San Jose

I remember the last time I lived in a little town ( Fallbrook) it felt so good to drive into Los Angeles and feel the logjam of cars, hear the horns honk and actually see people. I had the same experience Friday as we drove into San Jose and I could see the lights of the city on the far hill as we got involved in a traffic jam and saw what appeared to be thousands of people just walking along the street. What a rush!

I live in a town that does not even have a rush minute. It is just me, the monkeys and the water! By the way, there is just one highway going from the north of Costa Rica to the south and it is two lane with solid yellow lines along the whole corridor. This does not seem to stop cars from passing at will as the stronger motor cars pass on curves, up hills and so on.

By good luck, I picked a hotel called La Castilla which is right in the heart of the Amon barrio, a great location ten minutes from downtown and set amidst coffee baron plantation homes of the last century. As I walked around yesterday morning I can’t tell you how great it felt to see, feel and watch a normal town do its’ Saturday thing, I was attracted to loud drum beats coming from Park Espana and when I went to investigate I saw a school band playing. School bands, as I have mentioned before, are not like bands we know up north. They are marching bands with the little kids hitting the xylophone thingy, the big boys at the back banging the drums and various other instruments in the middle. There must have been sixty kids and as the band leader marched her way up and down the rows leading her kids to separate like the Red Sea or come together. It was actually fantastic to watch as I can appreciate how hard she must have worked to get them to that stage.

Across the road, there just happened to be a yoga week-end affair with booths set up selling yoga classes, clothes and so on. I could not care less about yoga ( although I should), but I was really keen on seeing so many people and I sat and listened to a comedian do his routine. I even sort of understood what was going on. I sat beside a little kid and when I got up my pants were soaked, probably by his spilt ice cream or something equally horrible.

I even got to go inside a number of casinos and felt the adrenilin pump of watching blackjack. San Jose, in the downtown corridor, is a very elegant city. I love the feel of it .The elegant homes, the beautiful parks, the national monuments, the broad square of the Plaza de la Cultura.

To-day I go back and you know what, can’t wait to hear the monkeys again. They sure beat the noise of the buses driving past my room and making my bed shake.