San Jose

For those who kept asking, I apologize for not writing earlier. I spent my first week in San Jose, Costa Rica and honestly I didn't know what to say about it. Most people will make pretty disparaging remarks about San Jose and they are mostly well deserved. The city is very much like any other and is highly Americanized. There was a Hooters, Walmart, and TGIFridays close to my hostel. Pizza Hut is doing extremely well - maybe even better than McDonalds. It was very dirty. While I've never been there, one of my hostel mates said that it looks exactly like the central valley in California.

Me and the Colonel

In short, there is nothing of cultural significance or really beauty of any kind. However, my purpose is not to be a tourist 24/7 and the city is not without certain appeal. There are some nice parks and the downtown has a little charm to it with open markets and fresh fruit everywhere. I have always enjoyed walking around sort of aimlessly just to see things, and I got quite a bit of experience with the culture from watching the people.

The hostel I stayed at was a bit different from any of the others I have stay at before: the majority of the clientele lived there for extended periods of time. Some were entrepreneurs, students, or retirees and others I couldn't figure out their stories at all. I found it quite funny though that three (of ~15) had chemistry degrees. Maybe there's something about chemistry?

I had a good time in San Jose, but you should never go there on vacation. There's not much else to say. I stayed busy doing some editing and trying to speak Spanish (very poorly).