San Jose

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Flying over the coast of Nicaragua shortly before landing in Costa Rica

My flight got in a little late because, in the cold weather in Newark, the water in the plane froze up and then had to be defrosted for about 30 minutes before we could leave. After landing, we (there was another OTS girl on my flight) went through immigration and customs, and then found one of our professors waiting for us at the exit. Instead of leaving immediately, we waited at the airport for another two hours for two other girls whose flights were coming in around the same time as ours. When all four of us had arrived, our professor, Erika, brought us back to the hotel. During the 30 minute drive, I started to get a feel for what Costa Rica is like: lots of motorcycles, horn honking, and fast driving. Houses with tin roofs, houses painted bright colors, even houses made entirely of corrugated metal, orange with patches of rust. Lots of trees and vibrantly colored flowers, and green mountains on the horizon everywhere you look. (San Jose is in a valley, roughly in the middle of the country.) Everyone wearing sandals in January, because it's summer. Birds making exotic birdcalls at all hours of the day and night, even in the middle of the city. It's a pretty amazing place.

Flowers at Hotel Cacts. Top: on a bush on the rooftop terrace. Bottom: directly outside of my room.

We got back to the hotel around 2 pm. It was kind of like a motel by US standards, but because it is in CR it is beautiful. When you enter the front gate into the building there's a normal check-in, but when you go upstairs you realize that, while the rooms themselves are fully indoors, the hallways and courtyards are all open-air. There are plants everywhere, and you can look up from the hallway outside my room and see the stars at night. The dining area is on the fourth floor, which is the top of the building. The tables are under a rooftop, but there is a beautiful patio fully open with plants lining the perimeter. You can see some nice views of the city from there.

San Jose, as seen facing southwest from the rooftop terrace at the hotel.

There are three people to a room, so two of the girls and I were placed in one room and the fourth girl who came back in our group was in the room next door, with her roommates arriving later that day. After we all settled in and changed clothes (we were dressed warmly for our flights, but it was beautiful weather in CR!), we decided to look for a bank so Tessa could take out some money, and a place where Francesca could buy a prepaid cellphone. Finding the bank was easy and quick, although there are hardly any street signs here so I'm unsure how people navigate. The streets have names, but they're just not posted anywhere. We also managed to find the place where prepaid cell phones are sold, even though it was off the map that we had. When we got to the store, the sales clerk tried to explain to us in Spanish that they didn't have any phones in stock, so we bought calling cards instead for 3,000 colones (about 6 USD).

On the way back, we walked through La Sabana, which we later found out is the largest park in San Jose.

A small part of the large park about 15 minutes from our hotel.

In addition to lots of beautiful trees and a few playgrounds, there were countless kids skateboarding, biking, and rollerblading! I haven't seen so much rollerblading since the 90s. In the park there is even a paved area with a roller hockey rink in the middle and a track around the perimeter with slightly banked walls, specifically for rollerblading.

The outdoor rollerskating rink in La Sabana.

When we were exiting the park we passed by what looked like a country club or hotel, but when we came around to the front of the building we saw that it looked like they were setting up for a huge outdoor concert. We didn't know what it would be but we decided to sit down with the crowd (which was already pretty big) and wait for a bit to find out. We stayed for 40 minutes but the music never started and we had to head back to the hotel for dinner at 6.

The (as of yet) mystery concert near the park.

We found our way back to the hotel with no problems, although another funny thing about San Jose is that since the streets aren't marked clearly, places are identified by landmarks. For example, our hotel has a street address, but really what you need to know in order to get there is that it's 200 m north of Pizza Hut. I love how that is perfectly acceptable here. It's so funny.

At dinner we met up with the other people in the program who had arrived. We had 18 of 28 students by then, with the rest arriving from the airport after dinner. Overall I like everyone I have met in the program. In addition to meeting other somewhat eco-nerdy college students from the U.S. (which I was expecting), we have two Costa Rican students in the program, which is awesome.

After dinner we decided to go back to the park to see what the concert actually was, since we left before it started. It turned out to be incredibly eclectic, with performances ranging from Latin American pop to emo/punk to a capella to rumba. We left after about an hour and a half because most of us had been traveling all day and running on little sleep, and got to know each other a little more on the walk back to the hotel. Some of us stayed up on the rooftop terrace and drank tea and talked some more before going to bed.

The next morning, we had an early breakfast (rice and beans, aka gallo pinto, and fresh fruit) and headed to the OTS office on the other side of San Jose for orientation. The building is beautiful, with lots of plants indoors, like the hotel. We spent the morning doing regular orientation stuff like introducing ourselves, going over the course materials, and inventorying our equipment boxes.

Inside the OTS office at the Universidad de Costa Rica.

After a lunch break we took a Spanish language placement test so they know what level classes to put us in when we come back to San Jose mid-semester, and then headed back to the hotel. We had a few hours of free time, and then went out for dinner as a group to a Costa Rican-style restaurant. That was nice, since we had pizza for dinner the night before. The food was good and it gave us a chance to interact with people we didn't know yet.

After dinner we returned to the hotel and then decided to go out as a group to a discoteca, since it was our last night in the city. I think that almost everyone decided to come along, and we somehow managed to find the place despite San Jose's winding and effectively nameless streets. After a fun night of dancing to both American and Latin American music, we took taxis back to the hotel, packed up our bags, and went to sleep. The next morning we departed at 7:45 for our first field station: Las Cruces!