San JoseIntriguing Capital of Costa RicaBy Walter Glaser
"Oh yes! They certainly are bullet marks. But they were caused over various periods. Fortunately the Revolution didn’t reach San Jose during the 1948 Civil War," he said. "but this was the place where the unconstitutional government was planning to hold out against the imminent Rebel attack on the city.” "However the ‘Ochomogo Pact’, signed at the Mexican Embassy some days before the planned attack, arranged for the government to surrender in exchange for personal guarantees to its loyal soldiers. That must have been an interesting time.” “The fort was always the headquarters of the army, and during the many ‘problems’ in the 20 years previous to the Civil War some ‘damage’ occurred to its exterior walls.” Rudy then went on to tell us about the 1948 Revolution, and the events that took place and shaped the future of Costa Rica.
After the defeat of that unconstitutional but army-backed power-play, a new and democratically-elected government led by Jose Figueres finally took control. A world-precedent was set when the army, navy and air force was completely disbanded, and the money saved put into developing the education, health and conservation systems. To this day Costa Rica is the only country with a population of any size that has no armed forces Costa Rica is now in a situation where, in spite of a comparatively low per-capita income, it has the third highest life expectancy in the world after Japan and France, one of the highest literacy rates in the world, and an enviable record of maintaining, and even improving its environment. There is not one coal-burning power generator in the country, all electricity being produced by hydro-electricity or wind power, and the water is drinkable from one end of the country to the other. Once inside the fortress-turned-museum, we found it fascinating. As the name Bellavista suggests, it offers a magnificent view over San Jose from a garden-courtyard, and an overview of Costa Rica itself through its artifacts. We began our tour on the south side of the museum and continued in an anti-clockwise direction. Pre-Columbian exhibits such as petroglyphs from Orosi and Guanacaste, imaginative flying panel versions of metates, golden ornaments, staff heads, carved funerary stones --- were all beautifully set out, with excellent explanations. We also found the 17th century colonial furniture and a Sala Historica, (salon of history) with panels and captions in Spanish and English outlining the socio-economic effects of colonialism, an excellent introduction to understanding a little about the way the old Spanish Empire functioned. In the gardens we saw the perfectly round stone balls that early Costa Rican tribesmen had been masters at carving out of granite. To this day no-one is quite certain of their significance, but the craftsmanship involved in making these such perfect stone spheres was exceptional. Near the exit, a young Costa Rican lady was selling beautiful gold plated reproductions of traditional Central American pre-Columbian jewelry, many of the items replicas of what we were later to see in the Gold Museum. On the way to our next stop we learned more about this fascinating city. The people of San Jose are known as Josefinos and there are 600,000 inhabitants permanently residing in the city but with the influx of workers from the “dormitory” cities in the Central Valley such as Alajuela, Heredia and Cartago, the population increases daily to 1,000,000. Although founded in 1737, development was slow until San Jose enjoyed a boom time late last century when coffee became an important export earner. Rudy told us that, to this day, coffee is one of the country's biggest export earners, and Costa Rican coffee is in big demand and highly prized around the world. Bananas are another major crop for which Costa Rica is so famous that it was, in its earlier days, known as the Banana Republic. The area is also famous for its cigar, and those made in Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba and the area right up to Florida have, according to the experts, an aroma and a quality that the mass production products find difficult to match. We saw a skilled cigar maker at work making some superb hand-rolled, fragrant cigars that made us realize just why cigar smokers around the world prize this product so highly.
