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arrieve
More pictures from my time in San José this past summer.
Some of my favorite places in San José were the farmers markets. There were stalls where you could buy tasty freshly made arepas or tortillas con queso to have with a cup of the local coffee. And I always needed a place to sit down because I inevitably bought more fruits and vegetables than I could comfortably carry.
One example of the beautiful fruit for sale. I bought a pineapple that smelled so heavenly I almost didn’t want to cut into it because I thought that it couldn’t possibly taste as good as it smelled. (It did.)
The Mercado Central in downtown San José is a very different experience. It’s a labyrinth of tiny stalls selling everything from clothes to food to housewares to pets. Fun, but very bad for my claustrophobia. Fortunately we had a guide because I wouldn’t want to get lost in there.
Herbal remedies for sale.
Women leaving the market with their purchases. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about this photo, but one thing I loved about this trip was that I was able to see a lot of the day to day life in the less touristed Costa Rica.
Men waiting outside the market.
The National Theatre of Costa Rica is a few blocks from the market. We saw a dance performance there. The building dates from the 1890’s, and though it’s a little ornate for my tastes, it is a little like getting to sit inside the music box while the song plays.
I took this picture with my phone after the performance so the quality isn’t great, but it gives you an idea of how ornate the interior is.
JPL
Lovely pictures.
marklar
Absolutely wonderful! You definitely captured the spirit of the place.
Torrey
Great pictures! I notice masking seems to vary as much there as it does here. The watermelons look amazing!
ljdramone
Pura vida!
WaterGirl
Now that’s what watermelon is supposed to look like! Bright pink / red, with seeds. Thanks for taking us to Costa Rica with you!
arrieve
@WaterGirl: The fruits and vegetables were all so good! I didn’t know that pineapple is now one of Costa Rica’s main exports, but sadly they never seem to send any here.
MelissaM
I don’t think I’ve seen a watermelon that deep color before! I want!
Yutsano
For some weird reason the National Theatre made me think of Tiny Dancer probably because of the music box association. San José looks so wonderful! And honestly who needs a supermarket with all those wonderful goods in the streets? Thank you for this tour so far.
eclare
OMG those watermelons!
J R in WV
On our first trip across the Atlantic to Europe, Bilbao Spain, we noticed that the stores had wonderful produce, arranged beautifully.
The theater looks very ritzy, I see where you got the inside a music box thoughts about it. So many older theaters are like that, gilded fancy stuff, The Beacon Theater in NYC is like that. There’s an older theater in Huntington like that, has been renovated to clean up all the fancy doodads, very nice. We saw the Count Basie Band there in the long ago not long after I was a student at Marshall…
thanks for sharing your trip with us !!
TaMara
I love this description. Really enjoying your photos and stories of this trip.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
We are going to Costa Rica in March, so I loved seeing your pictures and comments to give me an idea of what to expect! Thanks!
StringOnAStick
Bananas used to be the main export for central America but there is a virus that kills them and the banana we know are all clones, so they have little resistance. Once the virus gets into a banana plantation there, the next step is conversion of the land to growing pineapples or coconuts. The Cavendish banana as we all know it will likely be gone within our lifetimes.