San Jose, Costa Rica

Interesting sculpture

What to do in Costa Rica? Well, we found a few things to do in San Jose. However, we had to get a few important things done first.

We had a late start today on the second day of our trip. I was up and ready by nine, however, it took Rebecca a couple of hours to catch up. Luckily, I do have a book to read – Turn Right at Machu Picchu, in preparation for our trip to Peru where we will visit many of the ruins and the Amazon basin. I highly suggest this book if you’re traveling to Peru! It helped bring to life the ruins we’ll be seeing soon.

Once we did get moving, we had to search for the office that would give us the proof we had our yellow fever shots. FYI:  We’re going through this because it’s much cheaper to get our shots in Costa Rica than in the States – We did get a host of other shots already in preparation for the Amazon. If you try this, make sure you do your research on the best healthcare location in the city so you know you are getting the shot. 

Be in the know: Months before you leave the States, make sure to check on shots with the right doctor. I went to my personal doctor who said she could tell me what shots I needed, and her website even says “Traveling? Come see us, we can help.” Each time I had a question she’d nod, then make up a reason to leave the room, then eventually returned with vague answers (I assume she was searching the internet). She only suggested one shot, and it turned out their’s were out of date. I then went to a travel clinic. They knew exactly what I needed (definitely more than one shot). So, see a travel clinic as soon as you know you’ll be traveling!

Spanish Lessons Would be Helpful

Here we are in a sea of Spanish speaking people, with our limited Spanish and trying to figure out what we’re doing. A woman behind a desk instructs us to fill out the proof of shot forms (in Spanish) and is very brisk with us. I think it’s because she sits behind a desk all day. But we get through the process and now we have our proof of shots so we can get back to Costa Rica from the Amazon. (Update: During this whole trip no one ever asked to see our immunizations, I am glad I got them though. I was healthy throughout the whole trip and came home without a problem.)

What to do in Costa Rica – San Jose

The Jade Museum allows photos- just no flash

From there we went to visit the Jade Museum. there are many other artifacts besides jade! There was a lot of interesting displays and information. In addition, the pre-Inca information is very helpful as I’m researching for my novel.

We moved on to the Central Market for lunch at a soda. A soda is a restaurant that is basically a stall with seats around a bar. We searched for a specific one that had been recommended, but the market is huge and there are so many sodas to choose from. We finally just picked one. Our neighbor on the bar stools helped with a little translating. Once again, we wished we had learned more Spanish before we came!

The food was good. I would highly recommend going to the Central Market and checking out any of the sodas. There are so many vendors selling everything from piggy banks to shoes that you are likely to find either something you might need or something you have to have.

Be In the Know: Be ready to figure out your currency! I wasn’t and on our way out I got fleeced by a vendor. I’m not used to the money here yet and I paid 5,000 colones for a pair of flip flops (that’s about $10).

San Jose is Interesting, But it’s Time to Move On

The street art is amazing

We walked a lot for the rest of the day and saw many of the beautiful areas of the city. Most everywhere we’ve been so far felt very safe.

We went back to the hostel and talked to people about how to make our way to our next destination, Montezuma. Then we made a makeshift dinner of sandwiches from frozen fish cooked in the toaster oven, grilled bread, some tomatoes, and lettuce. Not bad for our homemade dinner in Costa Rica.

Then we had some wine and a great conversation with the hostel owner of Hostel Casa Del Parque. He’s saved up his money to take acting lessons in LA and he hopes to make it big.

We wish him luck!

Want to see more:
Day 1 in San Jose, Costa Rica
Day 3 in Monteverde, Costa Rica

I’m Sonja Dewing. I’m an award winning creative writer, a published author of Toy of the Gods, an adventure in the Amazon. If you’d like a free copy of the prequel, Ire of the Gods, sign up for my email list and you’ll get it right away.