Costa Rica Part 5: San Jose

So we drove a whole bunch while I tried my hardest to keep my stomach contents inside me and we finally arrived to the capitol city, San Jose around 11pm. And it sure was creepy! Everything is shut down, barred up and the only people out seemed quite questionable. When we thought we were near the airbnb we had booked, there was a sketchy nightclub right in front of us. Luckily when we called the airbnb, the owners answered (and boy were we grateful) and gave us much better directions that took us several blocks away. (Costa Rica doesn't really have addresses, even in the big cities) Anyway, we got there and the man (Who we found out was the owner's son) was standing on the sidewalk at an open gate, and gestured us to go in. We knew this location had gated parking which is why we chose it. Anyway, we felt much better knowing our car was secure and once we saw our room. Max hadn't eaten dinner and was super hungry. I still had quite the upset stomach and couldn't possibly eat. Many things close down once it gets dark in Costa Rica and I knew we didn't want to walk far this late at night. Luckily (for Max) there was a Chinese restaurant right across the street, it was open and when we walked in, it was huge and fancy and busier than we expected for 11:30 at night! So random, but we were so grateful! Anyway, We brought the food back to the room, Max ate and then we started a movie after midnight because we were feeling a little crazy.  The next morning we packed up our stuff and put it in the car. We met Mayela who is the owner of the property and she said we could keep our car locked up all day (even past checkout) while we explored the city. She also took this picture for us and showed us the murals she has throughout her guest house.

Anyway, we walked down to the central market and met up with Jairo. He is a friend and part owner of the house (along with our friend Lori) we stayed in the first couple nights. He is also an ambassador of Costa Rica and has lived all over the world. He wanted to take us out to lunch. We felt that he was a great person to know  and he gave us some tips for staying safe in Costa Rica. He had some really cool stories about meeting with the Prophet President Hinckley when the temple was being built in Costa Rica.

We went to part of the central market to began a tour of downtown San Jose. Jairo made sure we got there safe and told the tour guide, Angel, to take care of us. Anyway, the walking tour of San Jose was really interesting, we got to learn more about the history of Costa Rica and how Coffee saved their economy, we saw the not-as-touristy markets as well as their touristy markets. We tried new fruits, tasted some traditional ice cream, ate a raw turtle egg drink, saw their main bank, cathedral, theater, and post office. All while learning some history! Here we tried some of the fruits, and I can't remember the names of any of them. My favorite was one that looked like it had snotty grapes inside but it tasted so good!

La Bomba (The bomb-all the traditional spices mixed together to save time when cooking!

We got to drink from some big coconuts, however, that was the last thing I drank before I got super carsick the night before so after a taste, I couldn't drink it anymore.

And for some reason there is this drink made with tomato juice and a raw (unfertilized) turtle egg. I don't know why we agreed to try this. And I'm not sure why people would drink this regularly but Max and I both tried it and it was so weird. It was pretty spicy. We were told if we drank more than two, it would be a great aphrodisiac, but it really wasn't worth drinking more than one. Ha!

 

We were shown these statues outside the national bank and were told that this is the most realistic depiction of farmers in Costa Rica. They worked hard in the coffee fields to boost the economy, yet weren't allowed to enjoy the fruits of their labors which included improved schools, churches, the theater. They were in a lower class that weren't allowed in these places. I forget to get a picture but none of the farmers had shoes except for one. Luckily, it seems that the situation for the farmers has significantly improved since then. 

 We then made our way into their national Cathedral, which was beautiful.

We then made our way to the theater which was designed by Europeans so it had many intricate beautiful statues.

"Heroes of the misery." this statue was made by a Costa Rican artist and symbolized that the next generation, after the farmers and workers had built the theater, would be able to enjoy all of the hard work done by their ancestors.

Post office

 At the end we were given a meal and ground up some cocoa beans to make hot cocoa. It was a pretty exciting tour and we enjoyed learning more about the culture!

Max was always impressed with how large the bamboo grew, so here he is, being impressed!

 Ok so then the tour was over and we thought we would explore the markets more but we realized it was getting late and, with traffic, we would barely make it to the temple on time. So we shimmied back to our car and thanked Mayela for letting us securely park there all day and started our drive to the temple. We spent some time in traffic and the craziest thing happened. We were at a freeway exit, at a stoplight and all the lanes were full. We saw a guy walking down the middle of the road between lanes which didn't seem all the weird from what we had already seen in Costa Rica. he got really close to the car in front of us and it looked like he was going to get in so we were thinking oh, he's meeting up with someone, but instead of opening the door, he smashed in the window, grabbed the woman's purse and ran. All while this woman feels completely stuck in traffic. We felt helpless too, and max just honked as the guy ran away. It just made us feel so worked up and even though the crime was not against us, we just felt how violating and unsuspecting she must feel. We were glad we were on the way to the temple to help calm us down. In the rush of getting to the temple, Max wasn't able to change his clothes. So we went in minutes before the session was to start with Max in shorts and a t-shirt. Max apologized for his appearance and the kind man at the desk, looked at Max in his eyes and said "you are dressed perfectly, welcome to the temple!" We felt so much peace come over us. The Costa Rica temple is small and only has a couple sessions a day so if we missed this one we weren't going to have a chance to go during our trip. We were so glad we made it. Max enjoyed the session in Spanish, I chose to listen to the English translation so I didn't miss anything. It was perfect.