Our next stop was Mercado Central --- the central market --- which was to prove another highlight of our visit. We were fascinated and delighted by the sights, sounds, color, intriguing scents and the atmosphere of bustle we found here. The goods for sale included everything from live chickens (a great staple food) to medicinal herbs, all labeled for their respective uses. Leather goods, hammocks and pottery items enabled us to engage in a serious session of retail therapy, and we also found this market to be one of the best places to sample the traditional Tico food at what must surely have been the best prices in town. However, we were warned that pickpockets are notorious, having developed their craft into an art form. The heart of San Jose is the Plaza de la Cultura. It is here that painters, traders, artisans, street musicians, actors, shoppers, young and old alike gather to work or play or just observe the passing crowds. We found the terrace of the Parisienne Café in the Gran Hotel to be a friendly little corner, and an ideal place from which to observe the plaza in its full flood of frenetic activity. Beneath the plaza was the Gold Museum, an extraordinarily impressive establishment which featured gold in hundreds of different items, artifacts and everyday utensils. Gold looms large in Central and South American history. It was gold that brought the Spanish Conquistadors, greedy for this magic mineral that was used as an everyday metal by the indigenous people. They adorned their heads, their feet and their arms with gold artifacts, and even drank from golden bowls. And it was here in The Museo de Oro - The Gold Museum - where we saw a spectacular display of pre-Columbian gold that made our eyes pop. The hammered gold breastplates with fine repousse work, and intricately sculpted ornaments cast by the lost wax method were outstanding examples of the goldsmith’s art. Discovery of this process, possibly from their neighbors in Venezuela and Colombia around AD400, enabled Costa Rican craftspeople to cast solid gold miniature versions of armadillos, alligators, parrots, frogs, even butterflies (a feminine symbol). Panels in both Spanish and English explained about the alloys, production methods and the significance of the shapes and decorations. Ironically the local natives were eager to swap their common gold items with glass-bead necklaces offered by the Spaniards in 1502.
Costa Rican jade is really jadeite, as distinct from the denser nephrite jade popular in Asia. Jade was a valuable currency for Costa Rica's early inhabitants, and was buried in graves for use in the after-life. It was carved in the Olmec or Maya tradition and was considered the most valuable material for ritual objects for the better part of two thousand years from around 300BC to 500AD. Jade was believed to attract and absorb energy, and was associated with agricultural fertility. Various carving techniques were employed such as carving in the round on the Atlantic side of the country, to Guanacaste's tradition of carving into the curved surface of a polished jade piece. Examples of this work appear in the museum along with other displays which give a picture of Costa Rica's civilizations and links with Mesoamerica and South America long before the Conquistadors discovered this rich coast they aptly called Costa Rica. When the National Museum and Library were built in 1886 it was, no doubt, in response to the enthusiasm created by the country's first National Art Exhibition held one year earlier. Costa Rican art traditions have thrived ever since, and in the 1920s an art movement developed known as The Nueva Sensibilidad, or 'new sensitivity'. The Museo de Arte Costarricense is the place to see the overall development of art in this tiny and creative country. The Galeria Nacional de Arte Contemporaneo y Diseno stage dance and theatre performances in an old converted liquor distillery. Costa Rican folk dancing, with its distinctive Spanish influence and colorful costumes, is a real joy to watch. The complex is also home to a permanent collection of Latin American art, and temporary exhibitions by international artists and designers. We left, thinking that no visitor to San Jose should miss a visit to this late 19th century complex in its renaissance into a modern dynamic cultural complex. Cultural events are rated so highly in Costa Rica that the government subsidizes ticket prices, making it extraordinarily cheap to attend any of the 15 theatres in the city. Performances in both native Spanish and English are regularly staged, with one theatre, Teatro Lawrence Olivier being named after a man who was arguably one of the greatest English thespians.
They voluntarily paid a tax on every exported bag of coffee beans, and architects and artisans from Italy, Spain and France were brought to work on this grand building. An earthquake-proof steel frame was even imported from Belgium to support the structure. In 1897 the 1000-seat theatre was finally completed, and a performance of Gounod's Faust played to a packed opening night audience. In spite of all this effort, Adelina Patti never did come to Costa Rica. Such is life! But surely she too would have been amazed at this grandest of buildings which rivals anything of its kind in Europe. The ceiling fresco above the staircase is famous, and is shown on the rare 5-Colones banknote. The fresco shows happy 'ticos' picking coffee and transporting bananas, but the bananas are bending the wrong way - an unforeseen circumstance from having these depicted by a painter freshly out from Italy. San Jose is on a geotopical fault line and the few grand mansions and villas that have survived the earthquakes are mostly in the Barrio Amon area, a reminder of the grand old days. These solidly-built mansions owe their inspiration to many