SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA

After breakfast at the Holiday Inn here in Santa Ana, about 10 miles outside San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, and after a great night's sleep with wonderful AC and thick duvet coverlets on the beds, Betty and I met at 9 with Alex and our group for the week. I think it will be a great, friendly group of 16 - 5 couples and 6 of us single women. We had a brief overview from Alex in a meeting room where he told us the "rules" of an O.A.T. (Overseas Adventure Travel - a subgroup of Grand Circle Travel, which usually has larger groups. OAT keeps groups under 15 or so. This is my 4th trip with them. Betty (not my travel buddy but ANOTHER Betty, soon turning 80, from WA state) has been on something like 20+ OAT or Grand Circle trips. That's NOT counting ones with OTHER tour companies!! Amazing! She does about 3 trips a year, usually. I think I travel a lot and then I meet someone like her!

So some of the rules Alex mentioned was Respect times given - so we don't have to wait for anyone. Another was rotating seats on the van. Our driver will be with us the whole time. Alex put a sticker on the window by where we sat today and he will move them each day so we rotate. No WHINING - only wining! If you have a complaint, take him aside and air it - not have the whole group listen! No politics - if you want to talk, take someone aside (if they are willing to listen!) but not with the whole group! That was pretty much it!

Off we went with driver Juan Carlos to a slum area of San Jose to a place called Lifting Hands (see Liftinghands.org) We saw the houses on steep hillsides where people have set up metal shacks. If you live there for a year or so, it becomes yours. There is no school there so kids have to go elsewhere. Lots of drugs, alcohol, abuse, etc. So this place with several buildings painted bright colors was established by this woman who spoke to us, who had had a rough, abusive childhood and at 11 or so was left by both parents who split, to raise 4 younger brothers alone. They were shuttled from family and place to place. Finally at 15, she found her father and said he had to take care of her brothers. She by this time was an alcoholic herself (as was dad) and working as a prostitute. She married another alcoholic and had 3 kids and was a mess. Finally, with the help of A.A. that someone introduced her to, she was able to straighten her life out, and raised her 3 kids herself, it sounded like. She wanted to help this community where she lived and someone approached her and together they started this foundation. It provides sort of After Care, after school programs for kids, a place to play, not around the drugs, etc. in their community down the hill. It also offered classes in English, computers, math and others as well as classes for their parents. They are now servicing 300+ kids and have 250 or so volunteers who, from the website commit to at least 1 hr a week for up to 4 months. We saw various adults around working with kids, kids playing on a small playground, all seemingly very happy to be there. This is not sponsored by O.A.T. as it's not a school, like we will visit later out in the countryside. But just an example of how some people in CR are trying to solve their own problems, rather than the government handling everything. It was interesting!

San Jose was very crowded on a Saturday. Stop lights don't mean much. It took forever to cross town to get anywhere. We headed to lunch; fortunately Alex was able to call in our order ahead of time so we didn't have to wait long once we got there. We had delicious guacamole (had pineapple chunks in it, with some sprinkled cheese I think; Delicious!!) and chips for a start with sangria - lots of apple chunks and watermelon in the wine. Usually alcoholic beverages are NOT included with our meals (you can pay for them separately). But this first lunch it was included! Betty had CR beer. Our meal was chicken with what looked like mole on top, rice and beans Caribbean style said Alex, and a stringy vegetable/salad. It was a great start!

Alex changed plans a bit as there was a small arts festival going on right outside on the street. People were painting on tables, people were spinning hula-hoops (Sarah would have put them all to shame; she's the QUEEN of hula-hooping!) A couple guys walking around on stilts handing out pizza restaurant ads. 5 guys with these HUGE papermache heads of some sort were dancing. Body-painting like hippies from the '60s was going on. And a stage was set up where musicians were playing tango music! Interesting and unexpected! Betty and I thought maybe it was related to upcoming Carnival but Alex didn't think so.

Pretty church we passed.

Former control tower and old airport downtown. Now a park with a huge stadium, built by the Chinese and Huawei company

LiftingHands playground

Slum outside Lifting Hands 

53% of CR people in a census stated they were Catholic. But it dropped to 15% when asked if they were PRACTICING their faith, meaning like at least once a month going to church. We did drop by the Cathedral on a square before leaving town. It had portions collapse during the many earthquakes that occur here with a big one in the 1990s. I have a feeling we might feel some kind of a tremor while we are here. Never happened to me before! Alex aid the buildings are built to take it, mostly.

Our afternoon included a tour of the National Theatre, a beautiful old European style building similar to Paris Opera House. In the 1800s CR was modeling and trading with France, Germany and Italy so their architecture style then was modeled on Europe. The 20th century the main trading partner was the US so things changed. Lots of American companies like KFC and McDs etc.

Tried to add a video here but don't think it works. 

Finish this tomorrow! Tired!