Monday, Feb 6
I did a quick post yesterday to let everyone (Mom) know that we had arrived safely but I didn't really tell you about San Jose. We stayed at Posado Trianon which is on the east side. The city is in a grid, avenidas run east west and the calles (streets) run north south. There is a main intersection of Avenida 0 and Calle 0. The Calles are even numbers in the west and odd in the east, ditto for the Avenidas in north/south. You would think this would be easy to navigate. Not so much. We spent a lot of today backtracking. I am going to blame the lack of street signs.
Anyway, here are some photos from the city.
Yesterday, once we got our room, we wandered around a bit. We found an artisan market with some pretty cool stuff. I bought nothing. But I know some things I would like on our way back through before we leave. We bought some water and some tea at the grocery store near the hotel. And, then we crashed. We slept for 12 hours despite the constant traffic, honking, car alarms and train whistles. It sounds worse than it was but we were so tired, maybe it was that bad and we slept through it anyway.
We had already decided to stay one more night in San Jose while we got ourselves organized. The guide book is not enthusiastic about the city but we figured it can't be that bad. Despite the noise, we would have stayed at the same place. However, the Trianon didn't have a room for the next day. So, to Booking.com we went. The cheapest place with a double room with bathroom was called Picos Bills. We booked. Our cab driver mentioned that Pico Bill is a cartoon rat. Oh dear. We got there and the hourly rates were posted. And condoms for sale in the lobby. We got our room and paid for it. It was two beds shoved in a room with a toilet. The toilet had a shower curtain separating it from the beds.
Ok, this was a hooker hotel. We aren't that bright. All of a sudden we really appreciated the 'no prostitutes' rule at Trianon. We had already paid and it was pretty cheap so we decided to stick it out.
We left to find lunch and right across the street was Elvis Family Hotel. We stopped in. A double room with shared bathroom was $5 less, with bathroom $5 more that Chez Hooker. So, we went back and demanded our money back. We are two innocent young foreigners who didn't feel safe and we demand our money back. Sure, no problem. We just had to cancel though Booking.com so they could rent it out again (probably make more on the hourly rate) and we were free to see if Elvis is still alive and living in San Jose at the Elvis Hotel.
Elvis is on the west side and is very nice. Wifi is iffy so we are sitting in the 'sala' with Nano the cat and a very loud guest who is trying to get reception on his phone. Val is researching our next stop, Cahuita, on the south east coast.
We spent the day walking around San Jose. The guide book was right, this is not a tourist town. Even the main drags (no cars) don't really have any nice restaurants or fancy stores or coffee shops. We went to another market but the stuff wasn't as nice as the first market on the east side. Again we bought nothing but this time I wasn't even tempted.
We had a very nice lunch at a Soda (hole in the wall eatery. I had Bistec and Val had chicken. And a crazy delicious 'Cas water' which is watered down Cas juice. Val made them bring out a sample of the cas fruit because we had never heard of it or tasted it before.
Our dinner was not so nice. We should have known, it was in a strip mall of Sodas across from a bus station. We really should have stopped ourselves when the words 'let's just go to the cheapest one' were said. It turned out to be 'Japanese'. Those quote don't nealy express enough how not Japanese it was. We got rice (with prawns!) with fatty meat bits in brownish sauce. Val got pasta salad and green salad but for some reason I got some weird tempura. I don't know what was inside that batter but it was better than everything else on the plate. As we are eating, Val just started talking about how to deal with diarrhea for no particular reason. If we get diarrhea at any point on this trip, I am blaming that 'Japanese' meal.
Here's some more scenes from San Jose
By the way, I just read that it is snowing in Victoria and flights are even worse now. I feel terrible for you all. 😏
I did a quick post yesterday to let everyone (Mom) know that we had arrived safely but I didn't really tell you about San Jose. We stayed at Posado Trianon which is on the east side. The city is in a grid, avenidas run east west and the calles (streets) run north south. There is a main intersection of Avenida 0 and Calle 0. The Calles are even numbers in the west and odd in the east, ditto for the Avenidas in north/south. You would think this would be easy to navigate. Not so much. We spent a lot of today backtracking. I am going to blame the lack of street signs.
