without adjusting to the weather in San Jose - let the weather adjust to you.

San Jose - weather by month

Clue:

San Jose - weather by month

Districts. Where is the best place to live?

When choosing an area to stay in San Jose, I would advise you to first consider how many days you plan to spend in the city. On the map below I have highlighted the three main areas that, in my opinion, are best suited for an overnight stay. All tourist infrastructure is located here and public transport is good. Even the police are much more active in those places where the largest number of hostels and hotels are located. If you decide to stay in a remote hotel, be prepared that for safety reasons you will have to take a taxi all the time.

I also recommend paying attention to the apartments. Residents of San Jose take their apartment rentals very seriously, which is why most of them are in excellent condition and have a stylish design. The cost of an entire apartment with a kitchen and all amenities starts from 20 USD, and the conditions are many times higher than the hostels that you can find for the same money. Choosing and booking accommodation is quite easy.

What are the prices for holidays?

Holiday prices in San Jose are slightly lower compared to other, more touristy regions of Costa Rica.

• Eat in a cafe you can for 3-5 USD, and the total bill for dinner in a decent restaurant will be 20-30 for two. Do not forget that in all establishments in Costa Rica, a tip of 10% is automatically added to the cost of your meals, which is why the total bill always turns out to be more than you expected.
• Prices for full-day excursions (around the city and surrounding areas) start from 40 USD. In Costa Rica, where one bungee jump can cost 60, it's pretty cheap.
• Souvenirs in San Jose are almost 2 times cheaper than in tourist spots. I learned this life hack on a trip, and it was in the capital that I bought gifts for my loved ones. This literally saved my budget, because the prices for souvenirs in Costa Rican “resorts” are simply off the charts - a magnet can easily cost 8 USD, and a nondescript mug costs 30.

Clue:

Cost of food, accommodation, transportation and other things

Currency: Euro, € US Dollar, $ Russian Ruble, Rub Costa Rican colon, ₡

Main attractions. What to see

Without even expecting it, I spent several intense, interesting days in San Jose. Although before the trip I had no idea that the city has so many fascinating museums, and such corners of untouched nature are hidden in the outskirts of the capital, in fact, San Jose has proven itself to be excellent. However, it is better to talk about all this in order.

Top 5

National Theater (Teatro Nacional)

The National Theater is the real pride of the country. Being the largest in all of Central America, it attracts hundreds of tourists yearning for cultural attractions. You can come to the theater either on a tour for 10 USD to admire its exquisite decoration, or for a performance, a ticket for which, depending on the location, can cost even less than a tour.

Cathedral (Catedral Metropolitana)

A visit to the cathedral will be especially interesting for those who have not traveled to other major cities in Latin America. After all, this is the real heart of every capital, which, like nothing else, reflects the greatness of the city. Entrance to the cathedral is free, and you can attend mass on Sunday mornings. I just don’t advise you to take photographs during the service - in non-tourist San Jose they won’t understand this.

Gold Museum (Museo del Oro)

I’m not sure that the amazing artifacts that became the basis of the gold museum’s collection were actually found in Costa Rica, because no Indian civilization has ever lived here. But, one way or another, the exhibition deserves attention, especially if you are not planning to go to Colombia, where the gold museum occupies as many as 4 floors, and a ticket costs 1 USD. In San Jose you will have to pay 11 USD for entry.

Gallery Namu

The peculiarity of this gallery-museum is that here you can find souvenirs that differ from the usual Costa Rican market stamps. The prices for the products are quite high, but it’s worth coming here if only to admire the unusual pieces of art.

La Sabana Park

This green corner of San Jose is a real salvation in the noisy and stuffy capital! Having visited at least one of the national parks of Costa Rica, you begin to experience some kind of dependence on nature, and therefore staying in the concrete jungle of San Jose becomes even more difficult. In La Sabana Park you can truly relax from the bustle of the city - have a picnic by the lake or play sports.

Churches and temples. Which ones are worth visiting?

In addition to the Cathedral, there are about a dozen different churches in San Jose - mostly Catholic and Protestant. All of them are open from 9 am to 4-5 pm, admission is free, and on Sundays and religious holidays you can attend mass here. However, in my opinion, only one of them is interesting from a tourist perspective.

Current Church of La Merced (Iglesia de la Merced) is not only a landmark of the city, but also the main landmark for meetings. The church looks quite modern, it is beautifully designed both outside and inside, which is why it attracts tourists.

Museums. Which ones are worth visiting?

San Jose has several museums that will be especially interesting to visit for those who have not traveled to other Latin American countries, as well as for tourists who are truly interested in the history of Costa Rica. I will list the most interesting of them.