influences - Caribbean, Victorian, a touch of French, and even Moorish elements. The large, stately homes were testaments to both the wealth, and the taste, of the owners. Now, over one hundred years later, some of these grand edifices have been converted to bed and breakfast establishments for visitors who probably know nothing about growing coffee, but enjoy the pleasures of drinking it before a day of sightseeing in San Jose. Another suburb Escazu, ('resting place' in the local Indian language), to the west of the Parque Sabana, the cross-roads of trails between various Indian villages is a combination of the blend of the old and the new. The adobe buildings and an attractive church in the town center contrast with the modern shopping centers. In the evening, our favorite haunt was El Pueblo, a charming cluster development of souvenir shops, boutiques, bars, and restaurants that included the excellent La Estancia steak-house and the Tango Bar, where, true to its name, reasonably priced drinks were followed by passionate tango music. For anyone spending an evening here and then wanting a most memorable finale, I can recommend the spectacular view from the hills across the Valle Central and over San Jose. In the evening, the whole valley turns into a sea of lights. For another look at Costa Rican history, we found Pueblo Antiguo well worth a visit. Residents often make this a Sunday outing because there are all kinds of shows and several restaurants. Here one can also find actors demonstrating traditional craft skills and agricultural laborers that show visitors the ancient beginnings that illustrate the way of life in the area before the coming of the Europeans. There are several day excursions from San Jose which are of interest to tourists. Two of the destinations involve volcano craters. The first is The Poas Volcano National Park which surrounds an 8,880ft high volcano which has a crater measuring 1 mile (1.5km) across. Early morning is the best time to go when there is less chance of the fog which often thickly blankets the crater. The yellowy-green crater emits sulphurous vapors and the lake sends boiling water into the air like a geyser. The last major eruption took place in 1910, another less dramatic one occurring in the 1950's. The Irazu National Park is 34 miles (55km) east of San Jose, and an early morning visit is also recommended in order to experience the magnificent panoramic view that, on a very clear day, extends all the way from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Unfortunately, clear days are not very frequent! No one should go to Costa Rica without seeing the fabulous tropical wildlife and birds, and for those who do not have a lot of time to explore the forests and find it in the wild, the best place is the Parque Zoologico Simon Bolivar. Here we saw a wide selection of Costa Rica's natural denizens --- tapirs, reptiles, monkeys, coatimundis, sloth and colorful tropical birds. If you marveled at these animal shapes in the miniature in the Gold Museum they will have an extra fascination for you in real life. San Jose is a great jumping off point to the further delights in Costa Rica. The country is now firmly focused on tourism and offers eco-tours in abundance. Eager tourists can bird watch, wrestle with sailfish, surf, trek up a mountainside, snorkel around beautiful coral reefs, try the adrenalin rush of whitewater rafting, quietly watch a nesting turtle, and trek through lush living jungle with knowledgeable guides who will point out the obvious and not-so-obvious aspects of this relatively unspoiled part of the world. If you are thinking of going to Costa Rica, sooner rather than later is certainly the best time to go. RESOURCES:The Costa Rica Company |
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The sun was shining as we walked through downtown San Jose and approached the Bellavista fortress, now the Costa Rican National Museum. As I looked up at the corner tower, a number of small round shadows highlighted some shallow indentations in the heavy stone walls. I had seen those before --- at the end of World War II in Europe --- and asked Rudy, our knowledgeable Costa Rican guide, to confirm this. 
The 1940s was the era of military dictatorships in Latin America, and in this climate an election claimed to have been rigged, resulted in the installation of Teodoro Picado, a President that most people said they did not vote for, and the 1948 Civil War followed.
This year another dimension will be added to the local economy --- and on a grand scale. Intel, the world's largest computer-chip manufacturer has built this company's biggest plant in San Jose. Now beginning production, it will use a work-force of 6000 and its export earnings will be greater than the total value of Costa Rica's coffee and banana exports combined.
We found several other museums of great interest, the like of which you may not see anywhere else. The most unusual of these was the Jade Museum, unobtrusively located on the 11th floor of a modern social security building, a location we thought was a surprisingly strange spot for this fascinating place. 
For us, however, the jewel of all the buildings in San Jose was the National Theatre, decorated with marble, gold, bronze, tropical woods, stucco, crystal chandeliers, mirrors, velvet drapes, statuary, paintings and a fabulous ceiling fresco. And its history is as fascinating as the building itself!! It was built in order to tempt one woman to come to San Jose. But this was no ordinary woman! She was Adelina Patti, the Maria Callas of the 19th century. This lady had ignored San Jose on a South American tour because it had no venue in which she could perform satisfactorily. The government had no money to build one, so the coffee barons, the cafetaleros, decided to build one themselves!