Anyway, here are some photos from the city.
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| China Town |
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| Why is she on a propeller? |
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| The artisan market |
Yesterday, once we got our room, we wandered around a bit. We found an artisan market with some pretty cool stuff. I bought nothing. But I know some things I would like on our way back through before we leave. We bought some water and some tea at the grocery store near the hotel. And, then we crashed. We slept for 12 hours despite the constant traffic, honking, car alarms and train whistles. It sounds worse than it was but we were so tired, maybe it was that bad and we slept through it anyway.
We had already decided to stay one more night in San Jose while we got ourselves organized. The guide book is not enthusiastic about the city but we figured it can't be that bad. Despite the noise, we would have stayed at the same place. However, the Trianon didn't have a room for the next day. So, to Booking.com we went. The cheapest place with a double room with bathroom was called Picos Bills. We booked. Our cab driver mentioned that Pico Bill is a cartoon rat. Oh dear. We got there and the hourly rates were posted. And condoms for sale in the lobby. We got our room and paid for it. It was two beds shoved in a room with a toilet. The toilet had a shower curtain separating it from the beds.
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| I suppose it saves time? |
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| The worst part is they charged us more than the posted 'nightly' rate. |
Ok, this was a hooker hotel. We aren't that bright. All of a sudden we really appreciated the 'no prostitutes' rule at Trianon. We had already paid and it was pretty cheap so we decided to stick it out.
We left to find lunch and right across the street was Elvis Family Hotel. We stopped in. A double room with shared bathroom was $5 less, with bathroom $5 more that Chez Hooker. So, we went back and demanded our money back. We are two innocent young foreigners who didn't feel safe and we demand our money back. Sure, no problem. We just had to cancel though Booking.com so they could rent it out again (probably make more on the hourly rate) and we were free to see if Elvis is still alive and living in San Jose at the Elvis Hotel.
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| Our room, with bathroom door. |
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| Nano the cat enjoys a patch of sun |
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Elvis is on the west side and is very nice. Wifi is iffy so we are sitting in the 'sala' with Nano the cat and a very loud guest who is trying to get reception on his phone. Val is researching our next stop, Cahuita, on the south east coast.
We spent the day walking around San Jose. The guide book was right, this is not a tourist town. Even the main drags (no cars) don't really have any nice restaurants or fancy stores or coffee shops. We went to another market but the stuff wasn't as nice as the first market on the east side. Again we bought nothing but this time I wasn't even tempted.
We had a very nice lunch at a Soda (hole in the wall eatery. I had Bistec and Val had chicken. And a crazy delicious 'Cas water' which is watered down Cas juice. Val made them bring out a sample of the cas fruit because we had never heard of it or tasted it before. Our dinner was not so nice. We should have known, it was in a strip mall of Sodas across from a bus station. We really should have stopped ourselves when the words 'let's just go to the cheapest one' were said. It turned out to be 'Japanese'. Those quote don't nealy express enough how not Japanese it was. We got rice (with prawns!) with fatty meat bits in brownish sauce. Val got pasta salad and green salad but for some reason I got some weird tempura. I don't know what was inside that batter but it was better than everything else on the plate. As we are eating, Val just started talking about how to deal with diarrhea for no particular reason. If we get diarrhea at any point on this trip, I am blaming that 'Japanese' meal.
Here's some more scenes from San Jose
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| near Calle/Avenida Zero. There are lots of car-free streets here |
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| Also lots of street art |
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| post office (I bought some stamps) |
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By the way, I just read that it is snowing in Victoria and flights are even worse now. I feel terrible for you all. 😏
Great stories about the first two hotels. They made me laugh out loud. 😀
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