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San José and the Central Valley: Museums Bars & Day Trips
If you find yourself stuck in San Jose with an afternoon to kill, why not check out a museum. There are dozens scattered throughout Costa Rica with exhibits covering everything from postage stamps to printing presses. But the country's principal museums are all in central San Jose, within walking distance of the Plaza de la Cultura. If you have an evening to kill, then you could do worse than head to one of the bars we mention below.
Before you even enter, the National Museum offers a vivid glimpse of the country's recent political history. The museum is housed in an old fort with walls pockmarked by bullets fired during the 1948 civil war. Inside there are separate sections devoted to archaeology, geology and colonial life featuring extensive collection of -Columbian gold, ceramic and stone artifacts as well as colonial-era furniture, documents, costumes and art. The museums's shady courtyard contains old cannons and several almost perfectly spherical granite balls in varying sizes. They were carved by the -Columbian tribes from the south of the country, but to this day no one is really sure why. The National Museum is on the eastern side of Plaza de la Democracia (calle 17 between avenidas central and 2) and is open every day except Monday from 9 am to 5 pm.
Conveniently located next to the tourist office under the Plaza de la Cultura, the Gold Museum is justly famous for its glittering exhibit of thousands of -Columbian gold artifacts, mostly jewelry in the from of frogs, lizards, crocodiles and other animals. It is an imssive collection, especially when you consider that there are no major -Columbian sites in Costa Rica and only of any size -- Guayabo National Monument. The Gold Museum is open from 10 am to 4:30 pm every day except Monday.
The world famous Jade Museum is on the 11th floor of the
National Insurance building (calle 9, avenida 7) so you get a great view as well as a
chance to see the largest collecton of -Columbian jade artifacts in the Americas.
How all these beautiful objects came to be found in Costa Rica, when no source of jade has
ever been discovered here, is still something of a mystery and a source of continung
discussion among archaeologists. The museum also houses a good display of -Columbian
ceramics and small gold pieces as well as permanent displays of contemporary art and
sculpture. Something for everyone. The Jade Museum is open Monday to Saturday from 9 am to
5 pm.
BAR MEXICO
Barrio Mexico is a rather seedy neighborhood just north of the city center - not the sort
of place you want to be wandering around late at night. But if someone suggests a visit to
Bar Mexico, don't think twice. It's about a $2 taxi ride from downtown to this historic
and much-loved Costa Rican nightspot.
The bocas (small plates of food with your drink) are excellent and the Mexican food
served in the adjoining restaurant is tty good, too. The atmosphere is always lively with
a clientele that is an interesting mix of prosperous looking types in expensive clothes
and others of more modest means. Bar Mexico has mariachi bands every night and, most
imporantly, the margaritas are a work of art. Viva Bar Mexico!
BAR TAPIA
Ample ladies in skin-tight dresses shimmy seductively to the salsa music provided by a
plump singer who looks like a Latin Wayne Newton, right down to the pompadour and the
pencil moustache. At a table nearby, four young men in track suits and sneakers sit at a
table loaded with empty beer bottles and cellular phones and argue the comparative merits
of Saprissa and La Ligia, Costa Rica's leading soccer teams. Anything can happen on a hot
Friday night at Bar Tapia and whatever it is, it's probably going to be fun to watch.
Situated at the eastern end of Sabana Park, right next to the popular Soda Tapia, this is
a great place to stop for a drink after a walk through the park, after a walk through the
art (the excellent Museum of Contemporary Art is just across the road), after just about
anything. Friday and Saturday nights are best for people-watching, worst for getting
served.
BLUE MARLIN BAR
This is a sportfishermen's hangout. If the name's not enough of a giveaway, then
you'll probably get the idea from the replicas of oversized marine creatures that adorn
every spare bit of space around this pleasant downtown San Jose hangout.
Visiting anglers, local sportfishing skippers in town on R&R and blue water wannabes
tell each other lies around the big U-shaped bar while ladies of the night wander in and
out angling for a different kind of catch.