Parks

The only park in San Jose is La Sabana, which I rightfully included in the top 5. In addition, here and there in the city there are small parks and squares, but it’s not even a stretch to call them parks. Therefore, if you want to escape from the noise of the city and relax in the shade of the trees, only La Sabana will come to your aid.

Tourist streets

San Jose has a whole tourist area - Downtown. Many of the streets here are pedestrian, souvenirs and essential goods are sold everywhere, and most of the restaurants, bars and discos are located here. The area is well guarded by the police, so you can walk here even at night.

What to see in 1 day

If you come to San Jose for just 1 day, I would recommend spending it as follows.

Food. What to try

Food. What to try

San Jose doesn't have any special regional dishes. In my opinion, the capital of Costa Rica has another advantage - unlike other cities in Central America, the restaurant business is well developed here, so in San Jose establishments you can try cuisines from all over the world. For me, after a month of traveling in Central America, where the main diet is meat, rice, beans and fried plantains, restaurants serving Asian, European and American cuisine became a real treat.

Budget

Budget establishments include a variety of eateries that sell sandwiches, falafel or tacos. The cost of snacks starts from 2 USD.

• Falafel Drive-In;
• Veggie Grill;
• Sweet Tomatoes;
• In-N-Out Burger.

I also advise you to pay attention to cafes where locals eat. They may often have no signs, and the menu will be limited to 2-3 dishes, but here you can have a satisfying meal for 3-5 USD.

Holidays

There is an important event in San Jose when the city is literally packed with tourists from all over the world. This is a holiday CApote, which lasts from December 25 to January 8. It is named after the area in San Jose where the event takes place every year.

In simple terms, Zapote is a multi-day bullfight that has acquired the status of a national holiday. In addition to bullfights, dozens of attractions, entertainment, street food stalls and independent discos open in the area. That way, when you've had your fill of bullfighting, you won't have to leave Zapote, a two-week celebration that's always with you.

Safety. What to watch out for

San Jose, by all means, cannot be called a safe city. Despite the fact that the police closely monitor order in tourist areas, the metropolis itself is fraught with many potential dangers.

To avoid trouble, remember a simple rule: as soon as you leave the areas of the historical center or Sabana Norte, pay attention. Do not leave your belongings unattended and do not display equipment on display. If you've been out late, go home in an official taxi, which the administration of any city establishment can call for you. These simple rules will help you have a good and, most importantly, peaceful time in San Jose.

Things to do

Things to do

When all the sights of the city were explored, I simply walked along the streets of San Jose and found something interesting every day: student meetings, street concerts and performances. One day (I still don’t understand for what reason) food was being prepared on the street, which everyone was given to try for free.

The main thing in such walks is not to go into narrow deserted streets. And if you have no desire to explore the restless capital, take time for shopping and buying souvenirs - it will be much more enjoyable.

Shopping and shops

San Jose has many large malls and shopping centers where you can find clothes from European and, most importantly, American brands at good prices. Most of them are located far from the city center, however there is one great exception.

The San Pedro Mall is located just 3 km from the city center. You can easily get here by taxi, public transport and even on foot. The choice of clothes and accessories is simply huge, and you won’t notice how you’ll spend a good half of the day here. The mall is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., address: Rotonda de la Fuente de La Hispanidad, Provincia de San José.

Bars. Where to go

Downtown San Jose has dozens of nightlife spots open in the evenings. These are mainly Cuban bars with live music and English pubs. These establishments are aimed at tourists, so the prices here will not be very low - on average, you will have to pay from 5 to 8 USD for a glass of beer or cocktail. Bars open at 18:00 and close after midnight.

Below I will list a few of the most interesting of them.

• Stiefel Pub;
• Costa Rica Beer Factory;
• Central Pub;
• Xcape Bar & Lounge.

Clubs and nightlife

If after visiting the bar you want to continue, then there, in Downtown, you will find several nightclubs. Entrance to most of them is paid (5-10 USD), establishments are open from 10 pm to 3-4 am. Security at the entrance does not allow entry only to those visitors who can no longer stand on their feet.

I can recommend a couple of establishments.

• Castro's Discotheque;
• Club Alcazar;
• Pepper Disco Club;
• Paradise.

By the way, gay culture is quite developed in San Jose. The city even has several themed establishments. Therefore, do not be surprised if, unknowingly, you accidentally end up at a “themed” party.

Extreme Sports

There are no extreme sports in San Jose itself. But if you contact one of the travel agencies in downtown or the airport, they will be happy to offer you a one-day excursion to suit every taste: rafting, bungee jumping, zip-line and much more.

The cost of a full-day excursion starts from 80 USD - not a cheap pleasure. Therefore, if you are going to one of the tourist regions after San Jose, I would recommend choosing active entertainment already on the spot - believe me, there will be no shortage of choice there.

