Around San Jose

San Jose is small. A dimension that pictures often fail to convey is the relative size of a place. And so it's well and good to look at postcards of Buckingham Palace and Westminster, but we have to actually be there to understand London's imposing stateliness. Then there are places with venerable histories but small buildings, like many of the old Hapsburg cities that dot Central Europe. One of the most famous buildings in San Jose, the National Theater, was constructed at the turn of the century in a rush to accommodate an opera singer who could not find a suitable venue. It is a low, elegant building that one could probably walk around in a couple of minutes.

The streets are narrow and often look residential, to the American eye, even when they are not.

 

We stayed in a neighborhood of mansions and embassies, on a rise above downtown where we were surprised to see a fireworks display on the last night we were there; the only occasion we could think of was the first day of Advent. This being a Latin American country during the holidays, I was unsurprised to see Nativity scenes set up in many open lobbies and public areas, such as this one inside a national insurance building that houses the precolumbian Jade Museum.

Our hotel was founded by a Canadian.

Down the street, we discovered some fresh tortugas.

And here is a tableau of souvenirs.

The current president, Óscar Arias, won the Nobel Peace Prize when he was previously in office during the 80s. We found evidence of his detractors, maybe over the recent free trade agreement.