Ocho

We got an early start and headed to San Isidro de la General, a town that also inexplicably goes by the name Pedro Zeladon. It’s a commercial and market city halfway between the two main Costa Rican mountain ranges, and its location makes it a center of trade and business for the whole country.

We began by changing some money at a bank along the way. Costa Rican banks are very security conscious. There’s a guard outside the locked door, one inside with a metal detector, cameras inside and out, glass partitions in front of the tellers, and a computerized system of serving customers, with your number called and displayed on a huge video screen that also shows commercials for local businesses. When its your turn, you present your ID or passport and after they check that, you can transact business. It’s all very official, but also time consuming.

We finally got on our way, following the same route past the abandoned airplane that we saw a few days ago. The road to San Isidro crosses a mountain range, so we were literally in the clouds at times.

The views from the twisting road are spectacular. Steep mountainsides run into each other, and there are a dozen shades of green.

It took us about an hour, with a stop for gaseosos along the way in Baru, to get there.

The town has the feel of a much larger city, with open air markets and sodas everywhere, and merchants selling everything from penny candy to fabric, to paper products to food items wholesale and retail. We found a parking lot ($2 for 4 hours!) and walked through the public market, which is connected to the bus station. There were a dozen butcher shops, a dozen produce vendors, lots of places to eat, and some 5 and 10 type places where Sarah got a money pouch and Samuel had to have Spiderman boxing gloves.

We bought some bread (looked great, tasted awful) too, before going to a Costa Rican burger chain called Delicias Kuki’s, just for the experience. The food was pretty good, and Sarah and Samuel got to ride a horse too.

We found a little park in front of the city Cathedral, and then Samuel got an ice cream cone while Sarah checked out some baby chicks and bunnies for sale.

We made our way back to the car and found our way out of town and back home. Along the way, there is a place called Reptilandia we want to visit at another time, but today we got back and enjoyed some sun and pool time. Today was the clearest and sunniest weather we have had.

After dinner I took the kids to a soccer match at the indoor field we went to earlier this week. It was some sort of championship match, and very serious, with partisans from both teams cheering, catcalling, and swearing (I think) loudly. Coincidentally, one of the teams is sponsored by the very same market we bought our gaseosos from this morning.

Sarah enjoyed comparing this version of soccer to the way her league plays. Samuel wanted to know why they don’t have real grass.

A day full of different sights and sounds…we will see what tomorrow brings.

Please comment!