Well that was certainly a whirlwind day!
We left Uvita around 7am and the mighty Terios
took us through Dominical and Baru, past Reptilandia
past some Ranches,
and onto the Pan American Highway near San Isidro.
We began to climb steadily as we ascended the Chirripo Mountains, which form the backbone of Costa Rica. This scenery became even more spectacular than what we had seen between Baru and San Isidro previously.
The weather got colder and windier as we went above the cloud level (into the "Cloud Forest" as it is known). The road wound around and along the mountain peaks, with a new vista appearing every few moments, along with roadside eateries, land for sale, and school zones organized around tiny churches in every little community.
Finally we reached the city of Cartago, on the periphery of San Jose.
It's so odd to see a farmer crossing a busy road with his oxen while trucks and cars snake between steel mills and factories in a busy city's industrial zone.
We found our way to San Jose easily, and after a small recalculation found the computer store our friend in Uvita had told us to go to.
Another thing that is hard to get used to here is how addresses are organized. There are no numbers for houses and businesses. Instead, they are organized by their relationship to landmarks. So the CompuFax store we sought wasn't at "315 Tenth Street", but rather was "on 6th Avenue near 10th Street and the Catholic Church". Despite the fact that the proprietors spoke very little English, and even though the contact we were told to meet worked at a different Compufax store, we were able to quickly transact our business and got an extremely good deal on a shiny new Acer Aspire notebook computer. It is bigger than our old notebook, with 5 times the memory, and all the latest software loaded, plus a DVD burner. The keys are bigger, so Amy is happy and feels she can type faster and more efficiently.
It is a pleasure to be able to blog on it and enjoy our hotel's nice free wi-fi connection too.
We had a nice lunch nearby the computer store at a place
that mostly caters to students from the University of Costa Rica, and then made our way (with a few unplanned detours, of course) to our beautiful hotel.
Now the address thing gets really funny, because the "official" mailing address of this very nice establishment is "50 meters north of the RostiPollo retaurant".
Check out their site and see!
http://www.aparthotel-lasabanah.com/
We had a short walk in the beautiful and huge park across the street, and dinner at the RostiPollo retaurant (with fire pit and rotiserrie).
We left Uvita around 7am and the mighty Terios
took us through Dominical and Baru, past Reptilandia
past some Ranches,
and onto the Pan American Highway near San Isidro.
We began to climb steadily as we ascended the Chirripo Mountains, which form the backbone of Costa Rica. This scenery became even more spectacular than what we had seen between Baru and San Isidro previously.
The weather got colder and windier as we went above the cloud level (into the "Cloud Forest" as it is known). The road wound around and along the mountain peaks, with a new vista appearing every few moments, along with roadside eateries, land for sale, and school zones organized around tiny churches in every little community.
Finally we reached the city of Cartago, on the periphery of San Jose.
It's so odd to see a farmer crossing a busy road with his oxen while trucks and cars snake between steel mills and factories in a busy city's industrial zone.
We found our way to San Jose easily, and after a small recalculation found the computer store our friend in Uvita had told us to go to.
Another thing that is hard to get used to here is how addresses are organized. There are no numbers for houses and businesses. Instead, they are organized by their relationship to landmarks. So the CompuFax store we sought wasn't at "315 Tenth Street", but rather was "on 6th Avenue near 10th Street and the Catholic Church". Despite the fact that the proprietors spoke very little English, and even though the contact we were told to meet worked at a different Compufax store, we were able to quickly transact our business and got an extremely good deal on a shiny new Acer Aspire notebook computer. It is bigger than our old notebook, with 5 times the memory, and all the latest software loaded, plus a DVD burner. The keys are bigger, so Amy is happy and feels she can type faster and more efficiently.
It is a pleasure to be able to blog on it and enjoy our hotel's nice free wi-fi connection too.
We had a nice lunch nearby the computer store at a place
that mostly caters to students from the University of Costa Rica, and then made our way (with a few unplanned detours, of course) to our beautiful hotel.
Now the address thing gets really funny, because the "official" mailing address of this very nice establishment is "50 meters north of the RostiPollo retaurant".
Check out their site and see!
http://www.aparthotel-lasabanah.com/
We had a short walk in the beautiful and huge park across the street, and dinner at the RostiPollo retaurant (with fire pit and rotiserrie).
.Tomorrow we will see the sites, including museums and cathedrals, and the open air downtown market. See you then. Please comment!
The most important thing I can say is that you are truly having the vacation of a lifetime! Glad no more computer problems. You should have quite a day in the Capital city. Do they have bus tours or are you doing it all on your own. God bless you guys. Looking for todays post.
ReplyDeletesan jose
ReplyDeletefound your way to san jose, have fun
ReplyDelete