Quince

It has been a long day of sightseeing, shopping, and mostly driving aimlessly around San Jose. The connecting cords for the camera are packed where the kids are sleeping, so no pictures until tomorrow.
In addition to the strange address system here, there are very few signs identifying streets or giving directions. Those that are marked (with a tiny sign on the side of a building) are every 5 or 6 blocks, so it's very difficult to figure out where you are. When coupled with the similar appearance of every street and area of the city, the lack of tall landmarks (almost every building is 3 stories or less, everywhere), and the cloudy skies, this city is almost impossible to navigate with a map or intuitively.
After our afternoon excursion to the city center, and following our morning excursion to some museums, the national theater and national cathedral, we got completely and totally lost on the outskirts of the city, in the rain. It was a somewhat stressful and a little scary to be driving and driving all over the place, but eventually we stopped for some food and I was able to find an English speaker who set us in the right direction for the big park and our hotel.

Tomorrow we head back to Uvita, and I think all four of us will be happy to return to our mountaintop house with the great sea view. I will put up some San Jose pictures when we get "home", along with information about our drive. We are eager to find out if the Caldera Highway is open from San Jose to Jaco. It is brand new, and cuts the drive from San Jose to the coast by an hour at least. It was closed when we arrived here and first drove to Uvita. Was that really 2 weeks ago??