Bright Lights, Big City–San Jose

USAC spontaneously decided to take us on a field trip to San Jose, Costa Rica in the middle of the week. They generously cancelled classes for the day and paid for a bus and for some professors to come with us. San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica and the country’s largest city. It is where our plane flew into when we arrived. The bus ride was about an hour and a half from Puntarenas. Our first stop in San Jose was the Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica. It is a gorgeous, historical building where there are musical performances and also where many international leaders come together. President Obama was there just a few weeks ago. The building’s actual theater is very vintage and has a box called the President’s Box. This is where the President (Gobierno) of Costa Rica sits with guests. Anyone can buy a ticket to sit with her and get to know her if they are willing to buy a ticket.

 

After we went to the National Theater, we visited the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica. At this museum we first had the opportunity to peruse through a stunning butterfly exhibit. We were able to see gigantic, cerulean colored butterflies and other uniquely colored characters. They even had a stand that housed the chrysalises of butterflies undergoing metamorphosis.  Once we finished walking through a kingdom of “mariposas,” (butterflies), we looked at art exhibits of portraits of the wildlife in Puntarenas, and also some Colombian art. The immaculate paintings of jaguars, tropical fruit, and tapirs made me even more excited for our trip to the rain forest.

For the rest of our day we did some typical American activities: shopping and eating. We went to what one of the professors called the “hippie market,” which was an outdoor market in the middle of San Jose that sold cheap souvenirs and clothing. I bought some Costa Rican shot glasses for some friends and my mom a pair of earrings, which totaled up to about $5 or $6. We ended our day at the mall in San Jose which was absolutely gigantic. It was only two stories, but it was incredibly long and had a million stores. We ate at the food court, which had mostly American fast food restaurants, however there were some other places that I did not recognize as well. I did not want to eat American fast food in Costa Rica, so I went to a Greek style place and order a pita with pesto and vegetables.