We got up at 7am to catch our 8am Shuttle with Tim to San Jose where we plan on spending the rest of our vacation. We asked Tim to set us up at a place that was nice, clean and cheap. At first appearance, the place seemed really great. Granted the rooms were small.. but hell the price was right. Twenty bucks. We hung out for a bit, met Dr. Bob, the owner of the hotel and the Tex Mex Restaurant. He was quite a character and a lot of fun. He really seemed to enjoy the pace of
Costa Rica. One thing we learned there...
Costa Ricans don't have addresses... Really! No street names, no addresses. People tell you where to go and how to get there using landmarks and meters from the landmarks. If you don't know an area.. You're screwed. We would find
this a problem later when trying to figure out how we would get back to the hotel after an evening of partying.
After checking in we ventured into San Jose to do some shopping and explore the city. We started in the Central Market which seemed to be a poor-man's version of The Third Street Promenade. We walked for a
few blocks and were basically unimpressed with the shopping. So we found a local bar which as it turned out was a taste of the USA. It was called The Nashville Bar and we took a moment to have a beer before moving down the side streets for some more local cultural shopping. We found some fantastic art and some GREAT wooden lathe turned bowls, a native traditional export here. We made our way back to the center of town and stopped at the Central Bank where the underground vaults house the National Collection of Costa Rican Gold. It was amazing, level after level of fantastic pieces of pre-Columbian gold, some pieces of which were over 2000 years old. When we got up from the vaults it was raining so we hopped in the car and made our way back to the hotel.. but not before stopping in a small college town along the way. In Costa Rica, I learned that because they have no military, they can spend more of the national budget on education, and everyone here goes to school and anyone who chooses goes to a great college and for free. The bars near the town were great, everyone was young, the beers were large and cheap and the people were friendly and mostly English speaking.
While we were there we got to witness a funny sight. It was a small street and someone had parked about a foot away from the curb. A bus headed down the street and got stuck. People at bars on both sides watched and cheered as onlookers tried to guide the bus down, getting it more and more stuck between the vehicles. Finally, a group of guys simply picked up the car and moved it a foot over so the bus could pass. We had a few slices of pizza for dinner and made our way back to the hotel where I passed out for a quick 2 hour cat nap. When I awoke at 10:30pm it was time to get showered and get out! After spending a half hour figuring out how we were gonna get back to the hotel we all departed. Tim agreed to come with us but at the door of Club Oh, we were stopped because Tim didn't have his ID on him. I looked inside to see if it was worth staying.... one look and I was hooked. I said goodbye to Tim and the girls and went inside -
Inside the club was hopping. Very mixed in traditional Latin style the music was discotheque electronica. I was confused at the bar at first, when I tried to pay the non-english speaking bartender said no... I thought he liked me... how flattering. 6 Drinks later I figured out it's open bar there. WOW. Wish we had that in LA. The boys were hot. I had a blast dancing with quite a few... made out with 2 and took the hottest one home. :P It was amazing. I was sorry to have to bring him back to the smallest place we stayed over our vacation, but he didn't seem to mind at all and wow was it hot.