For its loyal patrons, the Blue Marlin is a home away from home. The beer's cold, the
conversation's lively, the TV's always tuned to ESPN and martini connoiseurs insist that
when it comes to brandishing a bottle of gin, bartender Jay has no peer in Costa Rica, nay
the world.
The Blue Marlin Bar is in the Hotel del Rey, avenida 3 and calle 5.
Day
Trips:Irazu Volcano
This giant looms out of the clouds just outside Cartago.
At 3,432 meters, it's Costa Rica's highest volcano and the drive up the slope to the
crater is an experience in itself, with fantastic views of farmland, the Central Valley
and high-altitude oak forest.
The summit is a desolate moonscape where you can peer down into a soupy green lake at the
bottom of a 100-foot-deep crater, one of four on Irazu. On a clear day you can see both
Pacific and Atlantic coasts. At other times, the summit will be shrouded in fog - you just
have to be lucky. The best time to visit is during the dry season and early in the morning
before the clouds roll in. Whatever time you go, it's going to be cold at the top so make
sure you take warm clothing.
Although you might see steam pouring from fumaroles around the crater, the volcano is only
sporadically active. The last major eruption happened in 1963, during a visit by sident
Kennedy, when Irazu spewed out vast quantities of smoke and ash that settled in a thick
layer over Cartago, San Jose and the surrounding countryside.
The crater is part of Irazu National Park, which is open from 8 am to 4 pm. Admission is
$15 at the gate or $10 if you buy a ticket in advance.
Solar Tours offer day trips to Irazu Volcano.
Carara is one of only
three places in Costa Rica with nesting populations of the magnificent scarlet macaw and
the only one within a short drive of the capital. (The others are Santa Rosa and Corcovado
national parks in the far north and south of the country.)
Located in a transitional zone between the dry northern Pacific and the humid coast of the
south, the forests, marshes and mangrove swamps of Carara are home to an incredible
variety of plants and animals, including monkeys, coatis, sloths, white-tailed deer and
crocodiles. If you pause on the bridge over the Tarcoles just before the reserve entrance
you will probably spot some crocodiles basking in the sun. The bridge is also a favorite
place to pause at dusk when the macaws fly over on their way from the forested reserve to
their roosting place in the coastal mangroves. Inside the reserve, you'll have no trouble
locating the macaws. Their raucous squawking can be heard half a mile away.
Carara is about 90 minutes' drive from San Jose. Take the main road to Jaco Beach and
watch for the entrance on the left just past the Tarcoles bridge. Most tour agencies in
the capital offer day trips to Carara.
If you're an inveterate souvenir shopper, this is where
you'll think you died and went to heaven. The small Central Valley town of Sarchi is Costa
Rica's souvenir capital, er, sorry, artisan center.
It's where they make the intricately detailed, hand-painted oxcarts that you see all over
the country in hotel lobbies, restaurant reception areas and, carefully dismantled and
packed, on tourists' baggage trollies at the airport. The oxcart, once the principal form
of transport for
people and cargo here, is now a national symbol of Costa
Rica, although in rural areas you can still see them being put to the use for which they
were intended.
At Sarchi, they come in all sizes from tiny mantlepiece models to some that are near
full-size. There are several oxcart workshops where you can watch the craftsmen making the
carts and applying those wonderful designs.
The artisans of Sarchi also make furniture, wooden bowls and chess sets, ceramic birds,
buses and other items, jewelry and wickerwork. Virtually every type of souvenir you can
think of is on sale in the many stores which line the main road through Sarchi sur
(south). Be sure to check out the sturdy but comfortable, and very attractive wood and
leather rocking chairs (one of which happens to grace the Green Arrow Guide headquarters).
They're reasonably priced (about $65), easily dismantled and packed for the flight home
and once you rock, you can't stop. Sarchi is about 20 miles north of Alajuela and 45
minutes' drive from San Jose. To get there, take the Panamerican Highway north and turn
off at the sign to Grecia. There are also regular buses from Alajuela and a less frequent
service from San Jose.
Every tour company in the country has a Sarchi excursion on its books, often combined with
a visit to Poas volcano and other attractions in the area to make a varied and interesting
full-day tour.