After the temple, we made our way to Quepos which was a couple hours of driving. On the drive we would pass huge restaurants along the road. It seemed pretty random. At one point we stopped at a restaurant to grab some food for the road. they were playing loud music and even thought the restaurant was empty, it was a super fun environment. We ordered our food then took a bathroom break. When I came back, Max shoed me away because he was up to something. Apparently while I was in the bathroom, one of the workers told Max he was the DJ and asked if he had any requests for music.   So Max thought it would be fun to have a song I loved playing and we could dance in the empty restaurant. After awhile I had no idea what was going on so I walked back over to Max and he confessed the plan and realized he had no idea what song to choose. HAHA. So it seemed like he had given up on the plan. So I reminded him of the song we danced to at our wedding. He remembered the song but not what it was called (All least that's what he says) so I reminded him. 

There was actually a back story to this back when Charlie was a baby, we got a baby sitter and saw a friend play in a band at a bar. I tried to get Max to dance with me and he was too shy. haha, probably the only time he's been too shy to do something.  so this was his way he wanted to make it up to me. Anyway this video is long and its mostly funny because the DJ guy was drunk and so funny! Also, I just want to point out that romance in marriage is often the wife reminding the husband how to be romantic. Real Life!

Then we kept on driving and finally made it into Quepos and were greeted by our airbnb host and shown one of our favorite homes he stayed in during out trip....

Costa Rica Part 4: La Fortuna-Tobacon Resort

After a long and busy day in the water, we arrived at the Tabacon Hot Springs resort. This was probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. And they upgraded our room when we got there and put a "Happy Anniversary" banner across the door. I was really looking forward to this part of our trip. We had even considered staying for longer when planning our vacation but then decided we wanted to see more of Costa Rica, plus, after you check out of your room, you can still stay at the hot springs all day! So we checked in in the evening and took photos. haha!

 

Once we got all checked in, we got our suits on and made our way to enjoy the hot springs until they closed. It was a fun experience at night and there were very few people there. Many hot springs were pretty dark so we weren't even sure exactly what we were getting into but it was fun and romantic. We also found out we had a $50 credit for the restaurants and bars and seeing how we don't drink, we got to enjoy a bunch of fresh fruit juices. So when we first got to the pool, we put our stuff in the locker and went to the swim up bar and got a virgin pina colada served in a pineapple. So delicious. We swam around, went down the slides checked out many of the pools and waterfalls but the whole place was like a maze and we didn't know how many pools there were. It was warm and refreshing all at the same time. Anyway, we stayed until 10 which is when they kicked us out. and went back to our luxurious hotel room!

 

We woke up slowly then walked to the restaurant area for our breakfast. That exceeded all our expectations too. 

 

We saw this basilisk lizard on our way to breakfast and Max tried to make it run on water...he succeeded

After slowly eating from the buffet, ( and they had waffles, that tasted like doughnuts, but were waffles...so crazy!) we finally walked back to our room to decide if we wanted to sleep more or pack up and head to the hot springs. I was really liking the lackadaisical pace of the resort.  We decided to pack up our car and play at the hot springs for the day. I had my camera out for a bit to try to capture the magic of this place. Don't think I did it justice but...I tried!

The volcano was often covered in fog. 

 

 

So within the resort, there is a section of the hot springs that's called the Shangrila gardens and it's for adults only (I believe they are the hottest parts of the springs) there are several pools within the garden, and several pod, bed, cabana, things? I should have asked what they were called! And a bar (which also sold fresh fruit juices) Once again, I was amazed that it wasn't busy! Maybe it's because it would rain on and off which didn't bother us at all and most of the time it felt really good...we were already in our swim suits! Anyway, it was a magical little spot.

We even got to take a little nap in the cabana pods!

 

 So we eventually left the garden area, I put my camera away and went to swim in many other pools! We started at the swim up bar (and when I say I put my camera away, we still had our phone for photos, and to all our boys. It was just such a magical place. I promise we did set the phone down and enjoy the moment a lot as well! Anyway, we went and got more juice.

At one point, we tried to do a video call with our boys but the wifi service was spotty and there was too much delay so we went back to sending videos and marco polos for the rest of the trip.

 A mere glimpse of the top of the volcano.

 We stayed until the sun got low (which isn't very late in Costa Rica)

 then pulled our selves out of the pool and made our way to a nearby yoga class.

 We had never done a yoga class together and having 11 days together seemed like we could finally squeeze one in!  It was just us and one other person in the class.

 The class was great! The teacher taught the class in Spanish and English and did a great job and then served us coconut water at the end. Okay, but there was a part we are still laughing about, at the end of the class, the instructor has us join in some type of chants, or holding long notes. So we all joined in on the note, and the other woman in the class joined in and was terribly flat. But she pushed out that (incorrect) note with all she could muster. Max told me later that he had to avoid eye contact with me as not to completely lose it. I should point out that it was great that she was there and putting all her energy into it. (I'm not tone-deaf shaming, because I assume that's a real thing now) Anyway, we got in our car with our coconut milk and started the 3ish hour drive to San Jose (the Capitol of Costa Rica)

And just as we were leaving town, we saw a car pulled over in front of us and a man was out in front of his car, we could see his headlights shining on him and something in the road. We were terrified that he had hit someone, when we got closer we could see that a sloth was in the road and he was helping it cross the road. We drove by it and this was the closest I had been to a sloth (And the most movement I'd seen from one as well.) I took a video but I know it's not as visible as we could see it. We could see it's little smiling face as it slowly walked down the road. It was pretty cool and we drove the next couple of miles (kilometers, haha) kicking ourselves for not stopping and watching it closer. But really, there weren't many places to stop. 

Anyway, I ended up getting terribly carsick on the winding roads, and couldn't drink coconut water the rest of the trip but we arrived in San Jose and were completely terrified of the part of town we arrived in, but more on that later....