For 12-26-11, San Jose

No surprise, but the rest of the group did finally show up, though with a couple blocks walking to get around the parade. Our guide is Erick. I’ll find a photo of him sometime.


This is quite a hotel. Right in the center of San Jose, off the main plaza, beside the National Theater, etc.

We had our first (of every) rice meal that night.  Not exciting, but everyone got together for the first time.

I’d eaten a bit on the street—a vendor came by with slices of, um, something in plastic bags. For about a dollar, I got a sack of these, with an orange-flesh lime, a spoon full of salt, and on request, hot sauce poured in. They were great. Later, Erick told me they would have been either green mango (I’m guessing not, since I didn’t melt down from allergy to that) or a green yuplon. Ok, so this really isn’t Texas.


But the Gran Hotel is a nice place—art pieces, old style chandeliers, and roped off in the lobby, the “Kennedy furniture,” a sign telling us this was the same furniture JFK used during a visit in 1962.
Before dinner, six of us had gone to the Museo de Oro—a collection of pre-Columbian gold objects preserved by a bank, along with exhibits on indigenous life. But my camera battery was dead, and Brian took a lot of good photos. Maybe he’ll blog that.

later, bob