Souvenirs. What to bring as a gift

A standard set of Costa Rican souvenirs are sold in San Jose, which you can read about here. The only advantage of the capital is that you can buy them here at half the price. To do this, I went to the souvenir market, which is conveniently located in the city center.

Despite the fact that the prices at the market after other regions of Costa Rica will seem simply magical to you, do not forget to bargain, especially if you are buying several things at once.

How to get around the city

How to get around the city

If you live in one of the tourist areas of San Jose, you can cover many distances on foot. To travel to the outskirts or in the surrounding area, it is better to use a taxi - this will provide you with maximum safety. If you plan to often travel outside the city, it will be more profitable to rent a car. You can also travel along the main streets by bus. I will tell you more about each method below.

Taxi. What features exist

There are official taxis in San Jose. These are modern red cars that are hard not to recognize. You can order them by phone at any establishment in the city or catch them on the street. Taxi drivers in the official service are quite honest and work according to the meter, but the fares themselves in the capital are very high - from 1.2 USD per kilometer.

Unofficial taxis actively use this - by offering a lower price, they try to attract the attention of tourists. But the result of such a deal can be disastrous - among such taxi drivers there are many not only scammers, but also robbers.

Buses

You can quickly (and most importantly - cheaply) travel along the main streets of the city by bus. The cost of one trip does not exceed 1 USD, and choosing the right bus is quite easy - all stops are written in large print on the windshield of the transport, so you do not need to know the language to quickly find your way around. The only advice I would like to give to drivers who take a car rental - take care of a reliable parking place for your new vehicle. I would not recommend leaving your car on the streets of San Jose. However, most decent hotels have free parking spaces for their guests.

Friends, you often ask, so we remind you! 😉

Flights- You can compare prices from all airlines and agencies!

Hotels- don’t forget to check prices from booking sites! Don't overpay. This !

Rent a Car- also an aggregation of prices from all rental companies, all in one place, let's go!

Anything to add?

I must say that in our understanding, San Jose is not very similar to the capital. The historical center is tiny, the houses are low, and there aren’t many must-sees.

Travelers typically stop in San Jose for the day before heading off to explore the national parks or swim along the coast. Most modern hotels are built in the new part of the city away from the center. From there you can see the hills of the central valley, but there is nothing to see there - just shops, so it’s worth getting out to the historical part.

BUILDINGS WITH ELEMENTS OF ART NOuveau AND ART DECO

San Jose became the capital only in 1823, the status was transferred to it from the city of Cartago. Then the government decided to build buildings in San Jose that could give it metropolitan chic. Thus, by the end of the 19th century, the impressive Metropolitan Catedral and the National Theater appeared, modeled after the lavish Italian operas (albeit in a smaller form).

In the photo: a building with art nouveau elements

The city's architects looked closely at trends in Europe, so at the beginning of the 20th century they began to build houses influenced by Belle Epoque, Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Of course, a pure genre, as in Barcelona or Paris, did not work out, but elements can be traced here and there: pavilions made of glass and wrought iron (now they house ATMs) resemble Parisian metro stations, and on the facades of Steinvorth, Knöhr, Libreria Lehmann – entertaining stucco.

These glass and wrought iron pavilions now house ATMs

Guide Juan Carlos instructs: “Don’t immediately rush to take photographs, look at the buildings carefully, try to understand the entire architectural concept. Many are now spoiled by ugly signs, and people don’t even notice what beauty they are walking next to.”

In the photo: a building with decorative elements in the Arabic style

The Correos de Costa Rica Central Post Office is very impressive, the architecture of the Musee d'Orsay comes to mind. The building is worth going inside and looking at the historic wooden mailboxes. Be sure to look for the former Estación del Ferrocarril station, where trains to the Atlantic departed.

In the photo: the central post office of Correos de Costa Rica

Not far from it is Parque Nacional, where it’s nice to take a walk (by the way, the air in the city is fresh, like in nature). Look for cafes in old buildings in the center, just to drink coffee in the interiors.

NATIONAL THEATER

Without exaggeration, the most luxurious building in the city, inside of which excursions are conducted. The National Theater was built in 1897 with an eye on the Italian style - with marble floors, gilding, stucco, painted ceilings and an abundance of statues.

Pictured: National Theater of San Jose

Previously, the theater was intended exclusively for the aristocracy. So they still go there to show themselves off and look at others. An elegant cafe with marble table tops and Viennese chairs is open next to the theater; you should definitely visit it for a cappuccino and cake.

In the photo: National Theater cafe

In the photo: a waiter in the cafe of the National Theater

Usually coffee in Costa Rica is brewed in a simple iron kettle, but here everything is in the European style.

CENTRAL MARKET

Where is life usually in full swing? That's where we need to go. The Central Market is about 120 years old, the building is not particularly remarkable, but the inside is great. This is the plan. On the trays you can buy spices, fruits and fresh cheese.