Un día en San José

     Today, June 30th, was our last full day in San José. We leave on Saturday at 11:55 PM to return to Nebraska, but we get picked up to go to the airport by 8:30 PM. It has been a bittersweet last week. I am excited to be home and see my family, but it was sad to say goodbye to some of the people I have met here over the past four weeks. Normally on the weekends, we have gone to different cities so we could see different parts of Costa Rica. But because we really only had today to do things, we decided to just stay here for the day. A few of us had debated going to Guayabo, which is a National Park that has some ruins, but it is about two hours away by bus and we were told by 3 or 4 people how to get there, and they all told us different things. So we decided to just spend the day in San José and explore downtown. I have been at the beginning of downtown a couple of times to go to a souvenir market, but I had not gotten much farther than that.

     The first thing we did today was go to el Museo Nacional, the National Museum. Since 1950, the National Museum has been housed in the Bellavista Fortress. The Bellavista Fortress was built in 1917 and was originally a military barracks. It is a very impressive building, and the museum was pretty neat as well. The first thing we walked into was a butterfly exhibit that had live butterflies that flew all around you, and it even had a spot where all of the cocoons and chrysalises were. After that, there were various rooms that showed how the fortress originally looked like and what homes in the 1800's and 1900's might have looked like in Costa Rica. There were also artifacts from the indigenous people like pottery and arrowheads and objects related to their burial practices. It was an interesting museum for learning about the history of Costa Rica.'

     After that, we went to la Catedral Metropolitana, the Metropolitan Cathedral. It was originally built in 1802, but the original cathedral was destroyed by an earthquake. It was built again in 1871, and that is the building that is still standing there today. It was a very large building, and it had a much newer feel to it than most of the Catholic churches I have visited. There was mass going on when we got there, so we slipped inside to see what it looked like, but we did not stay very long.

     We debated going and eating after that cathedral, but instead, a few of us went and toured el Teatro Nacional, the National Theatre. The building was started in 1891, and it was not finished until 1897. It had a very European feel to it because some of the upper class wanted Costa Rica to be more cultural like how Europe was. It was an absolutely beautiful theatre with a lot of history and many beautiful decorations. There were quite a few things we learned from the tour, but two of them really stuck with me. One is that the floor in the theatre can actually be raised up to the height of the stage and the chairs can be removed so the theatre can be used like a ballroom for special events. The other is that the theatre has always had electrical lighting. Costa Rica was one of the first countries to have public electrical lighting, and it came about right before the theatre was built.

     After we ate lunch, we made our last stop for the day at el Museo de Jade, the Jade Museum. We had been debating between this one and the Pre-Colombian Gold Museum, but we were very happy with our choice to go to the Jade Museum. We were not sure what to expect, and the only thing we really knew about the museum was that it had high ratings. When we finally got there, we saw there was a temporary exhibit related to burial practices and stuff like that in Costa Rica, so we figured that even if the museum was not that cool, that exhibit might be. But honestly, that exhibit was probably the least cool thing there, though it was very interesting. There were five levels (possibly six, but we did not try to go to the basement) to the museum, and each level had at least one or two exhibits related to the indigenous people of Costa Rica. Not only were there items made of Jade, but there were also many beautiful pottery items, tools used to craft the Jade items, and just a lot of information about the history of the items. We spent about an hour and a half at the museum, but we definitely could have spent longer. We were a little tired by the time we finally got the museum, so I think the security guards there thought we were a little crazy because we kept laughing at some of the facial expressions on the pottery and Jade, but it was just because we were a little exhausted! However, it was probably my favorite thing we did all day, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who comes to San José.

     Today was a great way to end our time in Costa Rica. We were able to explore the city a little bit, and we learned about the history of the country as well. History has always been one of those things that fascinates me, so I was just happy to have a day to devote to that interest. In less than 26 hours, I will be leaving the country, and although that is sad, I am happy for my experiences over the last four weeks and all of the things I have learned.