We took a red-eye flight from Seattle to Houston, connecting to our flight that arrived San Jose early afternoon and then taxi to Hotel Aranjuez. It's a nice place popular with tourists and easy walk to downtown. We explored a bit, had a modest dinner at Vishnu and then found a local brewery/bar that only serves Costa Rican beers -- quite nice and we certainly like to support our local brewers!
Next day, we took a walking tour (with "Barrio Birds" and our guide was Carla) -- walking around downtown area and learning a bit of history. We ended up at the central market and the group had lunch at a local restaurant there where she explained a bit about the local foods and helped us order. Cindy and I shared orders: Plantains grilled with cheese, cheese tortilla (the masa is mixed with the grated cheese, flattened thicker that usual tortilla and then grilled), and a tamale (masa of a different consistency and wrapped in banana leaves). After lunch we left the our group and visited two different museums -- the pre-columbian gold museum and the jade museum. Both were interesting. Dinner was at a very nice Argentinian restaurant where we also enjoyed a nice bottle of Malbec.
Third day in San Jose, we took an all day tour, leaving early morning. First stop was breakfast at a coffee plantation followed by a tour. Then we drove upwards to the brink of the Poa Volcano -- unfortunately we were in a very damp cloud (with rain) and could see nothing! Leaving the volcano, we descended and toured a reserve with a small zoo of local birds, insects, jungle cats, etc. where we had lunch and then hiked down a trail that wound past five waterfalls. Arrived back at our hotel around sunset and walked to a nearby restaurant.
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