Our trip to Costa Rica started and ended in San Jose. We were much more comfortable when we returned to the city after a week of exploring the country. When we first arrived the bars and gates on all the windows set my mom on high alert. It also didn't help that I made her walk through a sketchy area near the 7-11 terminal to save $3 on cab fare. One couple we talked to said it was common to attribute lesser priced housing with crime but San Jose was a very safe city. Overall we do agree with this thought. The look of San Jose can throw a Westerner off more so than the culture or lifestyle.
We stayed in the same hotel as when we first arrived. We were happy to arrive back to the same neigbourhood but I would have liked a different hotel, despite it being an okay place to stay. It looked like Airbnb's are the best kind of accommodation in San Jose but I couldn't get into my original airbnb account and the internet was too spacey to register a new account.
We found a cool restaurant in the neighbourhood to start the day off. I hadn't taken many photos of the food we had eaten so I made sure I got some here.
This image shows traditional Costa Rican coffee and how it is prepared. My mom didn't drink it cause the taste was too harsh but I was happy for caffeine so I drank hers and mine.
For a starter we got guacamole and chips. The guac was mixed with green salsa and used less avocados than we were used to but we were still happy with it.
For mains my mom got a meat board of some sort and I got a ceviche taster. I ate a lot of ceviche on the trip so I figured I had to continue the trend!
After lunch we went to check out the Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica. Last time we were in the city we accidentally viewed the side of the building instead of walking around to the front of it so this time we wanted to go in.
The theatre was $10USD to enter and it was well worth it! They also had free tours leaving on the hour but we chose to skip the tour and just wander around ourselves. I found the theatre to remind me of the Opera house in Paris which I found strange since San Jose and Paris are so different.... We read about the San Jose theatre and it was built with an initiative to have arts as the focus point of culture. The architecture and materials are focused around the European arts scene and Wikipedia says it's one of the nicest buildings in the capital which we can agree with.
Today the theatre is used for plays, dance performances, operas and political balls and functions. One fun fact was that it wasn't built with space below for an orchestra so the orchestra must play on the main stage. My mom and I would highly recommend taking a walk around the theatre and then grabbing a latte or snack in the cafe before leaving! It also sounds like it has some killer performances if you are looking for a night out.