I have been to Costa Rica twice.
There are about 4 million people who live here.
The currency is called the colon, and both times we were there it took about 310 colones to buy one USD.
The first time was to stay with friends, in San Jose. He was hired to build the roads there.
If you have ever been to Costa Rica, I have no idea what roads he fixed, because all of them, (thaI was on), were terrible!
The History
This area had a native population that goes back to pre-Columbian times. They made large granite stones. No one know how they could make the stones in a perfectly round shape.
Only the stones can be seen, because Banana Plantations covered their villages.
The Spanish discovered this part of Costa Rica, 350 years ago.
The port of Puntarenas was not built until 1840, to export coffee beans.
In 1950, some Quakers, from the State of Alabama moved to Costa Rica. They began to raise cows, and became so wealthy, that they helped to make Costa Rica a country, (in 1948).
Today Costa Rica, is the wealthiest Country in Central America.
The first trip:
San Jose:
We stayed with our friends, for a few days, (on our way to Columbia), and they were happy to take us to see the sites.
We saw:
The National Museum of Costa Rica, (Museo Nacional de Costa Rica). Our friends paid the entrance fee, ($1.00 USD per person).They had a lot of displays that showed us the history of Costa Rica, from pre-Columbian times until their Civil War, (1948). I liked the pre-Columbian display the best because, I didn’t know they made gold jewelly and statues, then. There was a very ornate grinding stone, (I only have seen undecorated stones, before). There was a sea shell carved out of jade, and inside of the shell was a hand holding an animal. In the barracks area, we saw bullet holes on the buildings, and paintings of their Civil War. Just before we left we went out to the patio to get a view of the city, and see some stone spheres, (that no one knows where they came from). There was writing on them, but so far no one could read it.
Spyrogyra Butterfly Garden, cost $6.00USD per person. It is a farm that has all the variety of butterflies, that live in Costa Rica. We went into the Gallery and saw a video show, and the display of the way the butterflies are formed, come to life and die. We had lunch here.
We went to shop at Angie Theologos’s Gallery, to buy some hand made T-shirts and embowered ’’molas’’, (men and women’s light cotton shirts).
Plaza de la Democracia open market has stalls that sell hand made jewelly, cloths, handicrafts and ’’ocarinas’’, (a wind flute). Our friends told us not to accept the asking price, but to bargain, so we did. We bought an ’’ocarina’’, a ceramic vase and I bough a loose fitting, cotton dress.
Where we ate:
The Barbecue Los Anonos, made great steaks. El Chicote serves Latin American Food, Olio made wonderful food from the Mediterranean and La Masia de Triguel served food from Portugal and Spain.
My Thoughts:
Would I come back to San Jose again? I would love to, because I would like to see the other side of the Island. I highly recommend it to you.
The second trip:
The second time I was in Costa Rica, we were there for half a day, as part of a cruise.
Puntarenas:
The Pacific side of this country is very dry, (the Atlantic side is beautiful with lush rain forests, and sandy beaches).
The Population is about 100, 000 people. It is 130 K., from the capital city of San Jose.
As we were docking I saw that the water was not clear, but muddy, from all the ships that land here.
It was so hot, over 32 degrees C, that I was happy that we were going go on a raft to see some islands.
Puntarenas, is on a narrow peninsula that is in the Gulf of Nicoya. We were only going to be here for a 5 hours.
Our Tour:
We went to see the Guayabo, Negritos & Pájaros Islands. There are four islands but we only saw two.
Guayabo Island has a round mountain on it. We saw some humming birds, peregrine falcon’s, some brown pelicans, a number of species of gulls.
Negrios Island is all forests. We saw some white tipped doves, a lot of different coloured parrots, red land and hermit crabs.
I was so happy we took this tour, because it was much cooler.
Where we ate
When we got back from the tour, we ate at a small café, on the waterfront. I had pescado enfero, (a small broiled, fish), and my husband had ceviche de corvina (bits of fresh fish marinate in lime juice with onions, peppers and spices.
Before we went back to the ship we had some ice cream, (that was made from real fruit and vanilla beans), not like the ice cream that is made in Canada.
What we bought
We bought some Monteverde Cheese, (that the First Mate had arranged to keep in a cooler until we left the ship), and a few bags of coffee beans.
My Final Thoughts:
Would I go back to Puntarenas. I think that we saw enough of this area of Costa Rica, so I wouldn’t. If you are in this area of the world, you should visit here at least once.
Thanks for reading my review.
©LL2004