San Jose, Costa Rica

San Jose, la capital de Costa Rica.
Ticos is the nickname given to residents of Costa Rica.

San Jose is large and sprawling, laid out on a grid of avenidas and calles.
This is a time for me to recover and relax before the second journey begins. We meet our eight new travel companions here. This section is called the Volcano Trail, as most locations we will visit border volcanos or are even in volcanic craters.
We have Asenka and Dashani, the newlyweds from Toronto. The originate from Sri Linka.
We have Xavier and Sandra, a couple from Switzerland. They speak excellent English and Sandra speaks Spanish with ease. She is 28 and he is 40 (don´t you just love the scandal?).
Helena is from England, and will share a room with Lorraine, as they are the only single girls. Both of these thirty-something-Brits will be seeking new employment upon returning to the U.K.
Karl is from Sweden. This 22 year old six foot seven (size fifteen shoe!) giant towers over these little Mayans, and is often the object of involuntary stares from the natives. Karl came from a GAP tour of Cuba.
Tom joins us from Flemish speaking Belgium where he is a nurse. Gary, our eldest, from California, is a doctor of child psychology and works in the realm of education.
The way a GAP Roam Tour works, is that we rotate roommates at each location. This will be an excellent way to get to know the individuals and to avoid clicks.

What a marvelous
In a nutshell, San Jose was spent catching up on internet, shopping for a replacement camera, and getting lostin the markets of downtown. I spent most of the day alone, so I could really chat in Spanish with the shoppe keepers of the Mercado Central.
This block-long melting pot is a warren of dark, narrow passages flanked by stalls packed with spices, fish, fruit, flowers, pets and wood and leather crafts. There are also dozens of cheap snack stalls. I was careful with my backpack, often caring it in front, to discourage pickpockets, purse snatchers, and backpack slitters.
The plazas are lively, and a cobblestone pedestrian boulevard cuts through the downtown marketplace, making up for the potholes and traffic jams found in the rest of the city.
San Jose was founded in 1737, winning independence from Spain in 1823. Coffee and banana industries financed much of this countries original wealth.

One of our evenings in San Jose was spent with our guide Steve´s American friend, Thomas who is from the state´s originally but has lived for over twenty years in Costa Rica. Primarily involved inReal Estate, Thomas was the in country rep for Rotary International,which is how Steve met during his year abroad to CostaRica during high school. As it turns out Thomas was just hired as the Executive Director of a non-profit preservation group in charge of raising thirty plus million dollars to buy up land on the Osa Peninsula, in order to protect the forests here from farming, logging, and other exploitation.
San Jose has stunning Spanish colonial architecture. We enjoyed one of our best meals yet at Cafe Mundo. Pratically hidden from the steet, it has an enourmous interior diningroom and outdoor garden patio made for a relaxing and inviting dinner. Being spoiled didn´t end here. Our accommodations at Hotel Aranjuez were also the number one pick from my Fodor´s guide (thanks, Grandma!). 1940s-era houses all tied together with extensive gardens and sitting rooms. The complimentary breakfast buffet makes lunch unnecessary.

Our last night, we had to say goodbye to our first guide, Steve. We went for a wonderful asian dinner, and to an impressive movie house to see Bourne Supremacy (for my second time). The rest of the country lags behind in modernity and convenience.