The kids and I took our first solo trip to San Jose on March 5 to check out the National Museum. I was also hoping to spot some historic homes and investigate China Town.
We got off the bus in just the right place to walk by some historic buildings on our way to the museum. We accidentally stayed on the bus one stop too many, but it worked out for me. There aren't many historic homes or buildings like these left in San Jose. Andrea explained to me that Costa Ricans find they can't afford the restorations and maybe the government doesn't provide incentives to maintain historic buildings as some other countries do.
Loved this one. Maybe this is the president's residence?
Museo Nacional de Costa Rica
The first exhibit inside the museum was the butterfly garden. We saw more varieties of butterflys here then any other place we visited in Costa Rica.
The main entry into what used to be a jail. I learned after getting into the museum that the building was the main military post in San Jose--a fort.
The Commissary
How the fort nestled in San Jose looked in the past
Terra cotta tile floor
Outside
Beautiful tile
This was the toilet room. The places a person sits are cut out.
Hallway
A gunnery room from the inside. The circles in the walls are windows where guns or cannons would be placed.
The actual jail cells for prisoners of war or state.
Inside the main courtyard of the old fort.
Costa Rican Coat of Arms
More beautiful tile floors, an art form Latin culture excels in.
I think this was used to process sugar cane.
Below stairs
Zoom in...Rosabel and Craig are on the stairs just under the flag.
Mangrove trees growing in the courtyard. Their roots grow down until they reach water.
We speculated what this would be used for. The kids said bees. I'm not convinced. The silver dome behind was used as a holding cell in the past.
Interesting fence with a house behind.
We thought we were getting Indian food but this restaurant provided a variety of Asian and Indian food. Not our favorite.
Chicken curry
Pad Thai
Korean BBQ
Yummy vegetables
China Town
Getting back to the bus station proved to be a feat. We had trouble orienting ourselves to the GPS. We walked a ways in the wrong direction; maybe 8 or 10 blocks. Yikes! We finally got somewhat oriented but didn't have the address for which bus station to go to. I finally found it on google and we had a happy accident by finding it using my "mom-dar" aka intuition because even the google maps wouldn't have got us there...we would have missed by a block in two directions. It was an educational day.
No comments:
Post a Comment